Preached on April 22, 2012
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Easter 3B: 1 John 3:1-7
My fondest memories of the Presbyterian Church of my childhood center
on baptism. I remember the pastor
holding the newly baptized infant in his arms and walking down the center of
the aisle of the church. As he walked he would say, “See what love the Father
has for the child that we should be called children of God. And so we are.”[1] In that moment, looking at this new creation,
it was impossible not to believe those words. It didn’t matter if the baby was crying or
laughing, sleeping or drooling, it was so obvious that God loved that child.
A couple of days ago, I was blessed by the opportunity to hold in
my arms the newest member of St. Mark’s – Samuel Wade Najem born on Wednesday,
April 18th. At 9 pounds, 8
ounces and 23 inches I could look into his face and hear those words again and
again, “See what love the Father has for the child.” God’s love poured out, God’s abundant grace
shared with the world, shared with baby Samuel.
But as I drove home from the hospital, I began to wonder, “When do we
lose that certainty?” I know God’s love
of Samuel is true. I know it is true of his brothers, David and Joseph, of Neena
and Leela, of Patrick, of Addison, of Peyton, of every child gathered here this
morning.
At some point along our life’s journey, we are all taught and most
of us learn that it is better to give than to receive. And while this adage has
important practical implications and is, in many situations, very good advice, I
wonder if in accepting it, we have lost sight of an ancillary truth: that those
who do not experience what it is to be loved unconditionally, impair their own
capacity for loving others completely. In
other words, our ability to give love and to give love to others out of an abundance
of love becomes incapacitated by our rejection of or our inability to believe in
God’s unconditional love for us.
As infants, it is easy to see the love a parent has for a
child – the baby depends on the parents for everything. And, when that love is
tragically absent, the family often becomes the focus of the news cycle as
stories of neglect and abandonment garner attention. But as we mature, our parents – as loving as
they may be – are not God and are, therefore, not capable of perfect love. We
experience times of disappointment and we begin to adapt, learning early on to make
attempts at “earning” love. What I’m
trying to describe here is not some pathological condition but rather a way in
which I’ve been exploring the challenge we face as adults to accept the fact - the capital ‘T’ Truth - that God loves us
unconditionally.
By the time most of us reach adulthood, we have come to learn what
sorts of behaviors lead to positive reward.
Our culture adds to the lessons of childhood teaching us that we must
work hard to get ahead – in other words, that hard work pays off – that we can
earn approval from others – that we can earn love? And perhaps the passage from
the first letter of John doesn’t help either. For immediately after reminding
us of God's love for us, comes this:
“Everyone
who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he
[Jesus] 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.”[2]
Tempting as it may be to read into this that doing the right thing
or things means God will love us – that is, that we can and must earn God’s
love – what the author seems to be saying is actually the opposite: that those
who fully accept God’s love – God’s abundant gift of grace - will no longer
sin, God’s love will change them. “Beloved,
we are God’s children now.”[3]
Accept the Good News.
But some of us, even those who dedicate our life-work to a journey
of faithfulness, cannot feel God within us, and we feel frustrated. Does any of
this ring true for you: You pray for hours each day and then continue to lash
out at those around you; you seek out spiritual masters – in the form of
therapists, self-help books, yogis, or nutritionists – and try to make that
person into God; you develop a spiritual practice, a discipline, but stay at arm’s
length from where that practice might lead you, remaining disconnected from the
spirit within and around you. So what hope can we find? Where might we regain
this capacity to accept God’s loving embrace?
The answer, I believe, lies in the children around us. It is no mistake that Scripture is filled
with images of God as parent and of God’s people as children. We need to be like children in order to fully
accept God’s loving embrace. Children understand – and more importantly, accept
– love as part of the way things are and the way things ought to be. A list of
quotes attributed to children has been floating around the internet for several
years now. The sentiments they express are quite valuable to us grown-ups. Here
is just a selection:
·
Rebecca (age
8): “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her
toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his
hands go arthritis too. That’s love.”
·
Billy (age 4): “When
someone loves you, the way they way your name is different. You just know that
your name is safe in their mouth.”
·
Karl (age 5): “Love
is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go
out and smell each other.”
·
Danny (age 7): “Love
is when my mummy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it
to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”
·
Emily (age 8): “Love
is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still
want to be together and you talk more.”
·
Bobby (age 7): “Love
is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and
listen.”
·
Tommy (age 6): “Love
is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even
after they know each other so well.”
·
Cindy (age 8): “During
my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people
watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing
that. I wasn’t scared anymore.”
·
Mary Ann (age
4): “Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all
day.”
·
Jessica (age
8): “You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean
it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”[4]
For those of you who entered the sanctuary through the doors behind
you, you walked past the baptismal font. Some of you may even have stopped and
dipped your fingers into the bowl, reminding yourself of your baptism. The
placement of the font at the entrance to the church serves as a reminder of the
grace and love of God through Jesus Christ, reminds us that while we may come
from a variety of places – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually –
when we gather here to worship we do so as a part of Christ’s body.
I encourage you to walk past the font whenever you come to worship
here – dip your fingers into the water, even splash around a bit if you’d like. And when you do, remember your baptism and
remember these words, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be
called children of God; and that is what we are.”[5] We should say it a lot because, as Jessica
reminds us, people forget.
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