The Family Reunion

Scripture: Genesis 42:1-8; 45:1-15;

47:27-28

Meditation by Dr. George B. Wirth

First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta

World Communion Sunday

October 1, 2000

 

Text: And they shall come from east and west and from north and south and sit

at table in the Kingdom of God. (Luke 13:29)

 

Introduction

Five years ago, aboard a Delta jet plane flying from Atlanta to New Jersey, I found an article in Sky Magazine that caught my attention. The article, entitled Going Home Again by Robert Fulghum, begins this way:

 

“There is a difference between a family reunion and reunion with family. One is a gathering of relatives. The other is a reconciliation with members of our family. They are not the same experience, although they are intertwined.

We all begin with the family that life has assigned us, and then leave that family in various ways, at least for a time, and go out on our own. At some stage there comes the need for reunion or reconciliation with those we left behind. We call it “Going home again.”

At other times, family reunion is the ritual for gathering together: Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, weddings, graduations and funerals. And then there’s the big one - the family reunion that happens around the 50^th wedding anniversary of a couple who by now are grandparents or great-grandparents - when everybody comes.

In the photographs of the people, you can see truth in their faces. Many of them do not really know each other. Some of them dislike each other. A few don’t even want to be there, and yet, there they are, smiling. Smiling.

What amazes me is that we so often pull it off, because the yearning is so strong within us for family integrity that we will go to great lengths to make it work out. We will compromise, conciliate and accommodate over and over and over again. These family gatherings are not always a celebration of the way things actually are, but a ritual of hope for the way we wish things to be.”

(Sky Magazine, Delta Airlines, May 1995, by Robert Fulghum)

 

Now I must confess that the person sitting next to me on the plane was not pleased when I tore this article out of the magazine. I tried to explain that I was a preacher and needed this information for a sermon. But the truth was that I wanted to keep the article in anticipation of Barbara’s parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary celebration the following month in Sea Island. Well, we had a great family reunion. The photographs show smiles on our faces, and there were tears in our eyes when we said goodbye.

 

So I think Fulghum had it right: “The yearning is so strong within us for family integrity that we will go to great lengths to make it all work out.”

 

Part 1

That is what happened in the book of Genesis to Joseph and his family. Motivated by jealousy, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and he wound up in Egypt where, after years of pain and suffering, Joseph became the Secretary of State and Commissioner of Agriculture for all the land (Genesis 37-41). When a famine in Canaan forced those brothers to search for food in Egypt, they were brought before Joseph, whom they did not recognize. Following a time of testing to determine that the brothers had repented for their betrayal, Joseph revealed himself to them. The Bible tells us that Joseph and his brothers wept and embraced one another in an act of forgiveness and reconciliation (Genesis 42-45). And that reunion of the family turned into a great family reunion as Joseph’s father, Jacob, the rest of the relatives and all the people of Israel moved down to the land of Goshen in Egypt where they found food and a new home and for a while, at least, enjoyed prosperity and lived in peace (Genesis 47).

 

Now, all of that happened nearly 3500 years ago. But this story about the reunion of a family and a family reunion has much to tell us and to teach us still today. In our own families, even though we love each other, it is inevitable that sometimes we will hurt those who are closest to us. And in the midst of our conflict and pain, what we need is the healing power of God’s Holy Spirit which can lead to forgiveness, reconciliation and reunion, as we pick up the broken pieces and put our lives back together again. If that is what you need today, then pray for God’s help as you come to this table, and He will give it to you. For God is able to do far more in your family and in mine, than we think is possible.

 

Part 2

My friends, that is also our hope for the whole Christian Church, a large extended family of faith with two billion members living on this earth. Over the past 2000 years, the church has been a great force for good in the world. And yet, down through the centuries, we have become divided into three branches - Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant. And within our branch of Protestantism, there are more denominations now than most of us can count.

 

Why? Primarily because of theological differences, biblical battles, doctrinal disagreements and ecclesiastical upheavals. In some cases, the issues have been important, centering on the sovereignty of God, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the integrity of our faith. In other situations, the causes of conflict seem far less consequential, like “The Lifter Controversy” back in 1783, which split the Church of Scotland right down the middle over how high the chalice of wine should be lifted above the communion table. One side said that the raising of the cup was a liturgical act that emulated the Roman Catholics. The opposition declared that it wasn’t so. And after two years of heated debate, those Presbyterians decided to go their separate ways!

 

Underlying all of our divisions, I think the Presbyterian author Frederick Buechner came close to the truth when he wrote these words twelve years ago: “…It is not so much differences like these that keep the denominations apart as it is something more like (competition and) team spirit. Somebody from a long line of Congregationalists (up in New England) would no more consider crossing over to the Methodists than a Red Sox fan would consider rooting for the Mets…and if your mother was married in this (Presbyterian) church building and so were you…and your grandparents are buried in the cemetery just beyond the Sunday School wing, what on earth would ever persuade you to leave all that and join forces with the Lutherans…down the street?…

 

All the confusion about what the church is and is supposed to be. All the counterproductive competition!” And Buechner concludes: “When Jesus took the bread and said This is my body which is broken for you, it’s hard to believe that even in His wildest dreams He foresaw the…brokenness of the church as His body. There’s no reason why everyone should be Christian in the same way…but if all the competing factions and denominations were to give as much of themselves to the high calling and holy hope which unites them, as they do now to the things that divide them, then someday, some way, the church would look more like the kingdom of God…” (From “Whistling in the Dark” by Frederick Buechner, Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1988)

 

Conclusion

Now here is my own conclusion. As we come to this sacramental table on World Communion Sunday, what we Christians need as Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and all the Protestant denominations, what we need now, more than ever before, is a reunion of the family and a family reunion. We need to let go of our competition and let God lead us into ministries of cooperation. We need to leave behind our divisions and ask God to unite us together as the body of Christ on earth. We need to stop arguing amongst ourselves and start paying more attention to a world out there that needs our help. We need God’s grace to heal our hearts, to mend our fences and to learn to live together in peace. And, if we want to proclaim the name of Jesus to the world and be advocates for justice, kindness, humility and peace in places like Eastern Europe, the Sudan and especially now, the Middle East, then the place to begin is within the Christian Church. We need a reunion of the family and a family reunion to celebrate the ties that bind us one to another as sisters and brothers in faith.

 

That was Jesus’ vision, you know, a long, long time ago. So listen again to the words He said which still speak to all of us today: They shall come from east and west, from north and south and sit at table in the Kingdom of God (Luke 13:29).

 

As we come to this table with Christians from every corner of the world, let us pray and work with all that’s in us, so that the vision of our Lord Jesus will someday be fulfilled.

 

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.