Contemporary
singer/songwriter Gillian Welch wrote a song back in 2001 called
“Orphan Girl” which became quite popular. The orphan girl states
she has no family but when she dies and goes to heaven she’ll meet
them, but until then she wants Jesus to walk beside her and be her
family. Please, allow me the opportunity to entertain you with it.
I
am an orphan, on God’s highway.
But I’ll share my troubles, if
you go my way.
I
have no mother, no father, no sister, no brother.
I am an orphan
girl.
I
have had friendships, pure and golden.
But the ties of kinship, I
have not known them.
I know no mother, no father, no sister, no
brother.
I am an orphan girl.
But
when he calls me, I will be able
to meet my family, at God’s table.
I’ll
meet my mother, my father, my sister, my brother;
no more an orphan
girl
Blessed
saviour, make me willing
and walk beside me, until I’m with them.
Be
my mother, my father, my sister, my brother.
I am an orphan girl.
Now,
if you don’t mind and with Gillian Welch’s forgiveness, I’m
going to pick her theology apart a bit. These lyrics are comforting
beliefs that she highlights particularly if you really are an orphan
who does not have family, or over the years death has caused parting
with family, and/or your family relations have become so broken that
you might as well live on as if you had no family. She claims we
look forward to meeting our family again as they should be when
Christ calls us to glory. But, be warned the Bible never says that
will be the case. It’s implied, but never stated to be the case.
What happens to us after death and at Jesus' return is a lot bigger
than a family re-union with a healed family though I would settle for
that and a dose of instantaneous interstellar travel. Our hope is
resurrection and the making new of the entire Creation when as Isaiah
says "the earth will be full of the knowing of God as the waters
cover the sea" (Is. 11:9).
Second,
it is our desire to be with Christ Jesus not only after death but
also now. Like Orphan Girl, our prayer is that Christ Jesus walk
beside us through life and that he make us willing and able to follow
him. The main biblical as well as theological short-sightedness here
is that the Bible tells us that Jesus is not only with us, he is in
us and for that reason we are no longer orphans now because God the
Father is our father and our brothers and sisters in Christ are our
family. Indeed, we are children of God by adoption in and by means
of Christ Jesus through the free gift of the Holy Spirit. In Christ
by bond of the Holy Spirit, we share not only a relationship with
Jesus but more so we share with him in his relationship with the God
the Father. Thus, we experience for ourselves the steadfast love and
faithfulness of God the Father just as Jesus the Son knows it and we
know Jesus' own adoration of the God the Father and his desire to be
faithful. The very heart of the Gospel is that God the Father loves
us each as much as he does Jesus the Son and acts on that love right
now in the relationships and events of our lives through the power of
the Holy Spirit to deliver and heal us from the effects of Sin and
Death.
One
of the key components to why the mainline church is so stagnant today
is that the majority of the people in the pews and our ministers
approach the Christian faith the way this song reflects. We
basically say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour,
that God is watching over me, and when I die I will go to heaven and
see my loved ones who believed as I do. In the meantime I do my best
to follow Jesus by doing what it says in the Bible and I pray that he
is walking with me in life.” This popularized and easy system of
belief neglects and falls short of the fact that in Christ we are
participants in the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4 says that and it
means not the we are some how God but that we participate in the
relationship of God the Father and God the Son through God the Holy
Spirit so that it changes us and shows forth through us in our
relationships with others particularly in how we love one another as
we ourselves have been loved. By the gift of the Holy Spirit to and
in us we are in Christ and Jesus is in us so that we share in his
relationship with the Father and in his mission and ministry to the
world. Indeed, this living, indwelling covenantal relationship with
the Triune God of grace is the basis of what we mean by the words
grace, salvation, justification, righteousness, and faith.
A
couple of weeks ago my son William and His friend Calvin were having
a bit of a playdate. This was Calvin's first playdate with William
that didn't include his mother so he was there as a bit of an orphan
if I may make that analogy. In playdates past Calvin has really not
had anything to do with me. He's always been quite shy towards me.
Well, William decided to do some karate with me which ended with him
getting bear-hugged and tickled. Next thing I knew, Calvin was right
in there with us getting the bear-hugs and the tickles too. For a
moment, Calvin had entered into the relationship that William and I
share. He could have stood off to the side and missed out thinking I
wasn't his father and he had no right to play, but I don't know any
kids who think like that. He just saw William having fun. It was
good and he couldn't help but join in. He wouldn't have done that
with just any kid and his father off the street. He and William have
a relationship and the nature of that relationship helped Calvin feel
at home enough to share in William's relationship with me. Analogy
though it may be, I think it gets at what the heart of the Christian
Faith, that it is our saving participation in Jesus' relationship
with God the Father in God the Holy Spirit.
Now,
what I'm addressing here – this living, indwelling covenantal
relationship with the Trinity – is what has traditionally been
called our “mystical union with Christ Jesus”. This “mystical
union” is the key component of Christian faith. If we are not
united to Christ in some organic, living, dynamic way, then the grace
in him that the Father offers us in the loving presence and power of
the Holy Spirit is meaningless and nothing more than a legal fiction
in which Jesus did little more than take the death penalty for those
who believe he did. By our mystical union with and in Christ by
means of the indwelling relation building work of the Holy Spirit we
share in his relationship with the Father. That is the grace by
which we are saved.
Rediscovering
our mystical union with and in Christ Jesus is the crucial need of
the Church today. We need a conscious awareness of the presence and
work of the Holy Spirit in and with us. We have all received the
Holy Spirit in the midst of Baptism and conversion. As Jesus said,
“I am come to cast fire on the earth and how I wish it was already
kindled.” The fire he’s referring to is Pentecost, the gift of
the Holy Spirit and he is what divides us, indeed separates us from
others, biological family included.
Developing
prayer-filled and Scripture-filled lives is crucial to our sharing
with Jesus in his relationship with the Father. Don't just pray in
the morning or at night. Strive to pray without ceasing. Don't just
settle for reading a passage of Scripture. If a verse speaks to you,
memorize it and repeat it to yourself often throughout the day. Do
this and the fruits of the Holy Spirit will begin to well up in you –
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. These are the qualities of character
that make evident that we have new life in Christ and which set us
apart as different; and which will prompt others to want to come and,
like Calvin with William and me, join in on Jesus' relationship with
God the Father. Amen.
