June 9, 2024 – The Thirc Sunday After Pentecost
Mother Elizabeth Farr
Matt and the boys and I had the opportunity to be out at Grace Point this past week. Matt and I served as Deans for the session – planning and leading the morning formation program each day.
This is our third year serving as Deans, and with everything going on in this season of our lives, there was every reason to think about not adding Grace Point to our summer calendar. The Holy Spirit was keeping another list of reasons – the ones that said that we needed to be at camp, and as always, I am grateful for the discernment of the Spirit.
I am grateful for the gift of Grace Point, and mostly, I am grateful for the way the Holy Spirit moves and teaches me through the campers each year. This year in particular, these 4th through 6th graders were always a step or more ahead of where Matt and I were planning to lead the program. We did not have to strain or stress to make connections or wonder if these young people were engaged.
We designed our program around the desire God has for all living things to thrive. For all living things to have the bare necessities, and we asked the campers on our first day what they thought might be included on this list of bare necessities. We framed it for the campers by saying, if you were stranded on a desert island – or if you’d rather, a remote forest – what would you need to survive?
And we heard great responses – responses we were anticipating to help lead us into the next part of the program. Responses like shelter and food, air and water. Yes; we did get some responses of beach chairs – and surprisingly maybe, we only had one tech gadget response, and it was very practical: a GPS.
We also heard tools, fire, medicine, and bug spray. But there was more. The campers responded that if stranded, they sure hoped they weren’t stranded alone. Because other people are also a bare necessity.
Community is something vital to our wellness and our wholeness. So much so that the campers responded that other people would be ideal, but if other people were not possible, then at least some other of God’s creatures. A desert island dog for companionship.
These campers – staying just ahead of our planning. We had planned for Community to be the bare necessity and theme on the last morning of camp, and here these young people were, naming it on day 1. They knew.
And not only community, but these campers named that if stranded, hope would be a bare necessity. A motivating force of survival and care. This was hour 1, day 1, and as we reframed the question from what do you need to survive on a desert island to what are the things that God desires for all living creatures – we had quite the list.
God desires those things we know are necessary to life:
Shelter from the dangers of this world.
Food to nourish us.
Clear air and clean water to sustain and hydrate us.
And God also desires for us a community of hope.
In the beginning, God created community. It was not good for Adam to be alone. Adam needed other people. He needed Eve. And when Jesus began his earthly ministry, even though he had all the power and fortitude in the world to go it alone, he chose to call a community into being.
Fishermen left their nets and tax collectors their booths. Women traveled from as far as Magdala to join the Jesus-following community. A community of belonging and care.
The campers last week could name the needs of community and hope because they experience both of these at Grace Point. Hopefully they know community and hope in other places as well, but definitely at Grace Point, they know what it is to be drawn together by the Spirit as God’s family. To learn and laugh and play and eat and sing as fellow children of God.
And that brings us to today’s Gospel from Mark. We hear some words from Jesus – quite a few actually, and they’re provocative. When Jesus is told that his mother, brother, and sisters are outside, asking for him, he responds, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And then gesturing to the crowd around him, Jesus continues, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
And maybe Jesus wouldn’t put it quite this way, but since I’m still in camp mode, “Whoever learns with me. Whoever laughs with me, plays with me, eats with me. Whoever sings with me in the power of the Spirit is my family.”
And yes, there’s tension in today’s Gospel story between Jesus and his mother and siblings. Jesus is at home, and it can be hard to return home. Jesus is teaching and healing, and all of those who have always known him (Honey – I remember when your mama was pregnant with you – got on that donkey and took off for Bethlehem. / Jesus, when I look at you, I picture you this tall.)
All of those who have always known Jesus are having a hard time reconciling their memories of Mary and Joseph’s son with the teaching and healing son of God that is now before them.
They think Jesus is crazy – that he’s lost his mind, and so Jesus’ family does what families do. They go out to protect – to restrain Jesus. And also probably to protect themselves from the Nazareth rumor mill. Fear of guilt by association with the crazy hometown boy.
And as they frantically search for their son and brother, Jesus redefines family. The work of the Spirit calls family into being. The work of the Spirit ignites hope that transcends blood and tribe.
We know that Jesus’ mother will go on to walk with him all the way to the cross, but on this day, in this moment when Jesus’ family is not walking with him, he lets it be known that he is not motherless. That he is not without siblings. That the Spirit is calling a community – a family – into being just as the Spirit has since the beginning.
And those words may sound harsh in the moment (especially if you’re Jesus’ mother and siblings), but those words are also comforting ones. Words from Jesus that say that even when our families of origin fail to be a place of belonging and care, we still have a family. We have a community where we will know parents and siblings – and most importantly, hope. We are all children of God, and we belong.
The campers last week knew this. We need “other people.” Sometimes those people are our parents and siblings that we’ve grown up with, and sometimes those people are the family that God has called together. In communities like the one we know here at Good Sam and the community out at Grace Point. We are all children of God, and we belong.
And there are so many forces in the world that would like for that not to be true. Loud and strong voices of fear and exclusion. And Jesus tells us a parable today, “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.”
More provocative words from Jesus. Curious. Because in this parable, Jesus is the one doing the plundering. Jesus is the one who has the loud and strong voices of fear and exclusion tied up. Jesus has them tied up in garlands of love and grace and reconciliation.
Jesus is the one plundering the world with peace and forgiveness – stealing the world back so that all of God’s family can thrive. So that all of God’s family might enjoy the bare necessities. This is our hope, and we remember it in community. Thanks be to God.
Year B, Proper 5 – June 9, 2024 – The Rev. Elizabeth Langford Farr
