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27. It’s a Family Thing
- Baylor University Press
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Part V—North America 219 Third Test: Do You Love God? Jesus said in John 5:42-43, “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me.” How does Jesus know that they don’t love God? Because they don’t receive Jesus for who He really is, the Son of God. The Test Is Jesus In sum then, you can test yourself and others as to whether you know God, or honor God, or love God. And the test is Jesus. Any claim by a Jewish person or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Buddhist or a spiritualist or an animist or a Christian—any claim to know God or honor God or love God while not receiving Christ as the Son of God and the crucified risen Savior is a false claim. The measure of all true knowing God, honoring God, and loving God is knowing, honoring, and loving Jesus for who He really is. Therefore, Christian—whether Jew or Gentile—embrace your Scriptures . All of them. Both Old Testament and New Testament. Because in them you come to know God for who He really is, and that means coming to know Jesus. For all of them witness to Him and speak of Him. 27 It’s a Family Thing (Genesis 14:13-16) Jacqueline A. Thompson Oakland, California, United States BIOGRAPHY Jacqueline A. Thompson is the assistant pastor of the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland, California, the first woman to serve in this capacity in the ninety-four-year history of the pioneering congregation. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Howard University School of Divinity, where she earned a master of divinity. In June 2013, she was awarded the doctor of ministry degree in African American church leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary. During her time in Washington, D.C., she served as minister of youth at the Shiloh Baptist Church under the pastoral leadership of Wallace Charles Smith. Thompson also served as executive director of the Shiloh Family Life Center Foundation, where she raised over five million dollars in funding to support community outreach 220 Baptist Preaching programs. She travels extensively, having the privilege of preaching in many arenas previously uncharted by women. Her unique preaching style and sound biblical foundation have opened doors across denominational lines as well as in mainstream civic and political organizations. SERMON COMMENTARY Thompson’s sermon provides a compelling combination of personal narrative and biblical text. She so adroitly interweaves these that the distance between text and preacher, biblical revelation and human situation, disappears in the sermon. Thompson lays down a long runway before the text. The hearer stays on the front porch a good while before going into the house. Taken as a whole, the sermon calls for this. She uses the iconic American television show The Cosby Show as a significant crisis in the self-understanding of African Americans . The show also challenged the understanding that whites had of emerging middle-class African Americans. Yet Thompson shares the ambivalence that she and many urban families felt in the face of The Cosby Show. Her own situation in life with a strict single mother belied the lifestyle she saw in the show. Her response was to fantasize about having another family. This personal experience provides the groundwork for rumination on the significance of families. They provide identity, support, and safety; keep us from isolation; and equip us for life and learning. Most especially do they give a foundation for faith. Thompson considers faith formation as rooted in family experience more significant than any other social construct. After another glance at the Huxtables, she turns to the reality of dysfunctional families and moves to the text. The Abraham family walked in faith even in the midst of its own dysfunctions. She points out the irony that the dysfunction between Abraham and Lot began out of an abundance, not out of a lack. The goodness of life caused their cleavage, not a lack of good. This led Lot to settle unwittingly in a war zone. She ponders the goodness of staying together in the midst of family difficulties. Abraham demonstrated great grace toward Lot by intervening even in the face of Lot’s covetousness for the better place. In all of this, she weaves the text with personal experience. Holding the experience of her single mother in...