A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 14 May 2017, Mother’s Day, by Pearl Wong. The scripture
readings that day were Luke
8:19-21.
Today is Mother's Day, a celebration honouring the mother of the family, as well as motherhood. The role
of mother is often seen as the caregiver of a family, therefore, I would
suggest that Mother's day is also to honour all those who are in the role of
caregivers in our families, as well as in our communities.
This year, United Nations has designated May
15 as International Day of Families, focusing on the role of families and
family-oriented policies in promoting education and overall well-being of their
members. The Day will highlight the importance of all caregivers
in families, be it grandparents, parents, homemakers, working parents, single parent, domestic helpers,
etc.
And then May 17
is IDAHOT, International Day Against
Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. This year, IDAHOT global theme also focuses on "families". Just 2 days ago,
an event called Asia-Pacific Rainbow Families Forum was held in Hong Kong to raise the awareness of the existence of
rainbow families in the Asia-Pacific region, and also highlight the importance
of family support. Personal experiences from Australia, Hong Kong, China,
Taiwan, Japan, Philippines and Thailand were shared in advocating for the
urgent need for recognition, protection and equal treatment of rainbow families
and LGBTI people.
You are probably
wondering by now, what is "rainbow families"? I think the American television sitcom "Modern
Family" will help to explain this.
Modern Family revolves around three different
types of families nuclear, step- and same-sex,
who are interrelated through the main characters : Jay Pritchett and his
children, Claire Dunphy (née Pritchett) and Mitchell Pritchett. Jay is remarried to a much younger
woman, named Gloria, a passionate Colombian with whom he has an infant son,
named Joe, and a son from Gloria's previous marriage, Manny. Jay's daughter
Claire was a homemaker,
but has returned to the business world; she is married to Phil Dunphy, a realtor and self-professed
"cool Dad". They have three children: Haley, a stereotypical ditzy
teenage girl, Lex, a nerdy, smart middle child; and Luke, the off-beat only son. Jay's
lawyer son Mitchell and his husband
Cameron (what we usually call a gay couple) have an adopted Vietnamese
daughter, Lily.
All the names and their relationships
sound complicated, right? Well, it doesn't matter if you remember these at all.
As the name suggests, this family represents a modern-day family and episodes
are comically based on situations which many families encounter in real life. The diversities we find in the family
members of this television sitcom in terms of culture, ethnicity, gender identities,
gender expressions, sexual orientations and even the role of caregivers
represent what we call "Modern Family" or "Rainbow family"
in our world today, and look around us, we can likely see a "modern
family" among people whom we know.
However, such existence of
"modern or rainbow family" seems to be in contrast to what we have been told by the society, and also by many
churches of what a normal "nuclear" family unit should be, and that
is, a family with legally married heterosexual couple, the
husband of one wife during their lifetime, and then their biological
children, preferably grown up to be heterosexuals as well. It seems that our society and churches use a
lot of effort to defend a dualistic framework on ethical issues such as family,
everything has to be either right or wrong, black or white; there is no grey area
and no third option.
Many Christians will then ask, what
does the Bible say about this and that? Let us now take a closer look at the concepts
of "family" according to Jesus as written in the Gospels.
New Testament scholar Deirdre Good draws our attention to the diverse
family values according to Jesus and also the different concepts of
"families" in the New
Testament.
Matthew chapter 1 clearly states that Jesus'
family is diverse - Mary is his biological mother, Joseph is his adopted
father, since Mary is conceived from the Holy Spirit, God would be his
biological father. And there are Jesus' other siblings who we don't know much about.
Mark describes the tension between Jesus and
his family, because his family cannot accept his radical thoughts nor his
zealous actions.
In chapter 3 : verses 31-35, when Jesus' mother and brothers wanted to
see him, " he replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?'
And looking at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother
and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and
mother.'" This shows that Jesus' concept of family goes beyond blood ties!
Luke
14:26 tells us what people has to do to become Jesus' disciples. "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." Surely Jesus does not ask us to renounce our
families, rather, he demands us to share love with others beyond our own
family.
In John
4: verses 7-30, Jesus challenged the societal norm and talked to a Samaritan
woman. During Jesus' time, a woman who has had five husbands, married and
divorced several times, makes her a shameful woman, not worthy to have a
private conversation with Jesus, the Rabbi.
Despite of their difference in social status, Jesus did not discriminate
the woman, rather, Jesus treated her as equal and carried on their
conversation, and even blessed her. Jesus treats the divorced moms, single moms,
and moms with "alien status" in Hong Kong just as precious as anyone else.
Furthermore, in John
19: 26 and 27, Jesus told his beloved disciple to take care of his mother, and
he told his mother to treat the disciple as his own son. Again, Jesus calls us to go beyond blood ties and to love
one another as our own family.
And finally, the Greek word oikos means
household, the household of God, and it should include biological families with
blood ties, families not with blood ties, families by adoption,
and families make up of different genders and
sexualities, race, class, age, ability, etc.
God's household also includes ecology : the relationships between the air, land, water, animals, plants
and humanity.
The few
examples I have quoted from the Bible affirm us that Jesus' family is not what people
would call wholesome and flawless, his family values are not conventional nor
exclusive, instead, they are diverse which goes beyond blood ties; transcends
borders and race.
After we have taken a closer look at the concepts of "family" according to Jesus, next step is how do
we relate these concepts to our world today?
Today, when most churches still defend the only acceptable family value
is "a family with legally married heterosexual couple, the husband of one
wife during their lifetime, and their biological children", such is an
exclusive and narrow interpretation of "family",
and obviously opposite to what Jesus
affirms as "family values"
which I have just explored with you. I like to suggest that these
churches to welcome all types of families to Jesus' table, to drink wine and
break bread together. In doing so, we are both participants and witnesses of
the diverse community of disciples that followed Jesus everywhere as we read in
the Bible.
As
community of faith, we have to address the realities in our society, empathize
with people struggling with different situations among us, and recognize the
multitude of different family types. We also have to respect people who choose
to be single, not to get married, not to have children; people who are
divorced, widowed, single parent, and same sex couples who raise up children
together.
We should stop
building wall that divides people into normal and abnormal, or create binary opposites
such as conventional and subversive family values that pushes people to the
margins.
Perhaps we need to be more conscious of the
complexities of the world which we live
in and the injustice that it breeds. And perhaps, base on Jesus' teachings on
love and justice, we can embrace the traditional families, the modern families,
the rainbow families, and celebrate together
Love
Makes A Family : regardless of who are the family members. We are all members
in Jesus' family, we are all ready to share love for one another.
Let
us pray.
Almighty God,
through your Holy Spirit you created unity in the midst of diversity;
We acknowledge
that human diversity is an expression of your manifold love for your
creation;
We confess that in our brokenness as human beings we turn diversity into
a source of alienation, injustice, oppression, and wounding.
Empower us to recognize and celebrate the different types of families as
your great gift to the human family.
Enable us to be the architects of understanding, of respect
and love;
Through the Lord, the ground of all unity, we pray.
Help
us to build bridges across all that divides us;
Unite us and we rejoice in our
diversity.
And at one in our witness to your peace,
A rainbow to your glory,
Amen.
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, May 14, 2017
