Sermon: Thicker Than Blood?

Rev. Dale G. Bauer

August 19, 2007
Text: Luke 12:49-56

49"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
54 He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time?

You know the old aphorism, “Blood is thicker than water.” The aphorism suggests to me that family ties are the strongest bonds we’ve got.

Some of you may remember, somewhere back in ancient history, a T.V. drama called “Dallas.” It was about the Ewing family, made up of Ellie, Jock, J. R., and a host of other oil-rich, power-hungry, morally bankrupt, and thoroughly reprehensible folks. They lied to each other, cheated each other, and defamed each other, but they were first and foremost family, excusing all kinds of rotten behavior. Countless novels and films tell the same story about family. But the kernel of truth in “Dallas” was that families do stick together. They are our primary tribe. Blood is thicker than water.

I’m always surprised that my nephew, Jason, keeps in touch with me. We are separated by age, geography, interests, and ambitions. But at Christmas and my birthday he sends heartfelt greetings with a volume, a book, about the American Civil War. Blood is pretty thick.

So the words of Jesus are troubling. Rather than blessing the ties that bind, he’s bringing fire. He tells us that he’s not here to bring peace so much as division. And he’s intent on dividing families.

…father against son and son against father,
mother against daughter and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

Yikes! Is Jesus serious? Does he mean what he says? Or can we skip on to some of his words that are more comforting?

Unfortunately, Jesus is serious. He is telling us that we’ve got to put him first. And if we do that, it gets people upset and splits families.

My brother decided when he was in high school to enter into ordained ministry. At the time, he was working for A&P Food Stores and saving money for college. That was a little disappointing for my parents, because they expected him to become either a physician or an attorney. Then one day he came up with a plastic miniature of an altar. It was a box with a lid and looked like one of those rectangular altars you see up against the back walls of churches. He announced in that box he was going to put ten percent of each paycheck and give it to the church we attended. My parents got unglued. Why would he do something silly like that? After all, he—they—need that money for college. But my brother wouldn’t budge and the conflict heated up. My father threatened. My brother talked about giving the best to God. The tension in the house was palpable for weeks.

But my parents finally conceded that tithing wasn’t a bad idea at all, as long as the rest of the money went into the college fund and not baseball, my brother’s passion.

Sometimes putting Jesus first can be more costly. We generally call them martyrs, or witnesses. The first one was Stephen, killed simply because he was a Christian. Or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hung because Hitler wanted him to disappear. You can add Martin Luther King to that list.

The bottom line is that Jesus wants to be first in our lives, thicker even than blood.

How can we accomplish this?

We begin with our children. We can model for them that Jesus Christ is first. That happens when we worship regularly. I know that it was a powerful influence in my life. We went to church. Making church activities a priority sends that message that Jesus is first. I was, as you know, a Boy Scout. And it was my Scout Master, Fergie, who was a model for me at the crossroads of my life. One of the great things about Troop 11 was that we would go on three weekend outings every year: one in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the summer. They began Fridays after school and ended on Sunday morning. But I never went the entire weekend. My parents would pick me up late Saturday evening, so that I would be at Sunday School and church on, of course, Sunday morning. I believe this kind of behavior on my parents’ part got me to do what I have done, ministry.

If Jesus is going to be first, it begins with parents. I was reading through a newsletter I get and an article caught my attention. It says, in part:

Mainline churches are more likely to sponsor a Scout troop than to have a regular organized religious activity for their children ... In many churches religious education shuts down in the summer ... Even a pretty regular attendee in these churches is lucky to get 20 to 30 hours a year of religious exposure ... It seems likely that these children’s reservoir of biblical memory will run dry before they ever have a chance to reach adulthood.

It is hard for Jesus to be first when most of their week is taken up by school, T.V., electronic games, computer monitors, a blizzard of slick magazine ads and commercials that urge them to look like me, buy me, eat me.

That’s why it is so important for your children to be here as much as possible. That means TNT, our midweek youth ministry, Mid High Youth, Senior High Youth, and certainly Sunday School. It is why your children need to experience our preschool and our elementary school, where all learning centers on Jesus as being first. Otherwise, our children will be overwhelmed by the values of all the temptations around us.

If you look at the front page of the September issue of the Rays of Hope you will find lots of opportunities to put Christ Jesus first in the hearts of your children, from TNT to Sunday School. And other opportunities for you to put Christ first in your life.

George Barna is a well-known pollster with an evangelical bent. Some of his research surprised him. He began with the assumption that being born again was the key to putting Christ first and key to following Christ through the Church. What he learned was that children brought up in an intentional church culture and participated in Sunday School, youth activities, and Bible study stayed with the church at a much higher percentage than those who were born again after adolescence.

Well, Jesus is clear about being first in our lives. We need to be dedicated here, at Cross of Hope, to our vision, that everyone know and experience Jesus Christ. And we better begin with our children.

Amen.