Adopted as Children of GodRev.
Ron Campbell
Text: Romans
8:14-17; 28-29 I have personal and theological interests in adoption. First, my personal interest: In 1976 Jeri and I adopted our son Brent when he was six days old. Jeri and I couldn't have biological children. We wrote thirty-eight homes and agencies in Texas, seeking to adopt. We received only two letters of response. Only one put us on their waiting list, the Homes of St. Marks in Houston. Betty Steele, the Director was from my hometown of Sherman. When she realized that she and my mom had graduated from high school together she said to me, "I'm going to get you a good baby!" Two and a half years after starting the process we adopted our son when he was six days old. How wonderful it was adopting Brent! Our approach to Brent was informed by the experience of my seminary friend. Like her parents had done, we celebrated his Birthday and six days later his Adoption Day. And from the start we honored his birthmother, who was fifteen when she gave him life. Brent always knew if he ever wanted to know her when he grew up, we were behind him. He did have struggles with not knowing and with being given up (Though he certainly realized he had a great family). When he was in the sixth grade he asked Mrs. Steele "Can you tell me her first name? She said no. Then he asked her, "Can you give me three names and her name is one of the three?" She said she could not. When Brent turned twenty-one, he searched and he found her! I will never forget the first time I heard her name, "Patti," it was like a symphony! Patti had gone to Blinn in Brenham and Texas A&M, just like Brent! She lived in Sequin with his two half brothers and her husband (not birth father). Brent had a whole new large family network that loves him like we do and who lavishly welcomed him back. I need to qualify this story by recognizing that not every time does it work this way! Brent's story with finding his birth father is not as wonderful. But at least he knows reality and doesn't have to fanaticize. And some adopted persons really want to search, and others do not have the need. It's not right or wrong either way. Patti came to College Station to meet Brent for the first time six years ago the Friday before the first A&M football game. They got to know each other and went to mid-night yell practice together. Jeri and I came over Saturday morning. It was love at first sight! Patti looked at Brent's baby pictures and petted them. She had never laid eyes on him. All the years she had wondered and worried about him. Now she cherishes having him back in her life and is so grateful to Jeri and me for having raised him well. People ask Jeri how she can be so open and enthusiastic about Brent's birthmother and other family. She says, "It's simple. My mother died by the time I was three and I never knew her. Why wouldn't I want that for my son?" You see love is not like money in the bank. Money is gone when you spend it. Love grows when you give it away. The more love we give away, the more love we receive. Now let's look at the theological issues about adoption. The Apostle Paul lays this out in Romans in the eighth chapter. All who are led by the Spirit are children of God. We need not fear, for we are all adopted. God has not left us as orphans without a family. It's the Spirit of God that witnesses to our spirit that we are indeed God's children. And if we are God's children, then we are heirs to all that God has. With Christ, God's son, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and will inherit all the glory that God has to offer, if in fact we suffer with Christ, so that we may be glorified with him. Now we can't skip over this suffering with Christ part. What that means is: if we suffer for the world he loved, as he did, if we join our hearts and souls with him to do our part to bring in the kingdom of God, then we secure our partnership with Christ and will inherit the Father's glory with him. Next Paul says all things work together for good for those who love God and are called to his purpose, those who are in his family and growing into the image of Christ. Often this passage is. This promise doesn't necessarily say that in each of our individual lives that everything works out for us. It does mean in the larger scheme of things: God will work everything out as he intends when we love him and cooperate with his purposes. It's reassuring to know that our lives don't always have to make sense to us for us to know God does use our lives for good when we try to please him and follow his leading. Paul adds for those who love God and are called according to his purpose God foreknew and predestined to conform to the image of Christ. This concept is tricky. Let's take the word foreknew, those God foreknew. God called a young man named Jeremiah, to be a prophet. Jeremiah complained that he was too young to be a prophet. God replied, "Jeremiah, I knew you before you were born, before you were even in the womb. I knit you together and formed you. You can do it for I know you so well, and I created you for this." It's reassuring to think that God knew each of us before our creation and made us who we are. Maybe this is what foreknew means. Now for the notion of predestination, that God has a plan for us and destines us to fulfill it. I once heard an analogy that helps me understand this without making God in charge of every decision. Think of a parade, like the Rose Bowl Parade, that stretches for several miles. In this analogy we can think of God hovering up above, maybe in a helicopter, with a view of the beginning, the middle and the end all at the same time. Perhaps with God's larger view of human history, his interventions are calculated to give us freedom but to react to our decisions so that in the long run, his will is achieved. Maybe this is what predestination means. And Paul says those who God foreknew he predestined to conform to the image of Christ. This is God's lofty goal: to transform us into the character and likeness of Christ. What it's really about is not so much securing our personal peace and eternal happiness; but that each of us more and more reflects in our attitudes, motivations and affections the nature of Christ, and that we are being changed in our inner being. Now the last thing in these passages is this: All who are led by the Spirit are children of God. It's the Spirit of God that witnesses to our spirit we are God's children. It's the spirit of God in us that works with our willing spirit as God enables us to have faith as a free gift as his children, and as God molds us and makes us into the image of his son Christ. And Paul understood that it's that same Spirit of God that seeks out each of us inviting us to enter into to a relationship that is personal and intimate with God. The metaphor that best opens up to us an understanding of God as personal and intimate is the metaphor of the family. Paul used the image of a family to reveal God as a loving parent, a heavenly Father, and us as his beloved children. We too consider ourselves children of God, accepting the theological affirmation Paul that all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. What this means is that God is not distant and cold harsh. God is like a loving parent, and is very close to us in spirit. Each one of us is loved and cherished by God. And each one of us has access to God in our heart and soul. God considers you and me as part of his family. And God wants to be close to us as a loving father is close to his children. Recently eleven of us, 9 from Tarrytown and 2 from other Methodist churches in the Austin area, just returned from a mission trip to Russia. In our ministry with the Good News United Methodist Church in Vologda, we were able to spend a day and one night with 45-50 orphans at their summer camp outside of town. We played, sang, and ate with them and their caretakers, and spent the night with them in their summer home. They performed for us a variety show of talents and gifts just for us. We loved them, deeply, in only a short time, and they loved us. We taught them that they aren't orphans. They're family. They are our spiritual family for we are their grandparents, parents, their uncles and aunts, and their brothers and sisters in God's Spirit. And they are children of God, just like us. God made each one of them and God knows each of them by name and cares for them. God's Spirit is close to them in their hearts. And God wants them to recognize his presence and care for them in a personal and intimate way as the loving heavenly father they don't have on earth. John Sarantakas, a member of our team, was so outstanding with these kids. They hung on him, and he was God's love in the flesh for them. They called him 7-tacos because Sarantakas was too hard to learn. I called him "Big Good John!" Each person on the team carried a devotional and we popped it out at just the right time and occasion. John's devotional was the last. We were in the airport in Frankfort, Germany, between flights, heading home, when we circled as a team for the last time. John gave an introduction that framed his reflective notes. He said that in his upbringing that he thought God was distant, unapproachable, and probably mad. But he had learned that's not true! He had learned that God is close to each one of us, that God's spirit is in each one of us. And he had learned that God considers us family. Family seemed to be the key spiritual theme that kept coming to all of us on our 12-day mission trip. After that introduction, John read the notes of his reflections on the trip, which with his permission, I now share with you. Devotional Reflections on the 2003 Russia Mission Trip by John Sarantakas I was married and my family grew. I had a son and my family grew. I joined a church and my family grew. I went to a meeting about a trip to a foreign land and my family grew. I got on a plane with 11 strangers and my family grew. I visited an orphanage, fell in love with children that had no families, and my family grew. I cried as children with no families chased a bus with 11 strangers, and my family grew. I went to a small church, heard the Good News, and my family grew. I made friends that speak Russian who used to be the enemy, and my family grew. I sang on a bus, some things I would have mocked in the past, and my family grew. I stayed in a Russian house with a boy and his mother that made me meal after meal after meal, and my family grew. Soon eleven friends will return home humbled and more compassionate, with a better grasp of our faith and appreciation for the blessings of our lives, and our family continues to grow. I read a book about a painting of a loving Father, saw the actual painting, reassured that God was my loving Father and that His family continues to grow as long as I love. I love and our family grows. God loved us so much that he gave his only begotten son for us, and His family grew. God prepares for us and waits for us with patient love for that special time when we become adopted into his family! And God is not just waiting for us, but for the others we will invite into the family by offering his love to them. For God longs for his family to grow, so that through his Spirit growing in us his grace, we all become conformed into the image of his son Jesus Christ, our brother and fellow heir to God's glory. The Apostle Paul said we are adopted as children of God. And that's who we are!
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