"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." [Romans 8:15b-17]
I keep learning theology from folk-rock singers. And I think it's doing my soul good.
When I hear these words from Paul's letter to the Romans, words many of us heard just this past Sunday, I hear a song of Brandi Carlile's playing in the background of my mind, her voice taking on the apostle's sentiment while someone plucks an acoustic guitar behind it. On her song, "Most of All," she opens with this line:
"I haven't seen my father in some time/ but his face is always staring back at me..."
And then her second verse continues the thought: "I haven't heard my mother's voice in a while/ but her words are always falling out my mouth..."
I love the way she talks about the connections with her parents, even now that her adult self doesn't see them every day. For as long as it's been since they've been in the same room, she sees her father's reflection in the mirror. For as long as it's been since they've talked on the phone, she catches her mother's way of speaking, maybe even the sound of her voice, in her own words. Those personal quirks, mannerisms, and little details are what tells her she belongs to that family--she can see the family resemblance, and she can hear her mother's voice in her own. And when she catches those traits in herself, she knows she belongs.
Those features that run in the family--the cadences of home, the lines in faces you can trace across generations--those have a way of telling us both who and whose we are. It's like when I sing the bass line to a hymn on a Sunday morning and think to myself, "I learned that from my dad," or when I catch myself saying to my children exactly what I heard my mother say to me one, and I am reminded both of where I come from and who I am now. Or on the occasions when I hear my children, whose adoptions have only been in the last ten years, say things I know they have learned from me, I get a glimpse of what Paul means when he talks about our adoption into God's family. We belong as a gift of God's grace, and the Spirit's presence in our lives can't help but be revealed in us and confirm that belonging.
The apostle's way of saying it is that when we catch ourselves crying out, "Abba! Father!" in our prayer lives (note that Paul's audience would have been Greek speakers, but here they would all be using the Aramaic "Abba" that they had learned in tradition from Jesus himself), it is evidence that the Spirit is speaking through us. It's very much like Brandi Carlile's lyric about her mother's words "always falling out my mouth." When we catch ourselves daring to call on the Creator of the universe and Ruler of all creation in such intimate terms as "Papa" or "Dad" it's a sign we've learned it from belonging in the family of God. We catch the Spirit's words falling out of our mouths, and we see the reflection of Christ in our own faces in the mirror--and we remember both who and Whose we are.
On this day, then, while there's a lot we cannot predict about what will come our way before the sun sets, we know two things for certain. We know that we belong in the very household of God, and it's not our good behavior, religious respectability, or rule-following that assures us--it is the very Spirit of God who draws forth our words, crying out to God like children who know they are loved by a good and gracious parent. And second, we know that the same Spirit who dwells in us is making us to reflect Jesus more and more fully day by day. We won't know what challenges will arise before this day is done, and we won't always have right answers for how to face them--but we do know that we face them as children of God. And when we catch the word of audacious love coming out of our mouths, or when we see the same servant-leadership we have known in Jesus in our own choices, we'll come to recognize the family resemblance. We'll know the familiar feel and sound of the cadences of home.
Abba, remind us today of our belonging, and enable us to step into this day reflecting the image of Christ, whose place in the household we share.
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