Synod School’s Wednesday preacher, the Rev. Andy Davis, explores possibilities for choosing our family, like Jesus did
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
The Rev. Andy Davis, the pastor at Union Presbyterian Church in Saint Peter, Minnesota, was Synod School preacher on Wednesday. (Photo by Kim Coulter)
STORM LAKE, Iowa — Synod School’s excellent house band pumped out Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” The Scripture selection was Mark 3:31-35, an account of Jesus setting the crowd straight on who his family really is. Even Erin Kaye’s a time for children got Synod School’s youngest attendees to think about what their family means to them.
“It’s a privilege to be part of this family with you,” said Wednesday’s preacher, the Rev. Andy Davis, pastor of Union Presbyterian Church in Saint Peter, Minnesota. If we list what gives us the most joy and angst, the place where the greatest harm has been done and the most profound healing can happen, it’s often in our family, Davis said.
Imagine we’re headed home after a long day of work, but we have to stop at the grocery store first for something to eat. The aisles are crowded, and our favorite cottage cheese is sold out. At the checkout, we can’t get our pay app to work. Finally, we get home. We lock the door between ourselves and the rest of the world, and we begin to relax.
“You don’t have to perform and pretend anymore. You can take a load off,” Davis said. We spot dog hair on the couch and dirty dishes in the sink, but no matter. “Our homes are messy places. We get to be messy and imperfect at home. That’s what home is about,” Davis said, “and that’s what family is about.”
“All our families are a little imperfect or something of a mess, but we get to have that in our home,” Davis said, “because our home is our sanctuary.”
But there are institutions that “want to breach that barrier into our home,” Davis noted. More than 20 years ago, Presbyterians inserted a fidelity and chastity clause into the Book of Order. “We decided what a family should look like — what kind of messes are allowed and not allowed,” Davis said.
A decade later, Presbyterians removed that clause. “As Presbyterians, we recognize there is no structure, no particular form that makes a family Christian,” Davis said. But “there are many Christians today who have not had the benefit of that experience, who believe there is a form and structure to a family that defines us as Christians.”
Their vision of a family is “a man who has power and authority over a wife, and the job of the man is to discipline the children and protect the family from an evil outside world,” Davis said. “In some corners of the U.S., this has become the essential core belief of what it means for them to be Christian.” Many believe it’s a model for nation as a whole, Davis said.
“There is no word about nurture or care in this scheme,” Davis said. “Nothing about equality, egalitarianism or personal freedom here. That vision of the family is powerful now. It wants to get through the door.”
He asked Synod Schoolers how that makes them feel. Worried? A little tense?
“The good news is this isn’t a sermon about that. It’s not about our understanding of Christianity,” Davis said. “It’s a sermon about God, and what God has in store for us is far from what we can imagine. God goes beyond our imagination to open up new possibilities for us in those most important relationships.”
As Mark’s gospel says, “whoever does the will of God — loving neighbor as self, worshiping God with joy in our hearts, working for justice — that is a member of Jesus’ family,” according to Davis. “It’s not just the people inside, but the people outside too. We see it in neighbors helping neighbors. We see it in the person at the grocery store restocking the cottage cheese.”
The Synod School house band got the crowd up and dancing with a version of “We Are Family.” (Photo by Mike Ferguson)
We also see it at Synod School, in people waiting patiently in line for their ice cream cone after a meal. “We see family here, because that is what God has in mind for family,” Davis said.
“How many people need to know there is a family for them? We pledge to treat them right,” Davis said. “How many people need to experience this? I think a lot of people are lonely in the world. They need to know — is there a place for me?”
“Be the family of God, for God goes with you,” Davis said.
Synod School is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. It concludes on Friday.
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.