1 John 1:1-7, 2:2-6
From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!
This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.
If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another.
.............
Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
Last week I stated that Easter morning was not a culmination – not the finishing of something God had been doing. Instead, Easter is a beginning. Our reading for today seems to me to reiterate that truth and I want to carry it a little farther.
We have been taught by much of the church, for so long, that Easter is the big climax, the healing stroke that sets everything right again – and ‘that is that.’ We are hereby saved and we can just go on and live our lives without thinking about it overmuch because Jesus took care of it all.
We are told that Jesus lived and died and rose again to save us – and this is no doubt true (praise God!) – and yet Jesus’ own words, his teachings scattered all throughout the four gospel accounts clearly tell us that he is expecting more from us than to simply be the passive recipients of his work. There do not, in fact, appear to be too many passive recipients anywhere in Jesus’ thinking.
“Meet me in Galilee,” he told his disciples, and through them, us. “Go, and make believers of all nations; baptize them and spread the Good News.” This reading we just heard for today is from the first of three letters written to the early church by John the Evangelist, the same writer who (probably) wrote the Gospel according to John. That is the gospel that ends with a meeting at the seashore and Jesus questioning Peter three times: “Do you love me? Then feed my sheep.” Three times. I see nothing there that suggests everything is taken care of and finished now so we can all just relax.
There is nothing here to suggest that the work of Easter is finished. In fact, John makes it abundantly clear that if we make a claim to be followers of Jesus but nothing changes in how we live our lives, we are, quite bluntly, liars. He says it twice in just these few short verses I just read. Liars.
It is worth reading again. John is telling us what he heard and saw with his own eyes and ears. He’s telling us so we can know this glorious truth for ourselves: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us, he says. We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the miracle of Easter – that we, too, can experience this communion with God, not through our own deserving, but simply because the love is that great.
But there are consequences that come with accepting this love and John wants us to be very clear about these consequences: If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another.
And later on: Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
John says it just about as simply as possible: If you truly understand and believe the things I am trying to tell you here – things I saw and heard my very self – you simply CAN NOT remain unchanged by them. Anyone who remains unchanged has missed the boat. Coming into contact with Jesus changes us – inevitably.
If we actually listen to Jesus’ words to us there is very little about sitting and thinking about it all. All four gospels are full of imperative statements – action verbs. Go, Do, Love, Heal, Feed ..... Let your light shine.
This is why Easter is just a beginning. Easter shows us Jesus – the who and the what and the why of Jesus. Not the Jesus we think we want but the one we actually get. The one with so much power and so much authority and so much love that no one can remain untouched by it. As Frederick Beuchner puts it, Jesus had a Christ-making power – the power to make Christs out of all of us. When we are touched by this kind of power we are going to be changed.
John - and the other disciples and apostles as well, tells us there is only one way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone, he says, who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. Easter is not the final triumph. Easter is showing the whole world just how God loves – and knowing this – maybe we can have the courage to step out in the faith that Jesus died and lives for – the faith that even we can become Christs in Jesus’ image.
Easter is when the changing starts, so let the work of Easter begin in you. Let us – each one -- consciously walk in the light -- and begin the work of Easter in the world around us.
Amen.
We have been taught by much of the church, for so long, that Easter is the big climax, the healing stroke that sets everything right again – and ‘that is that.’ We are hereby saved and we can just go on and live our lives without thinking about it overmuch because Jesus took care of it all.
We are told that Jesus lived and died and rose again to save us – and this is no doubt true (praise God!) – and yet Jesus’ own words, his teachings scattered all throughout the four gospel accounts clearly tell us that he is expecting more from us than to simply be the passive recipients of his work. There do not, in fact, appear to be too many passive recipients anywhere in Jesus’ thinking.
“Meet me in Galilee,” he told his disciples, and through them, us. “Go, and make believers of all nations; baptize them and spread the Good News.” This reading we just heard for today is from the first of three letters written to the early church by John the Evangelist, the same writer who (probably) wrote the Gospel according to John. That is the gospel that ends with a meeting at the seashore and Jesus questioning Peter three times: “Do you love me? Then feed my sheep.” Three times. I see nothing there that suggests everything is taken care of and finished now so we can all just relax.
There is nothing here to suggest that the work of Easter is finished. In fact, John makes it abundantly clear that if we make a claim to be followers of Jesus but nothing changes in how we live our lives, we are, quite bluntly, liars. He says it twice in just these few short verses I just read. Liars.
It is worth reading again. John is telling us what he heard and saw with his own eyes and ears. He’s telling us so we can know this glorious truth for ourselves: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us, he says. We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the miracle of Easter – that we, too, can experience this communion with God, not through our own deserving, but simply because the love is that great.
But there are consequences that come with accepting this love and John wants us to be very clear about these consequences: If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another.
And later on: Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
John says it just about as simply as possible: If you truly understand and believe the things I am trying to tell you here – things I saw and heard my very self – you simply CAN NOT remain unchanged by them. Anyone who remains unchanged has missed the boat. Coming into contact with Jesus changes us – inevitably.
If we actually listen to Jesus’ words to us there is very little about sitting and thinking about it all. All four gospels are full of imperative statements – action verbs. Go, Do, Love, Heal, Feed ..... Let your light shine.
This is why Easter is just a beginning. Easter shows us Jesus – the who and the what and the why of Jesus. Not the Jesus we think we want but the one we actually get. The one with so much power and so much authority and so much love that no one can remain untouched by it. As Frederick Beuchner puts it, Jesus had a Christ-making power – the power to make Christs out of all of us. When we are touched by this kind of power we are going to be changed.
John - and the other disciples and apostles as well, tells us there is only one way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone, he says, who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. Easter is not the final triumph. Easter is showing the whole world just how God loves – and knowing this – maybe we can have the courage to step out in the faith that Jesus died and lives for – the faith that even we can become Christs in Jesus’ image.
Easter is when the changing starts, so let the work of Easter begin in you. Let us – each one -- consciously walk in the light -- and begin the work of Easter in the world around us.
Amen.
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