Y Not I

I read a few posts from Russell D. Moore over the weekend about adoption, and I found them pretty powerful. First of all, being a parent of two adopted children, I was able to relate to many of the experiences he and his family have also have had with the things people say and with the feelings we feel as parents in regard to our love for our children.

There were 2 previous articles on the subject which the most recent post links back to. I am going to list them here in chronological order. There is also a spoken message, however it is in Real Media format, which I personally avoid, and thus did not listen to. If you have no problem with Real and there annoyances and tactics, then feel free to find that link and give a listen.

• The Brotherhood of Sons (from Touchstone Magazine)
• Moore Than a Birthday (from Moore to the Point - the Henry Institute)
• So Which Ones Are Adopted? (from Moore to the Point - the Henry Institute)

I think the articles make some incredible points, both about being a parent of adopted children and how even though others think and assume there is some kind of difference to the love we have for our children, and to the point of how Christians have been adopted into the people of God.

Of course Abraham himself was called out from among the nations to become a unique people, so in a sense we are all, Jew and Gentile adopted into the family of God. The articles, however, gave me a real appreciation for the Gentiles that are part of the Messianic movement.

I think the Gentiles in the Messianic movement have gotten a bad rap. The greater Jewish community will look at all the Gentiles that are part of Messianic Judaism and in our congregation and try to show that the movement is not what we portray it to be, a movement of Jews that believe in the Messiah. In other words often times the number of Gentiles that are in a Messianic Synagogue are greater than the number of Jews and thus somehow, the movement is counterfeit because of this.

Secondly, sometimes Gentiles that come into the Messianic movement are not really called to it. They come for a season, and eventually they become tired of it and return to what is to them, a more traditional method of worshiping God, in the church. It is wonderful for these people to come and experience the richness of their heritage, but those people should truly consider the cost before becoming members. My Rabbi likes to point out that Messianic Judaism is a calling and that it is not for everyone, and thus if this is not something that God has called you to, then do not become members, but feel free to visit often and take in and enjoy what Rabbi calls the “Spiritual DNA” of the Christian faith.

But for those that are truly called to Messianic Judaism and take it all in and like Ruth, become a part of the Jewish people by faith, those people, I think have touch on something that Moore points our about adoption.

We teach them about their heritage, but their heritage as Mississippians. They learn about their great-grandfather, the faithful Baptist pastor, about their countrymen before them in the Confederate army and the civil rights movement. They wouldn’t know “Peter and the Wolf” if they heard it, but they do know Charley Pride and Hank Williams and “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” They are Moores now, with all that entails.

I suppose this is why the New Testament points all of us toward the Old Testament narratives repeatedly, which are given, as Paul told the church at Corinth, “as examples for us” (1 Cor. 10:6). It is not just that these accounts show us something universal about human nature and God’s workings. It is that they are our story, our heritage, our identity.

Those are our ancestors rescued from Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, led back from exile. They are our forefathers and this is our family. Whether our background is Norwegian or Haitian or Indonesian, if we are united to Christ, our family genealogy is found not primarily in the front pages of our dusty old family Bible but inside its pages, in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

For the Messianic Gentile, the heritage of Israel and of the Jewish people become their heritage as well, in a very real, very deep and very practical way. The Holy Days become their Holy Days, the traditions, their traditions. Not because they have to, not because salvation rests upon it, not because it makes them any better than the Gentiles that are in the churches. No, it is because they have been called to it and have answered the call, and the adoption for them is as it is for Russell Moore’s children and as it is for my children; something that completely brings into the family into which they were adopted. They are not really anything other than the family they are adopted into, the family of Messianic Judaism, the family of God. For the Messianic Gentiles, they are adopted children of Abraham, but they also become children of Isaac and Jacob as well.

For me this is something I have not appreciated as much as I should. For me this is something I will no longer take lightly. May we all grow strong and close with our Meshpuchah.

B”H