Trinity
Lutheran Church

 

https://player.vimeo.com/video/934288395?h=7a194c4319

The First Reading: 1 John 3:1-7

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

The Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

The Sermon

This morning, we are reminded of two seemingly simple things: God loves us, and we are God’s children. God chose to love us and to adopt us. None of that is our doing; it doesn’t matter how nice we are or what we have accomplished. God simply decided to love no matter what. And we could stop right here, concluding that this is all there is and all we need.

But the reading of 1 John points beyond that to an even greater, still unrealized fulfillment. The fullness of what it means to be God’s children will be revealed only at the end of times when God will transform us to be like Jesus. So, this is the broad picture: Through God’s love we have already the status of God’s children but way more is to come at some point in the future. 1 John presents us with this tremendous hope. Being like Jesus is a bold promise, which is also a little difficult to imagine. Being like Jesus – how is that going to look like?

C.S. Lewis, a Christian writer, once wrote that we often think that sanctification, or being free of sin, is like taking a horse and training it to run a little faster than it used to run.  In actuality, Lewis noted, what happens to us as believers once we become engrafted onto Christ is not like taking a regular old horse and teaching it to run faster but more like taking a horse, outfitting it with a pair of wings, and teaching it to fly.  The saved life in Christ is not just any old life made a little bigger or brighter.  It is to take a human life and transform it into a whole new mode of existence.

It is still difficult to imagine the end of times when we will be like Jesus because no one will really know what is going to happen when it happens. But we get a little bit of an idea about the magnitude of what’s to come. One way or another it will be a complete transformation.

Meanwhile we are in the middle of what already is (being God’s children) and what is yet to come. This is where real lives, our lives, are happening. We are loved, we are children of God, but we are not perfected yet. In this in-between time, we are still a sinful humanity, living in this tension between the way things are and the way they should be according to God’s will.

And then there is another tension we hold, namely that we are called to live according to God’s intentions, meaning to not sin. At the same time, we know that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. This is a little annoying because if we cannot free ourselves anyway, why even bother to try and be good?

But even in the time between what already is and what is still to come, living according to the commandments is an expected response to the love and patience God gives us every day.

Therefore, 1 John does not simply suggest to wait it out until this new time breaks in. The hope for the future described in 1 John, shapes life now. Faithful discipleship means living along the grain of God’s promise and intent. It means that one’s actions really do matter. Granted, we are not perfect, but we certainly have control over our actions, and we can see them through the lens of God’s grace. If we truly believe that we are loved, that we are God’s children, how can we not love others and see them as God’s children as well.

The flip side of that is that anyone who abuses or hurts people, whoever is driven by greed or exploits others or hates or does any number of things, and has no desire to stop such activity or at least confess it as wrong, has not understood the concept of living in God’s grace yet. 1 John cannot imagine being a child of God, trusting and hoping in Jesus, and not reflecting the character of Jesus in one’s own life.

However, the line between those who John called purified and those he considered lawless is not always so easy to detect, and so we will live in this tension between purity and sinfulness. We are a flawed humanity, and yet, God chose us. He chose to love us.

This tension between purity and sinfulness will only find its resolution in the end when by God’s grace we will be made like Jesus. Here in this Easter season, we already have a new identity because of Jesus’ resurrection, and yet we hope and look for that day when the risen Jesus will return and transform us all into his image.

Until all this comes about, this poem by Maya Angelou puts things in the right perspective:

When I say… “I am a Christian”

I’m not shouting, “I’m clean livin’.”

I’m whispering, “I was lost,

Now I’m found and forgiven.”

When I say… “I’m a Christian”

I don’t speak with pride.

I’m confessing that I stumble

And need Christ to be my guide.

When I say… “I’m a Christian”

I’m not holier than thou,

I’m just a simple sinner

Who received God’s good grace, somehow.

Amen.

And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.