Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Matthew 15:10-28
“We are Kindred”
I recently came across a YouTube channel called “Man Explains Everything.” It describes itself as “an educational channel about human history, natural history, and the four billion years of absolute chaos sitting directly underneath your feet, which you have never once stopped to think about.” The videos are quite humorous, with a cartoon “grumpy old man” explaining everything. But they’re also well-researched, quite interesting, and the references are available if you want to check their validity.
Anyway, I watched one video about how there used to be more than one species of human on the Earth. If you go back a hundred thousand years, there were at least four, walking around at the same time. Homo erectus. Homo floresiensis. The Neanderthals. The Denisovans. Possibly more. But now there’s only one species of humans: Homo Sapiens. That’s us.
Of course, the video goes on to explain the various species of humans, when scientists think they lived, how they disappeared, and other interesting details. But the point that stuck with me was the message that all of us human beings today (and for the last 40,000 years) belong to the same species. Even with our various diversities of colour, size, features, abilities, languages, religions, and cultures, we are really just one big family. We are kindred.
It’s not unusual for family members to become divided from one another. Animosities and conflicts may arise, especially where there is competition or where differences are seen as insurmountable problems that cannot be resolved. Other times, family members may simply drift apart when they move geographically or embrace different priorities and patterns of life. Perhaps as you think about your own family, you can identify some divisions that have occurred.
In our reading through Genesis this summer, last week’s story explained how Joseph became divided from his father and brothers. It began with Jacob’s favouritism and special treatment of Joseph, continued with the brothers becoming jealous, was exacerbated by Joseph sharing a dream about “ruling over” his brothers, and was finally accomplished by the brothers selling Joseph to some passers-by who take him to Egypt and sell him again to one of the Pharaoh’s officials.
Many years and eight chapters later, we have today’s story about how the brothers are finally reunited with Joseph. By the time the brothers are standing in front of Joseph in Egypt, their circumstances have changed significantly. Jacob’s household is in trouble due to a famine, and the brothers have travelled to Egypt looking for assistance from a nation that has prospered and planned well for the years of famine they are now experiencing.
Meanwhile, Joseph has not remained a lowly servant in Egypt, but he has become a trustworthy advisor to some of the most powerful people in that country. He has status, resources, and power of his own that the brothers must have been very surprised to see.
But rather than lording it over his jealous brothers who had been ready to murder him in the past, something in Joseph’s heart prompted him to welcome and help them as family once again. All the weeping that is mentioned in the text points to the combination of grief, regret, joy, and relief that this reunion represented.
I wonder if your family history has included a reunion like this: a prodigal son type homecoming, a generous offering of grace, a willingness to let the past be “water under the bridge,” a decision to welcome and help one another because, after all, we are family. We are kindred.
Psalm 133 hadn’t been written yet in the time of Joseph and his brothers’ reunion, but I’m sure the words would have resonated with him: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!” Or in the translation we sang together this morning: “O look and wonder, how good it is!”
If you’ve been through some kind of reconciliation – with a family member or friend – you probably know how difficult it is to accomplish that reunion, and how much vulnerability, and generosity, and self-giving love are required. It’s not unusual for there to be a lot of tears involved. But perhaps Genesis 45 and Psalm 133 taken together this morning are God’s way of telling us that reconciliation is both possible and worth the effort. Because we are kindred, after all.
And as the Scriptures unfold, as we make our way through the stories of the first testament and into the life and ministry of Jesus and his followers who became the church, the call to reconciliation and unity only gets stronger and stronger.
Whereas most human communities throughout history have tended to see themselves as different from other family groups, cultures, and kingdoms, the ministry of Jesus began to break down those dividing walls and call for a kind of unity that brings people together across all kinds of difference and diversity.
In Matthew 15, we see Jesus in one of his typical debates with the Jewish sect called the Pharisees. Although Jesus, his disciples, and most of the people they interacted with were all Jewish, the various sects (perhaps comparable to different Christian denominations today) had different practices and priorities.
The Pharisees were quite strict in how they tried to live their lives according to the commandments, and I think Jesus would have said that they sometimes lost their way when they got hung up on the details and lost sight of the spirit of the law that should always point us towards love of God and love of neighbour.
And so, in teaching the Pharisees and the others in the crowd that day, Jesus told them a parable. “Listen and understand,” he encouraged them. “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
For many and various good reasons, Jewish sects and other religious groups have developed dietary laws that direct their practice, identify them as belonging to a particular group, and become a practical way of living out their faith on a daily basis. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
But Jesus tells us that what we eat or don’t eat is not the most important thing. And when the disciples ask for more explanation, he blatantly tells them that what they eat goes into their stomach and then out into the sewer. “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” and has the potential to do either good or great harm.
We may have all kinds of differences from one another, even sincerely held and completely opposite views on religion, society, and how best to live in this world. But what matters is how we speak to one another, how we hold respect for one another, and how we love one another across differences because we are kindred.
The last section of the Gospel text this morning moves from Jesus’ teaching about what is most important into a real live example of living out his values in relationship with the people around him. Jesus continues his journey with his disciples into the district of Tyre and Sidon. Not surprisingly, he soon encounters a Canaanite woman from that region who is looking for his help to free her daughter from a demon that is tormenting her.
I don’t think I’ll ever quite make sense of why Jesus’ first response to the woman’s request is to ignore her. Then his second response is to say that he was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (for the Jews). And it’s only after she persists in her request and calls for his compassion that Jesus relents and heals her daughter because of the woman’s great faith.
Some interpreters conclude that Jesus holds back from helping her in order to make a point. Did he make a show of starting from the disciples’ assumption that his love was only for the Jews, and then demonstrate with his response that God’s love was expanding? Or was Jesus, himself, actually learning of the great expanse of God’s love? Was he discovering, as he went along, that God, who sent him first for the lost sheep of Israel, was broadening his mission to include every child of God throughout the world?
There weren’t any scientists around yet to tell Jesus that every human being alive at that time was a Homo Sapien, that we’re all one species, that we all belong to the same family, that we are kindred. But deep in his human heart, inspired by the divine presence within him, he must have known that to be the truth.
And so the call to reconciliation and unity that we have received from Jesus may begin with sorting out the relationships in our own households or extended families, but it cannot stop there. We are invited to treat our neighbours and even our enemies with respect and care, ensuring that what comes out of our mouths in direct speech or online comments demonstrates love and care across our differences. That’s much more important than what we eat or other details of how we practice our faith.
Two practical examples come to mind for our time and context. The first is the fact that the Canadian Presbyterian and United Churches just spent the last week putting on a shared conference for 500 youth from both our churches and across our country.
Perhaps that doesn’t seem like a big deal. But a hundred years ago, we divided from one another when the United Church of Canada was formed and a third of the Presbyterians refused to join. Congregations were broken apart, families were torn, and resources were divided like a couple getting divorced.
Although I don’t think an organic union between our churches is likely any time soon, we now recognize one another as family, we value each other’s gifts, and we can work together in friendship and cooperation because we are kindred.
At the same time, controversy continues to swirl in our city of Regina concerning the downtown Mosque’s application to broadcast the Adhan, the Call to Prayer, before their Friday noon time of prayer. Fear of religions and cultures that they do not understand has led some members of our community to speak and write some very hateful things against our Muslim neighbours. And others have suggested that limiting their religious freedom and expression is appropriate in order to keep everyone else comfortable.
As followers of Jesus, our call is to listen to our neighbours, to treat them with respect and dignity, and most importantly to remember that we are all children of God, all members of one family. With all our diversities and differences, with all our unique gifts and challenges, with all our conflicts, and divisions, and potential reconciliations, we are kindred.