Becoming Children of God
Dr. Jim Wilson, June 20, 2010 In the neighborhood in which I grew up lived the Miller boys. There were three of them: Bill, Bob, and Chuck. Since there was only about five years difference in age between Bill and Chuck, there was a good deal of what psychologists call “sibling rivalry” in the Miller household---translated, that means the Miller boys fought most of the time, usually the two older boys against Chuck. I was just a couple of years younger than Chuck. Being even at an early age a person of justice, when the Miller boys began to fight, I jumped into the fray on the side of the one---which most always was Chuck. But then a strange thing would inevitably occur. As the battle progressed, I would find myself alone, pitted against all three Miller boys. One warm summer afternoon, Bob and Bill were weeding and watering the flowerbeds. Chuck was picking up the weeds. I was waiting for them to finish so we could play baseball. Suddenly, the water began to be sprayed and the mud balls began to fly. It was Bill and Bob against Chuck. Seeing Chuck in distress, I leaped to his defense. Then it happened once again. Within five minutes, I was attempting to stand off all three Miller boys. Fortunately Mrs. Miller intervened and called a halt to the battle. I trudged off for home, wet, mud-covered, and quite confused. I attempted to explain matters to my mother. She was not particularly impressed by my participation in the struggle for justice. When I told her about the strange occurrence---how I always seemed to find myself up against all three Miller boys, she said, “Blood is thicker than water.” I had no idea what she meant, but that somehow for her that phrase explained why my efforts to bring justice to the Miller family inevitably ended in failure. As I grew older, I began to understand what that phrase, “Blood is thicker than water,” meant. It meant that ultimate loyalties were given to your kind---your family, your race, your religion, your social status, and even your political party. You stand with those like you and against those who are different, not your kind. The world, even life itself, seemed divided in “us” and “them.” When I came to read the Scriptures, particularly the New Testament, I encountered a radically different notion, one that altered my worldview. Blood is not thicker than water, but on the contrary the opposite is true, “Water is thicker than blood.” The water referred to here is the water of baptism, water that has the power to create a whole new family. This is the Word Paul shares with us in our text for this morning. In the opening verses of our text, Paul concludes his rather lengthy argument maintaining that we are justified, that is, made right with God, by God’s grace received in by faith in Christ Jesus, and not by obedience to the Law. He reminds the Galatians and us that Abraham was made right with God because he believed God’s promise and not because he kept the requirements of the Law, which Paul adds came some 430 years later. Even more pointed, Paul argues that those who rely on works of the Law for justification are “under a curse.” His point is that if justification came by obedience to the Law that would demand perfect, flawless obedience to each and every aspect of the Law. And that is not possible! “Thanks be to God!” writes Paul, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse!” We are saved by God’s gracious gift in Christ Jesus. But Paul does not wish to throw the Law away. He maintains that there is still a role for the Law and offers an interesting image to describe that role. In the Greek world it was common for a family of means to have an old, trusted slave, referred to as the “paidagogos,” whose main function was to ensure that the sons in the family acquired the qualities essential for true manhood. The paidagogos was not himself a teacher but the one who made certain that the child got to school safely, delivering him to the teacher, and that the lessons were learned. He was an “enforcer” with the power to discipline the child when necessary. Such is the function of the Law, argues Paul. It is our paidagogos, leading us to Jesus, disciplining us when necessary. It cannot justify us, but it can take us to a position where we may enter the presence of Christ Jesus and receive the gift of justification. This is an important function. Now, Paul continues, when this grace is received in baptism, a transformation takes place. Not only is the baptized given a new identity as a daughter or son of God, but she or he enters into a life in a New Reality, one expressive of the new identity. Paul uses a “clothing” metaphor to capture the new meaning of this new identity. The baptized “put on Christ,” says Paul, as they would a new set of clothes---which, in fact, is exactly what was done as the newly baptized were clothed in a new white robe as they emerged from the waters---symbolic of their new identity. “To put on Christ” for Paul, is more than just taking a new name. It is to put on a new character---that of Christ Jesus---and to enter into a new life. The result of this identity transformation is life in a new world whose ordering principle is “oneness” in Christ Jesus, becoming sons and daughters of God. All the old discriminates used to distinguish people and to divide people are rendered irrelevant. As Paul concludes, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all are one in Christ Jesus.” Paul is not suggesting that these distinctions somehow cease to exist, that somehow the baptized ceased to be male or female, Jew or Greek. Rather he is saying that these distinctions are no longer the primary means by which the faithful are identified, no longer serve as the ultimate identifier of who the faithful are. The primary identifier of the faithful, those who have “put on Christ,” is as sons and daughters of God. The distinction between Jew and Gentile was at the center of the conflict among the Galatians. Paul, no doubt, had in mind the ancient Jewish prayer when he wrote these words. The prayer said, “O Creator of the Universe, I thank thee that thou has not made me a Gentile, a woman, or a slave.” In this New Reality created by God’s justifying grace, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male or female, all are one in Christ Jesus, all are children of the living God. This is the new identity and new world offered those who are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It has been said that this section of Paul’s letter is “thick” with meaning for our faith. I would agree. Here we stand before the essential claim of the Christian faith that we are made right with God not through our own efforts but by the gracious love of God offered in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the claim with which the Galatians struggled. It is the claim with which we continue to struggle as Pastor Cynthia pointed out so well last week. I want to turn our focus this morning to these two results we experience as a result of receiving this grace. The first is this new identity. When we receive God’s justifying grace in Christ Jesus, we are called to “put on Christ,” and receive what John Wesley called a “new birth,” made a son or daughter of God. In a very real sense we are adopted into a new family. When you think about it, you realize that you cannot become someone’s child by hard work or personal achievement. The only way to join a family is to be adopted. The family has to claim you as one of their own. A number of years ago, parishioners Tom and Mary adopted baby Sara from the Cradle in Evanston. When Sara went to kindergarten some older children teased her about being adopted, saying her parents didn’t really love her. She came home in tears. When she told her mother what had happened, Mary did a beautiful and true thing. She told Sara, “Sara, honey, you are so very special. You were chosen by mommy and daddy to be our little girl. Of all the children in the baby store, we could have chosen, we chose you, because we wanted you and no one else to be our daughter.” When Tom was informed what had happened in school he reinforced the story that Sara was special because she was chosen. Sara rejoiced in the news. She went to school the next day and announced that she was special because her mommy and daddy had chosen her. Now she became the envy of the class! Just so, you and I are chosen. The only way to become daughters and sons of God, beloved children, is to be adopted by the gracious love of God in Christ Jesus. That is what happened on that Friday afternoon long ago on Calvary’s hill. Jesus stretched out his arms and embraced us all, adopting those who would accept his claim on their lives. It is not easy to accept that claim. It is not hard to get your name on the membership role of the church. Adoption, however, is another matter. It means joining the family, accepting a new identity and living a new life. Our challenge is to accept our acceptance and the new identity it provides. It also means living in this New Realty where all the old ways of designating people and measuring their worth are overcome. There is no longer Protestant or Catholic, liberal or conservative, Anglo or Hispanic or Black or Asian, Republican or Democrat---these are the distinctions of the Old Reality; distinctions that have been washed away in the waters of baptism. “Wait just a minute, preacher,” you may be thinking, “That sounds good but that is not the way the world works.” I agree. I know this is not how it is. But we are called to live in a New Reality, a reality in which the ordering principle is the “oneness” we have in Christ Jesus. We are not to live as prisoners of the culture, simply affirming its values. We are called to live as children of God, sons and daughter of the One we have met in Jesus Christ. We live by a different set of expectations. This is Paul’s point. At a number of moments this past week at Annual Conference, I was troubled by what I sense was a turning away from our identity, an opting to capitulate to the values of the culture. A proposal was made to increase the pension benefit to widows of pastors. An idea worth considering, I thought, and not a major expense but an expression of care. What disappointed me was the nature of some of the opposition which was based on what corporations were or better were not doing with employee pensions. Are we not called to a different set of values? Another proposal called for the affirmation of the world-wide UMC, rather than various regional conferences. The resolution was not perfect by any means. Yet, again I was disturbed by arguments against it which largely said, “We in the US are so much more enlightened and so far ahead on important issues, that we do want to be distracted by the rest of the church.” Not only do I find that horribly arrogant but again I was forced to ask, “Are we not called to a oneness in Christ?” I believe this New Reality allows all of God’s people to encounter the fullness and the richness of our diversity in the midst of our oneness in Christ. As John Wesley called his people to live with a “Catholic spirit,” that is a spirit open to the wondrous and surprising work of the Spirit and not be divided by human opinions, we are called to live together in one family and learn from one another as children of the one God. We are God’s children, those who have been transformed by God’s grace and given a new identity and called to live in a New Reality. May we affirm our identity as sons and daughters of the One who comes us in Christ Jesus and live and witness to our oneness in him, this One we call Lord. After all, this world is still filled with Miller boys! Thanks be to God! Amen! |
