Pastor Dan Eddy
Galatians 3:23—4:7
“From Orphans to Heirs”
6-20-10
I.
Introduction –
Little Orphan Annie
(Sing)
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!
Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!
That song of optimism is from the movie and Broadway production of Little Orphan Annie. Annie is the little red-haired,
high-spirited, young orphan girl, living during the Great Depression in a
miserable orphanage run by mean Miss Hannigan. Annie’s incredibly hopeless
situation changes with the prospects of possibly being adopted by rich man,
Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.
Annie shows us
that nobody really wants to live in an orphanage. Everyone wants to belong to a family who loves them. So, for this
morning, I want you to put yourself in the shoes of Little Orphan Annie as I
relate today’s Epistle reading from Galatians 3 and 4 to your life today.
II.
Held prisoners by the Law (Orphan –Slaves)
One of the
confusing aspects of Paul’s Epistles is it appears he’s giving God’s law a bad
rap, like many orphanages have. I mean come on, isn’t the Law good like Psalm 1
states? Don’t we want to follow the 10 Commandments and the other Laws God
commands in the Bible? Why is Paul describing the Law like a prison?
The same reason
why we want kids to be adopted out of orphanages. They provide food and
shelter, but nobody wants to spend their whole childhood there. Everyone wants
to belong to a family with a father and a mother, who love them. Orphanages
don’t have that. Oh there are mother and
father figures, but it’s just not the same.
In essence, Paul
is saying that many people live in a spiritual orphanage. They live with the
idea that if they just follow the 10 Commandments and “love your neighbor as yourself” that should be good enough. Maybe
they don’t realize when it comes to their relationship with God they can be
adopted into a real family…one where they will be loved.
There’s no doubt
the law supervises our actions, and God wants us to do the right things. But
without the Gospel, there’s no spiritual family to belong to. You’re on your
own.
But with adoption
there’s a Father, who will love them, and a family to care for them, and an
inheritance from God seen now, and fully realized in the afterlife.
It’s a
relationship with God that’s more that following some Commandments. Remember deep down inside, everyone wants
to belong to a family, who loves them.
When people think
doing the right things are enough to get by in life, they may not realize they
can be enslaved by their actions. They know deep down inside their deeds come
up short; there’s something missing; there’s always guilt for bad behavior and
actions. Annie felt more like a slave living in that orphanage. She felt she
came up short as a person.
Maybe sometimes
we feel that way that we come up short with our deeds, and don’t feel like we
are a part of God’s family.
Trying to do the
right thing is not what gets you adopted into God’s family. The law serves as a
father-figure. It’s good and proper, but there’s a lot more to God than
following His Commandments. The law is
a father-figure pointing to the one and only Heavenly Father, revealed through
His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, the only one who followed all His Father’s
Law perfectly.
III.
Adopted from Law as orphans to be the
Heavenly Father’s Children- Heirs
Annie realized
that she wanted a father and a mother. She wanted her life to have more meaning
in a real family, not just something that looked
like a family.
And that’s why
you were adopted away from the law. The day you were born into this world, you
may have been born into a family with an earthly mom and dad, but in terms your
relationship to your Heavenly Father, you were considered an orphan…a creation
of God’s but not His child, at least not yet.
Baptism is the
vehicle of adoption that turns you from an orphan-slave to a son or daughter,
His child, to live forever in our Heavenly Father’s kingdom. You didn’t earn
it; it was given without merit.
Christ was sent to earth to be incarnated as Jesus so that He could offer hope
to all of us orphans. He was born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those
who didn’t follow the law perfectly. He did it with His suffering and death on
the Cross, liberating us from the slavery of the law, the burden of our sins,
and released us from the bonds of our miserable orphanage. Christ liberated us from the orphanage and
chooses us to be adopted into His Heavenly Father’s home.
Now by faith, given to you by Jesus through the water and the Word,
you’re not just God’s creation; you’re His child; you are our Heavenly Father’s
own son or daughter. By faith alone, you are adopted and wear his special
garments, clothed with His exclusive
love. You are fed His special food given in the bread and cup of His Son’s real
body and blood. (Hold up bulletin) Look
how much God has done for you.
As a result, you’ve been given the promise of His inheritance. That’s something
no orphan or slave ever receives…the Father’s inheritance of where His last
will and testament is forgiveness of sins, forever; power over death, forever;
and a life to come that will never end.
By faith in His Son, you are part of His family, forever. Today, you get
little glimpses of the inheritance through this earthly family we call the Church,
especially in this house of Christ Lutheran.
And the heavenly Father doesn’t have favorites. He loves all His sons
and daughters, equally, because they all have the same faith in His Son.
IV.
Problem with
adoption – Appreciating what the Father has done
But, you see, I don’t know if we always appreciate all our Heavenly
Father through what His Son has done. It’s
the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence syndrome. I
think sometimes we would rather go back to the orphanage, because we don’t
think our Heavenly Father is treating us well…that maybe He doesn’t really love
us.
In the movie version of Annie…Daddy
Warbucks was trying to help Annie find her real parents. The orphanage
director, mean Miss Hannigan,
along with her evil brother, Rooster tried to impersonate Annie’s parents in
order to get the reward money. That put Annie in great danger.
I think Satan impersonates God in trying to convince us that our real
family is in the world with all its material seductions and “promises” that if we just do the right
things, we will have financial security, career advancements, and be allowed to
seek life’s many pleasures. Satan is trying to convince you the church is the
real “orphanage,” the real “prison,” and Satan is trying to “adopt” you to be his child. That puts
our relationship with our Heavenly Father in real danger.
Sometimes it takes the power of God’s Word to help us appreciate again how
much our Heavenly Father has done for us, and to show us who our real family
is. Sometimes, in our faith walk, we become like my older brother was when he
was a teenager.
Dave often complained that our family didn’t have what other families
had: a bigger house, his own room, vacations to Hawaii, a better variety of
food, freedom to stay out past curfew, and on, and on, and on. He wished he
lived in a different family.
Now you have to know my father. It may appear at first like he was not
listening…like we may sometimes feel about our Heavenly Father. Then one day as
my brother was complaining, my dad told my Dave to get into the car. They went
for a long ride.
My dad didn’t say a thing and my brother didn’t know where they were
going. The silence was deafening. For over an hour they traveled that way. My
brother’s heart kept beating faster as he didn’t know what my father was going
to do.
Then all of a sudden my dad stopped the car at a place called
My brother saw children his age and younger who walked in great pain taking
simple steps to walk. For others saying simple sentences were challenging. My
brother learned many of these kids didn’t live with their parents in the same
house. And how many of them would not live long lives.
That was the day my brother learned compassion for others less fortunate
in our world. In this life-changing moment he began to appreciate his father,
mother, and brothers a whole lot more. To this day, my brother calls my dad
almost very week, and regards my father with the upmost most respect, and sees
him as a man of great integrity and love.
The Apostle Paul wrote these words of our text to the church at
The more we appreciate what our Heavenly Father did for us through His
Son, the more we, by the power of His Spirit, shout “Abba, Father.” Because we know that we are no longer an
orphan-slave but His child, a son or daughter who has inherited His kingdom.
V.
How to live the
proclamation of “Abba, Father”
And that should motivate us as a congregation to have compassion on
those of God’s creation who are still in or have gone back to their spiritual orphanages,
who have lost hope that they will ever be adopted.
As we proclaim “Abba, Father”
we let them know Christ has opened the prison of the orphanage and has paved
the way for adoption into the family of His Church. The law is no longer seen as enslaving, but as a guide for us to joyfully serve the
Lord.
So, with that in mind, are we doing all we can to help those in our
church and in our families and in our communities feel like this is a family?
Is this congregation a home where people want to be adopted and to live?
That’s why I am glad that this summer Vice-President John Herth is
leading a study committee that is looking at either changing our starting
worship time from 9am to another time and/or adding a second service. This is
being done with the goal toward bringing in more people from the orphanages out
there to their adopted family here, where, by faith in Christ, they know this
is a family who loves them.
My prayer is that next week’s congregational meeting will take on an
outward looking vision so that like Daddy Warbucks we can provide a better
tomorrow, and a better eternity for more people.
What role will you play in liberating people from their spiritual
orphanages?
The Son'll (point to cross) come
out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be Son!
The Son wants you to welcome more here in His Heavenly Father’s house of
Christ Lutheran, so that like Annie we, too, can celebrate with them, the
adoption as our Heavenly Father’s Children, receiving the priceless inheritance
of peace and life everlasting. Amen.