"Son of God."

"Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his work. He was the son (as was thought) of Joseph son of Heli, son of Matthat, son of Levi... son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God."

(Luke 3:23-24,28)

Everyone has to come to a sense of their own identity. And just about everyone also struggles (at one time or another) with parental authority. The joke goes that Jesus, being both divine and human... born of the Virgin Mary, per Christian theology... when he got frustrated at his father, Joseph, probably said at one point in his adolescence, "You're not my real father!"

And yet... in Luke's gospel we have a record of Jesus' genealogy. And right at the start, it feeds into that same understanding: "He was the son of (as was thought) Joseph." D'oh! ("You're not my real father!")

We don't actually know much about Joseph from scripture, to be honest. WE know about his betrothal to Mary... the angelic visit telling him her pregnancy is divinely initiated.. the birth story... the flight to Egypt to avoid King Herod's wrath... settling in Nazareth... and the infamous trip to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 (and he subsequently ditched his parents to stick around in the Temple!). That's about it. Mary appears throughout the gospel accounts (and the book of Acts), but that's the last we hear from Joseph. ("You're not my real father!")

At the end fo Luke's genealogy for Jesus, he ties him directly to Adam, and then finishes it all with "... son of God." True, we believe Jesus truly was the Son of God... but what a cool way to connect him back to the creation. In that same vein, WE ALL could be traced back to Adam (if we hold to the Genesis origin story). So... in a sense... we are all sons (and daughters!) of God.

There's a powerful moment in the film DEAD MAN WALKING, where the main character, Matthew Poncelot, who's about to be executed for the murders of 2 people, bears his soul in confession to his spiritual advisor, Sister Helen Prejean. He'd been fighting owning up to his atrocities the entire film... but in the end, he comes clean. In that moment, Sister Helen tells him that he's a beloved "son of God." "No one's ever called me no 'son of God' before," he says. "Son of something else... but no son of God!"

That's all of us. Thanks to Jesus. That's all of us.

So welcome to the family, Matthew Poncelot. Welcome to the family.