Advent 2016: God’s Own Child

Readings: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 2 Samuel 7:18-22: Galatians 4:1-7

How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you! (2 Samuel 7:22)

We have never even heard of another God like you.

What a great sentence! (Good one King David!)

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. (Galatians 4:4-7a)

Freedom is something I’ve been thinking long and hard about recently. How do we get free of old story lines, old beliefs, old ways of thinking so that we can live free and speak freedom into the lives of those around us?

Then I read about the freedom that is embedded in the Jesus story. Freedom in the form of a baby who would go to the cross. Freedom in the very body of the God-Man who could heal the sick, raise the dead, and offer forgiveness on behalf of God.

Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.

Identity.

There is so much freedom in identity. In belong to a family, a tribe, a group. And in this way, God’s generosity is shown. He sends the Spirit of Chris into our hearts and makes us his children.

…God’s own child.

For the orphan, the lonely, the refugee, the outsider, the criminal, the poor, the weak, the frail, the fragile…all of which we all are at some point in time…you my friend are

…God’s own child.

Amen

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