1 John 5:9-13 - God loved, God sent, Jesus Came
In just a few weeks, I will celebrate my wedding anniversary. We haven’t planned anything special to celebrate it yet, but I know that whatever we do, it our anniversary will be wonderful because I know something very special about my husband: he loves me. But there were times when I had my doubts.
I know to the day – and even to the hour – that he picked up my engagement ring from the jeweler. It was a Saturday afternoon – and do you know what happened the next day when he picked me up for church? Nothing! Not a word. No hint of what he was up to.
So I waited – all week – for some special dinner, a nice card, some cute little thing that might be the preamble to a proposal – and do you know what happened that week? Nothing! Still no word, no hint, no sign of what he had on his mind.
And so I waited until the next Sunday - and do you know what happened the next Sunday when he picked me up for church? Still nothing! I began to wonder if perhaps he had changed his mind. He was as kind to me as ever. He was still attentive and charming. Everything seemed to be OK, but in the back of my mind, I began to wonder…. Had I mistaken his intentions? Was I misreading his emotions? Was I wrong about the whole thing? Was he just being a nice guy and in my imagination I had made the whole thing up? The doubt and uncertainty drove me crazy.
Another week passed and I began to think that indeed I was wrong about the whole thing… and then the next Sunday came and as I walked by him on my way to the car, he said, ‘Will you marry me?’, and do you know what I said? Nope, I said, ‘What did you say?’ He said again, ‘Will you marry me?’ And do you know what I said this time? Nope, I said, ‘Are you sure?’
We finally did work it out and we did get engaged and we did get married and every time I look at the rings on my left hand, I know with a certainty that he loves me. Before I had these rings, I only thought he loved me. I hoped he loved me. I knew I loved him and so I wanted him to love me. But there was still a hint of doubt: Was I making it up? Had I gotten the whole thing wrong?
But all the pretty words and all the romantic dinners and all the nice gifts had not been enough to convince me because there remained the possibility that I was deluding myself – only the ring and the commitment that it represents were enough. The ring said, ‘I love you. I love you enough to make it permanent and forever – and this is a sign of that love.’
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All of us – Christian or not - live with a measure of uncertainty – a certain amount of doubt. It’s part of being human. Will we get enough rain? Will it rain too much? Will my test results come out OK? Will there be a traffic jam on the way to the Twin Cities? Can I afford to buy gas when I get there?
We live with uncertainty because we cannot see and feel all the things that will make us feel secure. Like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz, we need a diploma in our hands to be sure of what we are.
Because we can’t look at our lives from the end but only from the middle, we will always live with a certain amount of uncertainty – @@@ and we will never like it. Uncertainty makes us nervous. It initiates that ‘fight or flight’ reaction that turns our stomachs up in knots. Makes our hearts beat faster and our palms sweat -- but this morning’s scripture assures us that there is at least one thing that we need not doubt – in fact it is one thing about which we can be absolutely certain.
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This is the seventh Sunday of Easter. For the past seven weeks, the church has been celebrating the joy and the reality of the resurrection. Until the day of Ascension, that we celebrated just a few days ago, Jesus walked the earth in a resurrected body made of heavenly stuff, yet still eating and drinking and offering his hands and his side for people to touch – so people could see the reality of his resurrected body. But after the Ascension, when there was only the memory, it was easy to get the message confused. It was easy to ‘mis-remember’ what had been said. It was easy to draw incorrect conclusions from the message of Jesus and to add new theories to the faith of the young Christian church.
Much of what the letter of 1 John focuses on is a rebuttal to those who would add something to the gospel, those who claimed that Jesus did not come in the flesh, but was only a spirit, those who said there was more to eternal life than faith in the son. It is a rebuttal to those who would cause doubt in the hearts of those who had not seen Jesus in the flesh and who might be convinced to believe that their faith was just wishful thinking.
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When God spoke to Abraham the Lord made promises that Abraham would never see. After a long wait, Abraham may have seen the birth of his son, but he never saw his offspring become as numerous as the stars of heaven.
When God spoke to Moses the Lord made promises that Moses would never see. Moses led the people through the desert and delivered the law of God, but Moses himself never entered the Promised Land and never saw the people settled in a land of their own.
King David, who was a man after God’s own heart, could look forward to the coming of the promised Messiah, but never saw the birth of the Lord.
Even Simeon and Anna, who held the baby Jesus in their arms and knew that he was the promised Messiah, never saw the resurrection that made the promise sure.
Each of them had the promises of God’s love and care, but each of them lived with the uncertainty of not being able to see God’s love in concrete and measurable ways. Each of them lived in a time then it would have been easy to doubt, to be anxious about the faithfulness of God..
We who read this morning’s scripture, know with certainty that the promises of God are true because we have the sure testimony of God’s love.
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This morning’s scripture tells us that there are two kinds of testimony about God available to us. The testimony of human beings about God is an important thing. We speak about the love we have in our hearts, about the word of God we have received, about the work of God in our lives, but those who hear us may wonder if our faith is just wishful thinking, a delusion, what Karl Marx called the ‘opiate for the people’. This morning’s scripture tells us that the testimony of God about God is greater and the testimony of God is sure.
Human beings can testify about what they know, but our knowing, our understanding is imperfect because we know only in part and can preach, or testify, only in part. We view the world from the middle of time instead of from the beginning, the middle and the end.
The testimony of God is something different altogether. God’s testimony does not originate in the middle of time, but from the middle and the beginning and the end. With the testimony of God, there is no doubt, no anxiety, no sweaty palms and elevated heart rate. With the testimony of God, we can rest on the assurance that God is faithful and that the words of God are true.
The word of God became true in the flesh with the coming of the Son, Jesus Christ, who was the embodiment of God’s love.
This morning’s scripture says we can be sure about all the things that really matter. We can be sure of God’s love. We can be sure of eternal life. And we can we sure that we have it. We can be sure because of the testimony of Jesus Christ, the gift of God.
… and to not be sure, is to call God a liar.
Before the coming of Christ, the nation of
Our faith rests not in pretty words or cute sayings, but in the sure reality of the coming of Jesus – the testimony of God – the wedding ring God gave as a symbol to the church – to the faithful – that we are the bride of Christ.
After 4 chapters of telling us in so many ways what love is about, John assures us of the truest vision of love is the love of God that came to us in Christ. And this love has rewards – not just eternal life but eternal joy and peace in this life – and it rests in the supreme deed of the gift of the Son of God.
God’s saving act is both good and true, both positive and convincing, for what God says and does is true. It must be the truth, for if it wasn’t true, then God would be a liar.
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When my husband presented me with this engagement ring, he was showing me in a very concrete way that his love was true and that I need have no doubts of his care and commitment. If I chose to disbelieve him, I would have been calling him a liar. When God sent the son, he showed us that God’s love was true – and if we disbelieve this concrete gift of God’s love, then each of us calls God a liar.
This is the testimony of God, the Good news for us this day: God loved, God sent, Jesus Came. We need have no doubts about this because we have the testimony of God in our hearts. This testimony is also true: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his son (1 John , NRSV).
Let us go forth this day, believing that is God love, believing the Gift sent by God, believing in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus – and because of all this, believing in the gift of eternal life.
Go in peace. Amen.
