Some of you may think that I choose the scripture readings each week
depending on the message in my sermon.
Nope, not so! The United Church
of Christ and most other mainline denominations use what is called the Revised
Common Lectionary. A lectionary is a
collection of readings or selections from the Scriptures, arranged and intended
for proclamation during the worship of the people of God, and it serves as a guide for clergy, preachers,
church members, musicians, and Sunday school teachers that shows them which
texts are to be read on a given Sunday in either year A, B or C. I love preaching from the lectionary, not
just because it takes the guess work out of which text I will use each week,
but mostly because I am always amazed that the text selected is so often the
very word I need for that particular week.
There is usually a reading from the Psalms, a reading from the Hebrew
Scriptures, an Epistle reading and a Gospel reading each week…but not
always. Sometimes you get a
bonus…and this week it was a selection from 1 John…the third
chapter, verses 1-7. It reads:
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.
When John, and Jesus for that matter, spoke to the “little
children” they weren’t talking about youngsters, they were talking
about those new to the faith…the children of God. This reading from 1 John was a
children’s message all right, just like we do here most Sundays, but
intended for a different audience.
I want to say right up front that our children's sermon is an important part of
our regular worship. It's not necessarily intended to be a shorter version of
the sermon to come, but truly message for the youngsters. It's a way of saying
children are important and they belong in worship with the rest of us. It is
not intended to be a sneaky way of talking to the adults nor a way to exploit
the cuteness of our kids so we can have a warm fuzzy in worship. The children's
sermon is their time, and if the rest of us get something out of it, that's
good, but it's not the main reason for having it.
And the truth is, every sermon is a children's sermon, because we are all
children of God. As Elder John wrote to his congregation long ago, "See
what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are" (1 John 3:1). Did you hear that? "See
what love the Father has given us, that we should be
called children of God; and that is what we are" Is anything in the
whole Bible more important for us to remember? Do you see what trouble
we get into when we forget we are the children of God, when we forget the
people around us are the beloved children of God as well?
I know we don't always feel like God's children. But that's why we need to be
reminded every day, God has chosen every one of us. Anne Lamott tells of sitting in her church one Sunday. A church
member was telling them about an adoption agency where she and her husband
found their child. It was called A-S-K, "Adopt a Special Kid." They
had to fill out a questionnaire which asked stuff like, "Could you adopt
an addicted baby? A child with terminal illness? One with moderate retardation? With
tendencies towards violence with others?" As she shared this, the
woman began to cry. Lamott's pastor, Veronica, stepped
to the woman's side.
"God is an adoptive parent, too," she said. "And she chose us
all. She says, `Sure, I'll take the kids who are addicted, or terminal. I pick
all the special needs kids, and, of course, the sadists. And
the selfish ones, and the liars'"
It doesn't matter who you are.
You are God's child, too. My brother, my sister, don't ever let anyone convince
you that you are anything less. We ought to celebrate that. I mean, we ought to
dance. We ought to sing. We ought to laugh and shout and do back flips when we
hear news like this.
What does it mean to be a child of God? It means you can never wander beyond
the love of God. It means you have a great inheritance, for God owns "every
wild animal of the forest, the cattle on a thousand hills, all the birds of the
air, and all that moves in the field" (Psalm 50:10-11). It means you
are already accepted, beloved of God, cared for by God, watched by God. It
means you have a great name to live up to, and you belong to an important
family. By your deeds you bring credit or discredit to the very name of Christ,
to the family of the church, to your surnames "Christian" and
"UCC" and “Nekoosa United Church of Christ.”
John says, "Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not
yet been revealed" (1 John 3:2). We look at a child and wonder: what
will she become? What will he be when he grows up? Second
baseman for the Yankees? A Nobel Prize winner? Doctor? Lawyer? Indian
chief? A movie star? An
astronaut? Another Picasso? Or - God forbid - another
Adolf Hitler? There's no way to tell. Children are bundles of possibilities. We
wonder, we may even worry what they may become, but we do not worry that they aren't
there yet. It's okay if our four year olds can't hit a major league curve ball.
It's all right if our eight year olds can't hold down a job. It doesn't bother
us if our ten year olds don't know the periodic table of elements. There's
still time. And when our little ones make mistakes or lose control of their
emotions or can't quite get the trick of tying their own shoes, we are patient.
We are patient as long as they are still learning and growing and not repeating
the same mistakes over and over again. We know they are incomplete. They aren't
finished growing. That's why they need parents, to discipline them in a course
that leads to maturity, over the years to teach them to make good choices until
they make good choices on their own. But if a child keeps repeating the same
mistakes again and again and again, if a child stops growing, isn't capable of changing childish patterns of
behavior, it's a tragedy. Something has gone wrong. It's time to call the
professionals for help.
How does God look at us? God looks at us and sees - children: beloved, special,
cute. God sees a bundle of possibilities, dreams of what we might become. We
aren't fully mature, but give us time, God thinks. We'll get there. If we keep
growing, that is. God keeps asking us the familiar parental progression,
"What do you want to be when you grow up? When are you going to grow up? And
I imagine there are times when Gods head shakes and God says, “Oh, grow
up!"
Of all the different areas of our lives, we neglect the spirit most of all. We
work to mature our bodies and minds and emotions, and it's a good thing. But
who works on growing the soul? Who gives as much energy and time and effort to
developing the spirit as we do to our head, heart, and abs?
Funny thing, watching a child grow. Most of the growth is automatic. Children
don't think much about growing. They just do it. It's a grace, isn't it? They
eat, they sleep, they play a lot more than we grow-ups do, and the growth just
happens. But we all know, it doesn't "just
happen." Oh sure, the natural impulse towards growth is there. But growth
always happens through relationship and discipline. Parents, or grandparents,
or some guardian has to create an environment, fight with the child to eat the
right foods, go to bed on time, get up, get dressed, do
homework. You see, children will resist growth. They can't see the connection
between what their parents want them to do and what they feel like doing. They don't realize how important diet and
rest and homework are to their health and growth and future. It can be a
wrestling match at times.
I wonder if God doesn't experience us the same way, as beloved, but resistant children? God has to coax and cajole and urge us on towards
healthy spirit growth, to feed on the right nourishment, get the right
exercise, take our Sabbath rest, spend enough time in reverent reflection and
prayerful waiting, and avoid the things that damage our spirit. Spiritual
growth is not like growth of mind, body and emotion. It comes in a different
way. It is a gift rather than something we earn by labor. It requires
receptivity and response rather than a grasping aggressiveness. It is not about
taking control so we can exercise our spirits, but about relinquishing control,
surrendering control, seeing that we aren't in control after all, at all. And
never have been. What it mainly requires is enough humility to see we aren't
fully formed yet, enough hunger to open ourselves to the discipline of God that
grows us, and a forgetting of self through service to others
John sees a connection between the resurrection of Christ and our own growth in
spirit. "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" (1 John 3:2). The risen Christ
is the guardian of our growth. And Christ is the goal of our growing. Did you
ever have an older brother, a big sister, or even a more mature friend that you
looked up to? You wanted to be like them when you were their age? You spent as
much time with them as they would allow? They showed you what you might become.
When we grow up, John
says, we'll be like Jesus because we will see him as he is.
Responding to the living Jesus has major implications for our growth as the
children of God. We learn who Jesus is over time, by a process, in a continuing
relationship, much the same way we get to know each other. How do we get to
know each other? Through attentiveness, by focusing
beyond ourselves, paying attention to each other. We behold each other
reflectively, with meditation in silence, creating a space for the other
to be and to be heard. Listening is essential. You can't learn anything about
someone else if you never shut up and listen. It takes patience, too.
You don't get to know a person's heart in one or two encounters. You have to
share some time playing or working together. You develop trust and a loyalty
flexible to changing realities, which allows the other to be freely him- or herself. This is how we learn who Jesus is. We learn who
each other is. We meet Christ in and among the beloved community.
Aren't there some people here or maybe in your family or along the way in your
journey who have been the face of Christ for you,
showing you the way, helping your spirit to grow? Who are your spirit
guardians, the godparents of your soul? Are you growing up for heaven's sake or
are you stuck in the same childish place you were two years ago, ten years ago,
twenty years ago?
Well, we are all children of God trying to grow up in God's Spirit. It's okay
if we aren't there yet, but it's not okay if we've stopped growing. If you have
a case of arrested development, I would encourage you to take the next step in
your spiritual growth. It's time to move from formula to solid food. It's time
to walk a few steps on your own. It probably means letting go of some grudge or
bitterness that has you blocked. Maybe it means turning away from some idol
that competes for first loyalty in your life. Maybe it means trusting more,
resting more, praying more. I don't know. Where would you put your spiritual
growth in relation to the goal of being like Christ and what do you need to do
to get closer to the goal?
Please believe me when I tell you that I'm not trying to make you feel guilty
or worry. Look, you already are the
beloved child of God. Nothing's going to change that. Grow up into it, is all
I'm saying. It will get even better. The best is yet to come. God guarantees
it.
May we pray?
Gracious God, our Mother and Father in heaven, You have given us birth. You have
formed body, mind, heart, and spirit all working as one. Help us to grow in all
of these facets of our being, and not least in our spirits. Teach us how to
give attention to our souls. Make us ever mindful that we are your children,
and let us more and more take on the image of our elder brother Jesus, who not
only showed us who you are but who we are supposed to be. We pray in his name,
Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa