Adoption and Inheritance
My brother, Ken, and his wife, Susie, married late. Both of them were in their late thirties. But the one thing they knew they both wanted was a child. They tried for many years to have a child, without any success. When it became obvious that it would not happen without some medical intervention, they then tried every option that was open. They charted biological cycles. They measured temperatures… daily… and then several times a day. They used fertility drugs. And finally, they tried in vitro fertilization… not once, but several times. Each time that they tried something… they waited… then they tested… and nothing. Nothing worked.
I can remember visiting them during one of their high fertility times and asking them what it was like for two people who were in love with each other to have their intimate life regulated to such a degree that nothing was spontaneous… to have an intimacy was ordered by the calendar … or the clock… or the thermometer. As someone who had gotten pregnant much sooner than either my husband or I had planned… totally unexpectedly, in fact… I did not understand the longing for a child that they had… and the extent to which they were willing to go to make that longing a reality.
Ken and Susie both loved children. They had cared for my child… for Julian … during the summer months when I… then a newly-divorced single parent of a toddler… was working. In fact, for several years, they took Julian to their cabin in Minnesota every August, where he learned to swim… to fish…and to identify loons. I have photographs of those happy days… photographs of Julian splashing in the lake… while I was working in the Loop in Chicago.
One summer, they wrote to say that things were changing. They had applied to be foster parents and the State of Illinois was giving them two girls… sisters…aged 2 and 3… to care for because their mother was not able to care for them adequately. Sixteen years ago, Chrissy and Sara arrived at my brother’s home… scared… scarred… and hungry for love. Chrissy was a delicate beauty with creamy brown skin and curly black hair. Sara was a compact dynamo with straight, glossy black hair and huge eyes. It didn’t take long for all of us to fall in love them.
Chrissy and Sara settled into a routine in their new home. Ken and Susie were in heaven and doted on the girls. The love was mutual. But there was one thing that hung over everyone’s head… the thought that, at any time, the girls’ mother could regain custody of the two girls …and, at the whim of a judge… they could both disappear from Ken and Susie’s life forever. For several years, Ken and Susie lived with that uncertainty … each year, growing to love the children more…each year, wanting a child of their own. Finally, they started adoption proceedings and, after many long months, Ken and Susie adopted Chrissy and Sara, with the consent of the State of Illinois and the girls’ mother.
This past spring, Chris finished her first year of college in Minnesota, while Sara graduated from high school in Illinois. Somehow, it seems like they have been part of the Bryant family forever. Certainly, no one ever talks about the adoption any more, but what a difference it has made… not only to Chrissy and Sara and their lives, but also to ours. We have changed them… and they have changed us.
The Apostle Paul says that we who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God… for we have received a spirit of adoption. He says that 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! According to Paul, having received Christ, we are no longer of the flesh… but of the Spirit… with a whole new life and a whole new future. Just as Chrissy and Sara arrived at my brother’s home not knowing what the future would hold, so we each began our lives in Christ not knowing what our future would hold either… only knowing that it would be different from anything that we have every known. And that the One who was once a stranger to us would now be someone we could call “Father.”
Yes, we are children of God, but God is not a foster parent… caring for us temporarily until some family of the flesh can reclaim us and take us back into our old lives. God has adopted us. I have heard it said that children in ordinary families are children by “chance,” while children who are adopted are children by “choice.” God has adopted us. In an expression of unbelievable love, God chooses to be legally bound to us as a parent. And when we become God’s children, as Paul says in another one of his letters, the old life has gone and a new life has begun. For God has made us not only his children, but his heirs… and co-heirs with Christ, our brother… of all that is God’s. We are his… “legally, morally… and every which way.”
This gift of adoption, by the way, is a one-way street. Chrissy and Sara could not adopt my brother and sister-in-law as parents… even though they often said they wanted to do so. They did not have the legal authority to make that happen. Only Ken and Susie could take the initiative to make this decision and choose to adopt them as children. Isn’t that the way it is with God, as well? We can’t just go out there and grab God and force God to be our father. As the scripture tells us… “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven.” No, this adoption is a gift that God gives us through his Holy Spirit… the gift of adoption… of becoming children of God… with all the rights and privileges thereto appertaining. Only God can give this gift… and God gives it freely to those who believe.
But what does it mean for us to be children of God? As far as I can determine, it means three things. For one thing, it means that we will inherit. As children and heirs of God… and co-heirs with Christ…we have an inheritance that is ours. From the beginning, we have been promised this inheritance. And what is it that we have inherited? Part of that inheritance is the world in which we live. When God created the universe, God gave humankind dominion over everything that was created. This is part of our inheritance from God… and it is ours today.
I remember when Mom and Dad first retired from the mission field and came back to the United States to live. It was the first time that they had purchased a house… and the first time that they unpacked and saw all of the things that they had accumulated over forty years of living abroad. Since they were living near me in the Chicago area, I watched as they tried to determine where they should put all of these things in their new home. Five years later, they were ready to return to Thailand for the first of several short-term mission assignments. Rather than crate up everything again and put it back into storage, they spoke to their children about their things and who might inherit those things. We were all allowed to share which of their possessions had the greatest significance for us and, with that information to guide them, Mom and Dad gave each of us a portion of our inheritance… furniture… mementoes… books… and so on. For the past ten years, we have all been enjoying a part of our inheritance… and taking the full responsibility for its care.
In the same way, God has given us all of creation… to enjoy… and to care for… as part of our inheritance. Sometimes, I think we do a good job with that… and, sometimes, I think we don’t. How would you rate your own performance when it comes to the responsibility that we all share in caring for God’s creation?
We have also been promised eternal life with God as part of our inheritance. That part will come to all believers when we see God face-to-face.
But there is more. We have also been promised the kingdom of God and, depending upon which part of scripture you read, that kingdom will come… is coming… or has come to us. Actually, it was the birth of Christ more that 2000 years ago that ushered in the kingdom of God, but the work that was begun on that day continues today…and that work will not end until Christ returns in glory to claim his own. So, it is not an inheritance without strings attached… for we have been charged with the responsibility both of caring for God’s creation and continuing the work that Christ began… as his disciples in this world.
So, the second thing that it means to be children of God is that it means that there is work to be done… work in caring for all of God’s creation… and the work of establishing the kingdom of God here on earth…work that includes making disciples of all peoples… baptizing them… and teaching them all that Christ commanded us. It is more work than any of us can do alone. And yet, while the task is too large for any one person, we are not exempt from doing it. For, you see, with God, all things are possible. Jesus told his disciples that they were all to be his witnesses… in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. As Christ’s disciples today, we inherit that task. We, too, are called to be his witnesses… in Jerusalem (or, in our case, right here in Stephenville), in all Judea and Samaria (or, in our case, in the rest of the United States), and to the ends of the earth. So, you see, there is work to be done… work that we have inherited as children of God... as brothers and sisters of Christ.
I remember the early years when Chrissy and Sara first lived with my brother and sister-in-law. Ken’s letters were full of stories of their adjustment to this new life. There were many verbal battles and much crying as these little girls adapted to living in a new house with new rules. Coming from an environment where they had often been neglected, they were not used to having rules or regulating their own behavior. Sometimes, it took a battle royal to communicate the idea that a new home meant new and different behavior. And there were chores to be done… responsibilities that changed over time as these girls grew and matured into the lovely young ladies they are today. Each person in the household was responsible for different things… from making their own bed and picking up their clothes to helping with meals and caring for the yard. For the household to function smoothly, each person had to do their chores. Oh, did those girls love to test those boundaries… again… and again… and again… and again.
Is it any different with us when we become children of God? Don’t we also have a difficult time understanding that life in the Spirit is different from life in the flesh… that different rules apply… that different patterns of behavior are appropriate… that there is work that needs to be done? Don’t we also sometimes kick and scream and threaten to run away… to run back to the life we once knew… the life we were comfortable in before? Don’t we, like Jonah, often run the other way when we hear God call? Don’t we also use all kinds of delaying tactics… just like children… when God calls us to do something?
Yes, there are different rules in the house of the Lord than there are in whatever house we have been spending time in before… and yet, we are not slaves. God has made that clear. In our text today, Paul says that we did not receive a spirit of slavery… to fall back into fear. God does not put us into bondage... no, instead, through Christ’s death and resurrection, God frees us from bondage… and then adopts us as His children. Just as those who were slaves in biblical times could be set free through adoption, we are not slaves… but free persons who have been adopted by God… brothers and sisters of Christ… and co-heirs with him.
So, as children of God, we inherit all the bounty of God’s creation and God’s kingdom. We also inherit the work that still needs to be done in order to establish God’s kingdom on this earth. But there is one more thing. As children of God, we can also claim all of the promises of God for ourselves… promises that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples. We can claim God’s promise to be with us always. We can claim God’s promise that we can ask anything in the name of Jesus and it will be given to us. We can claim God’s promise of an Advocate who will teach us all that we need to know… and give us power to do the work that needs to be done. Finally, we can claim God’s promise to love us and care for us always… knowing that we are God’s children and cherished beyond our comprehension. What more can we ask? It has already been given to us. What more can we do? All that Jesus commanded his disciples to do… to love one another… to be his witnesses… and to make disciples of all people, baptizing them and teaching them all that he commanded us. And claiming his promise to love us… and to be with us always… even to the end of the age. Have any children ever received so much? Amen.