Sunday after Christmas, Sunday, December 29th, 2013
Fr. Todd Bragg
St. Margaret Anglican Church
Indianapolis, Indiana
" And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Galatians 4)
In the ancient world, there were definite, set times in the process of growing up. For the Jews, on the first Sabbath after a boy had his twelfth birthday, the boy would be considered an adult. The father would take the boy to the synagogue and pray over him: "Blessed be Thou, O God, Who has taken from me the responsibility for this boy." Likewise, the boy would also pray a prayer thanking God for allowing him cross over from childhood to becoming an adult.
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (I Corinthians 13:11) St. Paul is making the point that similar to growing up physically, a child has different ways of looking at things and thinking and acting as opposed to how an adult looks at things and acts, etc. So, too, with our relationship with God, we grow in our faith life and we grow spiritually and mature as we live our life with God.
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15) St. Paul is stating that in our relationship with God, we are so blessed that God has not only adopted us as His children, but our relationship with Him is so close that we can call Our Heavenly Father, "Abba" or "Daddy."
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:36)
In the ancient world, there were definite, set times in the process of growing up. For the Jews, on the first Sabbath after a boy had his twelfth birthday, the boy would be considered an adult. The father would take the boy to the synagogue and pray over him: "Blessed be Thou, O God, Who has taken from me the responsibility for this boy." Likewise, the boy would also pray a prayer thanking God for allowing him cross over from childhood to becoming an adult.
"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things." (I Corinthians 13:11) St. Paul is making the point that similar to growing up physically, a child has different ways of looking at things and thinking and acting as opposed to how an adult looks at things and acts, etc. So, too, with our relationship with God, we grow in our faith life and we grow spiritually and mature as we live our life with God.
"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15) St. Paul is stating that in our relationship with God, we are so blessed that God has not only adopted us as His children, but our relationship with Him is so close that we can call Our Heavenly Father, "Abba" or "Daddy."
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:36)
No comments:
Post a Comment