Preview(S): Transformed...Who's your daddy?

I think it is safe to say that one of the most iconic movie moments in all history has to be the moment in The Empire Strikes Back when Darth Vader tells his arch nemesis Luke that, "Luke, I am your father." 

Full disclosure:  I am aware that Vader actually says, "No, I am your father" in the movie and adding the word "Luke" to the quote is actually inaccurate...and yes I am that big a geek that I notice those mistakes, but when the quote is taken out of context you really need Luke's name included for it to make sense. 

The issue of fatherhood and paternity is a long standing movie theme, or "Trope" as they are called.  The question of who your mother is rarely gets explored in film because the answer to that question is usually pretty obvious (in all but the most extreme situations).  Your father on the other hand can be an interesting question up for debate or even the occasional shocking plot twist. Writers were doing it long before Shakespeare, the bard himself used the plot point, and even today we see the theme re-emerge from time to time in fiction.  

    There is a plethora of reasons for why your parentage matters and it's more than just figuring out if you look like your father. There are health issues, family history questions, and the importance of being connected to something greater than yourself.  All of these things help to inform us as to who we are.  If you take all the Yoak men and put us in the same room you will see a pretty predictable pattern of barrel chested, broad shouldered, bald headed (except for my uncle Sonny), big boned guys.   But all of those physical similarities aside where we come from has a huge impact on how we see things, how we understand the world, and how we participate in life.  For instance, I may look like a Yoak, but I talk like my mother's side of the family.  My dad's side are pretty quiet folks who go in for the strong-silent thing.  My mom's side are all talkers who have a bare minimum number of unexpressed thoughts...and that's me too.  

    When the ancient Jews asked the "who's your daddy" question the answer always came back to one man:  Abram (who went on to become Abraham).  Abraham was the not only the literal father of their nation he was also the figurative father of their nation...Sort of like if George Washington was all of America's actual Grandfather.  They could trace their lineage back allowing them to share in not only a physical connection, but a cultural and familial one.  In Genesis God sets Abram aside to serve this function: 

Genesis 12:1-4a
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went, as the LORD had told him

    For the Jewish nation that would then follow from that simple beginning they could all point to a promise from God that as the children of one earthly father they would be a blessed nation.  All this would get stood on its head when Jesus came to re-interpret what that promised blessing meant.  Jesus and his followers took the story of Abam/Abraham and pointed out that there was a spiritual parentage here that was actually far more important than either the biological or cultural parentage.  Abraham's real fatherhood was in sharing the gift of faith, not genetics.  Paul puts it this way in his letter to the church in Rome:

Romans: 4: 1-3 & 16-17
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -- in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

For Paul it was the heritage of Abraham's faith that really mattered. It was Abraham's faith, Paul says, that made him a father of a nation and all who share in his faith share in the promises given to that nation...not necessarily those who share in his ancestry. 

    The notion that something trumped ancestry and heritage turned the popular understanding of religion upside-down.  It seems considerably less shocking to us in this modern day world where heritage and ancestry play only an ancillary role in day to day life. But in Jesus' day ancestry was EVERYTHING. Don't misunderstand, race and ancestry still play a major role in the politics and power of this world but the role they play are far more diminished than any time before in human history. Now we see connections and social structures defined far more by whether or not we see things the same way...that is to say whether we have faith in the same things...and far less in if we share common ancestry. 

Take the extreme example of the Bosuzoku, a growing subculture in Japan (the home of all extreme and bizarre subcultures).  The Bosuzoku are greasers straight out of the fifties who ride around in hotrods and motorcycles apparently wearing black leather jackets because they feel a deeper connection to that era and sub-culture than their own time and Japanese culture.  Why?  Who knows...they're Japanese extreme cultural association is just what they do.  The notion though is that what gives us birth, whether actual birth or metaphorical birth, determines who and what we are even if the thing that gives us birth is a common love of Fonzie.  

Jesus addresses this same notion himself when he says

John 3:1-7
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God. Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

Jesus here is pointing out that as much as the Jews have long seen Abraham as their father, the truth is that if one really wants to go from a mere earthly kingdom to the far more important "kingdom of God" then you need more than Abraham.  You need another kind of birth: you need to be born of water and the Spirit: a notion that confuses poor Nicodemus. 

And yes, I know that some translations say "born again" not "born from above" but the born-from-above translation is a far better translation of what John was writing. 

So, what or who are you born from?  What in this world can lay claim to giving birth to the you that is...you?  Is it nation?  Political party or ideology?  Sub-culture?  Gender? Race? Denomination? Parentage?  All of those things are not, in and of themselves, bad...but they should no be what defines us.  They may help guide

some of our perceptions but what Jesus is saying is that in order for us really to see God's kingdom around us clearly we have to be willing to allow God to give us a new identity. We have to be born from above (or "again" if you really like, but "from above" really drives home the point that it is not an earthly birth).  A newborn really cannot lay claim to any influence but that of their parents.

 No newborn ever announced at birth that from this point forward they would only accept organic, GMO-free, antibiotic-free baby food...and all their diapers needed to be made from clouds. No, newborns only see what their parents see, only hear what their parents hear, only say what they hear their parents say.  Jesus' point is that if we have the parentage of the world clouding our vision with other points of view and opinions we can never see clearly. 

For a believer this means that we are limited to one perspective: God's.  Perceiving and understanding that perspective is an imperfect thing, and it will be as long as we remain here in this world, but it is still our "birthing" point.  Do we really want to see the Kingdom of God in our lives enough to allow the Holy Spirit to perform so radical a change in our lives?  

At baptism we ask people if they will renounce the devil and all his empty promises...I often joke with parents in pre-baptismal class that if they cannot answer yes to that question we probably should hold off on the baptism.  But what if I asked people if they would renounce their favorite ideology?  Political party?  Liberalism? Conservatism? Nationality? Race? Gender? Social status? Degrees? Titles? Denomination?....  I wonder how many fewer baptisms I would do?   But isn't that the whole point Jesus is making to Nicodemus?  Isn't Jesus saying that if you want to see God in your life, if you want to take part in this new blessing, if you want to see the kingdom of God you must start over as an infant in faith and let everything else go?  

Can you?  

Before you answer the question ask how clearly you see the Kingdom of God in your life?  How clearly do you see God in your life?  How deeply do you engage God the Father in relationship? How much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control do you see the Holy Spirit growing in your life?  If you don't see much, could it be that all those other false parents are clouding your vision?

And if there is good in all those other things (denomination, politics, ideology, race, gender, social status, nationality....etc), won't the path of faith and the Kingdom of God lead to those exact same "goods" (actually "betters") and if they do not...were they actually good in the first place?