FIRST READING Isaiah 6:1-8
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” 6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”
Psalm 29
1Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name; worship the LORD in holy splendor. 3The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over mighty waters. 4The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 5The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. 8The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9The voice of the LORD causes the oaks to whirl, and strips the forest bare; and in his temple all say, “Glory!” 10The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever. 11May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!
SECOND READING Romans 8:12-17
12So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for 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. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For 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!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and 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.
GOSPEL READING John 3:1-17
1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
ABBA ISN”T CHILDISH
Grace and peace to you on this Holy Trinity Sunday from God the Father, Jesus the only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Why is it, that one of the most typically “child-like” things our young ones do, is to try and to act like an adult? Little children dress up like Mom and Dad. Kids a little older pretend to drive the car. Older kids still play with pint-sized pots and pans, play-doctor kits and miniature tool sets. Some of us are old enough to remember playing with perhaps the worst child-oriented product ever invented — candy cigarettes. I’m sure some of you remember these. Those facsimile red-tipped replicas that let us “smoke” just like grown-ups. Reflecting back, it probably wasn’t a good idea. Of course my dad, if he were with us today, would probably say that neither was it a good idea to leave unrestricted access to his hammers, nails and lumber.
For a good number of years my father was a carpenter, architect and contractor. This meant that in the shop was usually a good quantity of nails, his hammers of course and plenty of scrap lumber. As a boy of 9 or 10 I remember the addition dad put on the house. More specifically I remember watching dad frame up the walls that made up the addition. I can vividly recall how he could take his 20 oz. Stanley hammer and drive nails into 2x4s with just 2 strikes: 1 strike to start the nail and 1 strike to drive the nail in. I watched him do this over and over again. As a kid I was mesmerized. Needless to say I practiced a lot trying to drive nails, unsuccessfully I might add, just like my dad. Many years later dad told me he was playing with a metal detector and found the spot in the alley parking area where I practiced driving nails in the ground. He said there must have been 50 pounds of 16d nails in this one area. It was the only way I could drive a nail in two strikes like my dad. It was just one of the many things he was good at and I wanted to be like him.
The hard truth is children want to imitate and emulate the adults around them, whatever those behaviors might be. That’s why being an “adult,” being a “parent,” is such an awesome responsibility. But here’s a mystery for you. If as children, we try to act like an adult, why is it then, that as adults, we spend a lot of time acting like children, or at least doing things we call “being childish.” This is, of course, the secret of the Disney franchise. Disney has designed a playground for adults even more than for children. I read the other day that one man decided that he wanted to “act like a kid again” and celebrate his 75th birthday by taking everyone in the family on a Disney cruise. I must admit, it does sound like fun.
But the hard truth of this side of the equation is, we really aren’t acting like children are we? In fact, our “childish” behaviors are the give-away age marks of our actual adulthood. As adults, we “how come?” the “toys” of others — the bigger house, flashier car, discretionary income, lavish lifestyle of those living in a higher income bracket. We ask ourselves “how come” a friend has stunning good looks, or why a co-worker enjoys talent and success. Poet Sylvia Plath, who never was a commercial success, “how come-d” poet Adrienne Rich’s popularity and influence. Plath even admitted: “Occasionally I would retch quietly in the wastebasket.”
Author Gore Vidal put it bluntly: “Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.” Makes me question his definition of the word friend. We even extend this same “how come” behavior into our spiritual lives. Instead of praying for God’s will in our lives, we spend our prayer time asking, “how come”. Here’s something to remember, call it a rule of life: Bad prayers begin with “How come …” Conversely, the best prayers begin with, “Your Kingdom come.” Now that you have the Lord’s prayer in your head, keep it there, I want to come back to it in a moment. As adults we become frustrated with the lack of the things of this world. But our selfish frustrations aren’t limited to our prayer life, they more often than not involve, our families.
Too often instead of asking God to help us with our greed and covetousness, which is the source of our frustrations, we instead take them out on our families, and direct at our loved ones jets of jealousies. We might even go so far as to kick the dog instead of ourselves. When we stop and think about it, there really is a big difference between a child’s “child-like” behavior and an adult’s “childish” behavior. In this week’s epistle text, Paul is pleased to pronounce that all those who follow Jesus and have received the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the living Christ, as “children of God.”
The indwelling Spirit is a “spirit of adoption,” re-birthing disciples into a new relationship as sons and daughters of God. It’s the presence of this Spirit that allows us to address God even as Jesus did Himself as “Abba, Father.” It’s a wonderful promise that fills us with hope for the future and peace in the present. But how often have we stopped and really considered this passage? It’s one we’re all familiar with, but it’s also a passage that’s far too often is errantly taught and therefore misunderstood. Without the help of the Spirit, we are left failing to hear the law in Paul’s words, focusing instead on a misconstrued understanding of the gospel.
Pentecost is the season of the Spirit. It’s on that miraculous, transforming gift that Paul focuses on in today’s epistle text. Paul asserts that the presence of the Holy Spirit is nothing less than the difference between life and death. And choosing between life and death is a daily obligation of those who confess Christ, but that “debt” can only be met because of the presence and actions of the living Spirit. For those who live without the Spirit, for those who continue to live “according to the flesh,” for those whose focus is only on the “how come”, there’s only one certain outcome — death. Without the Spirit there is no faith and without faith we cannot know God. The Spirit must first be at work in our lives for us to even know that we need God in order to come to Him. A good example of this can be found in our New Testament reading for this morning.
In our gospel reading for today we see the Holy Spirit at work driving one of the religious leaders, Nicodemus, to seek a conversation with Jesus. The Pharisees were looking for signs of the Messiah. One way or another, Nicodemus has enough information that he was compelled to meet Jesus personally. As a Pharisee, he could have sent an entourage to announce his visit, but instead he chose to come alone. At night. Now we could spend a lot of time focusing on the reason or reasons Nicodemus chose to seek an audience with Jesus at night. But to do so I believe misses the point.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he was compelled by God’s Spirit. And it was only by the leading of the Spirit that Nicodemus could state, “We know you are a teacher who comes from God,” because of the signs. And this revelation is important. Signs from God are not a beginning point. Rather, they alert humanity to what God has already put into motion. Nicodemus understands many things, but now is stumped. Much is known about being born in body, but how is one to be born of the Spirit? On this side of the cross we know that waters of baptism are a sign of God’s move—God’s work—as we die and rise anew in the Spirit. This is the faith that the Holy Spirit effects in us; a faith that allows us to see the signs and to accept God’s work in our lives and the lives of His creation. It’s in this revelation of God’s work that faith is created.
And faith is the first action that must be taken in this life and death struggle that Paul eludes to — the faith that accepts Christ and invites the Spirit to become an active presence in the disciple’s life. But the Spirit’s work doesn’t end here. A second action, a life-long, on-going action, is also required: that of putting “to death the deeds of the body.” But it’s more than simply the death of the body Paul is talking about here, and the key to understanding the point Paul is making here, comes in the particular word Paul uses in verse 13.
Paul’s use of the Greek word “soma,” “body,” instead of “sarx,” “flesh,” somehow seems at odds with his usual vocabulary choices. However, within the context of this discussion, it seems evident that the “body” Paul refers to is not just skin and bones but the more spiritual “body of death” as referred to in Romans 7:24. This commitment to denying, putting to death the fleshly concerns, is an ongoing, daily deed. It’s a continuous struggle, but one that we don’t accomplished unaided. The daily, continual nature of this defense requires the daily presence and persistence of the Spirit. It’s this preserving presence of the Spirit that creates the possibility for a completely new outcome: “You will live.”
Paul then reveals just how deeply the Spirit’s presence and daily influence changes those who receive, trust, and follow. The transformation is from those who were “dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10) to being re-birthed as “children of God” (v.14). The progenitor for this transformation is the “Spirit of God” — God’s Spirit is truly present in all of His people. This Spirit transforms believers from slaves to sin (the “spirit of slavery”) to sons and daughters of God (the “spirit of adoption”). For Paul there is no better evidence for this new familial status than the believers cry, which echoes Jesus’ own, of “Abba, Father.” But this address to God, Abba Father, has been misunderstood.
Unfortunately the influence of one translator, Joachim Jeremias (b.1900-d.1979) has led to a diminuation of this term “Abba.” Jeremias proffered that “abba” was an Aramaic term with the same connotations as our English “daddy” or even “dada” — a childish form, almost a babbling sound. But “Abba” was a word used by adults, it was a title addressed to respected elders and teachers. “Abba” was not a title that engendered “childishness.” It was an address that offered a “child-like” respect and regard and reverence for a parent.
While the Aramaic “abba” is respectful, it is, of course, also extremely familial. In all three of the New Testament occurrences of “abba” the term is followed by the Greek “the Father” (“pater”) which is definitely not, a diminutive address. Jesus’ address, and Paul’s reference here to it, points to a deep familial connection. But it does not suggest any diminutive, childish notion. The “Abba, Father” title incorporates into it the elements of intimate-distance, of close-knit kinship and respected reverence. It’s a term a grown adult would use to address a parent or respected elder, not an uninformed, infantile expression of connection.
We use this term in the same way we use the term Our Father when we pray the Lord’s Prayer. When Jesus taught this prayer, He wanted us not only to see the connection of God as a loving Father in heaven, but He followed it with a recognition of the need to hallow God’s name. We have a parent/child connection yes, but one that is built on love and respect and for us to address the Divine God as “Abba, Father” requires the connection that only the living presence of the Spirit can make real.
That Spirit, Paul continues, is the One who makes it possible for all believers to claim they are “children of God” (v.16). And to further appreciate Paul’s statement here, we also need to understand the adoption process in the ancient Greco/Roman world. Adoption, in Roman and Greek law, was a carefully adjudicated concept. The one who was “adopted” received all the rights and privileges of any natural born offspring. Therefore, what Paul is telling us is, that the “Spirit of God” which is the “spirit of adoption” transforms all disciples into full members of God’s heavenly family. The legalities of the Greek and Roman rules, and Paul’s own Pharisaic mindset, led him to declare the next logical outcome of this new relationship. If disciples are now fully children of God, then they are all “heirs” — both “heirs of God” and “joint heirs with Christ” — who is the Son of God.
This adoption is one of great privilege. But since God is eternal, the “inheritance” Paul speaks of, is one of place and honor and love, not of “things.” Being “joint heirs with Christ” is immediately connected to Christ’s suffering, not Christ’s glory. To be in an “Abba, Father” relationship with God invites us to be part of God’s family, a family in which the first-born Son sacrificed all for others. It’s a hard reality to accept. Many simply want to hear the gospel in this passage, that we are adopted and heirs of the kingdom. Few however, want to embrace the responsibility of the law side of this reading, one that accepts the sacrifice of the Son as well. Yes, law and gospel is a uniquely Lutheran concept and we must accept both; responsibility and reward. We must accept what the Spirit has revealed to us.
We must recognize that “Abba” doesn’t translate, as some teach, into today’s lingo as “Daddy.” Jesus’ address to “Abba, Father” wasn’t a “childish” exclamation, not some cutesy-nickname, not the babyish babble of “dada” or “daddy” we’ve been told in the past. The Abba Father form Jesus uses here is an address an adult would say to a parent. It conveys both intimacy and veneration. “Abba” was a title addressed to respected elders and teachers. It wasn’t a title that engendered “childishness.” Rather, it was an address that offered a “child like” respect and regard and reverence for a parent or teacher.
“Abba, Father” also describes the unique intimacy grounded in Jesus’ own Sonship. For us to be able to utter that same address of “Abba, Father” is a clear sign, that through the presence of the Holy Spirit, we too have a unique claim to kinship with God. We are well and truly “adopted” children — “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (v.17). It’s not a “childish” relationship, but a “child-like” attachment and devotion to God. The “child-like” devotion we are called to express is — as with our own children — the emulation of the parent.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday we are called to live “according to the Spirit” and with the help of the Spirit we are to put to death the things of the flesh. Like all “children,” our prime purpose is to grow and mature. To flourish in faith. To ripen in commitment. To become disciples of Christ, a genuine family of followers. And as disciples of Christ and heirs of the Father we have the promise of knowing that we aren’t alone in this calling.
Abba, God our Father has sent His Spirit, our Advocate, to help us in our struggle to die to the flesh and to raise us up into the body of Christ. It’s in this rising that we have been embraced not just into the eternal inheritance that comes with our adoption, but also into the suffering work of the Son. As growing and maturing adults, as disciples of Christ in this world, we are called to refocus our lives, not on the things of this world, but on the things of the Spirit. With the help of the Holy Spirit our focus is to be the body of Christ in this world, to the glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen