Lectionary Readings: Year A, First Sunday after Christmas
There’s a story I heard once, and I’m sure many of you can relate to at least a part of the story. A father and his son are at home together, the father trying to get some work done, and the son is pestering his father with all sorts of questions. Things like, “Why is the sky blue?” “Are dragonflies really related to dragons?” “Why are earthworms called earthworms?”
These questions went on and on until the kid had one more question for him: “Dad, am I adopted?” Completely exasperated, and before he could respond properly, the dad blurted out, “Out of all the kids, if I had a choice, do you really think I would have picked you?”
Thankfully, the son was young enough not to really remember it the way the dad did. But this idea of choosing one’s family has grown over the years. Even for those who were not adopted. If they grew up in a family that was not very kind, or had a lot of drama, some people are choosing to make new families as young adults. They find people in their lives who provide them with comfort, and meaning, and mentor them in ways that they would have liked to have received from the family they grew up with. These people are – to them – brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers. And, they appropriately call this new family their “chosen family.”
Hearing from some people who were adopted, they tell me that there are those who look at their adoption from the standpoint that their mother gave them up – which they view as being unwanted, unloved – and they get stuck in this mindset. One of those adopted as a child said, “I got stuck in this thinking for a while, feeling terrible, feeling like I wasn’t really a part of my new family. Until one day, I suddenly had a realization that my adoptive parents had chosen me. They picked me. And then, I really started to feel loved, and wanted, and started to enjoy who I was, and the family I belong to now.”
This is really what adoption does for people. When a person has been adopted into a family, they receive all the rights and privileges of that family. They receive the family name. They share in the family reputation. They get to take advantage of all that that family has, and they have been given the legal right to be an heir when their parents die.
“But 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. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.” – Galatians 4:4-7
That “fullness of time” is the Holy Day that we just celebrated. It was the day the Word was made flesh, and lived among us. It is at that moment, in this world, that God set in motion the plan to allow all people to become children, and to become heirs, through Christ, in God’s kingdom. To inherit God’s kingdom.
We have been given the family name. We have been allowed to share in the family reputation, and we have been given the right to take advantage of all that this family has. And we are those who inherit what God has for us.
And even though we are in the season of Christmas and are celebrating the birth of Christ, we are also people who live in the reality that Christ was crucified, and died, and rose again. Meaning that our inheritance is already available to us – even now.
Paul says here, in Galatians chapter 4, that all of us are joint heirs with Christ. He is reminding us that by believing in Jesus, we are not just children of God, but that we also inherit God’s kingdom. Coming to understand the freedom that Christ’s death and resurrection granted to people is compared to becoming an heir in the kingdom of God. Those that were slaves in a wealthy household in the ancient world could never attain the inheritance that the child they were raising could. But under Christ, the slaves would become an heir, just like that child. This slave and child reference that Paul makes is about the Jews – God’s chosen people – and the Gentiles: now that Christ has come, Gentiles have the same inheritance in the kingdom of God as those born into the Jewish faith. This was definitely good news to those outside of Israel. And in case you’re wondering, unless any of us are of Jewish descent, the people Paul is referring to – the Gentiles – is us. And we are the ones who have received the gift of becoming heirs to the kingdom through adoption.
According to some studies, up to seventy percent of people who receive an inheritance1 squander it within two years. Other studies show that up to ninety percent of people who inherit money no longer have that wealth by the third generation. More often than not, it is because those who made the money2 did not adequately prepare those who inherited it on how to spend it wisely.
So, if we are Children of God, what is our inheritance? And how do we spend it wisely? You may remember the parable of the Angry Brother. The one where he has been working hard in the fields, and he sees his dad lay out a huge spread for his brother who has been wasting the family money on all sorts of less than reputable activities. And when he complains to his father about feeling like a slave, his father just says to him, “Why are you angry? You’ve been here the whole time, and everything I have is already yours to use.” That is, “Why did you feel you had to ask, son? I’ve already given everything to you. You just didn’t take advantage of it.”
It seems to me that too often, belief in Christ is equated only with eternal life, at the end of our time on earth, as if that is the only inheritance we receive. But if we look in Paul’s other letters, we see him talk about the gifts of the Spirit: teaching, prophecy, mercy, healing, wisdom, faith, encouragement, and a whole lot more. These gifts are part of our inheritance as Children of God. They are given by God, not for some distant future, but for our use in God’s Kingdom, even now, even today. And “all these [gifts] are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.”3 If we, like the Angry Brother, do not realize that these gifts are available to us even now, then we too will likely not take advantage of those things that God has provided for us. We fail to choose what is available to us, because we are focused on what we did not get, and what we do not have.
But, when we have chosen to accept the gift of the Holy Spirit when we accept the gift of God in Christ, when we have accepted our status of being adopted Children of God, then we find that the Spirit begins to burn out of us those things that are contrary to the Kingdom of God – especially those things that are contrary to the furthering of God’s kingdom here on earth. Things like jealousy, anger, factions, dissension, or idolatry. Instead, we find that the Spirit, working in us, begins to bring about fruit, namely: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son … so that we might receive adoption as children. And if you are a child, then also an heir, through God.”
There’s an interesting thing that happens in that verse I just read – verse seven of the Galatians chapter four passage. It’s only evident in the Greek, as in English we don’t have the distinction, except in regional dialects. You see, Paul has been talking to the Galatians in the plural form of “you” up until this point. He has been saying, “You all,” or “Y’all” need to know that y’all are children of God. But then, for the very last verse, he switches into the singular, and says, “You are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child, then also an heir to God.”
In verse six, Paul says, “Because you [plural] are children, God has sent the Spirit…” and then in verse seven, “Therefore you [singular] are no longer a slave but a child … of God.” This is not just some general idea for “lots of people.” Paul is trying to say that “you, yourself, you individually, you,” are a child of God. He’s no longer addressing the nebulous crowd of believers, but wants to make sure that his readers understand that this inheritance applies to each of them individually. This is a message Paul felt everyone needed to hear on a personal level.
Paul is emphasizing that:
God chose you.
God chose you.
God chose you.
Talk about a chosen family. God has chosen each of us, adopted us, and made us children. Heirs of the promises of heaven, and living heirs of abundant life here and now. God had a choice, and picked us.
And if we acknowledge that and accept that gift, then we realize that there’s an incredible inheritance that is just ripe for the picking.
[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on December 28, 2025.]
