The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18, 8 September 2019

Preaching at All Saint’s Church, San Francisco

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 18

8 September 2019

“First Things”

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1

Philemon 1-21

St. Luke 14:25-33

INI

The Household

My sister Bonnie has delved deeply into understanding our family’s genealogy. She has gotten it back into the sixteenth century. Inspired by her efforts I finally submitted swabs of my saliva to a genetics firm to see what it might tell me about my origins. The most astounding parts were the results of looking at my father and mother’s DNA. Mom’s DNA originated in somewhere in the Saudi Arabian desert millennia ago, and my father’s in the Levant in modern day Syria. That these elements should have finally shown up in Kansas and Colorado, and in my case Los Angeles, California is astounding. What lies behind such a quest? It is, I think, an attempt to understand who and what we are, and our relationship to the ages. It is, in a way, establishing a household, or as the Romans would say, a “domus” a household that included many relationships. It is this idea that is the thematic glue in our readings for today.

In the Gospel for today Jesus says something quite startling – something that needs exploration and explanation. 

"Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”

What can he be saying to us here? That is the question for the morning, and we can begin finding an answer by looking at the readings. 

The Household of Faith – the Covenant

In the first reading from Deuteronomy we have one of several instances in which either Moses or Joshua gather Israel together to rehearse the covenant that they have made with God. These two prophets gather the people together to reconstitute the Household of Faith. In the ancient near east, treaties between countries, between households, or between individuals were always accompanied by “blessings and curses.” You’ll see the same thing in the contractual language that accompanies your purchase of a dryer from Sears. If you make the payments, the blessings of ownership will be conferred upon you. If you don’t make the payments, the curses of repossession will be conferred upon you. In this reading, the same thing is offered. “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” It is this relationship with God that is desired. It is being in the household, the domusof God, the chosen of God. That relationship will be described later by Jesus as the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven; more about that later.

Who is in the Household?

Paul, in the second reading, wrestles with a difficult situation. His friend’s slave, Onesimus, has left the household of Philemon and has joined up with Paul. In the Roman empire, Paul as a citizen would be constrained to return the property of Philemon, Onesimus the slave. Paul is caught between a rock and a hard place. Social custom and law would require the return of the man. That Paul acknowledges. His religious convictions, however, remind him that in Deuteronomy the following is expected of him as a Jew, “You shall not hand over to their master any slaves who have taken refuge with you from their master.” What shall constrain Paul, the customs of the household in Rome, or the requirements of the household of faith in Israel?

It’s amazing to me that this dilemma has not struck our consciousness with greater force; that we don’t realize how we yet enslave others, if not our own selves. Paul leaves the choice up to his friend. Can we leave that choice up to those who enslave in our time? I think not. Though there were often slaves in the ancient households of Paul and Jesus’ time, there cannot be the same allowance in our time. Paul saw the only slavery possible is that deep connection to service in Christ. Again, it is about relationship. He recognizes his friendship with Philemon that allows him the critical voice that the situation deserves. There is, however, another relationship that affects Paul, “I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.”Paul’s relationship with Onesimus is more than one of utility or practicality. It is a relationship born in the love of Christ. So, it must be with us as we look at those who pick our crops, sew our clothing, cook our food, build our homes. They are, all of them, in the household of faith.

The Household – the Family

A couple of Sunday’s ago, in the Gospel, Jesus advises us of the necessity to be perceptive, to be aware, and to see our times for what they are. Such demands are meant to help us see what Jesus’ really wants us to perceive. That is the Kingdom of God. Both he and John the Baptist alerted their audiences to its coming, pled with them to be aware of its presence, and of its importance. When we were either taken to the Font, or walked there on our own, we were brought into the Kingdom. Now, even after all the years that have gone by since the water splashed us into the Household of Faith, even now we must learn again the cost of following Jesus. 

Jesus’ words about the family startle us. Jesus doesn’t ask us to repent of these relationships – he says we must “hate” them. The relationship that we must love is the one that is known in the Kingdom of God. What we are asked to do here is to detach ourselves from those relationships that society demands of us, and to see them really rooted in the Kingdom, in the Household of Faith. 

When we look at the truly rich, the 1%, we look at a people who truly do look at the times and seasons for the benefit of their household. The poor plan for tomorrow. The middle-class plan for a generation or two.The truly rich, however, plan and focus on many generations in the future, so that they might continue to have the good fortune that those living in this time have enjoyed. That focus does not describe the Household of Faith that Jesus desires. First, there is the vision of God, and the love of God. Then there is the love of and concern for our neighbor – just as we love ourselves – just as we must love ourselves. The cost of such an endeavor is that we turn our gaze from that which we desire, to that which is necessary for our salvation and for our inclusion in the Family, the Household of Faith, the Kingdom of God. There are consequences for such a relationship – we need to be clear about that. The consequences, however, make for a better present not only for ourselves, but for all who are bound to God in Christ. 

The best way to see it is in this story which Luke records in his eighth chapter. Jesus is teaching, and then there is an interruption. 

“Then his mother and his brothers^* came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Matthew puts it even more succinctly, 

“While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers appeared outside, wishing to speak with him.[Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.”]^*But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Now then, my friends, my family, what shall we do now? What are truly our first things?

SDG