Episode 180: Sibling Rivalries and Reversals, Part 9--Church as Found Family

As messy, conflicted, and complicated as families can somtimes be (as we've seen for sure over the course of this series!), the thing about family is that your belonging in it is entirely by grace.  You can't earn your family, merit your place in it, or decide to keep someone else out because of their bad behavior--in a sense, in a family, we are all blessedly "stuck" with each other.  And it turns out to be a really important thing that the early church didn't run away from that idea, but in fact delved into the metaphor of being a sort of "found family"--the people you choose to surround yourself with as family, even if you don't share biology.  And in doing so, the early community of Jesus' followers discovered a framework for sticking with each other through hurts and failures and disagreements, and they also found a way of expanding beyond a single nationality, ethnicity, culture, or language.  As they conclude their series on sibling rivalries and reversals in the Bible, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore the ways the first disciples acted like squabbling siblings, but also how that became a picture of grace that gives us hope all these centuries later.  Check out this important conversation