This is John 1, verses 12 and 13.

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God.

Children born not of natural descent, nor of human

decision or a husband's will, but born of God. This is the word of the Lord. You can be seated.

If it's your first time here, welcome.

This fall, we are studying through different metaphors in the New Testament to describe the church.

And the first week, we looked at the church as the flock.

So Jesus as the shepherd and us is the sheep.

And last week, Pastor John taught us through the church as the bride of Christ,

and we got to go down memory lane with him and see some old photos, which was really delightful.

And today, we turned to the metaphor of the church as the family or household of God.

Now, for some of us, we may have heard of this idea before, but we never truly understood

it. Maybe you've walked into a Catholic church, and you were soon introduced to Sister Joanne or

Brother Mark, and maybe you've walked into a Protestant church, and you just saw everybody talking about

brother and sister, and you may have wondered, like, are these two people actually related,

or is this just a term for everyone in the room? Or maybe you've encountered the idea

during the midst of political discourse, right, when a political pundit has referred to humanity

as all of God's children. Or maybe you've been told that the church is meant to function as a

family, but then you've

experienced more dysfunction in the church than you have in other social groups that you've

been a part of.

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