The First Congregational Church of Plainfield
April 22, 2012
Sermon Title: “Still Practicing”
Scripture: 1 John 3:1-7
1
What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called
children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't
recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up
to.
2-3
But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the
beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly
revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look
forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a
model for our own.
4-6
All who indulge in a sinful life are dangerously lawless, for sin is a major
disruption of God's order. Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get
rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program. No one who
lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. None of those who do practice sin
have taken a good look at Christ. They've got him all backward.
7-8
So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person
who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah.
Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the
practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil's ways.
(The Message Translation)
__________________________
This reading comes from the letters of John. Many believe that the same John
that wrote the Gospel of John (his version of Jesus’ story) also wrote these
letters. He wrote three letters at some later time in his life (1 John, 2 John, 3
John). In this letter John seems to be explaining and building on what he wrote in
his Gospel. Most likely he was addressing a new audience of people.
Let me try to put it in perspective. Consider that I am speaking to you about this
topic today, April 22, 2012. Then suppose that I am still the minister in 2022, ten
years from now and our group has changed. There is still some are the same people
and there are new members that have come over the years. So, I decide to speak
on this topic again, only this time I too have a different way to present it to the
group; maybe a different approach that might make the topic clearer. Maybe
those who have heard this discussed before take something different away
because they have a deeper understanding this time or maybe their life has
changed in a way that shines more light. That’s how I see what is going on here with
John. He is trying again to present Jesus to his audience. And he is also
addressing what it means to be a disciple, a follower, a student of Jesus’ life and a
child of God.
What Jesus taught and did during his time on this earth was often misinterpreted.
There were those that he taught who refused to listen, who rejected him and what
he had to say; mostly because they saw him as different than what they expected
and many people confuse different with deficit. Then there were those that he
helped and healed and even they often misunderstood him or worse, they were
ungrateful. Remember the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers and only one
returned to show his gratefulness and to praise what God had done.
Jesus was fully human and fully God. I think, on both levels, he wanted to be loved
and appreciated just as we do. We are made in the image, the likeness of God –
especially with regard to loving and being loved. Jesus did what was good and right
and godly and he was at best misunderstood. John wants us to understand that
when we stand for our true identity as children of God, we too will be
misunderstood and rejected by many.
I speak for myself and I believe it is the way we all feel to one degree or another we want to fit in. We want to be accepted and appreciated. John is telling us that
we cannot be lukewarm if we are the children of God. When we stand firm the
world may not understand us or agree with us.
“What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called
children of God! That's who we really are. But that's also why the world doesn't
recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he's up
to.”
There is another bible verse that we often hear about – the one that tells us that
we are in the world but not “of” the world. We can please those that want us to
think and act the way they expect us to, to be socially acceptable or we can accept
our true identity as children of God and sometimes be rejected, or looked at with
incredulous eyes. Many people, even those that go to church, don’t always
understand what walking the walk is really all about. Their faith is set aside in a
box for Sunday morning and is not integrated in how they live and relate to the
rest of life.
Today, we baptized Madeleine and Lily Mae. Their parents and godparents took on
an awesome task. Not only are they stepping up to the plate and committing
themselves anew to walking the walk alongside Jesus, but they are committing to
nurturing a delicate seed in those two beautiful young girls. The baptismal
certificates that they received today announce their true identity. Madeleine is a
child of God. Lily Mae is a child of God.
Sure we live in our social system. And it is good and right to go to work, pay our
taxes, support our schools, be embracing to our neighbors and do all those things
that care for our common life together. Our responsibility is to be aware and
ready when our common life together brings us to a place that is not compatible
with our life as children of God. We have to be aware first and willing second to
say “this is not for me.” We have to be ready to choose differently. We have to
be so solidly planted in our likeness of God that we resist or turn away and choose
what is right. Just like John wrote:
“
So, my dear children, don't let anyone divert you from the truth. It's the person
who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah.”
We are in a process. A process that will require that we feel the tension between
what we know is right and being able to live it. We will falter sometimes. We will
be victorious sometimes. We are children struggling to work out what we are
learning about our faith, learning to handle our relationships the way Jesus would,
investigating dark places in our lives we don’t know what to do with. But we can be
sure that God is transforming us, molding us, if we choose to allow God to work the
miracle in us.
Every day, we are asked to start fresh; to distrust our previous patterns and
methods and to allow God to suggest something new. To take the next step; to
know that our molding into the likeness of God is not complete but the
transformation has begun.
There is a story called “Pushing the Rock”
I have been pondering a story of a weak sickly man. The man was so sick and he
could not afford going to town to the doctor. The man lived in the deep back woods
in an old log cabin, his condition seemed to grow worse.
Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder. The rock was massive in front of his
place. One night in a very real vision, God told him to go out there and push the
huge rock all day long, day after day. The man got up early in the morning, and with
great excitement he pushed the rock until lunch, then he rested a while and pushed
the rock until supper time. The man loved pushing against the rock, it gave him
meaning.
The dream was so real that it was with great excitement he pushed against the
rock. Day after day he pushed. Day rolled into week, and week into months, he
faithfully pushed against the rock.
After 8 months of pushing the rock, the weak sickly man was getting tired of
pushing the rock so much, in his tiredness he started to doubt his dream. So one
day he measured from his porch to the rock, and after daily pushing the rock, he
would measure to see how much he had moved the rock. After two weeks of
pushing and measuring, he realized he had not moved the boulder not a 1/32 of an
inch? As a matter of fact, the boulder was in the same place as when he started.
The man was so disappointed, he thought the dream was so special and now after 9
months he saw his work had accomplished nothing, he was tired and his dream
seemed dashed upon the rock. The man sat on his porch and cried and cried, he had
invested many hundred hours into nothing. Nothing, it was all nothing!
As the sun was setting in the west, Jesus came and sat down next to the man as he
cried. Jesus said, "Son, why are you crying?"
The man replied, "Lord, You know how sick and weak I am, and then this dumb
dream gave me a false hope and I have pushed with all that was within me for over
9 months, and that dumb old rock is right where it was when I started."
Jesus was kind and said to him, "I never told you to move the rock. I told you to
push against the rock."
The man replied, "Yes, that was the dream."
Jesus told the man to step in front of the mirror and look at himself. As an act of
obedience the man stepped in front of a mirror and looked at himself. The man was
amazed, he had been so sickly and weak, and what he saw in the mirror was a strong
muscular man. The man realized that he had not been coughing all night. The man
started thinking of how well he felt for several months and the strength that he
had built by pushing on the rock. Then the man realized that the plan of God was
not for the rock to move, but for the man to heal and grow.
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Living our lives in pursuit of the image of God that has been carved into our souls
can sometimes feel like we are pushing a great weight. Not conforming to the
culture, resisting evil in any of its forms, standing for what is good, loving those
who are unlovable, giving of ourselves when we feel empty ---- all of these will be
worth it. Someday, we too will look in the mirror, maybe a heavenly mirror, and we
will see what God’s vision and purpose has made.
Let’s think about that.
Amen.
i
a sermon illustration contributed to www.SermonCentral.com by Wade Hughes, Sr.