Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, July 1, 2018
1 John 1:1-4
When you open up your Bible to the small book known as 1 John, you might first ask yourself, “Who is John, anyway? Which John are we talking about?” And those are very good questions to ask, because the short answer is, “We don’t know!” Since John the Baptist died before Jesus was crucified and risen, we can pretty confidently take his name off of the list of possible Johns. That’s about all we know, though. The three letters of John were written by an unknown author, but likely by the same person. He never introduces himself in 1 John and in the second and third letters, he refers to himself only as the “elder.” This guy who calls himself the “elder” could be the same author as the gospel of John. He could be John of Patmos who wrote Revelation. He could be John the beloved disciple, or a different author writing within the “Johannine tradition.” For ease, most Christians say that the author of these letters is John, but it’s important to know that just because we don’t know who exactly wrote these letters doesn’t make them any less valid as scripture. It’s similar to the writings of Martin Luther and the Lutheran confessions that we confess to adhere to as Lutherans – not all of the confessions were written by Martin Luther, and some were written after he died, but the Lutheran Confessions were written in that same spirit, and we believe them to be just as valid and God-inspired.
What is interesting about the books named John in the New Testament is that whether you’re reading the gospel of John, the letters of John, the words of John the Baptist in the other gospels, or the letter of Revelation written by John of Patmos, you can identify common themes. We heard some of those themes in 1 John and the gospel of John reading for today. The Johannine authors urge believers to know or walk in the truth, to love one another as the greatest commandment, to have joy among believers. They describe believers as little children, the Holy Spirit as our advocate, and write about the importance of abiding in Christ. These themes are central for us as Christians, and I think we can agree that the content, the message, is much more important than the who, what, where and when of this particular letter. As Martin Luther put it, “This is an outstanding epistle…so beautifully and gently does it picture Christ to us.” For those of us who struggle to think about the cosmic God of the universe, for John, God is not an abstract concept but the person of Christ Jesus whom we can see, hear, and touch.
One of the central themes of 1 John and the gospel of John is emphasizing both Jesus’ divinity and his humanity. In the first century, there were certain factions of Christians arguing that the son of God wasn’t actually human, but only appeared to be human. Others claimed that Jesus was a wise and good man, but only a man, not truly God. Eventually this led to the development of the Nicene Creed in the 300s where Christians agreed that Jesus was fully God and fully human, begotten of the Father, if you can recall those words! And so in the opening of John’s gospel we hear, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” And in 1 John, “The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen!” Over and over again, these Johns in the Bible testify that what believers had previously only read about or heard about as words or thoughts about God is a person, God embodied in human form, in Jesus the Christ. What I find even more powerful is that the John writing this may not have seen Jesus in person. He may have lived after Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven, yet he can share a powerful experience of God in the flesh that has engaged all of his senses. This means that we can, too. We can have a powerful God-encounter still today. God is not just somewhere up there like the Deism of the Enlightenment, watching us passively and uncaringly from up in heaven, God is here, among us, in flesh and blood as Christ to us, STILL.
This is how 1 John puts it: “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!” We saw the Word of Life, we heard the Word of Life, we experienced the Word of Life, and that experience gave us joy, John is basically saying. That same joy is for us as believers. When have you seen God? When have you heard God? When have you experienced God, right there, in another person? When has God given you joy? This is why we ask you to share God sightings with us, because it’s so easy to overlook or forget that God is at work in us and through us in flesh and blood, tangible ways still today. This is why we celebrate communion regularly with physical things like bread and wine to remind us of Jesus’ presence with us NOW, the body and blood of Jesus given for us. Jesus is the tangible Word of Life for us, as real as the person sitting next to you in the pew.
It’s easy to learn about God, to study facts about the Bible as I shared with you this morning, to find things about Jesus’ life and ministry that are interesting. Our faith in Jesus Christ is more than abstract thoughts or ideas about God. Our faith is sharing with one another the encounters we’ve had with Jesus incarnate, the flesh and blood Son of God. Just as you may have encountered Christ in the face of a neighbor, a loved one, or a strange, John reminds us that we also could be Christ to someone else. We witness to Christ’s love with our whole selves, just as Christ first loved us. Just last Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit three congregations in Clay Center, Edgar, and Superior, Nebraska to install their new pastor whom they are sharing together as a parish. It has taken years for this parish to form because there is one Presbyterian church, one United Church of Christ church, and one Lutheran church in this parish. It was quite powerful for me to experience the love of Christ in these congregations’ welcome of me, in their love for one another as they’ve gotten to know one another over the years, and in their willingness to be the body of Christ in that part of Nebraska across denominational lines. And by the way, I think I may have tasted Christ in one of the best potlucks I have ever been to, three LONGGG tables full of food brought by the different congregations celebrating their partnership. I have pretty high standards knowing how awesome our potlucks from Bethel are. That’s just my most recent experience of seeing Jesus in the faces of people I get to meet and in the words I hear from people who are just as excited as I am about their encounters with the Word of Life made flesh. I’m sure you all can think of many more. If you think of one in particular – it doesn’t have to be just this week – write it down on that God sighting line in your communication card and share it with us! I don’t think we can be reminded enough of how great God’s love is for us, that he is willing to take on flesh, to walk among us, to experience what we experience, to die and be raised for us, and to encounter us even now. Thank you God for Jesus, our tangible Word of Life. Amen.
