Becoming Like Christ: Belonging to God's Family
Friday, March 5
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Becoming Like Christ:
Belonging to God’s Family
Acts 7:30-40
Rev. Shelley Woodruff
“We are the Woodruffs and we are a kind family.”
This phrase is repeated over and over again in our home. I am not sure how or why we picked up this coaching habit, but it started early on with Lottie. Whenever we see a child choosing to be unkind—to a friend, to a parent, to a sibling—the inevitable parent “talking-to” follows.
We can take the time to process why the unkind behavior now that the kids are a little older. When the children were younger, however, lengthy conversations and rationalizations weren’t appropriate. So we would instead say something far simpler like, “That’s not kind. We are the Woodruffs and we are a kind family.”
Long before our children could manage empathy or balance morality, we simply wanted to them to know that the behavior in question wasn’t okay simply because of who we were.
In one phrase, we emphasized the fact that the child was ours. A Woodruff. Part of this family. She or he belonged no matter what. But we also emphasized that belonging to this family meant something. This family had a character and an identity that our child was expected to take on as her own.
Stephen and the Religious Power-Holders
Our Scripture for today is an excerpt from Acts 7. Stephen has riled up the religious power-holders with his sermons and is eventually dragged before the council in the synagogue to account for his subversive theology. He is supposed to be defending himself here.
He stands accused of trying to change their customs—customs that reach way back to Moses. “For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us,” they say. (Acts 6: 14) In other words, the religious authority figures fear that Stephen is aiming to change the way “it’s always done around here.”
So here in chapter 7, the new apostle gives a lengthy speech that recounts much of Israel’s history, focusing on Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Stephen speaks of all that lead up to Moses—how God entered a covenant with Abraham, protected Joseph, brought Jacob back to his son, and saved Moses despite genocidal law.
Stephen speaks of how God honored God’s side of the covenant by multiplying the Hebrew people, saw those people even in captivity, walked with those people into liberation, and provided God’s people with a system of law that would draw them close to each other and to the holy.
Stephen seems to explain that yes, the law is important and vital, but so is the entire picture of God’s ongoing relationship with God’s people. Even Moses isn’t allowed to forget this fact. God tells him, “‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look…” (v. 32). In Stephen’s telling of events, Moses does not just stand in front of God. Moses stands in front of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And now, in Acts chapter 7, Stephen and his accusers stand not just in front of God—not even in front of the God of Moses. They stand in front of the God of Moses, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.
They stand in front of the God of Miriam, and David, and Jeremiah, and Hannah. The God of of Micah, and Mary, and John the Baptist. They stand in front of the God of Jesus.
These leaders are saying, “We are Moses’ family, and we are a family of the law.”
Stephen is saying, “We are the Yahweh family, and we are the family of covenant.”
And Stephen, despite his eloquence, command of history, and respect for the law, is subsequently stoned to death.
Belonging and Identity
Belonging to a group gives you a sense of identity—any group, be it a family, a club, or a church. Belonging gives you a sense of orientation to the world. It gives you a set of expectations for your self and even a set of responsibilities.
In my small Woodruff family, we have tried to teach from an early age that—if nothing else—belonging to this family means that you are kind.
The religious leaders that were so threatened by Stephen’s preaching knew that they belonged. These men belonged to the family of Moses and belonging to this family meant that they revered and followed the law.
Stephen tried, in his last words on earth, to get them to see that they belonged to something bigger. Oh so much bigger. Yes, they belonged to the family of Moses that revered and followed the law, but also to the family of all those who had walked with God before. Belonging to that family meant that they were in a living, moving relationship with the Creator that would continue to pull them in and send them out. In and out.
Lent gives us the space to consider who we are as God’s family. Who is it that we follow? What does belonging to this family mean for us? What does belonging to this family require of us?
We are God’s family, and we are a ______ family. The next few days in Lent, try out a little exercise with me. As you read Scripture, ask yourself how the text you’ve just encountered would fill in that blank. What kind of family is your text describing?
Does the word you find to fill in the blank surprise you? After asking that question of several different texts, do you start to see a pattern or any repeated words?
And after you entertain this little exercise and fill in the blank, remember that this short phrase reminds us of two things. First, that you—child—belong. You are part of God’s family. And second, that belonging to this family means something.
About “Becoming Like Christ” (Weekly Lenten Reflections)
In 2019, we developed a 7-week long series packed full of devotions called “Exploring Humanity and Divinity.” It was about wrestling with our humanity as we seek to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.
After a tumultuous last year, and with tensions high on political, cultural, and social levels, it seems that “wrestling” is just as relevant today as it was two years ago.
In that spirit, we believed it would be healthy to resurrect a similar theme to this year’s Lenten devotional series: Becoming Like Christ.