Adoptionism

Adoptionism

Shelle Baker

Prayer: (Baha'i Prayer)

Awesome and gracious God -

you who are the power that brings us to life and the spirit that sustains us -

forgive us for being less than we might be.

Guide us to become what is in our power to become, in your service.

Send us out from this place of worship and time of celebration,

to live lives of hope -

to be nurturers of the vision of wholeness -

and to serve as healers in this wounded world.

All this we ask in the name of those to come,

and in the spirit of those who have gone before.

Grant us wisdom -

grant us courage -

grant us your peace.

Amen.

Sermon

Several months ago when Barry, our minister, was leading Religious Education he was teaching us Unitarian Universalist history. He had mentioned Adoptionism in passing when someone asked what Adoptionism was. Barry had replied that it was the theory that God adopted Jesus and then went on with his lecture. I’ll be honest, I didn’t pay attention to the rest of the class, I was thinking about how Adoptionism could explain so much. I thought it would make such a good service that I asked Barry to talk about it sometime but he declined and said it would be a good topic for me to do. Well played, Barry. Well, I thought I’d just forget about it then, thinking that I did not have the education to stand up here today and talk to you about this. However this idea has consumed my mind. I felt as though I had to share this idea with you.

I researched and I found that there are other religions that believe basically the same thing I’m going to talk to you about today only they don’t use the term adoption. The Baha’is say that great prophets who have had a revelation are manifestations of God. If we define a prophet as: “A person who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the will of a god is expressed.” I say why can’t any prophet be an adopted child or manifestation of the one and only God? Yes, I said one and only.

Why is it that Zarathushtra, Muhammad, Jesus, Baha’u’llah, Guru Nanak, and so many others have similar messages from their Gods? Do they all have different Gods? I don’t think so. I think that the essence of all of the prophets of God is one and the same because it’s all the same God. Well, they have some different ways of worshiping, you say. I think that how you perceive God when it contacts you, what you call him or her and the rules for living that God gives you has a lot to with your culture, with your existing beliefs and ways of understanding the world. It doesn’t change the underlying message of peace and love.

So, if we believe that God went to Jesus and said “Hey, look Jesus, you are a good person, you’ve led an honest life and I think you’re a great candidate to pass along my message. I’d like to make you my adopted son and give you information to tell the masses.” Then couldn’t he also have said, “Hey, Nanak, you’ve spent you life devoted to me, you are a righteous person and I’d like to take you as my son and give you my message to convey to the people.”

I submit to you today that he did.

Today I want to talk to you about 3 of God’s kids. Now, I know that God’s got a lot of kids and some of you would even say that we’re all God’s kids and I won’t dispute that. For this service’s purposes we’re going to talk about God’s kids who chose to not just talk about God, but to be an interpreter for their adopted parent.

I’m going to tell you when I think each of the kids were adopted and a story from each of their incredible lives. We’ll start with Zarathushtra.

Zarathustra

I think Zarathustra was adopted when he was 30 years of age. One day Zarathushtra was sitting by a river and pondering when a strange man appeared in front of him. The man was ten feet tall with a bright face and long curly hair, and wore a white silk robe. Zarathushtra asked him who he was. The man answered, "Zarathushtra Spitama, I am archangel Vohuman. I have come to take you somewhere."

The angel took Zarathushtra’s hand, and they flew up into the blue sky until they reached a lighted place where it was so bright that at first Zarathushtra could not see anything. When his eyes cleared, he saw seven angels with glowing faces waiting for him.

The angels said, "Zarathushtra Spitama, you have been chosen as God’s messenger. Go tell the people to give up their false gods. There is only one God, Ahura Mazda, the wise Lord. He is the one who has created all the good things in the world and He wants you to guide the people to righteousness."

"But how can I do that? I am neither a powerful king nor a warrior!" Zarathushtra asked.

The angels answered, "Use your wisdom and follow the good thoughts, good words, and good deeds."

Now by most accounts, Zarathushtra was a normal guy just trying to pass God’s message along. He spent a lot of his time traveling trying to find someone who’d listen and believe him. That’s where our story about him begins:

Zarathushtra was 42 when he and his followers finally reached the court of King Vishtaspa. The wise King had granted Zarathushtra an audience, but he had also invited all the priests and wise men of his court to attend and listen to Zarathushtra and question him about his philosophy. The King had wisely set the scene for a debate, if it need be.

At the debate in the court of King Vishtaspa, Zarathushtra eloquently spoke and convincingly responded to all challenges and questions. The King saw the wisdom of this man, and his teachings and embraced the religion. At the same time, the King invited his subjects to also listen carefully and choose wisely to follow the Zoroastrian religion. This was a major breakthrough for Zarathushtra.

However, Zarathushtra’s enemies then plotted against Zarathushtra and planted various objects of black magic in his quarters, and finally by accusing him of such evil acts, prompted the King to search his room. Upon finding such artifacts, Zarathushtra was imprisoned and denied to eat or drink.

The King’s favorite dark horse is struck with an incurable deforming disease. None of the physicians in the kingdom can offer any cure. When Zarathushtra, who was now in prison, hears about this, he offers the King to try to cure his favorite horse.

The King reluctantly lets Zarathushtra attempt his healing techniques, which he duly does. The King then realizes the error of his judgment about Zarathushtra, and embraces his religion. The King also punishes the priests who conspired against Zarathushtra, and starts to promote the religion.

Zarathushtra lived to be around 77. Several of the religions to come after him were likely influenced by his teachings; or was it that God gave them all the same messages?

Our next adoptee is Mohammed.

Mohammed, discontented with life in Mecca, retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. It was here at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God.

At that time, the Archangel Gabriel came to him. It took a while for Muhammad to trust in the vision he was receiving, but when he did, three years later Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him is the only religion acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God. In addition, the archangel Gabriel began to dictate the Holy Qur'an to Him, one Surrah (book or verse) at a time.

The story I picked to tell about Mohammed is a fantastical story. Some sources make it out as real and others say it was a dream. Whatever it was, it makes for good story telling. This is The Story of the Ascension of Mohammed:

"Mohammad had gone to rest at dusk. He slept deeply on the carpet of his cousin. Suddenly, the silence was broken and a voice as clear as a trumpet called:

"Awake, thou sleeper, awake!" And Mohammed saw in front of him, dazzling in darkness the shining Archangel Gabriel who was inviting him to follow him outside. Before the door stood a Horse as dazzling as Gabriel. It had wings, glittering wings of an immense eagle. Gabriel presented the Horse to Mohammed, saying that it was "Burak" the Horse of Abraham. Burak whinnied and allowed Mohammed to vault on its back.
Then, drinking the wind, it galloped to the street and as it came to the walls of the sleeping city, it spread its wings and soared into the starry night.

First, they went to the summit of Mount Sinai, at the very place where Jehovah had given the stone tables to Moses. Then, they flew on and went to Bethlehem at the exact place where Jesus was born. And finally, they went to Heaven, where Mohammed met with many of the Holy Land's previous Horsemen... Adam, Noah, Enoch, Moses, Isaac, Elijah, Jesus and others.

And these guys spoke and told him : " We salute you, you the first and the last, O Gatherer of men." ...and Gabriel added : " We salute you, O you the first, because you will be the first person who, on Resurrection Day, will come out of his grave ; and the last, because you are the Seal and the last prophet. You are a gatherer of men; meaning that it belongs to you gather everyone for the resurrection and as such the whole community will resurrect."

I saved my favorite of the adoptees for last. Guru Nanak.

Nanak was adopted at the age of 30. One day he failed to return from his morning bath in the river. Thinking that Nanak might have died, his friends looked for him everywhere. Appearing again three days later, at first he would not speak. But later, he described an amazing vision he had where God had told him that all people should love one another and consider every person of whatever religion, race or creed as one of

God's children, rather than look upon other people with the distinction to religion or race.

"There is no Hindu or Muslim," God said to Nanak, letting him know that all were equal in God's eyes.

There are so many great stories to tell about Guru Nanak that it was really hard to pick one. While this might not be the most exciting story from his life, it is my favorite. We’ll have to have a little vocabulary lesson for any of you that are like me and hadn’t hear of a Kaaba.

Vocabulary word: The Kaaba is a large cube building located inside the mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Now, we all know that Mecca is the holy place of the Muslims. The mosque was built around the original Kaaba. The Kaaba is the holiest place in Islam. The direction Muslims face during prayer, is the direction from their location on Earth towards the Kaaba.

Now I’ll share with you the last story of the service and the shortest of all the stories; which we’ll just call The Mecca Story:

Guru Nanak set out to Mecca in Arabia. He was very tired after his long travels and went to the mosque to lie down and take a rest. Guru Nanak's feet were towards the Kaaba in the mosque. Now remember, The Kaaba is a room in the middle of the mosque and is called, 'The house of God (Allah).'

A man named Rukandin was the priest of the Kaaba. He came out and saw Guru Nanak's feet towards the Kaaba. He was very angry. He at once shouted. "Don't you know this is the house of God, you fool? Why are you lying with your feet towards the Kaaba?"

Guru Nanak woke up. He said, "O sir, I'm sorry I didn't know it. I was tired so I just laid down and fell asleep. Could you turn my feet in the direction in which God is not?"

Rukandin at once caught hold of his legs and dragged them to the other side. He saw that the Kaaba still stood before Guru Nanak's feet. Then he gave another pull but to his great surprise, he saw the Kaaba again towards the Guru's feet. He was so upset that he could not speak. Finally, he realized God is everywhere.

Man, I really like that story. God is everywhere.

Okay, so the stories were just for fun but what do we learn from these people? We know that all 3 believed that God spoke to them and told them great messages that they passed along to us. Messages of love and hope and how to treat one another. Similar messages. Messages that I say all came from the same indescribable thing, the one and only God. So I charge you today to use your good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, remember that there is no Hindu or Muslim that we’re all children of God and most of all, that God is Everywhere.

Thank you and Namaste.