Romans
8: 14-17 (NRSV)
If you spend time
where there are a lot of sheep, sooner or later you will see a little lamb
running around the field with what looks like an extra fleece tied on its back.
There are little holes in the fleece for its four legs and usually a hole for
its head. If you see a little lamb running around like that, that usually means
he or she is an orphan.
Without the
protection and nourishment of a mother, an orphaned lamb will die. If you try
to introduce the orphaned lamb to another mother, the new mother will butt it
away. She won’t recognize the lamb’s scent and will know the new baby is not
one of her own lambs.
But thankfully,
most flocks are large enough to have a ewe that recently lost a lamb. The
shepherd skins the dead lamb and makes its fleece into a covering for the
orphaned lamb. Then he takes the orphaned lamb to the mother whose baby just
died. Now, when she sniffs the orphaned lamb, she smells her own lamb. Instead
of butting the lamb away, she accepts it as one of her own.
This is also how we
become acceptable to God by being clothed with Christ.
Listen to our
scripture passage for today from Romans 8: 14-17:
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.
The Greek word for adoption in this text
“huiothesia” is the key to
understanding this passage. “Hu-i-o-thes-ia”
actually translates as “adoption as sons,” “son-ship,” or being given the
“full rights of sons.” It means being “placed as a son” to a person to whom it
does not naturally belong.
The person being adopted becomes no
different than any other child in that family – full rights/privledges and
responsibility in/of the family.
The contemporary definition of adopt
(Webster’s American Family Dictionary) means to “choose or take and use as
one’s own,” “to take (place) and rear (the child of others) as one’s own as a binding
financial and legal act.”
Numerous times during God’s early
relationship with the Jewish people he acts in ways that show his financial,
legal, and social relationships with them. This is demonstrated in most of the
613 commandments/laws common to Judaism and the history of the Jewish
existence. God was present among them many times as well.
This is the central core of God’s
choosing the Jews as his people. The failure of the Jews to maintain this
relationship is the most glaring fault of humanity throughout history.
I don’t think any group of people could
have ever been successful because of our sin and imperfection. Just as we
failed in Eden so too would the Jews fail.
Those people who believe in “Replacement
Theology” say that the gentile church “replaced” the Jews as God’s chosen
people and actually claim success in fulfilling a covenant with God in Jesus
Christ. Look around our world and society – how successful has the church been
about bringing about the Kingdom of God?
Do I have to list the failures?
Abortion, unwed mothers, addictions, sexual immorality, murders and violent
crimes, the belief in and teaching of evolution, the constant suppression of
even the idea that absolute truth exists, and so on display the failure of the
church to reach and change human nature.
Despite the increased call for unity in
our world we are more polarized than ever, for in the call to “coexist” the
road to hell has been paved. There is no joy in a call to unity that
requires God’s truth be thrown under the bus.
They say church and world unity will be
achieved by modifying God to be more politically correct, accommodating, and
accepting. Why God even believes in Global Warming, Gay Marriage, divestment in
Israel, and full Palestinian rights.
We failed in the Garden of Eden, we
failed as the Chosen people, and we are failing as the church. I can ask my 11
year old daughter playing Youth League Baseball what three strikes means and I
can tell you it is not very good.We (humanity) have struck out with God.
The good news is that God knew we’d need
help all along. So he’s always had us playing “tee ball.” God decided to help
us rig the game to win.
A family adopted a
twelve-year-old boy named Roger, whose parents had died from a drug overdose.
There was no one to care for Roger, so the father of the family of 5 decided
they would welcome him as their own.
At first it was
difficult for Roger to adjust to his new home. Several times a day, the parents had to say to Roger, “No, no. That’s
not how we behave in this family.” “No, no. You don’t have to scream or fight
or hurt other people to get what you want.” “No, no, Roger, we expect you to
show respect in this family.”
In time, Roger
began to change. Did he have to make those changes to be considered part of the
family? No. He was part of the family by the grace of the father. But did he
have to work hard because he was in the family? You bet he did. It was tough
for Roger to change, and he had to work at it. But he was motivated by
gratitude for the amazing love he had received.
We too discover a
lot of hard work to do when through the Holy Spirit we are adopted into God’s
family. But not in becoming a son or a daughter of the heavenly Father. No, we
make these changes because we are a son or daughter. And every time we
start to revert back to the old addictions to sin, the Holy Spirit says to us,
“No, no. That’s not how we act in this family.”
God has provided
us a way to be adopted into His family with the blessings, responsibilities,
and inheritance due such a position in God’s household requires.
But we have to
open ourselves and agree to the adoption and work at it. That’s the message
that Jesus presented to us during his life, His resurrection messages, and on
Pentecost Sunday. We, like the orphaned lamb needing a new skin, need to be
reborn into a new life to be acceptable to God.
God makes it easy
for us to hit the ball off the tee and not strike out. We don’t have to worry
about or guess what pitches are coming at us. God never changes the tee.
The great Yogi
Berra once said, “90% of the game is half mental.” Let’s stop worrying about
how we’re failing and concentrate more on how God’s helping us.
God has given us
the Grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and he’s put it right down the
middle at a speed that’s perfect for each of us. It’s our task to put this
grace into play. Amen.
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