One of the responsibilities of a pastor/theologian is to readthe sacred texts intentionally to discover what God was saying to those whorecorded their encounter with God and then to listen for what God is saying tothose who hear the story today.  I amfirm in my belief in the living Word of God. We are celebrating the Word became flesh and lived with us in the personof Jesus.  We are also reminded the Wordof God was in the beginning and the Word spoke everything into existence, andthe Word lives today speaking understanding into being.  The Word lives in the sacred writings, in thelife of Jesus, and in the Spirit that speaks to us today, and the Word willexist with God for eternity.  For me,this means the sacred writings are also alive and meant to bring us newunderstanding of God and to speak to us in new ways in each age and in eachsituation.  When we refuse to hear theWord of God in new ways, we have attempted to kill the Word and confine it to aprevious time and to a different people.  There is an interesting saying, I believe itis from a gospel song, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”  Implied in this catchy phrase is if we don’tbelieve it, God saying it isn’t enough to settle it.  We can be such arrogant creations.  I think it would be better phrased, “Ibelieve God said it and that settles it for me.”  We must each one struggle with what webelieve God has said to us and even when we are confident we know what God issaying, it only settles it for us individually.

All of this as lead in to how we understand what it means tobe a child of God.  We have three textsfor this week and each one has to do with children of God.  Jeremiah has the confusing declaration by Godthat God is the parent of Israel and Ephraim is God’s first born.  How can this be?  The problem comes from reading the passage asliteral.  Israel is the grandfather ofEphraim and God cannot be the Parent of Israel and Ephraim be the first bornchild of God.  God is speaking to thepeople of ancient Israel who would have understood this not in a literal sensebut in the sense of relationship.  Thenation of Israel has been dispersed and the tribes driven out of the PromisedLand.  Jeremiah is telling them not to despair,God gave birth to the people of Israel and God still loves them as a parentloves their child.  In ancient times, thefirst born son was particularly important to his parents, both mother andfather.  Producing a male heir was to assurethe survival of the family name and was seen as proof the mother had foundfavor with God.  The people wouldunderstand God was saying the people of Ephraim were important to God becausethey would assure the name of God would survive and others would learn of Godthrough them.  They were a sign of God’sblessing.  Ephraim being God’s first bornchild was all about the relationship between the people and God.

The reading from Ephesians tells us about being adopted intoGod’s family.  Adoption is all aboutselection, choice, and affirmation.  Adopthas the general meaning of: to take up. We adopt a way of doing something, we adopt an idea, and we adopt anindividual.  We select a person and wechoose to make them our own, and we affirm they are a member of ourfamily.  Adoption is a special way ofcoming into a family in that much of the mystery about the child is gone, thechild is born, many of the issues related to bringing a child into the familyhave been exposed, the adopting parents know more about this child than they doa child who comes into the family by birth. Similarly God adopts us into God’s family knowing everything there is toknow about us.  Adopted children areconsidered to be just like children brought into a family by conceptioninvolving the parents.  They are recognizedby law as being equal to all other children of the parents.  Being adopted into God’s family means we areequal with all of God’s children, there is no distinction and we are equalheirs to all God offers God’s children. It is true that sometimes society struggles with adopted children andwanting to set them apart as different or not quite as much a part of thefamily as biological children.  Even somesiblings want to make a distinction as the status of their adopted brothers andsisters.  Sometimes the children of Godwant to make distinctions as to who are the most loved of God’s children.  They want to make distinctions as to who ismost like God, or who has been in the family the longest, or who has theauthority to speak for their Parent God. Some children of God even act as if God has died and they are now incharge because they were God’s favorites. Ephesians tells us we are all adopted into God’s family and God adoresall of us and celebrates with each one of us as we grow in God’s family.  We are all full sisters and brothers ofJesus.

The Gospel of John tells us of the birth of God’s onlybegotten child.  As I have stated, thisisn’t about Jesus being the most loved child of God, or even being the mostimportant child of God.  God loves all ofGod’s children equally and expects as much from all of us as God expected fromJesus.  The significance of Jesus beingbegotten of God has to do with the way God is expressed in Jesus.  There is no difference between adopted andbiological children in the way they are considered to be children of theparents and heirs of the parents and there should be no difference in the waythey are loved by the parents but there is a difference in the way they expressthe parents.  From the very first day ofthe child’s existence, people observe whose eyes the child has, how the childhas the shape of one parent’s head, or their body shape, some even seem toexpress the temperament of parent of the other. As the child grows, their appearance my change as to which parent theylook like and their temperament may reflect the other parent but there arealways way in which the parent’s genetic contribution to the child is expressedalong with what the child has learned from being so close to the parent.  Jesus reflected for us the genetic makeup ofGod.  Jesus showed us how the very essenceof God is expressed in human form so we, the adopted children could also growin expression of God in our lives.  Jesusclaims us as his brothers and sisters and assures us we are equal to him inParent God’s eyes and we have all we need to do what he did and more.  Jesus encourages to live into being all Godhas created us to be and to claim all God has promised us as God’s heirs.  Jesus does not jealously claim superiority asGod’s only begotten but expresses the humility of being one of God’s childrenequally loved.

We are God’s children because Jesus claims us as brothersand sisters, because God has chosen us, and because of our relationship withGod.  As God’s children we are to assurethat God’s name and God’ will is kept alive for this and futuregenerations.  We are God’s children andGod expects us to act that way.  Amen