At this time of year, as the calendar changes, the Romans paid special attention to their God Saturn, or as the Greeks knew him, Chronos, or “Time.” Overall, they pictured Chronos as a benevolent deity except for one terrible, horrible trait. He devoured his own children. Time is always and forever devouring his offspring, each day diminishing the ones to whom he gave birth.
Still, keeping time is important, because Scripture tells of a time when God revealed something for us all.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. – Galatians 4:4-7
It was good news. God in Jesus Christ constituted a family. You are part of that family. David Bartlett helps us understand how wonderful this is through a story in his book What’s Good About This News?:
“My wife and I have friends who have a wonderfully mixed family, mixed in part because one of their sons is their biological offspring and the other children are adopted. Not long ago they were explaining to the youngest child what it meant for him to be adopted – how he had been chosen, and waited for, and welcomed with joy. As part of the story they also had to explain that Mark, the brother, was their child biologically. When they had finished explaining what it meant to say that Tommy was adopted, he cried out: ‘Oh, that’s wonderful. Can’t we adopt Mark too?”
Paul declares that God has adopted us all, Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free, in Jesus Christ. And Paul declares the wonder of that adoption in a single name. The early church obviously found something very striking in the intimate name for God, “Abba,” because it was often presented in its older Aramaic form, even in the Greek language of the New Testament. We read that Jesus used this personal name in his most earnest supplication at Gethsemane. It is quite likely the word Jesus used in the opening line of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father…”
Richard Foster tells about a friend who was in a shopping mall with his two-year-old son. His son lost all control and started crying out in loud shrieks. If you ever felt the powerlessness of standing next to a child that threw these temper tantrums, then you know how difficult and embarrassing this can be! This father, instead of rashly reacting, instead of scolding his son, picked him up into his arms, held him close and began singing a lullaby—telling his son over and over how much he loved him and how special he was. By the time they reached the car the little boy was completely calm. When his father placed him in his car seat, the little boy reached out his arms to his father and said, “Sing it to me again, Daddy.”
This is a transformational moment for us that comes in Jesus. When we can know and experience God as a compassionate, loving Abba. Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew, “Don’t be anxious about what you will eat or what you will wear.” Jesus is speaking to people who have every reason to be anxious. Some were poor, day laborers. Some didn’t know if they would get work from one day to the next. They lived from day to day, hoping that they would have enough money to buy food or clothing.
God knows what you need, Jesus assures them, and God will provide for what you need. Seek God’s reign. Pursue God’s justice and peace. God will take care of your needs. That was a radical message – and it still is.
Just as the one and only Son faced God with such tenderness and closeness, he intends for us who follow him to do likewise. It is his Spirit which makes this happen. The Spirit that helps us overcome the timidity of newly adopted children and enabling us to pray in this intimate way. The Holy Spirit is not an obscure, academic notion. The ancients proclaimed the Holy Spirit as “Lord, the giver of life.” They inscribed that title into the creeds many churches still share every week. The Spirit is what makes God real and alive to God’s children by unstopping our ears so we can hear and opening our mouths so we can pray. It is the Spirit of God who animates our speculative talk of adoption into a heartfelt, grateful declaration: “Abba! Father!”
The Holy Spirit signals a whole new world of relationships, freedom, obedience and devotion. All this opens to us because “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.” That’s why Advent and Christmas mark the beginning of our Christian year. It comes at just the right time, in the fullness of time, in God’s time.
Will you dare to believe that for you and for Yates, that time is now?
Grace and Peace,