In Mark 3, when Jesus was told that his family was there asking for him, he turned to the people surrounding him and asked, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” (Mark 3:33b). What? Who doesn’t know their mother and brothers, their sisters and father? We know by now that Jesus was constantly turning things upside down. So, too, here, when he looked at the crowd and announced, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” Mark 3:34-35).
If it were required of us to fully do God’s will to be Jesus’ sisters and brothers, we wouldn’t make it. God’s grace creates the miracle that we are the sisters and brothers of whom Jesus is not ashamed. I’m not ashamed to call Jesus my brother, the one I’ll always have. I’m not ashamed to call Jesus my savior. Brother and savior. Both. Jesus is an integral part of my family.
This message is excerpted from “Always being made new” by Sue Gamelin in the March 2017 Gather magazine. Today is the Third Sunday after Pentecost. Today we commemorate Columba, 597; Aidan, 651; Bede, 735; renewers of the church.
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