Familiar Family

I have two married daughters. The youngest daughter lives in the same town as Terri and I, the oldest lives 1,000 miles away. My oldest daughter and her three children came to visit us last week. Her husband had to remain behind. Last night he was able to join her and us. Having him here, with us, with his family, felt satisfying. It was like the last piece of the puzzle was put in place. The picture was now complete. I’m not sure precisely why, but when a family is fractured, it is disconcerting to me.

In the Bible the Greek word for family is akin to the English word “generate.” Those whom we generate and those who have generated us constitute our family. This is a bit problematic because I had no part in the generation of my two sons in law – yet they are each family to me. How can that be? Why do I feel akin to them just as much as I feel akin to my daughters? Come to think of it Terri my wife did not generate from me but she is certainly in my family. She is family by means of a covenant – the covenant of marriage – part of the Covenant of Creation. I suppose this is just as true as with my sons in law (one more so than the other <grin> Nicholas). My sons in law are sons by way of covenant – that is, the covenant of marriage.

To make matter better, Jesus explains the notion of family when he says, “those who do the will of the Father” are my brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. This is also family by covenant. The covenants of Creation, Promise, Law, Redemption, and Grace bind the “household of God” together making us a family. This is why, I suppose, it is not accurate to say that all people are the “family of God” or that “we are all God’s children.” There is a since in which this is true, but, it is only part of the truth and not the whole. Unredeemed, fallen, humanity are “strangers” to God, Paul says.

I have been brooding over and downright depressed by my part of Christ’s Church – the Presbyterian Church (USA). I think it likely that a good portion of that family is about to separate from the remaining portion. This is so because some of us have adopted a view of God that is so strange to others of us that we believe the covenant that ought to bind us does not. It is clear to me, that if the Presbyterian Church (USA) is part of the Household of God, it is so, by means of Covenant – the Covenant of Creation (wherein marriage and meaningful work are established), the Covenant of Promise made to Abraham and his descendents, the Covenant of Law made through Moses, the Covenant of Christ’s Kingship, made through David, the Covenant of Redemption establish between the Father and the Son (for us and for our salvation) and thereby issuing the Covenant of Grace, through Faith.

If the Presbyterian Church (USA) divides, it will be either a sociological or organizational fact or a theological betrayal of the common covenant that binds us.  This covenant is one between human parties under God. It is not unlike the covenant of marriage. Divorce can be “allowed” when hard hearts refuses to reconcile their differences.