We are all in the family

Merry Christmas!

We are all in the family, the same family. Our New Testament lesson for today makes it very clear, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (Galatians 4:4b-5 NRSV) This is the reason, among a few others I suppose, we refer to each other as sibling in Christ. The thing is, just because we are siblings it doesn’t mean we have to get along all the time.

It isn’t only members of my church who are my siblings, it isn’t only other Presbyterians, it isn’t only other Protestants, and on and on it goes. Everyone who is loved by God and adopted into God’s family is my sibling. This means there are people in my family with whom I have fairly sharp theological differences . . . so what? This means there are people in my family, every bit as much members of the family as me, who consider me either too liberal or not enough, too conservative or not enough, too . . . something or another, or not enough. So what?

We are all children of God, even when we disagree, as we do, as we always have, as we always will.

“We are in the family” Knox and St. Mark’s Presbyterian joint service (to download, right click and select “Save Link As . . .”)

Blessings,