“Comfort, comfort my
people, says the Lord. Speak tenderly to
Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended and her iniquity is
pardoned and that she has received
double from the Lord’s
gracious hand.” Isaiah 40:1-2
“There’s Trouble at Home!”
Some
look back at some “Golden age” of marriage and the family (usually one they
didn’t live in – or “remember” with very filtered minds!). Truth is, Ward and Joan Clever were a
mythical creation of Hollywood writers (complete with her pearls and high heals
cleaning the house). BUT, no doubt,
things are not so golden. Roughly half
of all marriages end in legal divorce – and a whole lot more all but legally
end. And of course, many “marriages”
today aren’t legal marriages at all and so don’t show up in the statistic; one
estimate is that 80% of persons who “live together” with some permanence
(whether legally married or not) “terminate.”
And RARELY is it nice or pretty.
And there’s usually a long (and ugly) “history” leading up to it.
Sometimes
it’s just as ugly for those that STAY together; it just may last longer.
God
intended marriage to be a union, a blessing, a partnership through the joys and
struggles and journey of life. We can
make it almost everything BUT what God intended. For many families, it’s not a blessing. It’s a curse.
One they may avoid (emotionally if not literally), perhaps loosing
themselves in work or kids or…..
Most
first-born children are at least born out of wedlock (if not conceived so); in
some sub cultures in America, it is RARE that kids know who their father is –
not that they know him, but that they even can know his name. In some families, kids and parents are at
war, and the kids are winning. It’s not
unusual for parents to feel the only solution is to give up and the kids run
free. Parents may have embraced that
little baby as a precious gift of God!
But they may soon regard that child as a curse. Home life can be the worse part of life….
- How
have you seen this among your friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers?
- Do
you think it’s worse than before?
Why/why not?
- What
pressures does all this create on the family? Community?
- Do
you think God cares?
- How
have YOU tried to be a source of courage, comfort? Hope and help? How did that go?
Read John 2:1-11
St. John (by divine inspiration) probably tells this
account – here very early in his Gospel – to get to his point that “Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
It is His first recorded miracle.
But there’s something else going on here, too.
- What
is the family occasion?
- Why
do you think Jesus, Mary and the disciples are there?
- There’s
a crisis! What is it? In the great scope of things, does it
seem hugely important?
- Why
do you think Mary gets involve?
What does she feel about Jesus’ concern even without asking him
(remember: he have never before done a miracle)?
- What
did Jesus do? Why?
- What
was the response?
- What
does this tell you about Jesus and our family issues? Does the issue need to be HUGE to him or
just to you?
- MARY
was the first to intervene, what does that say about you and me?
- Jesus
was made a part of the family for this; what does that say about our
marriages and families?
For struggling marriages and families, what “comfort and
courage” “ help and hope” are found in the following:
Mary’s
counsel in John 2:5 _____________________________________________________
Paul’s
counsel in Ephesians 5:21 ________________________________________________
Philippians
2:1-11 ____________________________________________________________
Galatians
5:22-23 ____________________________________________________________
Ephesians
5:31 ______________________________________________________________
Ephesians
6:1-4 _____________________________________________________________
Matthew
6:33 _______________________________________________________________
For
parents with a child (or children) who “blew it,” Genesis 3:11-13
_____________________
Romans
8:31-39 _____________________________________________________________
And
of course, all those Scripture PROMISES we looked at last week about
forgiveness – received and extended!
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