St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Third Sunday of Easter, April 26, ’09
“Love Lavished! Love Alive!”
Text: 1 John 3:1-7
Children and more children! After several years of not seeing many children in this congregation, of late, the last ten years or so, this congregation has been richly blessed with more & more children. We have been blessed in welcoming babies, baptizing them; watching babies become little children, smiling at them, taking their pictures, hearing them run up & down our inside ramp between the church & fellowship hall, and giving thanks for them as they show up for Sunday pre-school & Sunday School classes & worship with their families!
All this to me is a very special gift of God that I have been privileged to witness these latter years of my ministry here. Sometimes I even think how we older folks do envy the children and the energy they have. And isn’t it a joy to see children stand with their parents at the communion rail for Holy Communion or have a child hand you a bag of M&M’s on their way back from one of our Children’s Talks or Mom’s Moments in worship or see children not just eat cookies after church but serving them too?!
Having said that, I’ll go one step further and say, what a special gift of God it is; what a lavish gift, what a very welcome gift from a very loving God as we hear in the epistle reading for this 3rd Sun-day of Easter that we should ALL be called children of God.” What a gift whether one is a quick-to-learn, slow-to-learn, thoughtful, forgetful child; whether one grows up an only child, a quiet child, a rebellious child, a hard-to-please child, or a physically challenged child; or even when one becomes an adult child, an aging child, a retired child, a worn-out child, none-the-less, what a good, godly, gracious, undeserved gift that we should ALL be called children of God.
It is as Dr. Martin Luther says in his explanation of the meaning of the Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray, “Our Father who art in heaven,” what does this mean? Dr. Luther writes, “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”
Unworthy, undeserving, unimaginable as this is for some people to believe, “We are ALL the dear children of God.”
That’s a major theme of this little letter written like a sermon, called 1 John! Eight times in the five chapters of this letter, John uses the phrase “little children” or “my dear children.” “My dear children, do not sin – My dear children, your sins are for-given – Dear children, it is the last hour – My dear children, let no one deceive you – My dear children, love with deeds and truth – Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” Eight times John addresses his readers with this phrase, “my dear children.”
A closer look at 1 John 3: 1-7 reveals two big “nots” (n-o-t-s) about being “dear children of God.”
First, for us ALL to be God’s dear children says something about the all-inclusive, unstoppable, unconditional, unlimited nature of God’s love. To be little children, God’s little ones, dear children of God mean’s we are all of us not lacking in God’s incredible love. Love from the heart of God is not limited, not calculated, not mea-sured out, not in short supply, not tied to any conditions or qual-ifications for us to meet, but love freely, abundantly lavished.
How was it with us when you and I were children before we became teenagers, adults, parents, grand-parents? Were you & I loved as children because we were good? Were we loved because we listened to our parents, cleaned off our plates, ate our vegetables every time, picked up all our clothes, put things away, volunteered to do the dishes, didn’t make messes, didn’t get sick in the middle of the night, and sat perfectly still and were really very nice & quiet every time we came to church? I don’t think so.
I don’t think that our parents - raising us, loving us, sacrificing for us - had anything to do with how we behaved even though at times we probably drove our parents up a wall, or left them wondering why they ever bothered to have us in the first place.
But you see, truth be told, as good or as bad as we were, as easy or as hard as it was to raise us right, even to bring us up in the fear & admonition of the Lord, our parents loved us! In spite of our behavior, in spite of our silliness, in spite of our rebelliousness, in spite of our dumbness, our selfishness, our forgetfulness, our parents loved us because that’s what love is. Love in the Christian, Christ-centered, God-initiated sense is giving, forgiving, sacrifice-ing! Not W-A-M – what about me! But W-A-Y – what about you!
What makes children so precious, what makes all the difference in the world, is not just that children are children, but that they are your children! I may like your children, love your children, but what makes you like them, love them more than anyone else can love them is that they are YOUR children, YOUR child, flesh of your flesh & bone of your bone. This is even true of adopted children.
This is the first point of 1 John 3:1! Such is God’s love for us; for all the children of the world. You and I belong to Him; we are His!!
“God His own doth tend and nourish; In His holy courts they flourish. From all evil things He spares them; In His might arms He bears them.” (LSB, no. 725, v.2)
Writing to Christian adults, John says that we are God’s children, “His” children. His in the sense that thru Holy Baptism & through believing we are “born from above”, born of Water & the Spirit, that personal pronoun “His” makes all the difference in the world!
Not just that God finds it in His heart to like you, smile at you, put up with you, but God in His grace & mercy “spreads out, offers ” His whole self for you, sends even His only begotten son into the world to die for you that you might not perish but have eternal life.
Love in Christ, love from Christ’s cross, love that sets us free from the bondage of sin & death, that’s point NO.1. God’s love in Christ lavished on you!
Here’s point NO.2. For us ALL to be God’s children also says some-thing about the all-inclusive, unstoppable, unconditional, compelling nature of living our lives loved by God – that we not be lazy in love, not take it for granted, not spiritualize it but be motivated, encouraged by God’s Spirit to live in love even as our risen Lord Jesus is alive and Christ’s love & life is alive & manifested, reflected in us and by us.
Leave it to a child to make this clear to us!
Mrs. Thompson, a public school teacher, was asking the kids in her fourth grade class to name the person whom they considered the greatest human being alive in the world today – the responses were quick and also quite varied.
A little boy spoke up and said, “I think its Tiger Woods. He’s the greatest golfer in the world, ever”.
A little girl said, “I think it’s the Pope because he cares for people and doesn’t get paid at all.”
Another little boy said, “I think it’s my mom because she takes care of me and my brother.
Again & again, kids cited one hero after another. But then it was little Bobbie’s turn.
Without hesitating, when the teacher asked Bobbie, he replied, “Well I think its Jesus Christ because He loves everybody and is always ready to help them.”
Mrs. Thompson smiled and said, “Well I certainly like your answer Bobby because I’m a Christian too & I also admire Jesus. But there’s one slight thing that’s wrong. I said greatest living person, and of course Jesus lived and died almost 2000 years ago. Do you have another name in mind?
You have to love the simple, wide-eyed response of Bobby. He said, “Oh no, Mrs. Thompson, that’s not right at all. Jesus Christ is alive! He lives in me here and now!”
When it comes to not lacking in Christ’s love, the greatest doctrine of the Church is not the doctrine that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. It’s not teaching that Jesus performed incredible miracles or that He embodies the very presence of God. No, the greatest teaching & doctrine of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is alive, risen from the dead, and that even though He ascended back to His Father in heaven, He promised to be with us always and to live in the hearts & daily lives of each and every one of us here!”
How does a living Lord Jesus do that? How ‘bout when we begin to understand & put it into practice that life is not W-A-M, what about me, but W-A-Y, what about you?
Here’s a true story. Several weeks ago after I had put it in a sermon about not being a WAM but being a WAY, a young mother told me.
“Pastor, your messages do get through. After church our 7 1/2 year old son was outside with other friends his age who decided to play a game that needed two teams. A boy who likes to take charge said he would be the captain of one team. “I’ll go first, I’ll pick first,” he said. To which this little son who had been to church said, “Stop being a WAM.”
To be loved by God, to live with the Spirit of the Living Lord Jesus Christ living in you, is being less & less a WAM, and more & more a WAY. What about your mom & dad, brother & sister? What about your neighbor in need? What about your class-mate or your co-worker or your friend at coffee who’s having a hard go of it right now?
St. Teresa of Avila long ago put it this way, “Tho we do not have our Lord with us in bodily presence, we have our neighbor, who, for the ends of love & loving service is as good as our Lord Himself!
My dear children, says 1 John, do not love the things of the world. Instead, do what is right. Love your brothers & sisters. Help those in need and so prove that you are my dear children. Amen
