Adoption

On May 8^th, 1945 a woman named Gladys Kayser was admitted to the Home for Unwed Mothers in Fargo, North Dakota. There she gave birth to a girl - my mother - and named her Donelle Priscilla Kayser. She was immediately put up for adoption. Before long, Donelle was adopted by Ralph and Selma Vogel - a couple looking for a daughter. They took her home and gave her a new name – Victoria Elaine Vogel. Just like that, she had a new name and a new family. She had a whole new set of relatives and a new culture.

Growing up in her adopted family Vicki never felt like she belonged. She knew that her real family was out there somewhere, and she wondered what they were like, but for most of her life they remained a mystery. So, after giving birth to three kids of her own, she set out to find her birth family. After a long search she was reunited with her birth mom, Gladys. It took another 15 years to find the family of her birth father, the late Donald Campbell. While she learned that Donald had died in 1963, the surviving members of his family wanted to meet my Mom, so a date was set for a big family reunion.

For my Mom and family this reunion was an amazing experience. After all, the size of our extended family had literally doubled overnight! All of a sudden my mom had five new sisters, and us kids dozens of new aunts, uncles, and cousins! At first the thought of meeting them all was a little scary, and we wondered how we’d fit in with this new branch of the family tree. We wondered what all of these changes meant. Thankfully our fears quickly dissolved when we all got together. They welcomed and embraced us like we were just another part of the family. Gathered around the table, we shared stories and caught up on our family history. We felt at home with them, and they with us. Just like that, we had a whole new family.

In the Old Testament there is not a single mention of the word “adoption.” The way in which we understand adoption just didn’t exist in those days. If a child lost its parents or was abandoned it became the responsibility of the extended family. Likewise, in the four gospels of the New Testament, the word “adoption” is never spoken by Jesus – the concept just wasn’t a part of Jewish society and culture. It’s not until later in the New Testament in the letters of the Apostle Paul that we first hear the word for adoption.

Today, in our second lesson from Galatians, Paul writes to the leaders of the new churches in Galatia. These churches were made up of both Jews and Gentiles living in the Roman Empire under the rule of Caesar. Both Paul and the Galatians were Roman citizens, so he knew that the word “adoption” carried meaning for them. But the Roman custom of adoption meant something different to them than it does for us today. In Roman culture only males were adopted, and adoption only took place if a family needed a male heir for the family inheritance. In the Roman Empire of Paul’s day adoption was a way to pass on one’s legacy and family wealth.

Paul appeals to this Roman understanding of adoption when he writes to the Galatians. He tells them that they have forgotten their adoption – the adoption that had taken place in their baptisms. The Galatians had come to believe in their own self-made righteousness – that they could become “better Christians” if they only did the right things. They thought if they followed all the prescribed rules and laws that they would somehow become more spiritual, righteous, and holy. They believed that their religious rituals and ceremonies would win them God’s favor and approval. They had put their faith in the law instead of in Christ – in doing so, they had fallen out of a right relationship with God.

Paul reminds them of their adoption, and tells them that their divine inheritance will not come through their obedience to the law. In short, he tells them that they cannot have it both ways. Either you are a free child of God living by faith “under Christ,” or you are a slave because you are living “under the law.” By choosing to live under the law they became like slaves in God’s own house, denying themselves of their promised inheritance.

Like the Galatians, you and I have also fallen out of a right relationship with God. We too forget that we have been adopted and claimed as God’s people through our baptism. We do this whenever we fool ourselves into thinking we can make it on our own – without God. It’s easy to see how this can happen. After all, we live in a culture that values self-reliance – a society where independence is the ultimate goal. We are taught that those who rely too much on others are weak. Now, I’m not saying that self-reliance is a bad thing – there are times when we need to be able to fend for ourselves. But when we buy too much into this kind of thinking, we can forget that all of us are, in fact, completely and utterly dependent on God. The idea that we can survive for even a minute without God is foolish. It is God and God alone who gives us house and home, food, water, and shelter, and the very air we breathe. It is God who gives us night and day, rain and sunshine, and health and strength.

Our dependence on God, of course, is not limited to our earthly lives - we are dependent on God for our eternal salvation. We may think that if we live “under the law” that we can save ourselves. But what does it mean to live under the law? We live under the law whenever we think something WE do will bring us salvation. For example, we know that regular church attendance and serving others are good things, but they do not save us. Saying our creeds and giving our offerings to the church are good things, but they do not bring us closer to God. And while we may say that we’ve invited Jesus into our hearts, it is really God and not us who is doing the inviting - inviting us to a life of faith. We may think that we’ve made a decision to give our hearts to Jesus and come to God. But the only reason we’re saved is that God made a decision – the decision to choose us and to come to us.

For the Galatians, God made this decision when the time was right – “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.” God sent the Spirit of his son, Jesus into their hearts – a spirit that cried out “Abba, Father” – a baptismal experience for the unity of all who believed. Freed from the constricting chains of the law, the people went forth with the baptismal cross on their foreheads - as the rightful heirs of God’s promised inheritance.

This morning we will all take part in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. For all of us it is a privilege and a joy, for together with God we get to welcome a new child into the family of faith. As baptismal witnesses we are given a visible sign of God’s grace - a sign which God gave each of us in our own baptism. The word and water are poured over our heads, and we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Just like that, our adoption goes through. It is immediate and permanent, and it lasts throughout the fullness of time.

Thankfully for us, unlike my Mom, we do not have to wonder about our real family. We don’t have to search for a sense of belonging. For while our baptism may seem like a mystery, we know that God’s love is real and true. We see it in our lives and we feel it in our hearts. Through baptism our Heavenly Father re-unites us with our Christian brothers and sisters in every time and place. We are given a new family who loves and supports us, and a new name – Child of God. Through baptism, we are claimed and adopted by a God who knows no limits. As God’s adopted children we are freed from our bondage to sin. We are freed from the impossible requirements of the law. As children of God we receive the spirit of Jesus into our hearts, the spirit that unites us as God’s people. Together, we are reunited around the table – brought together as the adopted children and heirs of God’s inheritance – the promise of God’s salvation – a divine blessing for the fullness of time. Amen.