Proper 15 2007
Jeremiah 23:23-29
Heb 11:29-12:2
Luke 12:49-56
Family values a la scripture
The text from Luke 12 is upsetting and annoying. Following Jesus, often meant divisions in families: consider that Peter, and other disciples had wives and families and they left “everything’ to follow Jesus. Other than the account of Jesus healing Peter’s mother in law, we don’t know anything about provisions for family while Peter was off following Jesus.
We hear a lot today about “family values” especially by those with political suasion whose choice of bible verses are highly selective. In preparation for this homily, I decided to do some research on what the Bible tells us about families. Here are a few examples drawn first from the Hebrew Scriptures that we call the Old Testament and then from the New Testament.
Just and righteous Noah planted a vineyard, got drunk and was observed by his son, Ham, naked in his tent. When Noah sobered up he learned that Ham had seen him naked and cursed, not Ham but his son (Genesis 6:9, 7:1, 9:20-25.)
Abram asked Sarah to lie for him, telling the Egyptians that she is his sister ( not a total since she was his half sister). Such incestuous marriages are condemned elsewhere in the bible but in the case of Abram and Sarah, God blessed their marriage with offspring, contrary to their age and Sarah’s barrenness (Gen 17:15-16, 12;13).
Hagar, the slave of Abram is the mother of Ishmael, fathered by Abram, prior to the birth of Sarah and Abram’s son Isaac. Thus this family is unorthodox by today’s standards in that Abram sires two children by two different women. He does not fulfill fatherly duties toward Ishmael but rejects Hagar and Ishmael, driving them from the family compound when Sarah’s jealousy demands it. No child support here.
Isaac loved Esau because he was a hunter and Isaac loved venison. Rebekah loved Jacob, but God hated Esau (see Romans 9:13). No reason is given for why one son is loved while the other is hated. But since God chose to act this way, it must have been as an example for parents to follow. Esau took two wives; Isaac uses the same deception his father used by calling Rebekah his sister to win political favor. Jacob offered to work seven years to pay for Rachel, but was tricked into having sex with her sister, Leah, instead, so he worked seven more years to the hand of Rachel – and as the story unfolds we learn that Jacob had four wives, or two wives and two concubines – and there is no indication that God disapproves of this arrangement in Genesis 31. Isn’t this polygamy?
Moses the great bearer of the law was the product of an incestuous marriage (Ex. 6;20), and God told Moses he intends to “smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast (Ex 12:12).” Exodus offers instructions for taking a second wife (21:10), tells us that a child who hits or curses his parents must be executed (21:15, 17), and if you make God angry enough, he will kill you and your family with his own sword (22;24).
In the beautiful story of Ruth, Naomi (Ruth’s mother in law) advised Ruth to seduce Boaz, and Ruth did as instructed and Boaz purchased Ruth to be his wife (Ruth 3).
King David had seven wives then took many concubines. Seeing Bathsheba bathing and being covetous of her, David conspired to have Uriah killed in battle so he could take Bathsheba. David and Bathsheba are the parents of King Solomon.
According to the prophet Isaiah, God will have no mercy on the widows and children of hypocrites (9:17), and God will slaughter children “for the iniquity of their fathers” (14:21).
Jeremiah says God tries to “correct” people by killing their children (2:30), that a divorced woman is “polluted” when she remarries. The man remains perfectly clean through it all, even though he was the one who “put her away” in the first place (3;1).
In the gospels we find Jesus requiring followers to abandon families, e.g. Matt 8:21 when Jesus told a man who had just lost his father, “let the dead bury the dead”. Families will be divided by commitment to Jesus: “brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death” (Matt 10:21).
Mark has Jesus disrespectful of his mother and family: “Who is my mother, or my brethren?” (3:31); offers reward to men who abandon their wives and families (10:29-30) and insists that the last days will be especially rough on pregnant women (13;17).
Luke has the 12 year old Jesus stay behind talking with teachers in the temple, rather than obediently following his parents…for Jesus is about his real father’s business (Luke 2:43-49); Peter and James and John abandon their wives and children to follow Jesus (5:11), Jesus prophesies that families will be divided because of him and his teaching (12:52-53); and offers big rewards if one abandons family to follow him (14:33, 18:29).
Paul prefers that the early Christians in Corinth remain unmarried but concedes that to marry is better than to burn (1 Cor 7). In Titus, we learn that a bishop should have only one wife (1:6-7), and in the later writings in Ephesians, Colossians we find many household codes concerning families: Eph 5: 22: “Wives must submit to their husbands in everything as though they were Christ, for the husband is the head of the wife”; Col 3:18: Wives must submit themselves to their husbands.
So what are we to make of the disturbing picture in Luke? As Jesus journeys toward Jerusalem, he is a source of conflict and opposition as he claims startling forms of authority and power. His words are marked with a sense of apocalyptic urgency and anguished intensity. The passion burning in Jesus is one of total commitment to the will of the Father – no person or thing will distract him from the task. We the reader know that the road to Jerusalem is the path to the cross and death – and we know that death is the gate of the resurrection. The people who encounter the absolute commitment and passion of Jesus do not know the cross and empty tomb are ahead. They are being confronted with the price of total commitment!
“I came to bring fire to the earth….do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” In a culture where family kinship defined life, Jesus seems to be going against their most cherished values. Jesus knows that the teachers and prophets of ages past have brought injustice and horrific suffering about in the name of God. It is not into a peaceful and just world that Jesus is announcing the disturbing call to total commitment. Creating a crisis within the would be disciple is a condition in which change is possible. I believe that the harshness of Jesus’ words in this passage is intended to shake up our confidence that we are doing everything as we ought.
The thing that divides the families is not Jesus himself but his demand for total allegiance to his cause. The saying of Jesus is troubling: “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” (Luke 14:26). It is fairly common to hear members of the parish and society in general exclaim, “my family comes first.” Before church? Before tithing? Before acts of charity or mission efforts?
If you follow Jesus, you will experience conflict of values – divided loyalties and the greatest adventure you can imagine. The cost is high for full commitment to anyone or anything. Jesus will not disappoint you – but will fill your heart to overflowing. The other people in your life are important and Jesus cares as much for them as for you. The truth is simple: God loves you and everyone you love! In that truth is your security. In that truth is your true home and all of your family members are in the palm of God’s hand, as are you.