Like a Box of Kittens
Romans 8:12-17
Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan
Last week we celebrated Pentecost Sunday. Why? Christian tradition established a cycle of religious observances to assist our understanding, to make sure we don’t neglect important facets of the faith as we go through the year. We call the cycle of church holidays and observances “the liturgical calendar.” One of those churchy words – liturgical. It comes from 2 Greek words: leitos (meaning public) and ergon (meaning work). So liturgy is public work, or work of the people. In the secular world such work could be building a local bridge, but in the religious world it means the communal work of the people before God, like performing a ritual or worshipping together. The order of worship in our bulletin is called the “liturgy” – a guide to the work of the people, which is a good reminder that worship is something we all do together. No one is merely an observer.
On the liturgical calendar, every year the Sunday after Pentecost is called Trinity Sunday – an invitation to spend time thinking about God. What does it mean to call God Parent or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And how are we to connect with God as Trinity, three-in-one: Creator, Christ, and Spirit? St. Paul gives helpful entry points in his letters to the early church. From the 8th chapter of the letter of Paul to the Romans, listen for the word of God.
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Humans want to belong. We need to be part of a people. Our personhood does not develop without belonging somewhere, with someone. Many of us remember reports some years ago from orphanages. Even when children were safe, had nutritious food every day, and plenty of quiet sleep time, they failed to thrive if they were not touched. Babies don’t just need to be dry; they need to be cuddled. If no one holds a newborn, before long it can literally starve for affection. Skin on skin contact is an essential requirement for life. However, our need for connection doesn’t end when we learn to drink from a glass instead of a bottle. Think of teenagers on their journey of self-discovery. Coming of age stories are about relationships with other people and the world. To figure out who we are, we need other people to interact with. When we were youngsters answering the big question: “Who am I?” required interacting with others who cared about us, who helped us gain an identity. Other people figuratively hold up a mirror for us so we can see who we are.
Of course, our need for personal bonds with others doesn’t end when we turn 20 either. Our need for close companions and a sense of belonging goes on throughout our whole life. As adults, clothing choices indicate where we belong. Do we dress like we belong to a street gang, a country club, or a Sunday morning bicycle group? Our appearance indicates where and with whom we belong. What we read reveals our identity. So do what sports we follow; how often we get a new car; what charities we support; where we spend vacations. Such choices are not mere preferences; they are also establishing who we are in relation to some group. Throughout our whole lives, we yearn for a place to fit in or to feel at home. Human beings need to belong.
Fortunately, we belong to God. Believers in Jesus Christ are part of God’s family. The metaphor Paul uses, of being adopted by God, is quite powerful. If adopted, we are God’s children. Totally part of God’s family. Those who have been in adoption hearings know the child is not legally part of the family at the start. Then the gavel drops and the judge declares the child to be the daughter or son of the (now) parent. Quite powerful. In a single moment, legal family is created, never to be undone. Paul says as adopted children we can even call the Creator God “Abba.” English translators say we can cry out, “Abba! Father!” But Abba is more intimate than the formal term, “Father.” Abba is familial language. Abba is middle of the night, wake up from a nightmare, language. “Momma! Poppa!” The security which comes from being able to call out like that is an amazing, holy, gift of love. When a person is adopted, they move from an isolated state of being to become part of a family.
The image I keep getting is not actually of God’s choosing a child in an orphanage, but more like finding us as a box of kittens at a farmers’ market with a crayon sign on the box that says, “Make an offer.” And Jesus walks up and says, “I’ll give you everything for the whole box.” Then he takes the whole box home, to join God’s family. We do nothing to get chosen; nothing to get adopted, nothing to become children of God. And then, as family members, after we do all that nothing, we find we have become siblings with Jesus.
In the passage, Paul uses all plural language. This is not about each of us getting picked out of a box of kittens or from an orphanage. It’s about all of us getting taken home together. When God chooses the whole box of us, we are moved away from self-centered living to a communal understanding of life together as a family of God. We focus on the wellbeing of the whole world. Then, together (the whole box of us) can call to our Heavenly Parent in the most intimate and childlike terms because we belong to God.
Then the Spirit confirms our adoption. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit telling us we are part of God’s family. Now we can learn lots about God from the Bible, but the presence of the Holy Spirit among us verifies we have a legitimate place with God. Throughout time the Holy Spirit has been the presence of God on earth. God relates to humanity (us) through the Spirit and interacts in the world. When the Spirit confirms our place in the family, we aren’t just receiving a housekey to be able to enter God’s household. A houseguest might have a key for a brief time, but then surrenders it when the visit is complete. No, as God’s family members we are shown to our own rooms. We live in God’s home and the doors are never locked to us. We have a divine relationship through the Holy Spirit.
Some biblical scholars question whether Paul oversimplifies our living according to the Spirit. He draws a line in the sand and says we can either live according to the flesh or according to the spirit. The flesh can enslave us in fear, make us captive to our physical desires; or, Paul says, we can live in the spirit of adoption, intimately relating to God. But the truth we must admit is, we are both flesh and spirit. We cannot completely leave the selfish demands of our flesh behind. They creep in with tempting ideas at our weakest moments; even as we are committed to following the ways of the spirit of adoption which connects us to the family of God and to God our Abba. Like it or not, we all ride a flesh-spirit teeter-totter. But the Holy Spirit within us proves we are connected to God. Any time we sense the presence of God among us, it’s the Spirit reminding us who our true Parent is. And whenever we realize we have given in to some fleshly desire, the realization comes from the Spirit, too, stirring us to a recommitment. And if we succeed at some sacrificial task we set for ourselves, the success testifies to the power of God at work among us. The Spirit reminds us we are family and God is our Heavenly Parent. This is the great news. The Spirit confirms our adoption.
None of us is able to wrap our human brains around the infinite being of God, so we benefit from observing Trinity Sunday, to allow us to consider the parts of God we can try to grasp. In theory, we can think of God the Creator, creating each person in love. Then we can consider Jesus Christ, the incarnate word, whose life and teaching show God’s amazing love for every person, even to the point of giving everything, even his life, when humanity explodes with hatred. No matter what we’ve done, God’s love draws us into the family and blesses us with the presence of God’s Spirit, which fills us with power and guides us into a communal life of love and service together.