“Our Father Who Art in Heaven”
Galatians 3:26-27

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Trinity Sunday—June 16, 2019

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Today for Trinity Sunday and Father’s Day we begin a series of sermons on the most familiar and beloved Christian prayer, the Lord’s Prayer.  “This, then, is how you should pray,” Jesus said: “Our FATHER who art in heaven . . .”

Jesus told the Parable of the Prodigal Son, who rebelled against his father and went away.  Later, when he was in need, he said to himself, “I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

Spiritually, that is where we all find ourselves in our relationship with our heavenly Father.  Because WE have all sinfully rebelled against him and his will, and WE are no longer worthy to be called his sons.  WE do not deserve our heavenly Father’s blessing.  Instead we have earned his punishment.  A popular form of parental punishment is “time out.”  The punishment we deserve from our HEAVENLY Father is not just a few MINUTES of time out but an ETERNITY of time out, in hell.

But, do you remember what happened in the parable, when in repentance the son returned to his father?  “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. . .  the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

The father in that parable represents God himself and his attitude toward you: compassionate, loving, forgiving.  Paul says it this way in today’s Epistle Reading in Galatians: “You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” 

I recently spoke with two fellow pastors who both just successfully completed adoptions and now have new daughters in their families.  The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is like a spiritual adoption proceeding, through which your heavenly Father reclaims you as his own child.  In the parable the father puts a ring on his son’s finger, a symbol that he has been received back into the family and is his true son once again.  In the same way in Holy Baptism God places his Spirit within you, signifying that you are his true son once again.  “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

That is sort of a funny expression: “clothed yourselves with Christ.”  But, it makes sense if you go to Revelation’s description of the redeemed in heaven: “These are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  There is a strict spiritual dress code for heaven, perfection required, and we by ourselves have only soiled, tattered spiritual robes, unworthy to pass through the heavenly gates.  But, just as the father in the parable clothed his son in the finest robe, your heavenly Father cloths you in the spiritual robe of Christ’s righteousness and holiness, and THAT makes you worthy to pass through the heavenly gates. 

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  Some well-meaning modern translations have changed “You are all SONS of God” to “You are all CHILDREN of God.”  Though the intention may be good, it really misses the point.  For in the Greek-Roman world only SONS had rights and privileges, only sons could inherit.  That is NOT the teaching of the Bible, or the way God wants it to be, but just the reality of their culture back then.  Paul uses that chauvinistic aspect of their culture to make a point: “You are ALL sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”  What a wonderful thought!  Our heavenly Father bestows upon us ALL the rights and privileges and inheritance of sons.

Last summer I you told a true story about the closing days of World War II and United States Army Lieutenant Peter Sichel.  His native land was actually Germany, but a decade earlier his family had fled the Nazis, abandoning their centuries-old, world famous vineyards and winery at Mainz.  Fearful of what would happen to a million bottles of valuable fine wines and champagne as the Germans retreated and the Allies celebrated, as they closed in on Mainz Lieutenant Sichel got special permission to go ahead and put his family’s property under military protection.

He found the family business all intact, even the sign above the main gate still said “Sichel and Sons.”  When the watchman refused to let him in, Lieutenant Sichel pointed up to the sign: “It says Sichel and Sons, doesn’t it?  Well, I am a son!  So open the gate and let me in.”

That’s what Paul means when he says, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”  Trust in Jesus as your Savior, and the gates of heaven will open for you, for you have the right of a son to enter heaven and claim your inheritance, eternal life. 

Trust in Jesus as your Savior, and you also have the privilege of calling upon God in prayer.  “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” Jesus says. “No one comes to the Father except through me.”  We make our prayers in the name of Jesus not as some kind of magic formula, but because through faith in Jesus—and only through faith in Jesus—we are adopted as God’s children, and therefore our prayers are made worthy to be received by our heavenly Father.

Paul puts this beautifully in today’s Epistle Reading, referring to our heavenly Father with the Aramaic term “Abba,” the affectionate, familiar form of address equivalent to our  “Daddy”: “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir through Christ.”

If you’ve used a fax machine, you’ve heard the signal it sends out when trying to make a connection.  The machine on the other end it looking for the right signal and will only connect if it detects it.  In the realm of prayer, it is only faith in Jesus that lets you get connected to your heavenly Father, and have your prayers received by him  Because, through faith in him you are God’s son and you have the privilege of calling upon him as “Our Father who art in heaven.”