Rev Andy Braunston
Introduction
Today we start a series of four sermons which feature clips from the hit US cartoon show “The Simpsons”. George Bush Snr once said that he wanted American families to be more like the Waltons than the Simpsons. The Waltons were an idealised rural American family living in the 1930s. The TV series which told their story was wholesome family viewing and seemed to reflect an age which was lost forever. The Simpsons, through humour and satire reflect contemporary life a little too well! So let’s meet the Simpsons – America’s most famous dysfunctional family.
[Clip]
The Simpsons are a different type of family that we are used to seeing on TV – or they were when they first came out. They were controversial as they were labelled as being dysfunctional, not like the idealised Waltons and whilst there is warmth, affection and love in this family it is gritty and hard edged. They make mistakes, they do bad things, in short they are “real”. They are a little too reflective of contemporary Western life to be absolutely comfortable for viewers who assume all is wonderful in modern family life.
The Simpsons and the Church
For years the Christian Church has seen itself as a type of family. It’s common to hear the Church described as “the family of God” the Our Father called, by Protestants at least, “the Family Prayer” and all that language that many Christians use calling each other “brother” and “sister”. For many years I rather resisted such images. Many of us know that families can be rather sinister places and many of us have been wounded by our family life so it seemed to be a bit strange to describe ourselves as a family so we used images of friendship again and again.
Yet I now realise that we are a family – often more like the Simpsons than the Waltons – rather than simply a collection of friends. The truth is that neither metaphor really works, but there is something stronger about the idea of family. We don’t choose our families, we don’t choose each other, we don’t like everyone in our families – but we try to love them. We realise that families have, sooner or later, to work out their problems whereas friendships can end, family relationships don’t. We may be estranged from our families, not speaking or communicating, they may have done dreadful things but they can’t stop being our family – as much as we’d like them to sometimes! So this model of family is probably better when describing the church.
In our clip today we see various behaviours that we can recognise in both family and church interactions. Marge is the optimist trying to present their lack of income in a good light. Lisa is trying to help, attempting to do her mum’s hair – though she should probably not bother – and making economies on the soap front. Bart is helpfully offering not to bath and is probably just playing a game at pushing boundaries, whilst Homer has sunk into despair and can’t look up or see any possibilities.
How do we react to difficulty? Do we act like Marge and put on a brave face, keeping others calm and happy? Do we try and do something to make the situation better like Lisa? Do we try and push boundaries and play up now people are concentrating on other thinks like Bart or do we sink down with depression and despondency like Homer? Maybe we do a bit of all of them; as a church we can see people who act in all those ways and more.
The Reading
Paul’s words in Ephesians show us the type of community life which we aspire to, but often we are more like the Simpsons than we care to admit. Some really trying to be supportive and do the right thing – like Marge and Lisa, and others trying to push the boundaries the whole time – like Bart and others, like Homer, who are trying to make the best of a bad job, or who sink beneath the weight of their problems. We need to care for each other, help each other when down and create here a more loving community. There are keys in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian Church which help us understand who we are and ideas to help us as we build and maintain a loving community.
First there are two keys to our self understanding:
We are no longer but strangers but citizens: we have been brought together from all over the place! People in this church come from so many different places, Uganda, Iran, and all over the UK. We come from different walks of life, some are unemployed, some are in very powerful and responsible jobs. Some are rich, some are poor. Some are retired, some are at University. Some have been Christians all their lives, some have converted from other faiths, some of found faith later in on life. We were once strangers to each other, and felt like we were strangers in our society. Most of us have felt “we are the only one like this” at some point in our lives. Some of us have come through immense hurt and pain – emotional and physical – in our journey to this place. But now we are fellow citizens of God’s kingdom. Nationality, status, wealth, gender, sexuality don’t matter in God’s realm; all that matters is our experience of God’s love and our commitment to share that love with others.
The second key to our self understanding is the this image of St Paul’s that we are members of God’s household – which seems a little more healthy than the Simpsons’! The foundations of this household were laid by Jesus and the apostles and we are now part of it. Here all status is irrelevant and the normal structure of the world is turned on it’s head. Here the first shall be last and the last first, here we are valued for who we are not what we have.
Then Paul goes on to list the qualities we need to cultivate if we are to keep the Church, the Household God, working well. We need these characteristics if we are to keep this place working well where lives can be touched and changed.
First, Paul tells us to be full of humility and gentleness. We’ve all been in organisations where people jostle for power and influence – often the smaller the organisation the larger the fights! We’ve all been in places where people are pushy and seeking to lord it over others. We are told by Jesus in the Gospels and by Paul in this letter that we have to be humble and gentle, not making more of ourselves than we should – but not being content to be treated like doormats either.
Being gentle can be quite a challenge! For some it comes easily, for others, well, we have to work at it. Learning to be gentle with the person who pushes in front of us in a queue, is a challenge, learning to be gentle when someone wants to scream at us is a bigger challenge. Learning not to repay anger and aggression with the same is a huge challenge. Yet through gentleness we can turn around so many negative emotions, through gentleness we continue to make our church community an attractive one to join and remain in.
Paul mentions patience as a characteristic to aspire to. Now we’ve all seen the prayer – “God grant me patience, now!” Patience is a characteristic that is really out of vogue in our society. We want things, and we want them now! Learning to wait – whether its something we want to buy, for a situation to change, for justice to be done, all needs patience. Patience doesn’t mean simply waiting and doing nothing, but it means that we don’t get stressed about the things we cannot change!
And then Paul gives the most important quality we need in a church – the ability to bear with one another in love. If you watch the Simpsons you will know that they care about and love each other deeply – they wouldn’t be able to live with each other if they didn’t! The ability to bear with each other is one we need both to celebrate and to nurture. Sometimes it’s easy, at other times it can be really difficult. Sometimes as a pastor I get exasperated when people ask for advice then promptly ignore it (ok, people have got a right to ignore what I say, but when they come back with the same problem I do think that possibly if they’d listened in the first place….) But we have to bear with each other. One of the medieval reformers, Erasmus was asked by his Protestant friends why he didn’t leave the Catholic church and help found a brave new perfect institution. Erasmus answered that he put up with a lot in the Catholic church, as the Catholic church put up with a lot in him! We need to learn to put up with much in other people, as those same others put up with an awful lot in us!
Conclusion
We are called to be the Family of God. We will never be like the
Waltons, and often more like the Simpsons, but as we remind ourselves that we
are no longer strangers but fellow citizens of the Kingdom of God, members of
His Church and striving to show the qualities of humility, gentleness, patience,
and bearing with one another we will grow, both as individuals and as a church.
(Rev Andy Braunston)
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.