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As a minister, one of those things I’m supposed to do is suggest ways that we as individual disciples of Jesus can understand ourselves. I choose to use specific terms like “disciple of Jesus” or “follower of Jesus” as opposed to the blanket, generic term of “Christian” or “believer”. The reason for that is that it is possible in our culture to identify oneself as a “Christian” or a “believer”, but not really be a “disciple” or “follower” of Jesus. Disciples are students of a person, particularly their way of life. To truly learn the way of life of another is to take on that way of life yourself and become like that person. The same can be said about what it is to follow another person. The term “follower” entails a great sense of personal loyalty to that person, to walk the same roads no matter how difficult they may be.
The self-understanding I most wholeheartedly want those who sit and listen to me natter on about this Jesus stuff is to understand oneself as a beloved child of God. For me, this is where the rubber hits the road. My personal experience of the presence of God in my life has thus far culminated in understanding, in knowing myself to be a beloved child of God. Though he has always been with me and hand his hand in my life and a hold on me, I began to realize that God is with me when I was 19. I have felt God’s presence richly in congregations gathered for worship, in small Bible studies, when I am alone in devotions, but I sense he is always with me. I have also had some very profound emotional healings by God’s personal involvement with me. I have always found God faithful to me, to bring about what is best for me. The most difficult things I have gone through, God has worked for my good. When things have happened to me that seem like all I did was show up for life and all Hell has broken loose around me, God has proved his great love. Then in my 30’s one of my Doctor of Ministry professors put it all into words that just made sense to me. He used to say “God the Father loves you as much as he loves his own begotten Son Jesus.” And he would go on to further teach their relationship of love is what the Holy Spirit leads us to share in.
Since it’s Pentecost we need to talk about the Holy Spirit. A large part of the conversation we need to have about the Holy Spirit is to talk about the presence of God with us and how we personally experience God particularly as God’s beloved children. So much of the talk about God the last 500 or more years has been centered on how we are sinners deserving of Hell yet Jesus died to forgive our sins so that we can go to Heaven. The result is that Christianity largely became about attending to our own personal behaviour so as not to lose the eternal reward. It became about duty. The overwhelming cultural image of God we gained was this bearded old man who judges us. Talk of God was so centered on moralism and duty that all talk of personal encounter with God was largely thrown out with the bathwater. There is a big difference, indeed an eternal, infinite difference, between performing a duty and feeling beloved. Quite frankly, this is what I believe has killed the Church of North America.
Paul says here that “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Let’s consider that. What are we meaning when we say children? Does it mean that I should have a sort of “Jesus loves me, this I know”, feel like a small child utterly dependent, go play with my toys and be a good kid sort of relationship with God? Well, if you are a small child that’s okay, but what does it mean for someone 70+, or someone midlife-ing? You’ve had kids and grandkids you don’t feel so much like a child. Are we supposed to feel like a little child in the presence of God?
Well no. The word translated as children there is not the one in the Greek language for small child. It’s actually the word for sons and this is one of those places where trying to use inclusive language in translation falls short because there’s something about the role and status of a son in the culture back then that gets missed. In that culture it was actually quite liberating and empowering for women because Paul is inferring the social status that a son would have had back then to women in the church. He was equalizing the genders and elevating the status of women. Paul isn’t writing just to the men of the church and calling them sons. He is saying that both men and women who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The rest of the times we see children here the word used is reflective of all the children of the family, but also not the term for small children.
In Paul’s culture, adult sons had special family privileges. They shared in the family business and wealth from it and they were entitled to the inheritance. Paul notes this in our reading. Our inheritance is resurrected life in a healed Creation full of the glory of God. We taste of it now, share in it now by God’s gift of his very self – The Holy Spirit with us working to comfort and heal us.
When it came to family matters, the father respected the opinions of adult sons and gave them a say in family matters. Wrap your head around this: God respects our opinions, takes into consideration what we think is best in the matters of our lives and those we pray for. The desires of our hearts matter to God. He respects our opinions. He listens to our wants and respects the personal wisdom he’s given to us.
Here’s something else to consider. I had a doctor tell me once while giving me a pep talk on being a father. He said, “How you felt about your dad is how your son feels about you.” Let me say something similar coming from a different angle. How you feel about your adult children since they’ve gotten out and made something of themselves and done right by the family name and become their own persons of whom you are quite proud, how you feel about your now grown-up children is how God feels about you. God respects your opinions and trusts your judgment. God is proud of you and will still do whatever he can to help you. You’ve a great inheritance awaiting you. There’s a lot of responsibility with being an adult child and God trusts you with it. So, bear the family name respectfully and do the work that the family of God is vested in. You’ve a great inheritance awaiting you.
Back to what that doctor said to me, that the way I felt about my dad is how my children feel about me. So also, the way my father as a parent felt about me as a child is how God feels about us as well. Parents and grandparents can appreciate this. With our children we have to give them a foundation of love upon which to find themselves. We just don’t throw kids into life to figure it out for themselves. They need coaching, direction, and our presence with them. They need us to invite and lead them into life. Paul wrote, “All those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” This thing of being led by the Spirit is difficult for us to understand, but at the root of it is that the Holy Spirit leads us to understand, to experience deep within our self’s that sense of “I am God’s beloved child.” This is how I try to explain it to my daughter.
I was driving her to school the other day and she noticed a bird flying with a flower in its beak and pointed it out. So, I took advantage of the opportunity and said, “You know Alice, this world is full of beauty and you should take the time to just notice that beauty. When you do, you will likely start to feel a sense of joy there. As you spend more time with that beauty and joy you will start to feel a sense of love and at some time in that experience beauty, joy, and love you may come to realize that there is someone there, a presence who loves you and that’s God however you come to understand him and this is all you really need to know about yourself.” And I said to her, “Alice you are a beautiful person and you give a lot of joy to a lot of people. Your mother and I love you very much and are very proud of you.” She was smiling ear to ear. Then I said, “Sometimes a bird carrying a flower means something.” And she laughed, “What did that mean?” I said, “Oh, I don’t know. Look at my flower, It’s beautiful.”
To be led by the Spirit goes like that. In all circumstances in life let your eye be open to see the beauty that’s everywhere around you. Let the joy well up in you. Let love flow through you. This is entering into the worship that God’s good creation always gives to our Maker. At some time, at some point, you will begin to sense God’s presence and God’s love for you, that you are beloved. Imbibe deeply of the beauty, joy, and love that everywhere surrounds you, and take your Belovedness to heart. These things are the core of who we each are and nothing can separate us from them. Go forth and be a moment of beauty, joy, love, and belovedness for the people in your lives to discover and be changed. Children of God be led by the Spirit of God. Amen.
