We begin this morning with a brief review of something most of us learned in ninth grade biology and then promptly forgot as soon as the test was over, and that is how science organizes and classifies living things.
Maybe these layers of classification will ring a bell:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Series
Family
Genus
Species
Remember?
No?
Okay, well, now you know. This is how science organizes all living things so we can see they are related to each other, when they are related, and how they are separated from each other when they aren’t.
To start, all living things are divided into five kingdoms. I won’t bore you with all their names but you know, of course, that two of them are the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom.
Kingdoms are divided into phyla (plural for phylum).
Phyla are divided into classes.
Classes are divided into series.
Series are divided into families and it is families that we want to talk about this morning. In fact, we are going to talk for a few minutes about one particular family — the Rosaceae (rose-ACE-ee-eye) family.
It’s a big family but they are all friends of mine so I’d like to introduce you to them so you can know them a little better. Let me first introduce you to the great grandmother, the matriarch of the family.
Her name is Rose. Her family name is Rosaceae.
Would you like to meet some other members of the Rosaceae family? Their family tree has many and varied branches. For instance, here is one of her cousins:
His name is Apple. Yes, Apple is a member of the rose family.
As is… Peach.
This is cousin Plum, a close relative of Peach.
Here is cousin Pear.
Here is cousin Strawberry.
And this is a very distant cousin, his name is Almond.
They are all members of the Rosaceae family. That is to say, they are all different kinds of roses.
Weird, huh? I don’t know about you, but I never thought of an apple as a kind of rose. But it is. It has some of the same DNA as a rose has. It shares its DNA with peaches, strawberries, and almonds.
But it doesn’t share the same DNA with you or me.
We are members of a different kingdom. We are members of the animal kingdom.
But — and here’s the fascinating part — even though we don’t share DNA with roses we can still be part of the rose family. Poet Robert Frost wrote a poem about it. It’s called, “The Rose Family.”
The Rose Family
The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple’s a rose,
And the pear is, and so’s
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose —
But were always a rose.
Robert Frost believed that you could be a member of the Rose family without becoming a plant, without giving up your DNA and entering a new kingdom. You could be a member of the animal kingdom, as we are, and still be a rose by simply acting like a rose.
By being a beautiful person. By being kind and loving and fair and generous and good we can become members of the rose family — right next to Peach, Apple, Pear, Almond, and all the others.
And that is not unlike what Jesus is saying in the last verses of this morning’s gospel lesson. You can be a member of his family by acting like him. You don’t have to share the same blood, the same lineage, the same parents or grandparents. All you have to do to be a member of the Jesus family is to be like Jesus, act like Jesus, do what Jesus did.
A New Kind of Family
There are lots of words in the English language that are overused – arguably — no, I mean, that’s one of the overused words. As in, “Orson Wells was, arguably, one of the greatest movie directors of all time.”
Well, either he was or he wasn’t. Take a risk, for crying out loud. Say that he was. Putting the word “arguably” in there just weakens the sentence and makes you seem like a coward who wants to hedge his bets. It’s like saying that Wells may or may not have been one of the greatest movie directors of all time. What a wishy-washy sentiment. Take a stand. Give the man credit. Say that he was or say that he wasn’t. Pick a position and stand by it.
Another overused word is hero.
Newscasters and writers as well as the general public use this word way too much, I think. It has almost come to mean anyone who does something extraordinary. Victims who survive some ordeal or tragedy are often praised as heroes just for surviving. People who simply help others who are in need of help are touted as heroes.
I think we need a narrower definition of what it means to be a hero, one that means more than just another role model. I like the definition that the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission uses in determining who will receive their Hero Awards each year: “A hero is someone who chooses to put themselves at mortal risk in order to save another.”
It must be a choice, not just a circumstance in which they find themselves. It must be of significant risk, and it has to be to save another. Yes, I like that definition just fine.
And another word that is used too often and too broadly, especially in advertising, but in business, generally, is family.
Olive Garden restaurants used to have an ad campaign that said, “When you’re here, you’re family.”
They were, they said, trying to appeal to the pathos of the traditional Italian family meal at which the family lingered and over which they talked and shared and enjoyed each other’s company. But, Business Insider observes, “even though everyone recognizes and easily associates with the ‘family’ tagline, consumers have been treating Olive Garden more like a great aunt you visit on a bi-annual basis than a close relative.”1
So they dumped that ad campaign and paid an ad agency a zillion dollars to come up with something new, fresh, and exciting, something that appeals to younger generations who have different ideas of what family may be. The new catch phrase they came up with was: “Go to Olive Garden.” Overwhelming, right?
Most of us have heard or even worked for a company where the boss assures us that the company is a family. “We’re just one big happy family, here.” Or, when someone dies, “The entire XYZ Company family is grief stricken.” Yes, that may make for a nice public image, but I always wonder, if you’re all a family, can your employees call you to come and get them when their car breaks down? When their house burns down, can they stay with you until they get back on their feet? Will you come and bail them out when they’ve been arrested?
Because, that’s what family does.
In fact, this kind of activity, this kind of behavior, this kind of relationship, according to Jesus, pretty much determines and defines what it means to be a family.
There are, it turns out, two kinds of families.
There’s the kind you are related to by DNA, what we use to refer to as “blood.”
And there are those you are related to by faith, love, and commitment.
Sometimes they are both the same group of people, and that’s great. It’s one of the sweetest things in life.
But sometimes, we are members of two families who don’t even know each other: Our biological family and our faith family.
And it’s all a matter of behavior.
What Strong Families Do
With just a little research of the internet, I discovered that there is no shortage of ideas and lists when it comes to defining what a strong family is. For example, one of my favorites was published by the University of Alabama on their Parenting Assistance Line website.2
It included these six characteristics of strong families:
- Members spend a significant amount of time together.
- Members communicate effectively with each other.
- They appreciate each other and demonstrate their appreciation with words and actions.
- They are committed to each other and seek to make decisions that will promote unity and harmony.
- They demonstrate good coping skills, standing together in times of crisis or trouble.
- They have shared values and convictions.
Notice that not once is DNA mentioned. That all of the family members do or do not share the same ancestors is not a contributing factor in making a strong family. That they are related by “blood” is not a factor. The important, indeed, the defining thing is how they treat each other, and how they relate to each other.
Most often, when we see a list like this, we try to figure out how we can impose these characteristics upon our biological families in order to make them stronger.
But there is another way of looking at them, too.
While these practices can make a biological family stronger, certainly, they can also be used to define what a family is. That is to say, wherever we see these six things happening in a group of people, we are, in fact, seeing a family.
Members of a church who behave like this are a family.
Members of a charitable organization, members of a social group, members of a football team, members of a committee, neighbors in an apartment building, people who work together in the same office, if they behave like this, they are, in fact, a family.
My mother used to tell a story about a little girl she met at the laundromat. Mom was there washing rugs and blankets in those big, supersize washing machines and there was a little girl there, maybe five or six years old, playing with her doll while her mother read a paperback book and waited for her wash to get done.
This little girl was bored and lonely and she struck up a conversation with my mother, a conversation that went on and on, according to mom, and covered all sorts of topics, some of which were marginally inappropriate about the machinations of the little girl’s household and family life.
Eventually, as the blankets and rugs were moved to the dryers and the conversation ebbed, they both became quiet, just staring at the dryers and thinking private thoughts. Then all of a sudden, the little girl tapped my mother’s arm and said, “Hey, let’s be cousins.”
Mom said she thought about it for a moment, “I don’t know,” she said. “Being a cousin is a pretty big commitment.” She said it in jest but when she saw the little girl’s face begin to sadden she realized that this was no light or laughing matter. So she said, “Okay,” and stretched out her hand. “Put it right there, cuz.”
They shook on it and became cousins. It was a decision.
We can decide to be related to Jesus, too. That’s what he says.
If we act like him… well… then we’re members of his family.
The family known as the Christian church.
The family of God.
Amen.
1. http://www.businessinsider.com/olive-gardens-new-tagline-is-go-to-olive-garden-2012-10#ixzz3bvWXYeSt
2. http://www.pal.ua.edu/support/stinnett.php