Family

Acts Chapter 5: Ananias and Saphira

Read Acts 5:1-11

How do we make sense of this text?
How has it been taught to you before?

What We Mean When We Say “Family”

1. The central place of God’s relationship with the world is with all humanity, not through a particular relational structure.

2. Family is a gift to us. It has provided a (mostly) stable unit for development and security.

3. “The family (couple) has become one of the greatest tools to sustaining the realities of oppression, economic injustice, racism, sexism, and sexual violence by becoming a citadel of ultimate concern for people.”  (Willie James Jennings – in a commentary on the Book of Acts)

4. Family can become an idol in some expressions of Christian practice.

5. No relationships are unmediated. (a concept of Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Meaning that even our relationships with our kids, our parents, our spouse are to be expressions of God’s love between people, not expressions of some hierarchical order.

6. The emphasis on family in some churches has sometimes led to (inadvertent or otherwise) second class citizens in the body of Christ.

7. Overemphasizing the place and role of family has been used to shun people who don’t fit prevailing cultural models.

8. We should be grateful for, but not worship, the concept of family.