I invite you to take a few moments with me to reflect on today’s Upper Room Devotional below.
Thank you for sharing this early moment of your day with me, with God, and with the thoughts and words of this reading that I hope you will carry with you throughout the coming day and night.
Today’s Scripture:
Mark 3:31-35 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
The True Kindred of Jesus
31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters[a] are outside, asking for you.” 33 And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today
I will never read this story in the gospels without thinking of a young pastor I met at a conference several years ago.
I noticed that he had a tattoo on his left arm that was a passage in Greek. It was this passage of scripture in which Jesus identifies his family as those who do the will of God. Only, it was the version of the story in the gospel of Matthew in which Jesus waved his hand over his disciples and said, “These are my mother, my father, my brothers, and my sisters.”
He got that tattoo because when he decided that he was going to become a United Methodist pastor, his mother and father rejected him and hadn’t spoken to him since. They had not even met their grandchildren.
That passage, he said, reframed his whole life. He told me that he does have a family. He does have brothers and sisters.
He had experienced the complete rejection of his family because of his faith — and yet he endured that and grew stronger in character and integrity as the Holy Spirit worked in his life to remind him constantly that he is a child of God.
I had always had difficulty with this passage because it seemed that Jesus was rejecting his family. But, look at it from the point of view of someone whose family has rejected them and it takes on a whole other meaning. No matter who you are, you have a family. Those who do the will of God are the brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers. You can always, always be a part of that family.
There is a lot of theology woven in to hymns. To enhance today’s reading, I recommend listening to “Where Charity and Love Prevail”. I hope you will take a few moments to let the words of this message and the emotion that always connects us to music connect with your soul. Listen to this hymn on SoundCloud.
Thank you for sharing this early moment of your day with me, with God, and with the words and music that I hope you will carry with you throughout the coming day and night.
I am so grateful for you, for our church, and for the Love that will see us all through this very difficult time. Please stay safe and well and we’ll be together again in spirit tomorrow morning!
Grace and Peace,
Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor
Here’s more about this passage of scripture via Upper Room devotionals:
FAMILY TIME
Spending time with my spiritual family renews my faith.
“Where Charity and Love Prevail,”
Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.
With grateful joy and holy fear
God’s charity we learn;
Let us with heart and mind and soul
now love God in return.
Forgive we now each other’s faults
as we our faults confess;
And let us love each other well
in Christian holiness.
Let strife among us be unknown,
let all contention cease;
Be God’s the glory that we seek,
be ours God’s holy peace.
Let us recall that in our midst
dwells God’s begotten Son;
As members of his body joined,
we are in Christ made one.
No race or creed can love exclude,
if honored be God’s name;
Our family embraces all
whose Father is the same.
