Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
You Are ALL Sons of God
(Gender-Inclusive Language and the Church)
Theme: God calls you His son because He wants to assure you that you have a
guaranteed place in His house and a rich inheritance forever.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. In today’ Epistle, St. Paul says to each of you—and it does not matter
whether you are a male or female—“in Christ Jesus you are all SONS of God
through faith.” Then the apostle repeats the point: “You are no longer a slave,
but a SON, and if a SON, then an heir through God.” Contrary to what some
people foolishly claim, Paul does NOT use the word SON in this Epistle because
he is a male chauvinist. Paul uses this word SON deliberately. He uses this
word so that all you men and all you women may have great comfort and assurance
concerning your place in the holy Christian Church in heaven and on earth.
Dear Christian friends,
One of the main features of today’s American language is gender-inclusiveness.
Gender-inclusiveness is special care you take so that you do not sound as
though you are a male chauvinist. For example, a few decades ago a public
speaker could safely speak about MAN’S ability to do something for HIMSELF.
Today, such a speaker runs the risk of having a rock thrown at him. Today it is
much more common and far more acceptable to speak, not using the words “man”
and “himself,” but to speak about a PERSON’S ability to do something for
HIMSELF OR HERSELF. Again, the word MANKIND is now rarely used. MANKIND has
been replaced with the more sensitive word HUMANKIND. That is
gender-inclusiveness. When speaking about people in general, today’s
gender-inclusiveness attempts to refer equally to males and females alike.
For the most part, gender-inclusive language is good and beneficial. This is
especially true for the preaching of the Church. Christians are not in the
business—or at least they should not be in the business—of exalting one group
of people over another. St. Paul is right when he states in today’s Epistle,
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” If words and
phrases such as HUMANKIND and HIMSELF OR HERSELF confirm and assure women of
their equal standing with all men in the Church, then they are good words and
they should be conscientiously used.
Gender-inclusive language must be handled with care. Gender-inclusivness is
somewhat like a river: A river is good as long as it stays within its bounds;
when the river floods, it causes harm and destruction. In the same way,
gender-inclusive language is good and beneficial when it remains within certain
bounds. When gender-inclusive language bursts out of these bounds and floods
over everything, harm will come to you.
Here is an example of what I mean by this analogy: In their desire to be
gender-inclusive, some people believe that our Invocation—“In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”—should be changed because it
sounds too male-centered and chauvinistic. These people suggest that we should
instead use something more inclusive, such as, “In the name of God the Father
and Mother Goddess.” In a similar way, a sculpture of “Christa”—that is, Christ
depicted as a woman hanging on the cross—reportedly hangs on the wall of a
church building somewhere in New York (Grenz and Olson, 20th Century Theology,
225). What is the problem with pushing gender-inclusiveness too far? Only this:
“Mother Goddess” is a god that does not exist and no one named Christa ever
died for you, for your forgiveness, and for your life. Like a river that floods
out of its banks, gender-inclusiveness-pushed-too-far will lead only to
destruction. Faith
in such imaginary beings as “Mother Goddess” and Christa” will usher you
straight to hell. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and your redemption came
by the death of the man Jesus, God’s only Son.
Gender-inclusiveness will also do violence to today’s Epistle, robbing you of
the comfort and security that God delivers to you through these Words. This is
especially true where Paul says to you, “in Christ Jesus you are all SONS of
God through faith.” A translator concerned with gender-inclusiveness might feel
the urge to translate these words as, “in Christ Jesus you are all sons and
daughters of God through faith.” Or, as several modern Bible translations have
it, “in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” (NRSV, TNIV,
NLT).
Paul deliberately used the word SON in today’s Epistle, but he did not use it
because he is a male chauvinist. By design Paul skipped the inclusive-sounding
words DAUGHTER and CHILDREN in this Epistle (even though these words were
available to him in Greek) because he wants every one of you—male and female
alike—to regard yourself as a SON. There are very good reasons why Paul would
want all of you Christian men and women to regard yourselves as “SONS of God,”
but none of them have to do with the subjugation of women or the supposed
superiority of men.
1. First, you must consider Paul’s culture and world. Paul wrote in a time
when the sons of the household were generally the children who received an
inheritance. Fathers did not plan on giving their daughters an inheritance.
Fathers planned on finding husbands for their daughters. Daughters did not need
an inheritance from their fathers because they would be given into the
responsibility of their husbands, who were to provide for them.
It does not really matter whether such an arrangement sounds fair or
loving by today’s standards and customs. What matters is the point that Paul is
impressing upon you by calling you all—men and women alike—“SONS of God through
faith.” With these Words, Paul is assuring you of your personal place in the
inheritance God has in store for you—an inheritance prepared for you by your
Christ Jesus from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34) and “an
inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for
you” (1 Peter 1:4). “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor
free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
All of you are SONS in Christ Jesus. By calling you all “SONS of God,” Paul is
assuring each of you that you will never be farmed out to the care of someone
else. A father in Paul’s day would have given his daughter to a husband, but
God your heavenly
Father will never do that! By calling you a SON, Paul wants you to know that
God Himself is and shall remain your Father forever, personally caring for you
and providing for you now and always.
2. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there
is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Why? Because
“as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” as Paul
explains in today’s Epistle. With these Words, Paul wants you to know and
believe that you have such a close association and such an inseparable
connection with your Lord Jesus, the Man born of Mary, that God your heavenly
Father can hardly tell the two of you apart. You and Jesus almost look like
identical twin brothers now that you have been made a SON. You were not
baptized into “Christa” any more than you were adopted by a “Mother-Goddess.”
You were baptized into Christ Jesus the God-MAN, clothed in Christ Jesus the
God-MAN, and you were given the sinless and holy identity of Christ the dearly
beloved SON of God. By your Baptism, you were not only shrink-wrapped in Jesus,
but you were also adopted by God the
Father: forgiven all your sins in Jesus’ blood; included in the Father’s
household with the same honor as Christ His Son; seated at the Father’s table
in the same way that Christ sits at the right hand of God; promised and assured
your own share of the divine inheritance in the same way that Christ has been
given all things under His feet (Ephesians 1:22-23).
“In Christ Jesus you are all SONS of God through faith.” Dear women of the
Church, do not think of these Words as a bitter pill or as an oversight made by
a male chauvinist. Think of these Words as the source of your own personal joy
and assurance that you will never be left short and never turned over to the
care of another. (Rest assured that your sons and husbands and fathers will not
be sent away either.) Resist the urge to allow gender-inclusivity to go to far.
Take the phrase “all SONS of God” as proof positive that “There is neither Jew
nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
(As an added benefit for you ladies, here is a bit of defense for you in
particular: if some male in your life should try to give you a hard time and
make hay out of the fact that Paul calls you a SON in today’s Epistle, just
open your Bible to Ephesians chapter 5. You can use that chapter to point out
to the man in your life that HE is the BRIDE of Christ—then suggest that you
think he looks especially beautiful in the white bridal gown he has been given
to wear.)
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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