For all who are led by the Spirit of God are
children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into
fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”
it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if,
in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I
consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with
the glory about to be revealed to us.
At one point in my young life . . .
while in junior high . . . there came a moment where all the right conditions
came together to create the perfect storm.
First of all, there was the movie, My
Side of the Mountain, which is about a young boy who runs away from home to
live on great-gandfather’s abandoned farm in the Catskill Mountains. He is tired of living with his family—his
parents and eight siblings—in a cramped New York City apartment. So off he goes to live on his own in the
wilderness . . . to have his own adventures.
And, what wonderful adventures he has as he makes his home in an old
hollowed-out tree while learning to survive and become independent.
The movie struck some cord on my
heart-strings. That was the first piece
of impending storm brewing within me.
The second was . . . and I think this probably happens to all of us at
some point when we are growing up . . . was the reality one day as I looked
around at my family—my parents, two brothers and sister—that there must have
been some terrible mistake. These were
not my people . . . these were not my parents . . . I didn’t have anything in
common with this strange and crazy people who were living in the same house as
me. There was no way that these people
could be my family . . . we weren’t the same.
And, as a young teenager, it was driving me crazy.
Then it dawned on me . . . I must have
been adopted.
Now, let’s all be honest with
ourselves. I think that we all had those
moments as children growing up in which we wondered whether or not we were
adopted.
Well, that was the piece of the
picture that collided with the first piece creating the perfect storm. I decided that I had to run away. Living at the time at the Air Force Academy,
in the foothills of the mountains, it made sense. I would sneak out in the middle of the night,
head for the mountains, find a hollowed-out tree, and begin my adventure
towards independence and freedom from a family I did not choose. I secretly saved what money I received,
stockpiled food in my backpack, and slowly created my plan for escape.
Of course it never happened. Sometimes, as children, we do not take into
consideration all the factors involved in decisions that we make. For example, it was the middle of winter when
I was making all of these plans. The
snow was up to my rear end on the ground . . . it was freezing cold . . . and,
the blanket sleeping bag I had made wouldn’t even keep me warm on a cool summer
day. I didn’t have enough food stored up
to get beyond the first teenage hunger attack . . . it would be gone in a
matter of minutes as I was a bottomless pit at that age. And, finding a hollowed-out tree in the pine
tree infested wilderness of Colorado . . . big enough for a person to live in .
. . in the middle of winter . . . seemed a little daunting.
So, I abandoned the dream and the
storm passed by. My parents showed me my
birth certificate to prove that I wasn’t adopted . . . showed me pictures of me
as an infant . . . and, assured me that I was their flesh and blood. And, then my father told me that I had to
deal with the cards that were dealt me . . . that is what families do. Crazy and strange as I thought those
individuals were, they were my family.
To be adopted is to be chosen by
another. In our minds we understand that
adoption is the choosing of a child to become a part of a family and to be
raised by that family as one of their own.
In adoption those who do the adopting are given all the legal and
parental responsibilities of raising that child. In the Apostle Paul’s time adoption was
different. The point of adoption had
nothing to do with the interest of the person being adopted; it had to do with
the interests of the person doing the adopting.
Adoption was a tool that strengthened political ties between wealthy
families and created male heirs to manage estates. It was also seen as a tool to ensure the
continuity of cultural and religious practices.
In other words, it was seen as a means of insuring the desires and needs
of the person doing the adopting.
In the New Revised Standard Version of the scripture, I read our passage
this morning. Unlike the earlier reading
of this passage from our pew Bible
which is from the New International
Version, this version uses the term “adoption” . . . “. . . but you have received a
spirit of adoption.” The Apostle
Paul is not talking about the form of adoption that you and me are familiar
with; no, he is talking about a form of adoption that is familiar to him. It is a form of adoption to benefit the one
doing the adopting . . . to strengthen and insure the goals of the family in
the world, and to create heirs who will manage the estate. In this case, it is to fulfil the will of
God.
I like the New Revised Standard Version much better than the version we use
each Sunday morning. I like it because
of that word . . . “adoption”. In this
passage the apostle is telling his readers and listeners that they are “chosen”
by God . . . intentionally chosen. God
wants them. God wants them for a
purpose. That purpose is to fulfil God’s
will in the world. It is to insure that
this new way of looking at faith . . . demonstrated by Jesus . . . is continued
and fulfilled. It is God’s desire that
the chosen step up and receive their what God has begun . . . to step up and be
the heirs that they are to the Kingdom of God.
If they fully receive this, then they too, will receive all that Jesus
has shown them.
This is Paul’s understanding of what
it means to be adopted. We are chosen to
become a part of God’s family for the purpose of insuring God’s will as
demonstrated by Jesus. We are chosen to
work towards that Kingdom revealed by Jesus.
And, though it seems to be a cold and calculated relationship in these
terms, the apostle tells us that it is actually a more intimate and intense
relationship that goes beyond the formalities of adoption. It is a relationship that is tied with the
strings of the heart. We do not enter
into this relationship calling our parent the formal “Father”; no, we enter
into it with the more intimate and relational term of “Abba” . . . or what we
Westerners like to think of as “Daddy!”
Abba is a term of endearment acknowledging an intimacy that go far
beyond the formality of a legal arrangement.
And, so . . . we are adopted . . . we
are chosen by God to be the children, the sons and daughters of the Holy. We are chosen to be the inheritors of the
Kingdom to ensure that God’s will is fulfilled.
In this we find that we are desired and wanted . . . that we are
necessary and needed . . . that we are God’s.
How do we know we are adopted?
That we are God’s? The apostle
tells us it is by the presence of the Spirit in our lives. In adoption God places the Spirit into our
lives.
Paul said, “For all who are led by the
Spirit of God are the children of God . . . it is that very Spirit bearing
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ .”
On this Pentecost Sunday we celebrate
this gift of the Spirit . . . we rejoice in our “adoption”. We acknowledge our “mark” of family. This is truly a graceful and loving gift that
has been given to us; yet, it is also a gift with expectations and
responsibilities. We are to fulfil the
will of God . . . to establish God’s kingdom in this time and place . . . to
pass it on to future generations. Jesus
has shown us the way.
We are adopted.
Deep down, I always knew it. Even way back when I was a kid in junior
high, I had an inkling that I was adopted.
That I was a part of another family, a bigger family . . . but, never
did I imagine that it was a “holy”—a “spiritual”—family. Only years of traveling with Jesus in the
journey of life have I come to realize this family that I have been adopted into.
It is the same for all of us . . . we
have all been marked by the Spirit . . . called upon to wear the family crest .
. . called upon to take our rightful places in the family . . . called upon to
fulfil the family name and purpose. We
are God’s, and because we are God’s we are called to a higher calling and
purpose. Let us celebrate this day of
adoption and embrace our place in the family of God. Amen.
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