Children of God. Romans 8:12-17 & John 3:1-17 

I’m really pleased to be here, with the opportunity to preach this morning.   Of course, I’m always enjoy preaching, especially to such a fine bunch of folks as you lot, but today I’m especially excited.  That is because today is Trinity Sunday, and I love the Trinity.  I think that it is one of the most exciting and exhilarating aspects of God that there is, and I love talking about it.  One of the dangers of this is that I might get a bit carried away.  Trinity Sunday only comes round once a year, and there is more to be said about the Trinity than can be said in quarter of an hour once a year.   But that is what we have, so hopefully this morning, even if I don’t say everything that can be said about the Trinity, I will say enough to help us to experience one God in three persons in a way that is deeper and more real to our hearts.

One of the reasons that I find the Trinity to be so attractive, is that it seems to me that the idea of relationship being at the heart of God’s identity, who God is, helps us to understand our own relationship with God, and our identity, who we really are.

It seems to me that questions of identity are really important, particularly at the moment.  Who am I?  I might define myself by my family relationships: I am a husband, a son, a father.   I might define myself by my job: I am a curate.  I might define myself by my nationality: I am British.   But, it seems to me that these ways of working out who we are can leave us very vulnerable.   Over the last few decades, as the people have become more able to move around the country, families have become less physically close, marriages have broken up, and people close to us die.  If I have defined myself as my grandchild’s grandparent, what happens to my identity when that young family has to move to find work?  If my identity and self worth are all tied up with my work, with my job, what happens to that when I lose my job?  What does it mean to be British?  As we see the disaster area of our national political scene at the moment, is being British something that we want to be?

It seems to me that we all need something more stable, more trustworthy to show us our identity, who we really are, how valuable we are.

I believe that God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, can give us that.

In both the readings that we had this morning, from Paul’s letter to the young church in Rome, and in John’s account of Jesus’ life, we come across the idea of us being children of God.  This is our true identity.  We who follow Jesus are children of God.  We are children of God. 

But what does that mean, how does it happen, how can it be?  I mean, look at us.  We are a varied lot, each of us have different sins and failings, but we do all have them.  We’re just ordinary people, not famous or important in the world’s eyes.  How can we be children of God?  It seems to me that we find the answers to these questions in the heart of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

From John we hear that Father God loved the world.   That is where it all starts, with Father’s love.  Because of that love Father sent the Son, Jesus, into the world, to live as one of us, to live among us.  But not only did God send the Son, but God also gave the Son over to death on the cross.  

Whenever we go through hard times and grief, we can know that God also saw the Son die, a death that was completely unjust and cut down a man in his prime, a man who was only thirty three.  Through that death and raising Jesus to life, God saves all those who believe.  Not only does Father us give the Son, but from Paul we hear that Father also gives us the Spirit.

From these passages, we seem to get this idea of Father’s love being expressed in the generosity with which Father gives the Son and the Spirit to us, so that we can be children of God, and so that we can experience that in all its richness.

What about Jesus?  From John we see that Jesus is the one who actually came to earth in a body.  He actually did the living here, the walking here, the teaching here, the loving here, the dying here.   He was here, and then he returned to be with Father, having opened up the way so that we could travel that way as well.   From Paul we see that part of being made children of God is that we become like the Son of God, and will share his glory, his inheritance.  The marvellous thing is that Jesus’ inheritance isn’t made less by others joining him in it, it is actually made more.  It’s not like an earthly inheritance where there is a certain amount of money to be divided up between those who are inheriting.   

The closest thing that I can think of to describe it is like the fan base of a football club.   As a club is more successful, more people support it, because they are attracted to the success, and as more people support the club, they can raise more revenue and get more successful.  Christ’s glory increases (if such a thing is possible) the more people who share it.

But, Paul reminds us that being children of God is not just about sharing the inheritance of glory but also the suffering of Jesus.

When I was thinking about this I was reminded of a verse of a carol that we often sing at Christmas time, “Once in Royal David’s City”.

For he is our childhoods pattern, day by day like us he grew. He was little, weak and helpless, tears and smiles like us he knew.  And he feeleth for our sadness, and he shareth in our gladness.

If we really are children of God, Jesus is our childhood’s pattern.  I think that the writer of the carol was probably focussing on physical childhood, but I think that it says some much more interesting things if we read it as referring to our childhood in God.  What does living as a child of God mean? 

It means living like Jesus.  He is our childhood’s pattern.  He chose to become little, weak and helpless so that he could be with us in our weakness.  So we are to get alongside those who are weak and helpless.  He feels for our sadness and shares our gladness.  So we are to share the feelings of those around us.  When our friends or neighbours are celebrating, we celebrate with them.  When family and loved ones are going through sad times, we come alongside them and be with them in their grief.

Jesus suffered so that we could be children of God. We share Jesus’ glory to the same extent that we share Jesus’ sufferings.  There is no hiding from the fact that being part of a family can be painful, and being part of God’s family is no exception.  The things that we prefer to do might have to take a back seat.  We might be singled out for abuse or persecution.   We have been invited into the family of God, but not so that we can draw up the bridge behind us.  We are to follow the family pattern.   This family that we have become part of is one that reaches out and draws as many people as possible in.  We too will suffer so that others can also be children of God.  What a privilege.

And so to the Spirit.

In John’s account we hear Jesus say that it is the Spirit who gives new birth into the Kingdom.  If it is God’s love that sends Jesus to make that birth possible, it is the Spirit who brings that birth about, who delivers us as children of God.  Paul expands on this idea, showing us that the Spirit does three different things.

Firstly the Spirit actually makes us children of God.  When we choose to follow Jesus, when we say that we want to be children of God, the Spirit makes it really happen.   There is something about the reality of who we are at the very core of our being that changes.  We really become children of God, and it is the Spirit that does this.

Secondly, the Spirit works to convince us that it has really happened.   This might seem a bit odd, I mean if I’m right and when we become children of God, something really changes, then why isn’t obvious to us, how come we can’t just tell?   Well, sometimes we can.  Sometimes it is easy to believe that we are children of God.  That God loves us, and that we are OK.  But at other times it isn’t.  At those times, it is easier to hear the lies that are spoken to us.  Those voices that tell us that we are not good enough, not important enough, that we are kidding ourselves if we think that God could care for us.   It is at those times that we need to hear the Spirit telling our Spirit not to despair but to trust 

God, and the promises that have been made to us, that we really are the children of God.

Thirdly, the Spirit helps us to live us children of God.   This is because, although the reality of who we are has changed, the reality of what we do can take a bit of time to catch up.  We know that we are children of God, and that Jesus is our pattern, but it is difficult to match up to that pattern.  In fact, we can’t do it on our own, we don’t have the strength.  But this isn’t bad news, it’s actually good news.  We can’t do it on our own, we have to depend on the Spirit to help us, just us our pattern, Jesus, did.  

The Spirit makes our identity as children of God real: real in eternity, real in our view of our selves, and real in our behaviour.

God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   Three persons in everlasting loving relationship with each other, invite us to join that relationship as children of God.  Love, sacrifice and power make it possible.  What a sure foundation of our identity, for our knowledge of who we really are, of how valuable we are in the eyes of the one who created us.