Inheritance

As a father, this weeks readings from the Revised Common Lectionary really struck me - in particular, the passage from Ephesians.

The opening lines of Ephesians are a doxology - a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for the goodness of God's love. That love is made known to us through our adoption as sons and daughters of God. And that adoption is made possible only through the gift of a son. How odd that God should offer the loss of his own son so that he might adopt us all as members of the family.

As a father, I really don't think that I have that in me. In fact, I know I don't. My love for my own kids is too strong and the breadth of my love for others is too weak. I could not do what God the Father did - I could not send my own son away in the hope that I might gain other children. Perhaps that is one of the differences of divine and human love - God's love knows no limits - including the limits of lineage.

The story of inheritance does not end there. The text continues and reads that we have been "sealed by the Spirit as an assurance of our inheritance".

Over the years I have known many adopted persons and, for many, there has been a subtle fear - "what if one day they change their mind and no longer want me?" That kind of fear is a deep wound that damages trust and relationship and limits growth. And here we see again the goodness of God - the Father sends the spirit to literally mark us as his own. The original language, Greek, gives sense of an impression and it is rooted in the practice of stamping a wax seal with an official symbol like a ring. What we find in this passage is that when God adopts us as his own, his spirit impresses upon us the official image of God that we are his own. His word and his promise of adoption literally marks us as his own....forever.

My friends, that is a blessed assurance - to be sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as God's own forever. And that gift is ours if we will but only recieve the truth of God in Christ and place our full trust in him.

So, what is your hope? Who is your daddy? Through Christ, the answer to both can be "God"!

Amen.