Quick Summary:

NOTES: This sermon was preached on a Sunday when new members were being received into our congregation.

There’s a certain logic in the pairings of these two texts today. Paul talking about how we bear the story of Jesus crucified and risen in the clay jars of our lives; and then Mark speaking of Jesus’ family—his brothers and sisters, and his mother.

Today, Jesus says something as provocative as any teaching that will come out of his mouth:
WHO ARE MY MOTHER AND BROTHERS? he asks.
Then, looking at the crowd: HERE ARE MY MOTHER AND MY BROTHERS!
WHOEVER DOES THE WILL OF GOD IS MY BROTHER AND SISTER AND MOTHER.

The KINGDOM of God, it turns out, is a KIN-DOM—a new kind of family, formed not by blood or class or ethnicity or any other orientation, but by a common desire to do the will of God. You and I are part of that KIN-DOM.