Beloved, we are God's children now

When I was a kid, we used to go to these family reunions.  In the summer time.  We would dreive to Essex, NY on Lake Champlain in the Adirondack mountains. I can remember only a few details of these reunions.  This was my mother’s side, her father’s side.  My grandfather Ray Morse grew up in Schenectady, NY outside of Albany. He spent his summer’s as a boy in Essex, at his Uncle’s farm.  The reunion’s were held there.  Sort of old fashioned picnics on a grand lawn in front of a little farm house.  My great-grandfather Rex and Great grandmother Marion were always there, together with Rex’s sisters Rosie, Kitty, Phoebe, Hazel, and Lydia.  They were all in their late 80’s and early 90’s.  At 9 years old these people were ancient—living ancestors.  I liked to listen to their stories. They sat on porch rockers and laughed at each other.  The younger crowd played Frisbee and croquet, ate burgers and hot dogs, the usual summer fare.  There were the motorcycle riding, tattooed "black sheep? members of the family, whose arrival was uncertain and surprising.  Yet they were also embraced and welcome to join in.  The old nstories often brought tears, if someone remembered a loved one who was not with them.  Uncle Ben.  The brother who had passed.  They talked about the war and the toll it took on them.  Ray fought in the Pacific.  His presence at the reunion was always seen as a miracle, a gift.  He was my grandfather and I loved when they showed us the old pictures of Ray as a young man in his uniform.  They were proud of him.  They played cards and board games, too.  At the time, I did not understand the meaning of the five hour car trip to visit with old people I didn’t know.  They were my family, extended generationally into the past.  We were what they had become.  We stopped having reunions after Rex’s generation passed.  I have family out there that I haven’t seen in years.  I don’t know their names and they don’t know mine.  But we are related.

God’s promise to the church is like a family reunion.  I use the term family to describe church here, and that is a two-edged sword. Because families wound us, families break.  And the church is called to be a refuge from brokenness.  So we can say church is a kind of family---not divided by language, ethnicity, cultures.  The church is bigger than the things that separate people from people.  Love claims us and gathers us.  Coming out of the great ordeal, they will be gathered with the angels and the martyrs to worship at the throne.  The heavenly scene from Revelation is meant to give hope and courage to a people suffering because of their faith in the Lord Jesus.  The great ordeal is the persecution the 7 churches in Asia Minor were facing at that time.  The seer is describing an end to the suffering these people actually experienced---not some future battle or turmoil.  I am shocked by how people misinterpret Revelation, making it into a scary book.  It is a book about God’s final victory over suffering, sin, and death---things God’s people experience in abundance because God’s people are the one’s who show compassion and mercy for the least, the lost, the last, the losers, the poorest, the forgotten ones.  God’s people stand in the way of injustice and confront the powers that threaten the vulnerable.  God’s people devote themselves to the care of the sick and dying.  God’s people live on the edge, on the margins walking with those who are spiritually poor.  They are committed to those who do not know or believe in God, see. The beatitudes are words of comfort and assurance that the church is living faithfully, is actually blessed when the church is devoted to the cause of peacemaking in the midst of violence and war, when the church is merciful, not vengeful; when the church is humble in its relationship with the earth and its resources, meaning we do not exploit, misuse, or mistreat the creation---because it is our inheritance.  Unless of course you want to inherit a garbage dump.  The beatitudes remind the church that there is grief, impurity, suffering, hatred in this world.  But we are blessed because God has shown us love by sending Jesus.  We are blessed because mercy, purity, peace, justice, love are characteristics of our Father and creator, they are characteristic of our savior Jesus, and they are characterized by the church’s ongoing life and work in the world.  We are God’s children, blessed to bless God’s world.   

Today we remembered saints who have died.  Children of God, all.  In baptism they were adopted as God's daughters and sons.  In death, they were welcomed into the kingdom of heaven.   They have gone ahead of us this year to be with God in the great heavenly banquet.  They have joined the saints who have died and are being kept in heaven.  The reunion has already started.  They suffer, they weep, they hunger and thirst no more.  We must be reminded in our grief that life, without love and without the pain of loss, is diminished.   And we must assure each other that there will be a reunion.  Today we also welcome home one of our brothers:  Jeff. (A marine corp. reservist deployed since April).  He is on leave.  But he is here today of all days as a reminder that it is possible to return, to come home, to reunite.  For what its worth, Jeff’s presence today is God’s way of saying:  You will all be together again.  I am bringing you all back together one at a time.  This is what love does.It does not abandon or forsaken.  It restores, recovers, reunites, reconcilies.  Love brings us all together at any cost.  Love is stronger than death.  You are loved.  You are God's children now.