In God's House

When you stop and think about the Gospel lesson for the coming Sunday (Mark 3.20-35), we can learn something quite remarkable: God is not satisfied with the way this are and is breaking into this life and is going to transform it into the life that he wants it to be. God in Christ and through the Church is working to transform the structures of human society so that we move into the Kingdom of God. Sounds a little bit crazy doesn’t?

That’s what the people around Jesus thought. His family and his friends thought he had, in our vernacular, “lost it.” Those who were with him (hoi par autou - Greek), when they heard what he was saying, they tried to restrain him. Suddenly he had become an embarrassment and was talking crazy talk. He had been successful and the crowds were growing exponentially so. It was attracting attention in Jerusalem, to the point where authorities went out to determine just what was going on. The crowd was going “nuts” because of the move of power, the healings, the teachings and they wanted a shepherd. The people expected Jesus was that shepherd. Those closest to Jesus though he was nuts because he had disregarded his family when they came to take him home... “those who do the will of my Father are my brothers, sisters and mothers”

Yet if you stop one can begin to piece it all together. Jesus did not come to uphold the status quo, or what I will call “our house”, but establish his Father’s kingdom on this earth... “His Father’s House.” And whether we recognize it or not, it is what we continuously pray for when we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We pray for God to come and establish his loving rule on this earth, beginning with us, pieces of earth. But ask yourself this: do I really want that? Or do I want a somewhat watered down version of God’s rule where I am the one who is wealthy, popular, powerful, etc... while everybody else is lower than me? Couldn’t I be Yurtle the Turtle and be king of my own pond?

It is the ages old battle that is finally being fought on a field that will allow for God to win, for the enemy to be subdued and judged, and for creation comes back to its Creator to be renewed, transformed. The problem for those around Jesus is that they cannot see this yet. So to his family and friends it sounds like Jesus has gone completely nuts while the religious authorities accuse Jesus of have an evil spirit because Jesus is not acting the way they think the Messiah ought to and cannot explain why Jesus can do what does. Therefore it must be evil because it cannot be good. After all this is our house, thus it must be our rules too, right?

God is building his kingdom, his house. We are invited to come and to join him in building such a house, both in the building and in the living in it, with his family, in his life.