Family Marks Us
By Richard McElroy --
Susan and I are so thankful to call GPBC home and you our faith family. In a world where so many tugs and wounds damage every form of community, it’s such a comfort, such an assuring truth, to know that we are loved unconditionally by Jesus and made a part of His family. And because of Him, we love like Him. I recently heard from both a senior saint and a young high school Jesus follower words that expressed, “We are not like each other in any way, but I love who Jesus is making us to be. I see His church in the Spirit’s gifting us with a tenderness and even anticipation for being in one another’s company”. We love gathering and sharing life together.
Susan and I just came home from experiencing the McElroy family version of siblings and cousins gathering. My oldest brother, Andy, seven years my senior, called us together, “I want us to gather and share time as a family. Let’s enjoy each other when it’s not at a funeral!” My four brothers and sisters, spouses, and cousins I haven’t seen in thirty years met on the slow rippling shore of the Spokane River in eastern Washington. Some of the family live, following Jesus hard. Some live joyfully, but unaware of the One who makes the seasons and the rain. Laughter rolled across tables full of family food, made from old recipes. Stories of little girls walking beside Conestoga wagons to homesteads on Flathead Lake in Montana, followed stories of farms, hunting and tales of all the grandchildren’s lives. Piles of old family photos awaited curious eyes. “I have never seen these pictures before”. One stood out to me, a great, great-grandfather, in elaborate furs and holding a Smoky Bear style of hat in hand. The photo predated Teddy Roosevelt by over a hundred years. Staring at me was the image of my older brother Rob’s face. A face slightly smiling across almost two hundred years! Family marks us! I wonder if, when a new baby is born, does Jesus think, “I’ve been waiting to use this nose or those ears again!”
It makes me think about all the things we have received from our families. There’s the spiritual heritage as well. The heart to believe. The desire to live beyond self and for something greater.
Paul hints at this when he writes to Timothy, “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors….as I remember you in my prayers” (1 Tim. 1:3). Of course Paul has a faith tradition that’s marked him; he also must have had family that, years before his time, loved God. This is simply the very thought that fills my heart. You all love God. There are those who have loved Jesus before us whose faith, vision, prayers, trusting and loving have prepared a way for our season here, as Jesus’ family. And through that loving we are given the rare opportunity to act in ways now that will touch others in our future.
It’s exciting to ponder how we are now the people caretaking for those not yet born. Later Paul shares about His holy calling, that Jesus called us before time began and now we have a treasure in us: the treasure of a divine family mark that is stored up. Paul states, “…and I am convicted, that (Jesus) is able to guard ... what has been entrusted to me”. He encouraged Timothy to carry on in the family tradition. “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that has been entrusted to you” (1 Tim. 1:9-14) As for the deposit? Isn’t that the pure treasure of God’s gospel placed in us to be taken to someone else, out into the world? Paul is wanting Timothy to live out and spend those reserves, sharing the precious Gospel. Pour out the Christ in you.
Dick’s message last Sunday affirmed and fueled this idea for me. (Click on A Church’s Report Card: http://www.pdxchurch.org/grow/sermons/) He affirmed that we’re a faith family composed of all kinds of people, but unified in Jesus. We are a house full of the elected by God! I appreciated the affirmation of our family traits; we leave others around us more impressed with Jesus, more determined to live, love, and labor by faith in Jesus. Dick acknowledged the transformation Jesus’ Spirit is establishing here. We are a good and kindly people because of Jesus in us, a people willing to hold our plans loosely. A people who are willing to love in faith-driven ways that see a need and act to meet it, not counting the cost. We heard Paul’s 2,000 year old admonition, “…just as you are doing, do more and more”. This word over the last four days has prompted reviewing of what that means for Susan and me: the more and more. We act out our labors of love, trusting in the bigger eternal plan as we do so. We know the work we do has eternal significance. We heard “we’re doing good, church”! Then the prompt, “…just as you are doing, do more and more”. Each one of us will do this in our own God-directed way. Maybe the task will be a comfort to a wounded heart or an invitation into a family, made loving and whole, because Jesus paid for the full restoration and salvation of it all!
Like the coffee table covered in old photographs, let’s capture moments in these coming days. These will be new pictures of Jesus using us: praying, loving, acting and risking by faith.