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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Do You Have the Son?


A sermon based upon 1 John 5: 9-13
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
7th Sunday of Easter, May 20th 2012

The Bible is about finding the fullness of life and love in God.  It directs us toward life’s most important questions.   But some people mistakenly think the Bible gives answers to all our human questions.  This creates all kinds of problems and arguments about the Bible, making us miss its main point, even causing some to lose faith.

Interestingly, Jesus did not answer everything people asked.  He directed people to the main point.   Do you remember that moment in Luke’s gospel chapter 13, when there arose concerned about the murders of some Galileans who were offering sacrifices to God in the Jerusalem temple?   During the fulfillment of their sacred duties, Pilate, the notorious governor of Jerusalem, had them murdered and mingled their own blood with the blood of their animal sacrifices as an insult.  Historically, we don’t exactly know what motivated the murders, but it was not unusual for governors to commit such atrocities if they thought there was a threat to the peace or to their power.   

Whatever the motivation, the incident brought theological questions to the mind those who witnessed and discussed the happening.   In Luke 13: 2, Jesus refers to the incident, but like a good Rabbi and teacher, instead of answering the question, he raises another question:  “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all others Galileans because they suffered?”  Then without pausing, he raises the again about a similar event.  “Or those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell, do you suppose they were greater sinners than those who live in Jerusalem?   To both questions Jesus does not give “answers”, but he commands personal responsibility:  “I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”  We never know what happened to those people, but Jesus wants us to consider what could happen to us (See Luke 13: 1-9).   

People want Jesus to tell them what they want to hear, but Jesus insists on reminding us what God wants.   He tries to show people what they should do to save themselves from destruction.  Did they listen?  Were they saved?  The Bible leaves the question open as if the question is also for us.
Are some people “worse sinners than anyone else?”  These are hard questions to answer.  Remember that question which caused a stir some years ago:  Do you think God hears the prayers of the Jews?  Today people might be asking, do you think Muslims or Morman’s are really saved?   When we were children, we got into all kind of discussions, thinking we could know the answers to who are “the worse sinners”.   Are we any better for trying to answer such spiritual riddles?   As Jesus implies in this question his disciples, we may think we have the answer, but we still miss the question God is asking us. 

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION  
Today’s Bible text suggests the right question to ask:  “Do you have the Son?”  This question is implied at the end of John’s personal letter to the early Christian community where he makes a very powerful, either/or, black or white, statement: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1Jo 5:12 NRS).   This is “life” John is talking about.   Even more, this is “eternal life” he wants us to choose.   He wants us to get beyond the many other questions we might ask to the main one we should ask: “Do you have the Son?”   But before try to answer, let’s make sure we get the question right.

To get to the heart of matter, let’s get to the heart of the letter John wrote.   This first letter of John is intended for the Christian community.   It is not a letter written to the world nor is it written to unbelievers.  The purpose of the letter is clarified with an explosion of expectation in chapter one, verse four:  “I write these things so that you joy might be full” (1.4).   The message of love explodes  in chapter 3, when John writes:  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us” (3.1).  This logic of God’s love permeates the pages as the command of Christ is elevated as the most important value for this newly formed Christian community: “Let us love one another, for love is of God---everyone who loves is of God.”

We shouldn’t have any problem following the main “love” line in this letter.  Life in God is the life of love and the love of community is being celebrated everywhere.  But in chapters 4 and 5 there suddenly appears a big, theologically rich qualification.  It starts out in a non-threatening manner in the second verse of chapter four: “Whoever believes that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is born of God and everyone who loves is born of him and keeps his commandments….”   (4: 2).  The first part shows how our faith in Jesus includes us in God’s love, but the second part becomes exclusive.  It adds this very specific and a specialized qualification: “and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.  And this is the Spirit of Antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and is now already in the world“ (v. 3).  

Such a strong and somewhat mysterious qualification lies behind the same qualification contained in our text, where John writes in either/or fashion:  “Whoever has the Son has life.  Whoever who does not have the son of God does not have life….” (5.12).   Even in stronger terms, John reminds his readers they have received the “testimony of God” (v. 9) on this, but once again he qualifies the matter saying that those “not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son”have made (God) a liar” (v. 10).   Making God a liar disqualifies us from having “eternal life” (13).    

Now we are getting to the main question John is asking the community of faith.  Similar to Jesus moving from the question of who is the “worse sinner” to commanding, “unless you repent, you will perish”, John’s is not talking about “outsiders” who have never been in the community of faith, but his question is being asked to the community of faith itself.   He says he is writing “these things” to (those) who believe in the name of the Son of God so they know they have eternal life” (vs. 13).  Do you see what is going on?   When John makes the statement: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life”, he is not writing asking the world, but he is writing to those “who believe”.   

THE QUESTION GOD IS ASKING
God’s question is not to get us to doubt our salvation, but to the contrary, John writes: “We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete” (John 1.4).   John’s letter is not about figuring out who is “in” and who is “out”, but is primarily about making sure we have the life and love God wants to give.   John has explained his reason for writing from the opening lines as a matter of “fellowship”: “we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that YOU MAY HAVE ALSO HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH US;  ….with the Father…and with his Son Jesus Christ (1.3).    This question of having “fellowship” with “one another” is at the heart of the matter.   John’s letter is full of warnings about what might keep us from having true “fellowship” with God and with one another.   These “warnings” take us straight to the main question God asks.    
The first warning comes in chapter one, verse 8, right after he introduces his “fellowship” theme, referring to “blood of Jesus, which cleanses us from sin.”  John warns unequivocally: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”   Confessing our sins brings both forgiveness and fellowship with God and with the community of faith, but if we “say we have not sinned”, we “make God a liar”, his “truth is not in us”, and we can’t have the kind of fellowship or relationships we are intended to have.   Sin gets in the way, unless it is confessed and forgiven.   Anyone who says they have no sin goes against the very life and love God can give—and is, thereby, disqualified.   Of course, we are supposed to have power over sin, and Jesus forgives and atones for sins, both our sin and the world’s sin, but we are still sinners and we need continual confession and forgiveness to keep community together.

This brings us to the second warning, which follows closely in chapter 2.  “Whoever says, I have come to know him, but does not obey his commandments, is a liar and in such a person the truth does not exist” (2.4).  John’s language is to the point.   He tells us that “obedience”--that is obeying God’s word is how God’s ‘love reaches perfection’---this is how joy and love are made complete and full (2.5).   Our obedience is how we are “sure” (2.5) we are in him.   Whoever says “I abide in him” ought to “walk just as he walked” (2.6).

This might sound hard or like something “new” that is added to grace, but John adds: “I am writing you no new commandment.”    This is “an old commandment that you have had from the beginning” (2.7).  In other words who ever says, “I am in the light” while hating a brother or sister is still in darkness”  (2.9).   You can’t have it both ways.  “Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light” (2.10). “Whoever hates another believer is in still in the dark, walks in darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness brings blindness”  (2.11).  The warning cannot be more graphic.   Here is the same kind of terminology we have in our text.  If you say you “have the son”, you need to know what this means.  To “have the son” means more than having “your own” belief.  It also means confessing sins, obeying God’s will and it means loving others.   There is more to “having the son” than saying the words.

The third warning takes the issue of “having the son” to yet another level.  He writes in chapters 2. 15: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  The love of the Father is not in those who love the world.”  What John means is clarified as “the desire of the flesh”, the “desire of eyes”, “the pride in riches”, which “come not from the Father, but from the world”---a world which “passes away.”  Only those “who do the will of God live forever.”  When John warns about loving the “world” John is specifically warning against wayward selfishness which keeps us from doing the “will of God”.   This kind of self-focused “love of the world” fails to realize what matters most.   We are given life to live for God and for others, not just to live for the satisfaction of our desires.  If your desires for the world mislead you, it is “made plain” you never “belonged to us” (2.19).  

This is strong language.  What it means to “have the Son” and to have the “life” the Son gives is being qualified by John’s warnings.  And again, what is most important for us to grasp is that this qualification is not being made to the “world” outside the community of faith, but the qualification is made about those who “say” they have the Son, but have proved otherwise:  They say they have the forgiveness---but do not confess their own sins.   They say they know him, but do not keep his commands.  They say they are “in the light”, but still walk in darkness.  They say they love God, but only show “hate” toward their brothers and sisters.  John’s letter is written to clarify again for the church what it means to “believe” in Jesus Christ.

THE QUESTION GOD STILL ASKS OF US
Finally, just before our text, John advises a clear distinction to be made when considering our own “belief”.  In the chapter just before our text, he says: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God…” (4.1).   With this final warning, the message of his letter is qualified, clarified and simplified in one single statement that overflows with Christian theology.  In First John, chapter four, verse two, John declares in the most Christian terms possible: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.  And every Spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

Here John declares what it means to “have the Son”:  To “confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” is the most important part of our faith for fellowship with God and with each other.   This is what it means to “have the Son”:  Having and holding to this “incarnational faith”, not only with words, but holding with your whole being, your whole life and with all your love, is the most important qualifier of true Christian faith.  This is the question put to the church and to us.    When we say we have faith, do we have the Son who gives our faith “flesh” as we live in love?   To have “incarnational faith”; that is to “have the Son” means that our faith lives and puts on flesh and bones in the real world.   We can live our whole lives to answer how faith lives and loves.  True faith demands all our life and all our love.  When we put on love like Jesus put on flesh, the more our faith becomes proves it is true and we “know we have eternal life”. 

Maybe you’ve seen the email going around that provides the answers a bunch of eight-year-olds gave to the question, "What is love?"   Some of the answers are cute, such as "Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."    Some of the answers are humorous, such as, "I let my big sister pick on me because my Mom says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her."   But then there is this one, which tells the truth: "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."  Love is something that God wants us to do in the flesh—in our real lives.  In fact, living a life of love in our own flesh is essential to remain in a relationship with Jesus.  

Let me tell you about a boy named Tom, and how he learned about love lived in the flesh.    Tom was born in Korea, around 1951.  Tom had another name when he was born, a Korean name, and a name his mother gave him. But that was the only thing she ever gave him.  Even his food had to be snatched when his mother wasn’t looking, or earned by salvaging tobacco from cigarettes dropped by marines at the camp down the road.

Tom’s mother was an alcoholic, and she was a prostitute. Tom’s father was some long forgotten GI. Tom’s earliest memories are of life lived on the streets, with other kids in the same predicament. They were mixed race kids, ignored by America and scorned by Korea. They learned to avoid the marines; they huddled together at night for warmth or for shelter, and returned to their mothers’ homes at daybreak, when the coast was clear.

Somehow, Tom made his way to Seoul, and it was there he found an ideal place for living the only life he knew—the train station. He quickly learned that he could easily steal all the food he wanted from travelers waiting to catch their train. He would snatch their bag, take off running, and then drop some of the food in the bag. While his pursuers stopped to pick up their food, Tom ran off with the rest of the food. Tom needed food. He was 7 years old, and he weighed 33 pounds.

Then one day, while Tom was running with his hands full of stolen food, he ran smack into a large, stern looking man in uniform. He was a policeman, and Tom’s life of crime was over.
"SIT DOWN," the man said. "RIGHT HERE, AND DON’T MOVE."
But in the place where he sat, someone sat down beside him.   It was a lady, an older lady with white hair.  She sat down beside him in that place of judgment and reproach, and she did something that Tom had never, ever, experienced before.   She gave him candy. For an hour, she sat with him and watched him and gave him candy.

Then the policeman came back and gave Tom a choice.  "You can come with me," he said, "Or you can go with her."   There was bad news, or there was good news, Tom had a choice as to what it would be. Tom took the good news. He went with the white-haired lady who gave him candy.

That white-haired lady took Tom to an orphanage founded by American Harry Holt. The orphanage found American parents for Tom—an amazing feat, since he was a wild seven-year-old street kid. Those parents raised Tom and taught him discipline and concerned for others.   When Tom tells his story, you are immediately impressed by the fortitude and dedication of his American parents. But as he told their story, I realized that loving him was not just something they decided to do.  It was who they are—in the flesh.  Their love for Tom was the outgrowth of the way they had been living all along—loving their enemies and their neighbors, practicing mercy, living generously with a vision of God’s future always on their mind.

Tom grew up and became a District Court Judge in Kansas.  One day he was speaking to the students at a local High School.
"How do you treat your friends and classmates?" he asked.
"Do you treat them like expensive china, like something you value? Or do you treat them like paper plates that you use once, and throw away?"
Tom knew what Love was, because he had been loved by someone who practiced it, day in and day out, over and over again---and “love became flesh”.  He had been treated like expensive china, and love made a difference.  (Story as told by George Pasley in a sermon “Are We in Trouble or What” at www.goodpreacher.com).

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”  (John 5:13).   When the love that became flesh for you now becomes flesh in you, this is how you “know” you have the Son.  Amen.

© 2012 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.

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