1 John 3:1-7

As a preacher when I look over the scripture texts that are suggested for the week, some times something jumps out at me. Sometimes it is something that is exciting, or something disturbing or something that is curious.

Exciting and Curious

In John's first letter to the church, there was something exciting and something curious. Lets start with the curiosity and then we'll look at what was exciting.

Did anyone elses ears perk up when it was read, "No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him." ... what is John talking about ... is he saying that Christians don't sin? Is he saying that if we sin then we are not Christians? What is John saying about sin?

Counterpuntal: We don't like to talk about Sin

Now, talking about sin is not well received these days. We've had too much of that "fire and brimstone" type preaching in our culture ... you just have to turn on the TV on Sunday morning. But, this said, lets try to give a definition of sin.

Definition: Sin

One good definition of sin is "missing the mark". We have a goal and we miss it. Or another way to look at it is messing up ... Harm that we caused because of something we did or didn't do. Sin is also part of our culture ... racism is the most obvious example. But, let's not dwell on what sin is ... lets look at John's letter ...

Imagining a Church that doesn't sin

I was curious about his words that said, "No one sins who has seen him or known him." Strange thing I thought. I've been going to church regularly for years and I see a lot of sin ... in myself and others ...

Major figures in the Bible Sinned

And if we look in the Bible ... we see that we are not alone ... King David committed murder to hid his adultery, Peter denied Christ three times, and the Apostle Paul talked about some secret sin that troubled his life ... he never mentions what it was ... but it was something he did not wish to talk about, at least not in a public letter..

Messing up, missing the mark, ... sin is part of the Christian story and part of our individual lives ... But, even though we acknowledge that we mess up and cause harm sometimes we in the church have pretended that we don't sin.

Church has pretended that it doesn't sin

My mother speaks angrily sometimes of the church that she grew up in. A church of Christians who pretended they were holy on Sundays but throughout the week they made little attempt at trying to live justly with their neighbours. They would come to church confess their sin, but make no attempt in their lives to resist sin. Many people have been turned off by Christian hypocrisy and have left the church. It sad that Christians lie about the sin in their lives. It is bearing a false witness of who we are.

Church as recovery program for sinners

Someone once said that the church should be called a recovery program for sinners. Like a twelve step program for those striving towards holiness. Like any twelve step program the first step of getting a handle on the problem is first to acknowledge it. Maybe confession each week is like admitting, "Hi, my name is Jim and I'm a recovering sinner". These programs give us an understanding of how the Christian life is to be lived. It is a life of recovery.

Shift to second theme: Second Coming of Christ

But, If we are in recovery, to what are we in recovery too. We have a sense of what we are recovering from. But what are we in recovery too?

Remember that I said that their was something in John's letter that was exciting. Something that leaped off the page. Here is what it was.

John says, "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. And all who have hope in him, purify themselves just as he is pure."

Let me read that again.

The first thing that John tells us is that we are the beloved children of God. He is telling us who we are right now.

We are children of God

We are the beloved children of God. We are deeply loved by God and part of God's family. Through Jesus Christ we become part of the family of God and are beloved children of God.

I remember someone once saying that they did not like all the talk about sin in the Church since it was a downer and they thought it hurt peoples self esteem. They said that we should tell people that they are "good people" since this promoted self esteem. But they missed the point.

Our identity is based upon our belovedness

The source of our healthy identities does not lie in our own goodness. We are not called into relationship with God because we are good people. We are called into relationship with God because God loves us. God loves each one of us ... mistakes and all, sins and all ... God's love reaches even to the messiest and screwed up lives. God loves us despite of our failings.

We do not claim the identity of being a high holy good people, nor do we stay content with the sin in our lives. We are children of God, in recovery from sin, knowing that God's loves each one of us.

Counterpuntal: What about all the suffering?

Some might say that this is just sweet sentiment; all this love of God stuff. Or some might say that how can their be such suffering in our current lives and in the world if we are so loved by God.

Christians are not naive

But Christians are not a naive people. Or at least, Christians should not be naive people. The Lord of our faith, Jesus Christ, was killed by evil and knew the greatest suffering their is. Most of the early church leaders were killed ... Peter, Paul, James, and the host of martyrs throughout history ... King, Bonhoffer, Joan of Arc ...and all the nameless men and women who died for their faith. The church knows that there is suffering. We are not called to be a naive people. What is it then that gives us the strength to go on. What is it that gives us hope amid the full knowledge of the suffering and evil in the world ...

Our hope is in Christ

In this season of Easter, your church like most others has been recalling the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We recount the death of Jesus at the hands of the religious authorities and the Roman government and we remember that on the third day the women found the tomb empty. Then Jesus appeared to them and the rest of his followers. One the third day we saw that God's promise to raise Jesus from the dead was true. We were shown that God's love was more powerful than the forces of death.

But, that is not the end of the story ... for Christ said that he will come again. He said that there will be a second coming of Christ. We have seen the victory of God in Christ at the cross. God's promise not to abandone Jesus in death was made true in his resurrection. And a second promise was made that at some unnamed date Christ will return again to complete God's victory over death, suffering, and evil.

Dawning Sun Story

Let me tell you a story; Or more accurately let me paint for you an image. I grew on the prairies in Saskatchewan. For those who haven't been there it is sort of like parts of the Dakotas or Kansas. It is flat.

I was about 12 years old and my father and brother had gone hunting for geese on the banks of the Saskatchewan river.

In the darkness of the early morning, my father, brother and I had arrived at the edge of the river valley that winds cross the prairie. We had only the light reflected from the ivory moon and the pickup truck's headlights to guide us down the gravel roads and across the rarely used pasture trails. We arrive to the edge of the flat prairie and could see below us the river that winded through the flat wide river valley below. Below us the moonlight reflecting off the snaking river that flowed towards the east. Above us was a sea of stars, too many to count.

As we got out of the truck, my father said that I should go by myself onto the next ridge about a half mile up the river. So, I walked down into the dark ravine, toward the next ridge. There was enough of the moons light to guide my path, and I arrived safely on the next ridge.

Across the ½ mile ravine I could just make out the image of my father in the moonlight.

But as I waited for the coming of the dawn and the growing twilight; I could no longer see my father anymore. The twilight was beginning and opposite ridge he was on had become just a black outline against the slowly bluing sky. So alone I waited patiently for the dawn and the geese to rise off the river.

I sat their for a long time thinking ... my imagination at times getting the best of me. I had to avoid looking back at the inky darkness of the passing night. I imagined unseen monsters rising out of the night to consume me. But, I eventually brushed these thoughts off and watched the twilight grow over the wide river valley. As the light grew the sky turned from deep ocean shades of blue to increasingly lighter shades. It was as if the earth were a ship coming to the edge of the universe.

Then as the early morning progressed ... but still not near enough to daybreak. The edge of the earth slowly seemed to catch fire ... with this the twilight stopped grow brighter. It was as if the morning had stopped like a clock running out of clicks just before the striking the top of the hour. Then ... in the blue sky well above the horizon in the east, a glow of light appeared in the sky. It was not the sun yet, but a glow above the horizon. I sat their looking at the this golden glowing candle in the sky, wondering if the twilight would ever grow brighter; and if it was not for the sparrows singing hopefully for the new day, I would have thought that the day would never had come. Especially when the wonderful glow in the sky grew dim and the fire on the horizon subsided. I sat alone on the edge of the pairie sea, and on the edge of the universe wondering if the night would ever end ... losing hope I looked back at the night and wondered if the twilight was temporary and the night would soon ooze back accross the prairie ... but then the birds honking and singing grew louder and a suddenly a single gentle breeze blew across the prairie ... woooshhhh .... and then in an instant, a symphony of light burst across the prairie valley, and the Sun rose and rose and rose with golden sunlight running across the prairie filling the dark ravines with light and filling the world with a deep butter glow. I looked at the Sun, then at my own body being illuminated by the golden glow. It was as if I was looking at my arms for the very first time. In awe at the grandure of the new day the birds & I stood silent. With the rising of the golden glow of the Sun, I looked across the ravine and I could see my father and brother on the next ridge, and we waved to each other.

<PAUSE>

Second Coming

One day Christ will come again. One day we will see Christ coming in Glory and God's final redemption of the world will be complete. And, John says that when Jesus Christ comes again, we will be like him. He is talking about a future time when we shall meet Christ face to face and we shall be like him. He talks of our hope in Christ. We have seen God defeat death in Christ at the cross. Like the victory at D-Day, which signalled the future victory of the allied forces over the evil of Hitler. Christ's victory at the cross is a sign that in the end God will triumph over evil, suffering, and even death in the world. On the coming day of resurrection, we shall see Jesus Christ as he is and we will be like him. We will be freed from our sins and addictions. And we will even be free from the power of death. The graves shall be opened and we will be reunited with our loved ones again. The forces of oppression and destruction will be destroyed. God's love shown in Jesus Christ's victory at the cross has shown us that in the end God will triumph.

Still a Twilight time

But, we still live in that twilight time. And as we shall read about in the coming week, in this twilight time, we have a calling. We are called to be the church and share the Good News of God's love shown to us in Jesus Christ. We are also called to begin the attempt to live out who we are. We are called to struggle towards being like Christ. We may fail at times to live who we are called to be, but with God's help we can begin the recovery. We also will face suffering and unless the coming resurrection happens soon, we too will face death. But we have seen that in the end God will rasie us too from the dead. We have our hope in Christ and in the promises of God.

Holy Spirit

But, we do not just have this hope. In the face of current suffering and death, we are not alone. As we are called to be the church, we are given the help of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit will guide, challenge, and comfort us amid the struggles of life, when faced against the powers of death in society or in our individual lives. At night when the coldness of death stares us in the face and says, "you are mine". We can point towards the empty cross, and say, "No, I am Christs, and in the end I will be with him and like him. That is God's promise."

Terry Waite

Some may remember Terry Waite from a number of years ago, he was a UN envoy who went to Lebanon to attempt to negotiate peace. He was captured by a faction in the war and held hostage in a room alone for two years. It was a small room and for a while he was chained to the wall. Although their was a light bulb he sometimes has to sit alone in the dark. In the times of deepest despair he would say to his captors, "You can kill my body, and you can twist my mind, but my soul belongs to God."

We are beloved children of God and what ever evils or suffering we face, lets us know that we a loved by God and that in the end God will redeem the whole of creation. We will be freed of our sins and addictions; and with all the children of God we shall join the heavenly banquet.