Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Proper 10, Series A (Pentecost 5) Saturday, July 12 th, 2014 Sunday, July 13 th, 2014 Sermon: Abba, Father! Text: Romans 8:12-17 Focus: God is our loving, heavenly Father who adopts us by His grace. Function: That they would boldly go to their heavenly Father in prayer. Structure: Text-Application Locus: With these words, God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear Father (SC, Introduction to Lord s Prayer). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. One of my new favorite movies is October Baby (2011), which tells the story of Hannah, a beautiful college freshman who falls suddenly ill and discovers in the hospital that her mom and dad are not, strictly speaking, her mother and father. All of a sudden, Hannah learns that her parents are not her biological parents. They adopted her after her biological mother gave her up after a botched abortion. Overwhelmed by this new information about her origins, Hannah sets out, upon release from the hospital, to find her birth mother and learn why her mother tried to abort her. These sudden revelations cause an identity crisis for Hannah. Who am I? Where do I come from? Who loves me really? I don t want to ruin the movie for you (it s well worth the viewing!). But I will say that after several misadventures, a disappointing encounter with her birth mother, and a divine appointment with a Catholic priest (another Father!), Hannah discovers true love and learns who her true parents really are. An identity crisis like Hannah s is not an uncommon experience for adopted children. As much as their adoptive parents love them, many children of adoption struggle with identity and
Matthis 2 questions like Who am I? Whose am I? Where do I belong? I have two adopted cousins, and I know that my aunt and uncle wrestled long with the question about how and when to tell my cousins they were adopted. But I imagine none of us is immune to the questions of origin and identity. Have you ever considered that our Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, was adopted? It s true! While it was supposed that Jesus was the son of Joseph the carpenter (Luke 3:23), Joseph in fact, was not his biological father. In the wonderful miracle of Jesus birth which we Christians call the Incarnation Jesus was born of a virgin girl named Mary. But his only true Father was God. When the Jewish people asked, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? (John 6:42), they were confused by Jesus talk about coming down from heaven. So far as they knew, he was either Joseph s biological son or Mary s illegitimate child. Jesus fellow Jews struggled to understand and believe that he could be the Son of God. Did you know that you are adopted? Yes, you are the adopted sons and daughters of God? It s true! By right of your Baptism, you are made children of God. That s what Paul is talking about in our epistle lesson when he writes: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs (Rom. 8:14-17a, ESV). 1 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you are the King s kids, sons and daughters of God. But you are not his natural children. We re not born into God s family. We have to be born again into God s family through Holy Baptism (John 3:3-5). You must be adopted. In fact, your true spiritual family of origin may surprise you. In the words of Jesus: You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no 1 All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
Matthis 3 truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). I know it s shocking and not at all flattering but Jesus says that, until you believe in him, the answer to the question Who s my daddy? is the devil! That s right. The devil! Until you believe the Gospel and receive Jesus by faith, you cannot claim to be a child of God. Until you become a Christian, Satan is your father. Yikes! Now, I wouldn t recommend going home, feeling badly and thinking of yourself as devil spawn. As Paul writes elsewhere, Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). Such were some of you. At one time each of us was a slave to sin with the terrible tyrant Satan to call for our spiritual father. That was the way of sin and death. But God loves you too much to abandon you to the terrible abuse of the accuser (that s what Satan s name means: accuser ). And so from the foundations of the world, God in his love predestined you, or chose you, for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will (Eph. 1:4-5). God must adopt us! That proves what a wonderful, special blessing an adoptive family is. Adoption is the perfect picture of God s love for his children, and adoption is one of many wonderful ways in which God places us in earthly families to be loved by others and learn how to love them too. And similarly to other adoptive families, when God becomes your Father, he gives you a new identity. By the power of the Holy Spirit, he forgives your sins and gives you eternal life. He washes away your sins in his blood, and in Holy Baptism, he drowns your old, sinful nature your satanic identity and re-creates you as a new you. And the new you comes into God s family as an adopted child of God, fully accepted, fully forgiven, and freely welcomed.
Matthis 4 So becoming a Christian changes you. It forges you into a new family of faith. You enter into relationship with a new Father, a heavenly Father. Which is why, as the adopted children of God, we cry out by God s Spirit, Abba! Father! Abba is more than just the name of a 70 s rock band from Sweden! Even more importantly, Abba is the Aramaic word for father. Abba is the name Jesus would have called his adoptive father, Joseph, when he fell and skinned his knee or hit his thumb with a hammer in the carpentry shop. And Abba is the name Jesus called God in prayer. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Yet not what I will, but what you will (Mark 14:36). Abba, Father, is the name Jesus called God in prayer. Even as Jesus died on the cross, he prayed to Abba. Father [Abba], forgive them, for they know now what they do (Luke 23:34). And [Abba], into your hands I commit my spirit! (Luke 23:46). Abba, Father! was the prayer of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, Savior and brother in the flesh. And Abba, Father! is the prayer given to us by Jesus in our Baptism. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! (Rom. 8:15). As the King s kids, you have the joy and privilege to call upon God in prayer. And the prayer Jesus gives us is his own prayer. Abba! Father! (Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther marvels at the opening words of the Lord s Prayer: With these words, God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear Father (SC, Introduction to Lord s Prayer). How do dear children ask
Matthis 5 their dear father? Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Dear children ask their dear father boldly, confidently, and persistently, tugging at his sleeve or pant leg until Daddy gives in or says, Go ask your mother. As the father of a toddler, I can tell you that I am well aware of the way dear children ask their dear father! When Benjamin gets hurt or scared, when he wants something, or when he s just excited to see Daddy come home, he cries out, Dada, Dada, Dada! Abba, Father! As much as Benjamin loves his mother, sometimes only Daddy will do. And so it is with our heavenly Father. When we are lonely, depressed, or afraid, we go to him in prayer and say, Abba, Father! When we re happy and excited about good news, we shout in praise, Abba, Father! And when we gather for worship as God s children his family we begin in the name of the Father Abba, Father! What a wonderful name to pray, and what a wonderful gift to claim! As God s forgiven children, we don t have to fear our sinful past. We don t have to go back to slavery, death, and the devil. We don t have to go in search of our true parents, because our loving, heavenly Father, has found us in his grace. And Abba Father isn t finished blessing us! There remains an eschatological, End Time, now, not yet reality still be received (Rom. 8:23). And that is why Paul ends this section of his letter by reminding us that if we are God s children, we are also his heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17), so that everything God gives to Jesus is also yours in Christ: resurrection, eternal life, and a crown in the coming kingdom. Abba Father loves to gives his children gifts. And the greatest gift of all is Jesus Christ, his Son (John 3:16). In the name of the Father, Amen.