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Let us continue now in worship. As we consider the morning lesson, Mark chapter 6, I begin reading at the verse numbered 1. Jesus went away from there and came to his own country, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue. And many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get all this? What is the

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wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." And he could do no mighty

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work there, except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It's instructive, I think, to notice how often Jesus talked about children. He talked about

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youngsters when they were hungry for bread or for fish. He talked about their moods when they played their games, sometimes up, sometimes down. He talked about disturbing a family at night after the children were in bed. When he was asked who was the greatest, he took a child and put that child in the midst of the disciples. He identified with children. He said, "Whosoever receives a

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child, receives me." He blessed the children. When the disciples tried to keep them away, he let them scramble up onto his lap and said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven." And when on Palm Sunday they cried out, "Hosanna, Hosanna!" The little ones did this, and Jesus said, "Out of the mouths of babes my Father has brought forth

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praise." Jesus talked a lot about children, and that shouldn't come as any particular surprise to us, because after all, he was the oldest son in a family with at least six brothers and sisters. We know the names of his brothers, James and Judas and Joseph and Simon, and we do not know the names of his sisters, but we know there were at least more than one. Joseph must have died early,

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because Jesus is referred to in Scripture as the son of Mary, and that was never done unless the father was deceased. So for the first 30 years of his life, until he began his ministry at age 30, Jesus was the oldest son in a family of at least eight. And of course, as the oldest son, he sometimes took care of the kids. Today I'd like to think with you about the sisters of Jesus. Focus

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our attention on this verse, which is our text for the morning. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" Think with me of the little sisters of Galilee. In the first place, their virtual invisibility speaks to us of the position that women commonly occupied in the first century.

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Notice that the boys are named in the passage, but the fact that they're sisters is almost added on as if it were an et cetera. And that was very typical in that day. If you look at the sermons, for example, which are addressed to people in the book of the Acts and in other parts of the New Testament, though they are addressed to mixed multitudes of people, they are always addressed

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to men. Men of Israel, men, brothers and fathers, ye men of Athens. You see, in the first century, the value of a woman was only measured in terms of her usefulness to a man. Women were not considered to be persons or individuals in their own right. The first century world was a man's world. And that's one of the things that makes Jesus Christ so remarkable. He was the great discoverer of

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women. He lifted them to the place of dignity which they deserve. Think how often he helped them. How he ministered to the widow of Nain. How he ministered to that woman who came to him in the house of Simon the Tanner. How he spoke to Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. How he healed the woman with the issue of blood, or the woman with the sick daughter, or how he took care

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of that woman who was caught in adultery and brought before him. And Jesus is the only teacher in all of the ancient world who is recorded as having a company of female as well as male disciples. In the gospel according to Luke, at chapter 8, it tells us that there was a group of women that followed him throughout all of his ministry and incidentally paid most of the

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expenses. And the names of some of these women are given. Mary Magdalene, Johanna, the wife of Chusa, Susanna. These people were disciples of his though women. Jesus you see broke completely with the tradition of the oriental world. Think how often women entered into his teaching. When he spoke about the end of the world he said two women would be working together. One would be

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taken, the other would not. When he spoke about God's love he talked about a woman looking for a lost coin. When he talked about the kingdom of God he talked about how a woman puts leaven into a lump of dough. When he talked about injustice he talked about how a judge cheated a woman. When he talked about stewardship he talked about a woman who put all that she had into the offering plate,

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even though it was only two mites. When he talked about the resurrection from the dead he gave that greatest sermon on the subject to Mary and to Martha. Jesus you see exalted women. I think that's one of the things that dismayed me so very much in Holy Week this year. Here we are at this week which is the the mountaintop experience for Christians and what story principally occupied

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the pages or the television screens or the radio waves of our city of Pittsburgh? It was a story about whether women could have their feet washed at a Maundy Thursday communion or not. And that really distressed me. To hear someone say that because there were no women at the Last Supper women could not have their feet washed here in in 1986, that's just as wise as to say because

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there were no Gentiles at the Last Supper so no Gentiles can have their feet washed here in 1986. It reminds me of that one-liner that someone thought up a while ago about how if God had wanted us to use the metric system he would have had 10 at the Last Supper and not 12. I mean Jesus was the one who lifted women. They were the first at his manger, they were the first at his tomb. In

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the early church we read about women like Priscilla and Lydia and in the medieval church we read about women like Teresa of Avila and St. Clair and those Abbas's that ruled great sections of land and ordained people and served communion, women in those positions of authority. And in the modern church we think about people like Dorothy Sayers and Lois Stair and Georgia Harkness. It's no wonder

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I think that the sensitive Christian woman is still ready to wash her Lord's feet with her tears and dry them with her hair. But the little sisters of Galilee, they came before all of this and we never hear anything about them. I wonder if sometimes they would run in and out of his workshop not because they had anything pressing to say but just because they wanted to be with

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him for a few minutes. Do you think he teased them like big brothers usually tease little sisters? And when they would come with broken toys he would no doubt fix them and then send them out again laughing with girlish glee. The little sisters of Galilee. The second thing that I think about these sisters is that well I wish it were so and I think it is so that there is within the

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heart of every woman something that is sisterly. Giber was a noted prelate in England in about the year 1000. He was the abbot of a place called Nogent. He was a great scholar and devoted himself to the study of the scriptures and wrote many commentaries on the scriptures and one of his commentaries was on the book of Genesis and in that commentary he says that he believes that

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all women have four hearts. The heart of a child, the heart of a bride, the heart of a sister, and the heart of a mother. Now he didn't mean that all women were all of these things but what he was saying was that all women have within them all of these capacities and he further argued that it was only when a woman had experienced all of these things that she came to her greatest nobility.

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Now I think we're too liberated today to agree with all that Giber is suggesting but I like the thought that there's a bit of the sister in the heart of every noble woman. It is no accident, you know, that in the Protestant Church as well as in the Roman Catholic Church and that in many countries in the world where there are hospitals and orphanages, women who give themselves to the

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service of others are regularly called sisters. I mean it is a great thing to have a sister. I envy people who have sisters. Someone who stands beside you always. There's a certain saneness, there's a staunchness in the love of a sister or at least they're supposed to be. I've often thought to myself that I probably would be married if I would had a sister. I would certainly know a

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great deal more about the feminine mystique than I know at the moment. There are great sisters mentioned in Scripture. Think about Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. She's the first woman that we meet in the Bible who worked outside the home and who was single. She gave herself totally to the service of her brothers. Now there is one dark incident in her life, one shadowed period of

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jealousy, but that was only a small incident when matched against the entire course of her days. She was a woman who gave herself lovingly and sacrificially to the service of her brothers. Or think of Mary and Martha in the New Testament. It was because of their importunity, it was because of their seeking Jesus and pressing him that he brought their brother Lazarus back from death to

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life again. And think too of how they made for Jesus a home where he could go for rest and refreshment even amidst the pressures of the last week of his earthly life. To be a sister is to be one who wishes to pour the warmth of one's soul into the chilliness of the world. And I think you find that in great women. They're gentle, they're modest, sometimes they're very silent, but there

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is about them this strength and sharing. I think the most remarkable example of this that I know is the family of Patrick. Patrick was the vicar of a small church in England and his wife presented him with three daughters and a son and then she died. And he was burdened with raising the four children alone. Now the young son, his name was Branwell, early showed some artistic ability. And

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so the whole family focused on bringing Branwell to full flower. His sisters worked and everything that they made they saved to put toward the education of Branwell. And eventually they had enough money to send Branwell to the Royal Academy of Arts. But he flunked out in a very few weeks and came back broke. Well that did not discourage them, this had simply been the wrong trail. And

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so these sisters again with their father did everything that they could to serve Branwell. And they waited on him hand and foot and they supplied him with every need that he had and they found him a job as a tutor in a titled family. But in one week's time he lost the job and returned to failure. Eventually he gave himself to alcohol and after that he fell to

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the level of opium. His whole life was a failure. No one today remembers any picture painted by Branwell or any words that were ever written or uttered by him. All of his life he was served by his three sisters. And those three sisters at night when all of their chores were done would go to their own rooms and there at plain tables with a candle and a pen each one of them sat and

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wrote. And what they wrote. His sister Anne wrote Agnes Grey. His sister Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. And his sister Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre. They were the Bronte sisters. Now when you think of that story there are very hideous chauvinistic overtones in it that these women should so sacrifice for this worthless brother. But at the same time there is in this an illustration of the

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magnificent sisterliness that dwells in the hearts of some women. In most families when mother is ill who takes care of the family? It's sister. When parents become older and need someone younger to tend to them there are exceptions to this I know but most often it's sister who does that. So this morning I want to very publicly salute sisterliness in the hearts of good women. And

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I'm led to think of this by these little sisters of Galilee. But I want to share one last reflection and this brings our meditating upon these little ones to a sad and a shadowed conclusion. You see there's no evidence that any of Jesus' sisters ever became his disciple. There's no doubt that he was a superb brother. But there is no suggestion at all that any of these sisters ever became a

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disciple of his. That's really quite astonishing. They were not beside him at the cross. They were not beside him at the tomb. They were not beside him at the time of resurrection. And you know why I think that is so? I think it's probably so because they were so close to him in family life. You know it's possible to be so familiar with something you don't take it seriously. There are

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people who live in Pittsburgh who have never been in an incline, have never been inside Heinz Chapel, have never heard our magnificent orchestra or our wonderful opera company or seen our superb ballet troupe. There are people who live in the mountains who never lift up their eyes to the hills. So I would suggest he came unto his own and his own received him not simply because he was so familiar.

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It is possible you see to be so intimate with holy things, so involved with Christian people, so caught up in hearing the truths of the gospel, that one never really gives oneself to the Jesus who is the gospel. I had a call not long ago from a young man who was graduated from seminary three years ago and he made the mistake of accepting a call to become the pastor of the small church in

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which he had been reared as a boy. He called to tell me that he now knew the meaning of the phrase "familiarity breeds contempt." The fact of the matter is everyone in the church thinks of him still as that little boy who used to be running around the sanctuary. They expect him to make his decisions on the basis of old and long-standing friendships and not as what is best for the

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church. It is possible you see to be so familiar with the church, to be so tied into its doctrine, to attend its Sunday school classes so regularly, to know its ritual and routine so perfectly, that one never lifts one's eyes above these things to the Lord who is at the center of them. David Powell wrote a book a few years ago called "Anti-Religious Propaganda in the Soviet Union,"

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and he talks in this book about how the Communists are seeking to win Christians from the church to Communism. And one of the devices that they use is to establish celebrations which parallel Christian celebrations. For example, Christians have baptism, so the Communists have what they call the "Day of Family Happiness," when the child is brought

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to the municipal center of the town, and there the child has a little medal pinned on it, and there the parents take vows to raise the child so that he or she will contribute always to the good of the state. In the Christian church, there's confirmation when a youngster becomes a member of the church. In the Soviet Union, they have what is called the "Presentation

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of the Passport," and the youngsters, having learned various things, are questioned on them, with the family standing beside, glowing with pride, and then when the child passes, he or she is given a passport, and with that, responsible citizenship in the Soviet Union, and they must work always for the good of the state. There are even wedding palaces

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in the Soviet Union, where the bride, they dress in white just like our brides do, meets the groom, usually in a business suit, and there, before a large picture of Lenin, the two are married, and then, after they have promised themselves to each other, and also to Mother Russia, if they live anywhere near Moscow, they are expected to go to the tomb

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of Lenin, and there the bride leaves their flowers as a tribute to him. And I stood one day, just across from that tomb, in front of the GUM department store there in Moscow, and in one hour's time, saw thirty-one brides come and do exactly that. The idea, you see, is to substitute a secular ceremony for a sacred one. And this, they say, will bring

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Christians out of the church. I don't believe that. Because, you see, a real Christian understands that ceremonies are not the essence of believing. Faith is more than a ritual, faith is more than a tradition, faith is more than a kind of religious rigmarole, faith is personal. Faith is opening one's heart, it is surrendering oneself to a sovereignty that is greater than

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one has ever known before. It is... well, it's what the Little Sisters of Galilee evidently never did. They were so close to him, you see, so casual about him, you see, that they never recognized him as Lord. So near, and yet so far. Sometimes at night, when I leave this building, very, very late, as I walk down the front

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steps, I encounter a crowd of people. I cannot see their faces, I cannot hear their voices. Other people who are walking by, I don't think notice them at all. But I see them standing there, outside our doors. They're the shades, the ghosts, the unsettled spirits of people who may have been here once, or who may have been here many times, and who made the mistake

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out of their experience, great or small, though it was, of believing that the essence of Christianity is doctrine, a profession of faith. Or they made the mistake, for one reason or another, of believing that the essence of Christianity is ritual, procession. When all the time I was in the church, they were being obstructed by these familiar things, and kept from what

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Christianity really is. Not profession, and not procession, but possession. The essence of faith is to be possessed by Jesus Christ. And they do not know. And they do not know what that is, or what that means. It's strange, when you go to see the Parthenon in Greece, you pass on the Acropolis through

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a magnificent gateway called the Propylaia, and it's just as superb as the Parthenon that stands behind it. It always reminds me of how the gates to places often speak of what is beyond them, and because heaven is beyond life for Christians, the gate of faith is a very beautiful gate. And it was opened, of course, at great cost. It was opened by

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Christ upon the cross, and when he opened that gate, angels stopped their singing and stared, and all of nature groaned, and the sun hid its face before the hideousness of what happened on Calvary. But Jesus opened that gate. Why then is it that people choose to come to God by other ways? You know, some think the gate will always be open. They're

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quite wrong. It is open now, but it will not be open always. Don't you remember how Jesus said that he will come again, and when he comes again, people will cry out, "The bridegroom comes, and the gate will be shut." While there is life, there is hope. But there will come a time when there is no hope. We say that prayer is the strongest weapon anyone has,

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and that is true. But my friends, before God, I say to you this morning that not even prayer will open the gate when it is closed. Don't you remember how Jesus said they will cry out, "Lord, Lord," and the doors will not be opened. Do not be obstructed by the familiar. Instead, allow yourselves to be claimed by Jesus Christ. Please, I entreat you, do not

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make the mistake of those sad little sisters from Galilee. Let us pray. So we stand and we sing and we pray and we listen and we hear and we see and we laugh and we greet and we part. And who is to say that we will ever be together again so? Oh Lord, deliver us from the familiarity of worship. Deliver us from things as usual. By thy Spirit,

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enter into the hearts of any who have not yet surrendered to thee as Lord and Savior. Claim these this day, that this day might become for them the beginning of life eternal. We pray our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. [music]