I would like to talk with you this morning about three very important things: Family Values, Family Violence, and Family Health.

The Bible is no stranger to violence, including violence within families. Cain kills his brother Abel for being more highly esteemed than he is (Genesis 4:1-15). Abraham, in order to save his own neck, prostitutes his wife, Sarah, to the Egyptian Pharoah (Genesis 12:10-20). Lot offers his two daughters to an angry mob and tells them to do with them whatever they like, as long as they don't bother his male house guests (Genesis 19:8). Amnon, the son of King David, rapes his sister, Tamar. And then, Absolom, David's other son, has Amnon murdered in revenge (2 Samuel 13:1-32). Just to name a few. In each of these violent stories, the victims had fallen, or been pushed, off of the family pedestal. They were no longer worthy of protection from harm in the minds of the perpetrators.

And, of course, such violent dynamics within families are not just an ancient problem that no longer concerns us. All we have to do is read the newspaper or listen to the news to hear present day stories of violence against women by their spouses, against children by their parents, against parents by their children, against the elderly by the young. Still today, something is very “off” in our world's understanding and experience of what it means to be “family.” And there are even more subtle forms of family violence than the sorts which easily make it into the news.

In today's gospel reading (Mark 3:7-15, 19b-35), Jesus speaks to us about “family values,” and he initiates a revolution in what it means to be family. Apparently Jesus had been raising quite a ruckus in Galilee. Crowds were swarming around him because his mere presence was causing people's demons to leave them. He had been curing many who were sick, and so more people with diseases were pushing through the crowds to get close to him. He appoints the 12 apostles to work with him, and then they go home for dinner. But the crowds would not let up. There was such a commotion that Jesus and his disciples could not even sit down to eat.

The scribes, the religious teachers who had come down from Jerusalem, got very upset with all of these unseemly persons clamoring for the attention of Jesus, and all of these holy activities, which the scribes were unable to do, like healing the sick and freeing people from their demons.

When the religious authorities in a community don't like something that is happening... their followers quickly catch on, and often try to correct the situation. The people are often the ones who make sure that the offenders straighten up and fly right, so that the religious authorities will relax again, and no one will get in trouble. And, in this kind of situation, the believers in the community who get the most pressure applied to them are the family members of whoever the trouble makers are.

In the situation described here in Mark's gospel, Jesus is the one who is perceived as causing the trouble. And Jesus' family is there. His family is seeing the crowds and the commotion, and perceiving that the religious authorities are not happy with what is going on. And his family seems to know just how they are expected to respond.

Now did someone approach Mary and the four brothers of Jesus and say something to them? I don't know. But I can imagine that in such a situation, some neighbor might have given Mary a little friendly advice, and said something like: “You know, Mary, you had really better get a handle on your boy over there; maybe send his brothers to shut him up & get rid of all those sick people, because he's gonna get us all in trouble, and I know you wouldn't want that to happen, now would you Mary?” We have probably all received that kind of “friendly” neighborly advice at one time or another.

Or maybe no one said a word to Jesus' family. Maybe Mary and his brothers and sisters just knew that, as his family, it was their job to make sure that Jesus stepped back into line, and stopped doing anything that would cause dishonor or trouble to them and their friends. But it is quite clear in the text that Jesus' family is operating on that gut-level instinct that pushes people into feeling that “What is 'right' is whatever helps the family & what is wrong is whatever harms the family.” If one of the family member's is screwing up, and risking the family's good name, you intervene.

You get in there and you stop them from doing whatever it is that they are doing that people don't like. It's that gut-level instinct that says “If people don't like it, especially powerful people, then it's wrong, and you'd better not do it! Period. ”

So, the Scripture tells us that when his family heard all of the commotion they went out to restrain him, because people were talking... People were saying “Jesus has gone out of his mind!” And important people, people who were wielded power in the community, including the religious leaders, were shouting that Jesus was possessed by the devil. So, in such a situation, there is no question what the family's responsibility is: you go and restrain him, shut him up, get him to fall in line with whatever it is that the authorities want. And everything will be fine. Because if you don't, you're entire family – and even friends of the family – could be kicked out of the synagogue, shunned, unable to make a living, assaulted, and perhaps worse.

Jesus' family is just doing what comes naturally. It's what people do when they're pushed and pulled from without by social pressures, and from within by their instincts to survive no matter what. It's what Cain and Abraham and Lot and Amnon and Absolom did. It's what people do today in our society, even people within the Church. And it is a form of violence, because even when it is subtle it forces a person in a direction that is harmful to his or her integrity as a human being.

But Jesus doesn't play by those rules. The crowd says to him, “Jesus, your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” And Jesus knew why they were there, that they were being used as pawns. He knew how these knee-jerk reactions worked, and how the authorities used them to clamp down on things that they didn't want to happen. But Jesus did not care what the authorities wanted or did not want, if it was different than what God wanted. He was answering to a Higher Power. And God was telling him to heal the sick and to liberate people from their demons. So that's what he was doing. And he knew that it was precisely his obedience to God's will that was rocking the boat of this very rigid society, where everyone had to do what the authorities expected, or else....

Through subtle, and not so subtle, intimidation, the authorities had everyone walking on egg-shells. This is how people who live in conditions of violence feel all of the time. So what does Jesus do in this delicate situation?

Does he panic, and say: “Oh no, guys, my mom and my brothers and sisters are here! You know what that means! I'm in trouble! I'd better stop listening to the Holy Spirit! I know I just chose you all to be my apostles and everything, but... we've really got to face reality here. If we don't fall in line with what these scribes think we should be doing, all of us, and our families and our friends could be disgraced. It could even lead to violence. It's really too bad, I know, because it would have been so nice to follow God's will, but that's just the way the world works.”

No! Jesus doesn't say that! Instead, he poses a very interesting question to make his disciples think about what this whole thing we call “family” is really all about. He says: “Who are my mother and my brothers and my sisters?” And he looks around the room, and looking each one of his followers in the eye, he says, “Here are my mother and my brothers and my sisters! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

This is revolutionary. Jesus is shaking the foundations of the ancient Mediterranean world, and our world as well. He is saying that being family is not about honor and shame. Being “family” is not about staying on a pedestal in the eyes of men, and making sure that you never get knocked off. Being “family” is not about flesh and blood. Being “family” is about knowing God, and loving God, and coming to actually resemble God in our thoughts and feelings and actions and relationships.

For Jesus, all violence – whether subtle or gross – is family violence, because all persons were created to be the children of God. All violence is a symptom of a distorted vision of what it means to be family. For Jesus, the Christians are not superior to the Jews. The Jews have no more human dignity than the Samaritans. The scribes and the Pharisees deserve no more kindness than the prostitutes and the tax collectors. The judges and government officials have no greater value than the lepers and the homosexuals and the unmarried and widowed women. Jesus knew very well that there are certain persons who would never be valued and cared for by this world, because the way of the world is precisely to cast its most vulnerable members down below the limits of respectability, and to keep them down there, so that other, more powerful members can be elevated, high up on their pedestals, where they can pretend to be more special, more worthy of esteem than ordinary men and women. For some to be seen as more honorable than all the rest, some others must be made to be seen as more shameful, more unworthy than all the rest. That is the price that has to be paid. And so the most vulnerable become the scapegoats for the most powerful. That is the way of the world. That is the principle that drives violence, including the violence we witness in the Bible.

But Jesus does not operate according to that principle. And that is why there is a such a dramatic commotion in today's Gospel text. The most vulnerable, the outcasts, we're being raised up to a place of dignity, being received as beloved children of God. Jesus was making a place at the table for all of God's children. Because Jesus operates according to a different principle. A principle that is actually a Person, the Person of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit ushers everyone into the banquet, everyone who wants to be a conscious active member of the family..... everyone who is open to being helped to do God's will.... is welcome. And those who are not open, those who want nothing to do with the will of God, are not made outcasts. Instead, the love of God in Jesus continues inviting them to become open. But the Spirit never forces anyone into, or out of, this family. Because the Holy Spirit is not violent. On that we can depend.

Why would anyone not want to be part of this new way of being family that Jesus is instituting? Well one reason might be that this new spiritual way of being family doesn't involve getting put up on a special pedestal, so that we can look down on others whom we see as not good enough to belong to the family. It is true that in Jesus, we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16-17.) And that does entitle us to all the glorious pleasures of God's kingdom. But it also entitles us to all of the pains of belonging to God's kingdom in this world. The children of God are enabled by grace, through community, to bear the pains of grief and contrition, the pains of being rejected and persecuted by those who prefer the violent way that the world operates and do not want it to change. Being a child of God entitles us to everything that we see manifest in the life of Jesus, and that includes both his glory and his Cross. Perhaps that is why many, including we ourselves, often hesitate to claim his glory.... because we want to avoid the pain. But only through sharing in his sufferings do we also share in his glory.

In this way, membership in the family of Jesus calls us into a radical revolution of our characters. It calls us into a way of life that purifies our understandings and intentions and decisions, and frees us from the violent, destructive patterns that dominate so much of our world. A way of life which grounds our views of right and wrong not simply on whatever way the winds of popular opinion may happen to be blowing, but on a pure heart, a virtuous heart, the heart of Jesus.

It is definitely not an easy message that Jesus gave his disciples here about the real meaning of family. It surely left them reflecting on these issues for quite some time. Were they ready to be this kind of “family” where the only thing that matters is that God's will is being done? Are we ready to be this kind of family?

One thing we can be certain of: If we open ourselves to the possibility of being family in this new way, God in Christ through the Holy Spirit will surely help us become ready.

Thanks be to God.