A sermon delivered on December 31, 2023, Year B by Rev. Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Our text today is a birth narrative written before any of the other birth narratives of Matthew, Mark, or Luke were written. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were storytellers who painstakingly went to lengths to write the Story of Jesus in ways their respective audiences would relate with and remember. Paul, on the other hand, was a Jewish theologian who wrote directly and to the point. His birth narrative is short, and tight, and delivers the gospel promise to all who could hear what he had to say. There is no baby wrapped in swaddling clothes wriggling in a feed trough, there are no Magi who come bearing gifts, or angel appearances declaring great news and tidings of joy. No, Paul cuts straight through to what the Good News of God actually is.

I suppose Paul’s birth narrative is so tight and compact because the stakes were high with the group of Gentile Christians he was writing to in Galatia. Things had started off well enough for them but then what we might call Old School Jews came into the fellowship and started clouding up the message. They began to sow seeds of doubt among their Gentile church members about the legitimacy of their faith. They insisted that if Gentile members were really devout Christians, then they would have to start following the old Jewish Law and Torah which included the necessity of adult male circumcision.

Paul is totally over this corruption of the Gospel message which required certain acts to be followed before they could be loved by God. The previous chapter of our letter begins with Paul exclaiming quite literally, “You stupid Galatians! Who has bewitched you!?” Consequently, Paul goes straight to the point of the Gospel narrative. Turn in your Bible to Galatians 4:4-7. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

⁴But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. ⁶And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.^.[1]

Over 25 years ago, there was a young man who was a member of the church I led in Florida and who also began to hang out at my home a good bit. You see, I have two beautiful daughters. Under the auspices of doing “youth group” stuff together, Tyson hung out a lot. During this time, he got pretty familiar with me and called me, “Patrick.” Granted, that is my given name but when you as an adult hear some pimply 15-year-old call you by your first name, well, it just doesn’t feel right. I grew up with the strict instructions everyone older than you was always addressed as “sir” or “ma’am.” Calling an adult by their first name was seen as verboten. Eventually, the true reason for hanging out became evident and he started dating my youngest daughter, Kate. Once their relationship changed, so did mine with Tyson.

I am a firm believer that a daddy of two beautiful daughters has to set boundaries with these boys calling on them at my home. So, if a young man came and had dinner with us, I would smile, ask everyone at the table to hold hands, and then say, “Bobby, it’s a tradition at our house that our guests are given the privilege of saying grace. Please, go ahead.” That was always a fun thing to do watching them be reminded who was in charge. But the other boundary I set was a boundary of respect and that a child addressed an adult as such and not with their first name. So, one day after he’s started going out with my daughter, Kate, he called me ‘Patrick’; I looked at him over my glasses, smiled, and said, “It’s Dr. Wrisley, for you.” I mean, c’mon! I was the dad of the daughter he was dating. I was the pastor of the church he was attending. Boundary set. Boundary noted.

Over time, they continued to date through college and one day he approached me and asked, “Dr. Wrisley, I would like to marry your daughter.” I was thrilled! Of course! By this time, I had known Tyson for years as well as his folks! He was a great young man any father would be thrilled to have as a son-in-law! I enthusiastically told him, “Yes!” and went on to tell him, “And please, call me Dad.”^[2]

What changed? Our mutual identities changed. No longer was I his pastor or his girlfriend’s dad; no longer was there a need for a firm boundary of ‘you’re out there and I’m in here.’ No longer was he “that boy” but now he was my son. His identity changed because he was now part of my family and with the change of identity, there was now a new depth of intimacy that wasn’t there before.

Beloved, whereas Matthew’s birth story declares Jesus’ identity as savior when Joesph is told by the angel, “You shall name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins” and whereas in Luke’s birth account Mary is told that Jesus’ identity will be tied to sitting on the throne of King David,[3] Paul’s birth narrative deals not only with Jesus’ identity but our identity, too. Paul is trying to convince the Galatian Christians that THEY have had an identity change. No longer are they outsiders. No longer were they to be treated as unclean, unworthy participants in the faith community or in the world. No longer were they required to fulfill every edict, every jot and tittle of the Jewish Law. No, in Paul’s understanding, the Galatians were now bona fide, full members of the family of God. Their identity changed: Because Jesus came to rescue all those who were under weight of the Law’s impossible demands, we are now called heirs, sisters and brothers who are a part of the family of God. Jesus is now our brother. We now have inheritance rights we never had before!

This reality hit home for me in a big way while serving in a former church. Kristopher and Robert were the guardians of a little boy of a family member who was not capable of caring for him adequately. Kristopher and Robert took charge of this little boy at an early age and raised him as their own. I will never forget the excitement on their faces as they sent me a picture of the three of them flying to Kentucky to formally adopt this 8-year-old boy as their own son. The next day, they sent another picture with the three of them along with the judge as the boy held a sign, “I have my forever home!”

Everything changed for that little boy that day. He had two parents who made him their very own. He had a new last name. He had his own room, his own Christmas stocking, and new parents to sit with the teacher at the parent-teacher conferences. His forever family would see to his emotional, physical, and spiritual needs. They would guarantee he would be raised in a Christian home. Why? Because this little boy’s identity changed. He was no longer on the outside hoping to be a part of a family; he was now an heir and had a full seat at the dinner table.

Paul’s birth narrative is pretty basic and to the point. It’s about our getting a new identity. At the fullness of time, God sent his son, Jesus, born of a woman, born under the strictures of the Jewish Law, in order to redeem those under the same Law that could not be kept, in order that we might receive adoption as God’s bona fide children. The proof of our adoption is that within each of us, in the inner depths of our heart and soul, there is God’s Spirit calling out, not to the Great Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, but crying out for Abba, Daddy, our very own Father! We are family members now. Paul’s birth narrative highlights God was born that we might have a new identity and receive adoption papers. It’s an identity we live into right this moment, in the now, not way off into the future when we die and are in heaven.

Friends, has your heart ever cried out, “Father! Abba! Help me!”? If so, then you have been given the sweet gift of adoption papers into the household of your forever family of God. It means your very identity has been changed and is different. On this New Year’s Eve, the question I pose for all of us is this: Am I living into my identity as a son or daughter of God? What do others see? What is my identity to them?

In the Name of the One who is, was, and ever more shall be, Amen.

© 2023 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801 and may not be reproduced or repurposed without permission from the author. All rights reserved.

[1] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org.

[2] Tyson had the last word, though. He continued to call me, “Dr. Wrisley” after their wedding just to bug me.

[3] See Matthew 1:21-24 and Luke 1.31-35.