Modern views about family are captured incisively by sit-com writers as
they exaggerate, lampoon and lament the way generations relate to one
another. The current batch of shows stereotype Baby Boomers as empty
nesters, Gen X as families coping with growing children, disobedience
and divorce, while Gen Y are looking for love.
One of the things I appreciate about sit-coms is that they tend to value families, and though the family is often a source of tension, they are usually also a source of strength and comfort to the characters in the shows.
What these shows distort is the idea that happiness is only found in love and procreation. The success of shows like 'Friends' (showing my age, I know - perhaps 'How I Met Your Mother' is a more recent incarnation) came from the creation of a new 'family' by friends sharing life together, with all its joys and struggles. While sexual tension was ever-present, the overall message of the show was that friends can form close-knit, loving, supportive communities in the way that biological families do.
For us as Christians, God creates a new family in the church, one no longer defined by biology alone, a bit like the characters in 'Friends'. In Christ we become part of a new family, a larger family, in which all members of the church are our brothers and sisters regardless of their age. And in this new family, love for one another is not restricted to the biological family unit; instead God's people ought to extend the same grace, generosity and care to all members of the family, regardless of family of origin or marital status (likewise age, gender or ethnicity). The church, when understood correctly, will feel like a real family to all.
12 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
One of the things I appreciate about sit-coms is that they tend to value families, and though the family is often a source of tension, they are usually also a source of strength and comfort to the characters in the shows.
What these shows distort is the idea that happiness is only found in love and procreation. The success of shows like 'Friends' (showing my age, I know - perhaps 'How I Met Your Mother' is a more recent incarnation) came from the creation of a new 'family' by friends sharing life together, with all its joys and struggles. While sexual tension was ever-present, the overall message of the show was that friends can form close-knit, loving, supportive communities in the way that biological families do.
For us as Christians, God creates a new family in the church, one no longer defined by biology alone, a bit like the characters in 'Friends'. In Christ we become part of a new family, a larger family, in which all members of the church are our brothers and sisters regardless of their age. And in this new family, love for one another is not restricted to the biological family unit; instead God's people ought to extend the same grace, generosity and care to all members of the family, regardless of family of origin or marital status (likewise age, gender or ethnicity). The church, when understood correctly, will feel like a real family to all.
12 Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by
abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.
His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus
making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household... (Ephesians 2:12-19)
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