Sermon for 3rd Sunday of Easter – 1 John 3:1-7

What does it mean to be a “child of God”? Is it about keeping God’s commandments, or just the fact that we’re born? Do they point fingers or keep mum? “Whenever you point a finger at someone else, you point 3 fingers back at yourself.” Maybe that makes it hard to feel like a child of God? It gets even more complicated with our 2nd reading for today from 1 John. It’s got a really strong opinion about what it means to be a child of God, so let’s take a look at that.

So here’s the situation. There’s a schism happening in some unknown congregation. A group of folks have split off because of an argument over doctrine. The folks staying behind are irate. Now, the doctrine isn’t what’s important here, but I know you’re curious, so long story short, was Jesus really human? In case you didn’t get the memo, yes, Jesus is totally human and divine. But this is the early church, so they don’t have 2000 years of teaching to fall back on. Everything’s up for grabs. They’ve got a lot to sort out. Though we’re not much better. Go around telling folks that Jesus pooped and farted and see what reactions you get. Clearly we’re still not totally comfortable with a human Jesus. The epistle is really worried that more folks were going to be lured over to the dark side back then. So it must have been pretty persuasive.

Anyway, what’s interesting here isn’t the doctrine, but how everyone behaves in conflict. You know there’s going to be name calling. That’s what we do. When we can’t make someone understand the obvious error of their ways, what cute names pop into mind? Idiot? Moron? It’s not ok but it’s what we do anyway. Guess what our epistle writer calls the ones that split off? Liars and antichrists. Fighting words! Now, we don’t hear both sides. We don’t know everything said. So let’s not judge. Though it’s striking. Scripture may be inspired, but folks like you and me wrote the words. So notice how our reading starts – “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.”

Which should be uplifting, but after all that name-calling, do you think there’s a little bit of self-pity there? Like they lost the argument and now they’re trying to console themselves. We can relate to this, right? They can’t deny how angry and resentful they were. The dust clears. They look at the wreckage. Maybe they said some things they regret. So now they remind themselves that they’re still children of God even if others say they’re not. Like you do. And if the world would only recognize that they’re children of God, then none of this battle over doctrine would have happened in the first place, and we’d be one happy family. But why doesn’t the world believe they’re children of God? Because they behaved badly? No. Because they were bad catechism teachers? No. They decide it’s because the world doesn’t know the Lord. Now, they don’t mean the “world” like the human race. They just mean the “world” outside their congregation. Outsiders who come in to meet Jesus reflected in the lives of disciples inside. Which begs the question, why aren’t folks meeting Jesus in this congregation?

Maybe because they’re hell-bent on declaring who’s in and who’s out. The congregation’s splitting, but all the epistle can say is, “by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and all of you have knowledge.” (2:19) They’re trash but you’re special. Us vs. them. The true faithful vs. the antichrists. Who needs them anyway! Of course, the epistle also says that, “Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.” (2:9) I don’t know about you, but that sounds like hypocrisy to me. Of course, the church will always be full of hypocrites. You’re looking at one. After all, if the church is a hospital for sinners, then who do we expect to find inside? But maybe there’s a deeper problem going on here. Maybe the real problem is what these folks think “child of God” means. They say. “No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”

That’s strong. How would we measure up to that? I don’t think we would. I mean, how do we treat those who disagree with us? Not well. Sure, we want to be open-minded and welcoming like Jesus, but if we hang around on social media long enough what will we see? We all bite eventually. Except it’s not a social media problem. It’s a human problem. It’s this hate that every one of us has, and we can’t seem to get rid of it. Even if we keep it buried, it’s still there and explodes when we least expect it. Sometimes it’s horrific, like with these mass shootings that keep happening. This week it was FedEx on the westside. Now, I doubt any of us would explode like that. But Jesus doesn’t let us off the hook either. He says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:44-45) At the end of the day, are any of us really capable of that?

Maybe not. But the good news is that there is someone who can and did. Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, whose enemies hated him so much as to nail him to a cross to die. But even then he didn’t hold it against them. With his last breath he prayed to his Father, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they’re doing.” And then he died. But after three days, he was risen in the glory of his resurrection. Except, it didn’t seem very glorious, did it? What’s the first thing he does? He visits his disciples and shows them all his wounds. Not just so that they might believe that it’s really him. But also to prove that even the deadliest human hate will never have the last word. Not for them and not for us either. Because if we were buried with him by baptism into death, then we will surely be raised with him in a resurrection like his.

And then Jesus does one more thing. He tells his disciples that “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Sure, he could have called down all his holy angels to wreak vengeance on his enemies, but he knows that violence only creates more violence. All it can do is bind and destroy. But Jesus wants to liberate and create anew. So he gives his own word of forgiveness to proclaim unconditionally to all, to release all of us from the hatred that binds us. He knows we can’t forgive on command, but he won’t let that get in the way, so he calls us to give his own word, and faith to trust that it will do exactly what it says. That’s why he wants them to start in Jerusalem, because if there’s anyone who the disciples wouldn’t be able to forgive in themselves, it’s the ones who crucified their Lord.

So it goes for our worst enemies too. That’s what makes us the children of God. It’s not because of our righteousness or our obedience. It’s because when we know how it feels to be forgiven, we can’t help but do likewise, and that’s the last thing they’d ever expect. Now, forgiveness isn’t denial. It speaks truth to power. It points fingers, and we know that when you point 1 finger you just point 3 fingers back at yourself. But now that’s a gift, because we get 3 reminders of who we were and what Jesus has done to us. And by this we’ll see what love the Father has given us.