Thursday, April 30, 2015

“Work in Progress”

1 John 2:28-3:3


             
There are two kinds of Americans. There are those, like most of us, who were born here.  We are citizens simply by accident of birth.  We did not choose who our parents or the country in which they lived. We did nothing to earn or merit the rights and privileges granted by our Constitution and by our history.  Because of our birth certificate we enjoy the freedoms and opportunities that this nation provides and live off the sacrifices of those who came before.

Then there are those who chose to immigrate here. For them this was a choice.  Someone in your family tree made that decision generations ago. They left everything that was familiar to come to this nation precisely for those freedoms and opportunities we take for granted.  In order to become citizens they have to take a test and answer questions like, “What is the supreme law of the land? What are the three branches of the federal government? What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?  What rights does the first amendment guarantee? What does freedom of religion mean? What is the name of your Senator?  What is the name of your congressional representative?”  There are a hundred of these questions, and if you don’t pass you don’t become a citizen.

That’s why many of our legal immigrants know more about our nation than many who are citizens simply because they were born here.  That’s why they often have greater appreciation for what it means to be a citizen of this great nation.

There is a parallel in scripture.  Many believe they are a child of God simply because they were born and breathe.  No decision was made and no commitment follows.  This was not the view of the Apostle John.  He saw us more akin to those immigrants who have made a decision to follow and followed that up with a commitment.  To be a child of God in his eyes means that you have an appreciation for the blessings God provides and express that gratitude in what you say and do and even in the way you think.

Today we’ll consider what that means.  First let us pray:

            Lord, “with all of creation we wait with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. We confess we do not know how to pray as we ought, so we ask your Spirit to intercede with sighs too deep for words. Lord, search our hearts and help us to grow in faith and hope and love.”[1]  Amen.

            John is now an old man. He is the last of the original twelve.  Peter and Andrew and James and the rest had each suffered a martyr’s death.  Jesus’ prophecy of persecution had been fulfilled in spades.  He told them early on, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”[2] "If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.”[3]  From that John concluded, “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”[4]

            I believe we are entering into an era not unlike that in which John lived.  Weekly I read stories of Christians beheaded in Libya, thrown off ships in the middle of the Mediterranean, butchered in Nigeria and Kenya, crucified by ISIS in Iraq for no other reason than their claim in Christ.

            These atrocities happen far away, but there is an increasing cultural disdain for the way of Christ in our country.  Many see our faith as a hindrance to the way in which they want to live and believe us to be to judgmental because we strive for righteousness.  “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

            It’s just a fact of life, “no good deed goes unpunished”.  Throw a bunch of crabs into a bushel and they’ll never get out because as soon as one tries, the others will grab on and pull him back.  That’s why people are quick to judge those who try to do better, to become better than they were, who strive for righteousness and try to climb out of the bushel because it just reminds everyone else how far short they’ve fallen and how little they try.  Almost every grocery store tabloid demonstrates this tendency to revel in sin and scandal of the rich and famous because the reader can proudly and smugly say to themselves, “well at least I’m not that bad.”  Most of us prefer to measure ourselves against those we deem worse than those we see as better.

            While these comparisons may comfort, they will not challenge nor encourage us to lift our eyes and reach for more.  That is what John had been talking about.  He called those who denigrate and disparage the love God demonstrated through Jesus – antichrists.  In scripture you’ll find references to “the Antichrist” as a representative of Satan and instrumental in the last days described in the book of Revelation.[5] 

But, you’ll also find the term “antichrists” to refer to those who reject or stand against even the possibility that Christ can fundamentally change the heart and nature of any individual.[6]  John believed these cynics are everywhere and speak through the voice of every pessimistic naysayer who bemoans the human condition and whines, “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks.”  People are the way they are, they say, and no one, not even God can change them.

            John doesn’t believe that.  He believes God can and doess change people.  The reason he believed that is because he had seen it with his own eyes.  He saw this happen to Peter, a loud-mouthed, short-tempered fisherman who was long on talk and short on follow-through.  Peter had promised Jesus he would stand by him through thick and thin, but when the going got tough, Peter got going – in the opposite direction. But, Jesus saw something in Peter that Peter never saw in himself and gave him a second chance and more than that gave him the “keys to the kingdom” and said, “On this rock I will build my church.”[7]

            John had also heard the story of Saul of Tarsus, the biggest enemy the fledgling church ever had and how he encountered the risen Christ on the Damascus road.[8]  Saul became Paul and Paul became one the most influential and dedicated disciple Jesus ever had.

            When John looked at himself he saw the difference Christ made, and he remembered Jesus’ own words, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born again, born anew, born from above.”[9]  For that reason John began to see himself in a new way, as a child of God and this was a major shift in his theological understanding.  While he still saw God as the sovereign creator of all that is and ever will be; while he still believed he would one day stand before God as a holy and righteous judge; there was a new dimension Jesus added that he only learned to appreciate as the years went by.  Jesus taught him and the others, when you pray say, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”[10]

            We routinely say that same prayer today and so we quickly race through without really understanding or comprehending this startling realization and revelation that God is indeed our heavenly Father and we are his children.

If we truly are the children of God, why don’t we do a better job of acting like it?   Why do we act like God will be pleased simply because we were born and breathe? Why does our prayer life become anemic or non-existent?  Why is worship something we do only when it’s not too rainy and not too sunny and there’s nothing else better to do? Why do we offer only pennies on the dollar instead of the dime the Bible commands?  Why do our Bibles gather dust and our calendars bulge with activities that are only designed for our own benefit?

            There are many reasons I suppose, but I’m guessing most of you at one time or another did, in a spurt and surge of spiritual energy, give each of these spiritual disciplines a try.  You resolved to pray more and to study the Bible.  You made a commitment to yourself to attend worship more faithfully and contribute more generously. Maybe you even volunteered to teach a Sunday school class or volunteer in our youth ministry or go on a mission trip.  You gave it a try but you didn’t get out of it what you thought you should.  You thought these spiritual disciplines would generate a spiritual high, an unending sense of joy and peace and love, but then you found that often it was just hard work and sometimes you became discouraged because the people you were trying to help did not respond with applause and a pat on the back – so you gave up and drifted back to old ways – easier ways.
           
            The Apostle Paul put it this way, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; but when I became an adult I put an end to childish ways.”[11]

            No child ever grows up without facing facts and the hard reality of the world in which we live.  No child ever grows up without learning the discipline required to study well in school and work hard in life and defer quick gratification and plan for the future.  No child ever grows up without learning to consider the needs of others.

            Today, the world is filled with people 30, 40, 50, 60 years old who have never learned these lessons. They are stuck in neutral, spinning their wheels, but no moving forward. Churches as well are filled with people who when they were 14, 15, 16 years old stood before God and everyone and declared their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but have not grown an inch from that day to this.  The reason they have not grown is because they have not abided in the Lord, they do not pray or study God’s Word, do not worship or serve others through any kind of ministry at all.  They see faith not as strength and guidance for this life, but only as a kind of eternal life insurance policy to be pulled out of a drawer the moment they die. 
           
The Apostle Paul describes the result of this spiritual obstruction. He wrote to the believers in Corinth, “Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food.  Even now you are still not ready, for you are still carnal.  And so there is jealousy and quarreling among you.”[12]

            Wherever you are in your walk with the Lord right now, even if you have ground to a dead stop, or even if you’ve recently taken a few steps back, there is still hope because, “it doth not yet appear what you shall be.”  Our hope is in Christ and it will be in Christ we purify ourselves.[13]  It doesn’t matter whether you are 15 years old or 85 there is something you can do for someone else today you didn’t do yesterday, there is something more you can learn about yourself and your relationship with God and others today that you didn’t know yesterday.  It’s not too late to begin a new discipline of prayer and worship, of study and service. Each one here is a work in progress, so even if you are still taking “baby steps” take heart because “It doth not yet appear what you shall be.”  “What we will be has not yet been revealed. But, this we know, when Christ is revealed we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”[14] 
 
This week I visited a member of our church who just delivered a baby.  Mother and child are doing great and we had a nice visit. Right after the prayer and just before I left I asked, “well who does your baby look like?  Without missing a beat she said, “He’s the spitting image of his father.”  That’s genetics. That’s nature.  He will be his father’s son, his mother’s child simply because he was born.  The more important question and one which ever parent asks will be, “and what we he be like when he grows up?” 

Amy Grant a Christian singer long ago wrote a song that speaks to this question:
I may not be every mother's dream for her little girl
And my face may not grace the mind of everyone in the world
But that's all right as long as I can have one wish I pray
When people look inside my life, I want to hear them say
She's got her father's eyes, her father's eyes
Eyes that find the good in things, when good is not around
Eyes that find the source of help, when help just can't be found
Eyes full of compassion, seeing every pain
Knowin' what you're going through and feeling it the same
Just like my father's eyes, my father's eyes, my father's eyes
Just like my father's eyes
And on that day when we will pay for all the deeds we have done
Good and bad they'll all be had to see by everyone
And when you're called to stand and tell just what you saw in me
More than anything I know, I want your words to be
She had her father's eyes, her father's eyes…
Let that be your prayer as well.

Let us pray:

            “Behold, what manner of love, you have shown us, that we should be called your children O God.”  Grant us strength that we may do you proud, and when we don’t we ask for grace. Help us to grow in faith and hope and love and demonstrate these qualities in the words we speak, in the actions we take and in the attitude of our hearts.  Amen. 








[1] Romans 8:19, 26-27
[2] Matthew 5:11
[3] John 15:18
[4] 1 John 3:1
[5] Revelation 13; 17:8-14, 19:20, 20:10,15.
[6] 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3, 2 John 7.
[7] Matthew 16:18-19
[8] Acts 9
[9] John 3:3
[10] Matthew 6:9
[11] 1 Corinthians 13:11
[12] 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
[13] 1 John 3:3
[14] 1 John 3:2