June 11, 2015
By Dr. Lani Wilson
Good Morning to all of our Allen Temple Prayer and Fasting Group!
As we pray for our church and the greater Body of Christ Jesus, let us pray that there are more young people who will continue to stand up for what is right with this country; like those who have been in the streets in #blacklivesmatter and now those in Texas who are protesting peacefully together about the wounds of racism in America. This gives us hope for the future when the present is past redux.
This week the word we might consider is more than curious; it’s mysterious. The word is “member.” Seems like a no-brainer, right? But, what is its deeper significance? It cannot be the obvious: We are members of the family of God; we are members of a church family; we are members of biological groups...members of a school class, members of racial or ethnic group, members of a club, members of a work group, members of sororities, fraternities, etc. And yet the question might remain, “Do we actually belong? To what? And why?” Why is it important to be a member of something?
It is interesting that Jesus never really talked about membership. The closest we get is in John 8:35.
35 A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.
John 8:35-36 (TMB)
35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free
John 8:35-36 (NLT)
It is interesting to see how American slavers turned this notion of slavery upside down (not that it was ever a good one, even in the Bible). In Biblical times slavery was a legal status, not a personal indictment. There was opportunity to be freed by religious law and regain one’s rights in a civil society. In America a slave embodied the subhuman status itself. And slaves were indeed permanent parts of the family, passed down like furniture from generation to generation.
Why would this passage, ostensibly about freedom, be one of only a few references in scripture to the word “member” when we search for Jesus’ comments? (lumina.bible.org; biblestudytoolsonline.com) Another passage that emerges is in Mathew 18 (biblestudytools.com) when Jesus comments on behavior in the Body of Christ.