All In The Family

INTRO.- It’s all in the family. You remember that old TV show with Archie Bunker and Edith.

All in the Family was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 1971 to April 1979. In September 1979, the show was retooled under the title, Archie Bunker’s Place. This version of the sitcom lasted another four years, finally ending its run in 1983. Here’s a few scenes.

[after returning from the bathroom]

Archie Bunker: Lemme tell ya, Edith, you can’t really *buy* beer... you can only rent it.

[after watching kids dance to Jesus Christ Superstar]

Archie Bunker: The Lord wants you to come to him on your knees, not wigglin’ and jigglin’ ’til your parts fall off.

Archie: Do you believe that guy making suppository remarks while I’m singing "God Bless America"?

Gloria: You just don’t want to be alone with the baby ’cause you’re afraid you might have to change him.

Archie: You think I never changed you, little girl?

Gloria: If I had waited for you to do that, I would’ve worn the same diaper since I was two. Ma told me that.

Archie: Don’t believe your mother, you believe me. Many is the time I changed you, little girl, and it wasn’t always wee-wee. Sometimes it was this here. [Holds up two fingers]

Gloria: Well I never promised you a rose garden.

Edith Bunker: We should take you to the doctor.

Archie Bunker: No, I’ve already had one attempted robbery today.

As you know, Carol O’Connor played the role of Archie Bunker. He married his wife Nancy in Dublin, Ireland (and she later converted to Roman Catholicism for him) in 1951, and their only child, adopted son Hugh O’Connor, committed suicide in 1995 after a long battle with drug addiction. Hugh left a widow and small child behind. O’Connor appeared in public service announcements for Partnership for a Drug Free America and spent the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction.

Well, it’s all in the family. What is? Life, for one thing. What’s life without family? It would be pretty miserable.

People who are true loners are also very lonely. We need one another. Everyone needs to be a part of a family. And most people start way whether they stay that way or not.

ILL.- A woman was at home doing some cleaning when the telephone rang. In going to answer it, she tripped on a scatter rug and, grabbing for something to hold onto, seized the telephone table. It fell over with a crash, jarring receiver off the hook. As it fell, it hit the family dog, who leaped up, howling and barking. The woman’s three-year-old son, startled by this noise, broke into loud screams. The woman mumbled some colorful words. She finally managed to pick up the receiver and lift it to her ear, just in time to hear her husband’s voice on the other end say, "Nobody’s said hello yet, but I’m positive I have the right number."

What do you think? That may well be how it is with many families. All families have their good days and their bad days.

And once the kids are grown it’s a different ball game, but don’t you miss them as little ones, running around the house? I sure do.

ILL.- Someone said, “As the home goes, so goes society and the nation.” And this may be true. No doubt, one of the best things that we can do is to build a godly home life!

PROP.- In our text, Paul speaks about three different family-type relationships:

1- Husbands and wives

2- Parents and children

3- Masters and servants

I. HUSBANDS AND WIVES – LOVE AND SUBMISSION

ILL.- Someone has suggested that the difference between the sexes is this: When a couple is supposed to go out somewhere, the woman’s first thought is, “What shall I wear?” And the man’s first thought is, “How can I get out of this?”

There is a definitely a different in the sexes in many areas or arenas of life. We think differently, we do differently, because we are different!

Col. 3:18-19 “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”

In the marriage, there should be mutual love and submission. Of course, everyone has their own idea of love and submission.

Someone has suggested there are four basic types of marriage:

- Love and submit (perhaps the ideal. Whose idea?)

- Hate and submit (this could be the Archie Bunker type)

- Hate and resist (the J.R. Ewing and Sue Ellen type marriage as seen on the old TV show “Dallas.”)

- Love and resist (you love one another but still resist one another)

We won’t get too serious about this marriage business, because if we do things could get serious at home!