From slavery to sonship
Galatians 4:1-10
Christ Church, Wednesday, 03
January 2001
Trigger joke
Learning the difference between
being a servant and a child is possibly one of the best images for growing as a
Christian. Imagine you have been a servant to a king all your life. You have been used to mumbling appropriate
responses when you have spoken to him, to speak when you are spoken to, to not
stare. And suddenly one day you are
told he is the father you have always wanted to know about. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to
make that adjustment?
The reality is that a lot of us
seem to relate to God as if he is a distant king, someone who we should be
careful with, keep our distance from, rather than as a "daddy" who
loves to be with us, who enjoys our company.
Yet the idea that we are God's
children goes right through the Bible.
John wrote this: to all who received him who believed in his name, he
gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the
will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Paul wrote this: for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to
fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of sonship. And Martin Luther King said that this
"Everybody is somebody because he is a child of God. "
So I want to explore what it might
mean for us to move from thinking of ourselves more as servants than as
children. I believe if we can only
grasp how much we are loved as God's children then our lives will be
transformed.
It's important to start with a
distinction here. Of course, everyone
can be said to be a child of God in the sense that everyone owes to God the
creation and the preservation of their lives; but only some people become the
children of God in the real depth and intimacy of the true father and son
relationship. These are the kind of
children that Jesus died in order to enable us to become. We were not created as living and moving
animals by God who are created just to obey him, we were created as
children. When someone realises that he
has a father, a pedigree, family, traditions, he has a peace within him that no
one can take away.
So what is the journey from slavery
to being children that we have to make?
Slaves are not allowed to have a life of their own or an identity of
their own - they become no better than robots.
Children have an identity which is given to them by their parents, but
this identity is a foundation rather than a straitjacket. It provides a security in which the child
may flourish as the person they uniquely have been created to be. God makes us his children not to imprison us
in a kind of blind obedience, but to bring out the best in us. Because the paradox is that we only find out
who we are when we know who he is.
Helen of Troy story, p70.
Slaves are not allowed to be
curious about their masters, they are not allowed to ask questions, they are
not even allowed to doubt his orders.
Children are naturally curious- their parent wants them to explore, to
ask questions, to learn from mistakes, to have the freedom to fail and try
again. To not think they need to be
perfect children in order to talk to their father. Are we like children or slaves to God? Is our church the kind of place where we can ask questions, say
the daring things, say things that we know people and God won't hold against us
in the future? Do we avoid finding out,
asking questions, growing up because we are afraid he will not take kindly to
some of the difficulties we might encounter?
Slaves obey out of fear. They know that if they say a word wrong,
they will be penalised for it. They
need to be in a state of perfect readiness before they can approach their master. Do you come to God as yourself, a child in
need of love, or wearing a mask, putting on the show you think your master
requires?
Children respond out of love. They obey their parents not because if they
don't they will be punished, or lose their parents' love, but because the love
that has been shown to them makes them desire to be obedient, to change, to
grow, to please their parents.
So the question is, as we begin
this new year do we begin as slaves to God, or by claiming our right as his
children to offer ourselves in love, with joy, and freedom? I think that there can sometimes be a sense
in which we are living more by duty than by joy in our relationship to God, by
slavery rather than sonship or daughtership.
But if we can only grasp hold of the fact that we are children, not slaves,
everything can change. This Sunday we
celebrate an important festival in the Christian year-Jesus' baptism. When Jesus started his ministry he needed to
hear only a few words-but those words became the foundation of everything he
later said, did, and knew about himself.
The sky opened and he heard the words, "This is my beloved
son. I am well pleased with
him." Whenever we hear these words
for ourselves, whenever I hear God saying to me "Guy is my beloved
child," I take a step along the way on the journey of moving to a nervous
and hesitant servant, to a child whose heart reaches out to his father.