Scriptures      Galatians 4:4-7   Luke 2:22-24, 39-40

 

First, Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul uses a metaphor – son and heir – that’s based on an ancient, patriarchal system of inheritance, because… well, because Paul lived in an ancient patriarchal society. This passage is actually mistranslated in the NRSV – the pew Bibles – and in Chuck’s wonderful rendition in his e-mail “This Sunday at Northside”: mistranslated in the interest of inclusive language. Now, you all know – I hope – that I’m a total supporter of inclusive language in the life of the church. So that’s not what I have a problem with. It’s... well, let me read a slightly more dated translation, the Revised Standard (not the New Revised Standard) Version:

 

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son ... in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

 

The problem with translating it as “children” rather than “sons” is that it blurs Paul’s point. Paul intentionally uses the same word – son – for Christ as he does for us, in order to make his point crystal clear: we are not just “children”, we’re God’s own children, as much as Christ is God’s own child.

 

The gender issue also shows up in the Luke passage. “As it is written in the law of the Lord, every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord.” What’s up with that? In this case, it dates back to an even more ancient patriarchy, Israelite society in the time of the book of Exodus. In chapter 13 God commands: “You shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your livestock that are males shall be the Lord’s.” That means that those firstborn male animals had to be sacrificed to God, that is, ritually slaughtered. Now, we know that child sacrifice was practiced in the ancient Near East, and we also know that the Israelites had long since abandoned the practice, substituting an animal for the firstborn son. Recall the story of Abraham and Isaac, way back in Genesis, where in the end, God specifically commands Abraham to not sacrifice his son Isaac, but to sacrifice a lamb instead. So the Law in Exodus continues, “Every firstborn male among your children you shall redeem.” What ‘redeem’ means here is ‘provide a substitute sacrifice’. So Mary and Joseph were simply following the religious rules of their time by bringing Jesus to the temple to dedicate him to God as the firstborn son. It’s not because God values boy children more highly; I suspect it’s because God knew that the people at that time valued boy children more highly, so dedicating a son to God meant more to people.

 

OK, that’s enough about gender. Like I said, it’s a pain in the you-know-what, but it’s kind of hard to avoid here.

 

Let’s look at the strands of son-ship in these passages – or we could think of them as strands of parenthood. Right? –it’s not the gender of the child that’s the point here; the point is that it is a parent-child relationship.

 

Here’s a very condensed summary of those strands, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, as well as from the Luke story:

 

First, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to us. Then Mary and Joseph gave their son, Jesus Christ, to God. Then God adopted all of us as sons – and daughters. And finally God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.

 

Let’s unpack those statements a little. Paul tells us that God sent his Son to redeem those who were under the law, in other words, God gave God’s self as the substitute offering. This is huge all by itself! Not only has God not required a literal sacrifice of children since the legendary time of Abraham and Isaac; now God is even removing the requirement for a symbolic, substitutionary sacrifice. That divine act was played out here in the physical world by the human act of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the temple. See, the firstborn have always belonged to God, because… –well, because God said so, long ago. You may not like that or agree with it, but God is God, so God gets to decide what belongs to God. And now God is relinquishing that claim of ownership. Huh? Why is God doing that?

 

Paul explains that to the Galatians, and to us, in the next sentence: so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters of God. That is, God doesn’t want ownership of us, as one might own slaves. God wants a parent-child relationship with us; God is adopting us. The people of Paul’s time totally got that metaphor. That’s how the civil law worked regarding human masters and slaves: the master could adopt a slave, giving the slave equal status with the master’s born children; but in the process, the master-slave relationship was dissolved.

 

So now we know why God redeemed God’s people: so that God could adopt them as sons and daughters. But then I want to ask, why did God want us as sons and daughters?

 

Not surprisingly, Paul is ready for this question, too: if we are God’s sons and daughters – God’s children – then we are God’s heirs. And as heirs, what God would have us inherit, is God’s… – Kingdom, in the metaphor of those ancient times, or Realm, we could say – but the point is, we are heirs to all that is God’s: we are heirs to God’s Peace and to God’s Justice, heirs to Truth and Grace, and to Love and… Life! Life eternal! Life abundant beyond our wildest imaginings! And why would God do this, make us heirs to all that? The only answer I know is because God loves us; whether we love God a little or a lot, God really, really deeply loves us that much. Now that’s Love.

 

Now, there is one other little issue that sometimes comes up when you talk about your children – whom you love – inheriting all that you have. Parents want to know, will these kids blow it all on a new Ferrari? Or will they be responsible with it?

 

Guess what? Paul addresses this concern, too. Remember?: “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.” That is how God ensures that we will be responsible, worthy… loving heirs of God’s Realm. God not only sends his Son – in other words, not only chooses to express love for us by being physically with us in the form of a man – God also sends the Spirit, sends the Spirit straight into our hearts. When I read those words, I can’t help but think of that beautiful verse in Jeremiah, where God says, “I will write [my law] on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Both passages are saying that the relationship is mutual, that God has ensured that our love for God is appropriate, is commensurate… that our love for God reciprocates God’s love for us. And that is how God knows to trust us with the inheritance. Like our trust in God, God’s trust in us is rooted in love.

 

And that, my brothers and sisters, is the amazing thing that Paul manages to condense into three sentences: where we were once God’s slaves – willing, obedient, loving slaves, but slaves nonetheless – God chose to change that relationship, to adopt us as sons and daughters, to make us heirs to all that God has to offer, and to base this new relationship on mutual love and trust. That was not our choice. It was God’s choice. Now that’s Grace.