Cracks in the House

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A few weeks ago my family found a new movie to be over and over and over and over again. It’s a movie that also just won an Oscar. It’s called Encanto. (If you haven’t watched it, and still want to, be warned: I’m going to be spoiling a fair bit of the movie.) The movie is about a Latino family who had been saved from certain death in war by a miracle that created a safe place for them to live and an enchanted house to live in. When the children of the family, and their children after them, reach about 10-12 years old they are given a special gift, from super strength to the ability to talk to animals. All except one particular grandchild called Mirabel. She is the only one among the children and grandchildren to not receive a gift. This puts her on the outside of the family from the outset, an outcast even as she dwells within this enchanted house. And this begins to cause problems. The house cracks and the magic that sustains the special gifts of the family falters. The matriarch of the family speaks a lot about doing what is best for the family, but this often entails actions that minimize and marginalize Mirabel within the family and household. This causes more tension within the family, and more cracks in the enchanted house until it finally breaks apart and the special gifts disappear. It is revealed that the matriarch of the family had actually confused the gifts with the miracle. That it was the gifts that were the most important thing, not the miracle of a family saved from death & housed in safety, security, and plenty.

[W]e are a people who have been saved from certain death in our sins by the miracle worked by God in the incarnation of His Son and His life, death, and resurrection.

As I was watching this movie I was struck by a parallel between Encanto and the church. We often describe the church as a family, we call the people gathered here our “church family.” And rightly so, we are a people who have been saved from certain death in our sins by the miracle worked by God in the incarnation of His Son and His life, death, and resurrection. In this miracle, we receive the forgiveness of our sins, the rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life in Christ in safety, security, and plenty. God applies this miracle to us through the means of His Word and sacraments. By the miracle that He works for us, we are united as His family in His church.

Yet we, like the matriarch of Encanto, can easily confuse the miracle for the gifts. We have been given great gifts as God’s chosen priesthood to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvellous light. In the common cause, we have great gifts from the house of worship that committed Christians helped construct, to funds that devoted stewards have given to talents Baptized children of God use for our life together. And we can confuse, and hold tightly to the gifts, rather than the miracle and may take a less than generous view toward those that we might see to be as not having a gift, or not the gifts that we find worthwhile. We might not mean to, but we can end up marginalizing or minimizing those that we don’t think fit into the family, or don’t have the gifts that fit into the family. This causes cracks in the house. It’s a tense moment when we see the cracks spiderweb throughout the magical house in Encanto. This house is portrayed as being alive, and we can almost feel its pain as walls crack to pieces, and then finally crumble. It is no less painful for the church. We might not see the cracks, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t there. Cracking & spiderwebbing through the drywall, bricks, mortar, and stained glass. If left unchecked, they’ll cause the whole thing to come crashing down.

In Him, the cracks are healed. In Him, the family holds together. In Him, the Holy Spirit brings forth the gifts that He wills for the good of our brothers & sisters.

So how does it get fixed? How do the cracks heal? By refocusing on the miracle. The gifts are good, they’re great, but the reason they’re here is the miracle–that God was at work in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. That we have been brought into the family, not because of the gifts that we bring to the table, but because we were under the threat of eternal death in our sin and Jesus swooped down for us and felt that eternal death for us. He died the death of the sinner. He shed His blood to save you & me from death in hell and give us new life in Him here & now and in the life to come. We are a family because of the miracle that God has worked in Christ and applied to us in the water of Baptism and in the hearing and preaching of His Word. He has fed us with the miracle of His life at His family table as we join together for His Supper. In Him, the cracks are healed. In Him, the family holds together. In Him, the Holy Spirit brings forth the gifts that He wills for the good of our brothers & sisters. In Him, we no longer regard one another according to the flesh, but according to Christ and the miracle that He has worked for each & every one of us. In Him, we’re a family. From the least to the greatest, according to the flesh, all one in Christ united by one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Tim Schneider