“Like the Father”
Original sermon given November 6, 2022, written and delivered by Pastor Gregg Ramirez at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church
Watch the sermon live here
“Like the Father”
I John 3:1-3
I John 3:1-3
I’d like to begin this morning by asking you a question: If a well-informed, trusted authority figure—like an experienced medical doctor—said that you had to make difficult and enduring changes in the way you think, feel, and act — and if you didn’t, your time on this earth would end soon— a lot sooner than it had to. Could you change when change really mattered – more than anything else? How many of you would say “yes”? If you’re thinking that way, you’re probably fooling yourself. That’s what the experts say. They say you won’t change. The experts from their scientific studies are laying down the odds: 9 to 1. It’s 9 to 1 against you.
Change is hard. It’s a big issue for us regarding our ingrained attitudes and habits. Jesus said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” We have our fallen human natures, which are susceptible to the pull of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Frankly, we can’t do it. Our good intentions are like New Year’s resolutions – well meaning, but then there arise those impulses from the dark side that overwhelm us in our weak moments. We don’t have the willpower to overcome our secret sins and weaknesses. But all that can change if we get strong help from the outside. It’s the great promise of hope we heard about in today’s second reading from St. John. Then the odds switch 9 to 1 in our favor.
To me, this huge switch from positive to negative is best exemplified in a 2011 article from Parade Magazine. Back in 1986, Laura Schroff was a successful executive living and working in midtown Manhattan, New York City. About two blocks from where she lived, Laura was walking down the street when a skinny 11-year-old kid in grimy sweats and sneakers stuck out his hand as she walked by. “Excuse me, lady, do you have any spare change?” he asked. Schroff didn’t answer and kept going, but then just a few steps later, she stopped, turned, and came back. Instead of giving the boy money she took him to lunch at McDonald’s. Afterwards, she gave the boy her card and told him to call if he was hungry. It was the beginning of an extraordinary friendship that changed their lives as they got into the ritual of meeting every Monday. Then it progressed as she took him out for dinner, and soon afterwards she began cooking at her place and teaching him to do simple things like setting the table and doing laundry. As things progressed, she took Maurice to his first baseball game, bought him his first bicycle, and let him decorate his first Christmas tree. But then after 11 years, Maurice vanished from her life. It would be 14 years before Laura hunted him down in North Carolina and the article showed pictures of their first meeting and then at their 25-year reunion. It was a very touching article with a good ending when it was revealed that Maurice said he had to go away and become a man on his own. And so he did in becoming the owner of a small construction firm.
Why do I share this story with you? It’s because for Maurice, the child, the odds were 9 to 1 against him - worse yet 99 to 1. He was already trapped in a cycle of poverty, drugs, and violence. His father, a gang member, left when Maurice was 6; his mother was a heroin and crack addict. He had never known an adult who held a full-time job, and he had received only two presents in his life: a toy truck and a joint.
But then Maurice got help from the outside and that totally changed the equation. Indeed, this sense of disillusionment, loss, and brokenness also characterized the believers to whom St. John wrote his letter. They were suffering from a split in the church where a large group of people left. It decimated their support systems, and the heretics belittled them as losers while proclaiming themselves the true believers though they denied Jesus as the Son of God. In their lifestyle these dissidents stressed their freedoms, but their values more promoted license rather than liberty. Plus, they asserted that the possessed secret knowledge of the ways of God through cultic ceremonies, thus making themselves far superior. But now they were gone, and there was a great void. John’s readers were left in the wake of painful separation. Good friends and some of their own family members walked out of their lives and crushed them in spirit saying in effect: “You’re not good enough.”
It is into these circumstances that St. John writes his letter. He comes alongside them and works to break the stronghold on their minds through the words in the first verse of our lesson: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God.”
Love, that’s what St. John first stresses to these believers. Because of the split, love had grown cold. These believers were running on empty, and they needed a fill-up from the outside—from the Lord. One thing that stands out in John’s Gospel is that whenever he refers to himself, John calls himself not by his personal name, but instead, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Not “I” or “Me”. John was not the most faithful or the kindest, or the wisest or the most obedient – but simply loved. That was the most important thing to John – that Jesus loved him and laid down His life for Him.
Have you come to that deep personal realization like John – that you are the one that Jesus loved? It’s a process! In one of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books, Prince Caspian, Lucy hasn’t seen Aslan—the Christ figure of Jesus—for a while, and she remarks that she is surprised that Aslan has changed. But He responds by telling her that every year she grows, she will find Him bigger. And so also for us. The longer we live in Christ, the greater He becomes in us. Not that He changes, but we do. We see more of Him – His dimensions, qualities we never saw before – His astonishing purity, power, uniqueness, and His love. You may be young or old, rich or poor, highly educated or not. It doesn’t matter. You are a disciple that Jesus loves and this truth has the power to overcome a negative elf-image of yourself. That’s something I fought personally for 40 years – a poor self-image. For 40 years it gave my father power over me. But that’s not to be my identity or your identity. I’ve learned this because in spite of all the silly things I’ve done in my life, our loving God has always been there in the shadows. This is to be our core identity. Your education, job, income, class, nationality – all of this counts for nothing. Even the years you’ve spent in the church – or not – make no difference. Because Jesus loves you, you matter. You are His disciple, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and he describes it powerfully – how great is the love the Father has lavished on us. We get the word “lavish” from the Latin “lavare”, which means “to wash”. The Latin word can also refer to a great downpour, like rain pouring down the side of a mountain in a flash flood.
Thomas Goodwin, a 17th century Puritan pastor, wrote that one day he saw a father and son walking along the street. Suddenly, the father swept the son up into his arms and hugged him and kissed him and told the boy he loved him – and then after a minute he put the boy back down. What did the father do? He lavished his love on his son. He made it known to him, personally through a powerful experience, and I believe that’s what St. John was trying to get across in our lesson when he said: “Dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.”
When it came to St. John’s hearers, they felt they were not in the know. They were told by the heretics that they were missing the special knowledge of God through their cultic rites. But John says in effect: “How long are you going to believe the lies about yourself?” You are special. You are not losers. You know God personally because you have the Holy Spirit. This is the great work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is the Spirit Who brings an inner experience with God. He creates a deep personal conviction that we are the children of God.
I shared with you the example of the father taking his son into his arms, but the knowledge and love of God is far greater than a parent for a child. That’s where the odds regarding our changing switch from 9 to 1 against us to 9 to 1 in our favor. Don’t we as parents often feel we could have done better? We are good at one thing or another, but not all and we fail again and again. Yet, the Holy Spirit is with us all of our lives. He’s there 24/7 like the Good Shepherd in Jesus’ parable. The battle to shape our hearts never ends. The Holy Spirit keeps reminding us that God loves and accepts simply because He loves us – not because of our human achievements. Like Laura Schroff who poured her life into Maurice Matyck – being there for him, sharing life’s experiences with him, there was a rubbing off of God’s love into the young man’s life. She invested in him – guiding things for his benefit so that he was able to rise out of a life of poverty. And so, with the Holy Spirit. He enables us to be freer from the dark side in our lives – our self-centeredness and sinfulness – transfiguring us from grace to grace reflecting God’s glory. What is this glory? John tells us that we will be like Him. He’s going to share with us His glory as He enables us to be as He is.
Oftentimes fairy tales have a great Christian meaning within them. In the movie, Beauty and the Beast, Belle, the beauty, gasps in horror at the hideous appearance of the beast. But at the end the beast goes through a transformation into a handsome prince as light radiates from his body. What a picture that is of what happens to us as the Christ within us radiates from the inside out to transform us to be like Him, the Prince.
We will be as He is, and John tells us that anyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself as Christ is pure. Yet, isn’t it so easy to see that as wishful thinking? We know that we are frail, broken, and imperfect people, and God knows that we are quick to dismiss the potential in all of us. So, the Holy Spirit reminds us that we are a people whom God is pleased to embrace and adopt and bring us into the greatness we were created for. The world says we are not good enough, but God says we are more than good enough. He says: “I know you have a dark side in your life, but trust me that I am strengthening your faith to believe that you are going to arise with your glorious new body. So stay in the process. He is your help from the outside. Have that unshakeable confidence rather than a mere wish regarding the future. The purpose for which God created you will be ultimately realized. Look to the returning of Christ for everything. Humbly accept yourself, flaws and all, as the raw material God can work with. God has pre-committed to you. Faith is believing God has taken that vow and Jesus the risen Savior offers the proof. It’s what St. Paul who called himself the chief of sinners yet believed. He trusted in Him Who would transform the body of our humble condition, “into the likeness of His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself.” Stay in the process. Know that you are loved and empowered by that love – love one another.