Claimed by God
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 3:13-17
Whose are we? A lot of our identity is tied up with those people who claim that we belong to and with them. Growing up, my identity was tied not only to my parents, but also to their 500+ missionary colleagues in Brazil. After all, when we gathered at out annual mission meeting, all of us missionary kids called them aunt and uncle and treated each other as family. They shared much of my particular experiences of being expats in Brazil, tied together in a joint purpose. I was also claimed by the various churches we attended, by the community formed around my schools, and extended family in the US. I had few biological or legal ties to most of these people, but I belonged to them according to their claims on me. When God is the one who claims us, how does that change our identity?
Settling issues of paternity has become a prevalent topic in entertainment these days. DNA tests can help us determine the likelihood of one's parentage with rather good precision, even if it is not foolproof. Throughout history, however, paternity was determined in ways that were at once less exact and just as unassailable. In First Century Judaism, paternity was determined by a father's claim. There was no question of determining one's DNA or uncovering any precise determination of biological processes. It was a matter of declaring a child one's own. Similarly, Jacob's wives could thus claim the sons born to their female slaves as their own. While we might be more interested in determining biological facts, the custom and law of the day gave a man the authority to claim paternity or dismiss a child as not his.
In today's passage, paternity takes on special meaning. It is no question of biology. It is no question of parentage. It is, however, related to this issue of claiming a child as one's own. Per Matthew's text, we could declare this the second time such a claim is made, even if the first were more indirect. In chapter on ...
Christopher B. Harbin
Matthew 3:13-17
Whose are we? A lot of our identity is tied up with those people who claim that we belong to and with them. Growing up, my identity was tied not only to my parents, but also to their 500+ missionary colleagues in Brazil. After all, when we gathered at out annual mission meeting, all of us missionary kids called them aunt and uncle and treated each other as family. They shared much of my particular experiences of being expats in Brazil, tied together in a joint purpose. I was also claimed by the various churches we attended, by the community formed around my schools, and extended family in the US. I had few biological or legal ties to most of these people, but I belonged to them according to their claims on me. When God is the one who claims us, how does that change our identity?
Settling issues of paternity has become a prevalent topic in entertainment these days. DNA tests can help us determine the likelihood of one's parentage with rather good precision, even if it is not foolproof. Throughout history, however, paternity was determined in ways that were at once less exact and just as unassailable. In First Century Judaism, paternity was determined by a father's claim. There was no question of determining one's DNA or uncovering any precise determination of biological processes. It was a matter of declaring a child one's own. Similarly, Jacob's wives could thus claim the sons born to their female slaves as their own. While we might be more interested in determining biological facts, the custom and law of the day gave a man the authority to claim paternity or dismiss a child as not his.
In today's passage, paternity takes on special meaning. It is no question of biology. It is no question of parentage. It is, however, related to this issue of claiming a child as one's own. Per Matthew's text, we could declare this the second time such a claim is made, even if the first were more indirect. In chapter on ...
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