What kind of family do you want to become?
On Sunday, we will celebrate the First Sunday after the Epiphany. The Sunday is celebrated as the Feast of the Holy Family and as the Baptism of our Lord. As we celebrate this Sunday, I am mindful of all the images of the Holy Family. Having just finished Christmas, we can freshly remember the scenes. We remember the plastic, wooden, and porcelain creches at home and at church. We remember the rogue sheep, wandering child star, and the off centered halo from the Children’s Pageant. We can still remember the scene of all of us gathered to pay homage to the newborn king. We remember the Holy Family gathered lovingly under stars as folks came to visit them - angels, archangels, shepherds, wise men, family guests, visitors from near and far. We remember how we gathered together with them on Christmas. All of us young and old, heavenly and earthly, wise and common, magi and shepherd, male and female, ancient and new, white and black, new friends and strangers, conservative and liberal. We remember in that moment of Christmas how the roof of that Creche held all of the created world under it. And, how, in that moment the whole world was united as family under the Prince of Peace. No one in a nativity scene is ever looking anywhere other than towards a God of love represented in the form of a baby.
It is through Christ we are united. It is through Christ we become siblings in a family of love. When I was growing up, our church’s tag line was “First Christian Church: A Family of Faith.” Today, I find myself thinking about the profound ability we have to choose what kind of family we wish to be. How we can make the decisions to turn our focus inward towards the Prince of Peace or outward towards a world of chaos, anxiety, stress, and stuff that doesn’t much matter. We have the tremendous choice and ability to shape our lives to focus on Jesus peace and love.
The gift of Holy Family is a tremendous gift. In families biological, social, and church we are given a profound gift to help the world heal.
In our church year today, we celebrate a family who continues to help the world heal one hundred years after their presence with us. Today, we celebrate the life of Julia Chester Emery (1852-1922). Julia fell in line after her sister as the second Secretary of the National Women’s Auxiliary, now known as the Episcopal Church Women (ECW). She founded the United Thank Offering (UTO) which is still a tremendous ministry one hundred years later. Julia did amazing things. However, she is rarely mentioned without the rest of her family. Her two brothers who were priests. Her sister Helen who started a hospitality home. Her other sister Mary, who started the ECW as mentioned above. The whole family together leaves an extraordinary legacy of Christ’s love and service. What kinds of focus did that family have towards the Prince of Peace that they left such an amazing legacy? What was their home life like? Their spiritual life like? Their daily prayer life like? We don’t know, but I imagine most of them had their attention focused on Jesus with the intensity of a Christmas Nativity scene.
Last Sunday, we baptized infant Claire into our community. The day was filled with love and joy. As our prayer book reminds us, “Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God.” (BCP, 858). It is also that by which we take up Christ’s ministry in the world. As we baptized Claire, we welcomed her into our own Holy Family and into the greater scene of that Holy Family gathered with the baby Jesus, common shepherds, wise magi, humans and angels, old and young, and all those who gathered before us and around us. We promised to help her grow into her life with Christ and be her holy siblings.
As we go throughout our days, there are so many choices we have about how to be. As we journey away from the manger and out into the world, where will our focus be? Will we remember the sweet baby? How we were all gathered under the Prince of Peace? Will we remember that heaven and earth stopped to adore love incarnate? Will we be distracted by all kinds of things in the things in the world as we travel home by another road? In the example of the Emery’s, I pray we will remember to focus on the Christ. I pray we will be a Family of Faith. I pray we leave a lasting impact that heals the world forever.
For more information on Julia Chester Emery - http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Julia_Chester_Emery.htm
