In my last submission to Thorold News, I said I would be focusing on some different tenets of the “liberal progressive” Christianity preeminently associated with The United Church of Canada, the Christian tradition in which I serve. Last time, I wrote a little bit about the Christian Bible, the place of the Bible in our Liberal Protestant tradition and of its ultimate importance in being the source and soul of the story of Jesus, the Christ and Word of God.
I spoke of Jesus as the Word of God, and not the Bible, because the Bible tells us so. This time, I would like to focus on the life and ministry of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Person closest to those professing to be Christian who have experienced the call to, “Follow me.” An event in downtown Toronto earlier this month seems fortuitously to have provided me with an appropriate starting point.
Apparently, some people marching in the annual “Jesus In the City” parade gathered outside the inaugural and newly minted “Chick-fil-A” store there in town. They stopped to pray (presumably in Jesus’ name) for religious freedom. The day before, a group of people had attended the grand opening at the same location to protest the American food chain’s reported ties to anti-LGBTQ groups. It has been reported that the CEO of Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, has said he believes in the “biblical definition of a family unit” and has donated millions to charities with a history of discrimination against LGBTQ groups.
The “biblical definition of a family unit,” is the term apparently referred to by Dan Cathy. “Religious freedom” was the focus of the group who crystallized out of the day’s parade. Liberal Protestants would clearly wonder how these terms could take on such priority in light of Jesus’ life and teachings. In the face of the aching of Creation and the global suffering of humanity, Jesus hardly would have stopped to pray for religious freedom. He would have prayed for the love of God, and for love and deep compassion for each other. He would have prayed that we eschew those things that keep us from each other, those obstacles to human understanding and companionship and caring that divide us into camps of “us” and “them.” He would have prayed that we, God’s children, celebrate each other’s differences and use our differing religious constructs to grow in faith, transcend the limitations of dogma and conviction so to meet together at a place beyond restriction and protect and build a better world for everyone.
Jesus would never have prayed for freedom to reject the threatened and rejected; he would have prayed for freedom from division and from fear, and for his followers everywhere to stand up and defend and intercede on behalf of all those innocents whose lives are forfeit because of who they love. To do otherwise .. Jesus weeps.
And when it comes to a “biblical definition of a family unit,” any so-called “traditional” appreciation in a Christian sense would be dubious at best.
“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” asks Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. Then, “Pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’”
What family unit of biblical proportion is Jesus exactly defining here? And this is not the only time Jesus makes reference to the family. Speaking of discipleship, Jesus is quoted as saying, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.”
It doesn’t seem that this Jesus is putting a whole lot of stock in the “family unit” as some might want him to. For Jesus, the “family unit” is a locus of God’s love. Where there is love, there is God, the Bible tells us. And God’s love is a love for all people, of whatever difference or description - a love that binds, and heals, that helps us see the face of Christ in one another, and that brings us together as, yes, family.
For liberal progressive Christians, the Bible points to Jesus, and Jesus points to life, and life in its abundance. And the life of Jesus is healing and redemption; love and reconciliation; deep acceptance and respect and living hope for all God’s children and all of God’s Creation. When we speak of freedom as being something other than being able to live in love and free from fear, and when a “family unit” is confined by an unrelenting and restrictive definition, we need to know it’s not the way of Christ.
I write here as a liberal progressive Christian. I write here as a follower of Christ, and I pray the world might know the saving grace of the One we call God’s Son.
