Becoming Like Jesus
Sermon
Sermons on the Second Readings
Series III, Cycle B
Lately, I've been thinking that I'd rather not be referred to as a Christian. I don't always like being put in the same category with the kinds of people who like to call themselves Christians. I'm referring to the ones who will put out a directory of businesses that are identified as Christian businesses so all the Christians can do business with each other. There's something about that that just rubs me in the wrong way. It makes Christianity sound like an exclusive club. If you're in the club, we want to support you and if you're not in the club, forget it. If that's what it means to be a Christian, I'd rather not be one.
Then there are Christians who want to teach alternative theories of creation that have nothing to do with science at all, in science classes. There are Christians who condemn victims of natural disasters, claiming that they suffered the destruction of a hurricane as punishment for their sins. Many Christians are quick to tell you who is going to hell and who isn't. In the name of Christianity, people have been burned at the stake, lynched, herded into gas chambers, and suffered every atrocity known to humanity.
When someone calls me a Christian, I long to tell them that I'm not one of those. I'm a follower of Jesus, but, please, if the word "Christian" conjures up images of people who are close-minded, bigoted, vindictive, and judgmental, if that's what being a Christian means to you, please don't call me a Christian. That's not a group with which I want to be associated.
In today's passage from 1 John 3, followers of Jesus are not identified as Christians, but as children of God. That's a label that's easier for me to live with. And yet, John reminds us that it doesn't really matter what we might call ourselves because, so far as the world is concerned, people will see us the way they want to see us. As Jesus followers, we can't expect the world to understand us any more than it understood Jesus. Just as they misunderstood what it meant for Jesus to be the Son of God, we can expect them to misunderstand what it means for us to be children of God. But it's crucial that we understand what it means.
According to John, for us to be children of God means that we will be like Jesus. Now, I don't know about you, but that makes me more than a little uncomfortable. It sounds so presumptuous, doesn't it? As children of God, we will be like Jesus. It sounds like we think we're better than other people, and that's one of the problems so many people have with the Christian church. There is a perception that we believe we're better than other people, we're "holier than thou." The fact is, just because we're children of God, that doesn't make us any better than anyone else in the world. We're still broken, imperfect people, sinners. What sets us apart from the rest the world is that we're in the process of becoming more than we are. We're on the way toward becoming like Jesus.
How is that possible for us? Through Christ Jesus, God has forgiven us and freed us from all our sinfulness. God doesn't just forgive us so that we can resume our lives but now without the burden of our sins weighing us down. Through his forgiveness he makes it possible for us to become more than we were before. As broken people, his forgiveness sets us on the path toward wholeness. We're not the same. We're being transformed.
It reminds me of an incident that happened a few years ago when I was visiting with my sister in Massachusetts and we were walking her dogs. My sister, Wendy, has two Labrador retrievers and twice a day she loads them up in a truck and drives them to an idyllic little country road that meanders through the woods and cranberry bogs. One of the labs is a golden named Bruno who is very, very protective of my sister. On this particular afternoon, we parked the truck at one end of the road and had walked about a half-mile or so when Bruno darted off after a rabbit and hurt himself jumping over a large rock. He started limping and we realized that he couldn't make it back to the truck without doing more damage to his leg. Wendy headed back to get the truck while I waited behind with Bruno. As soon as she walked away, he went nuts trying to go after her. I held tight as he pulled on his leash and I commanded, "Sit, Bruno." He obeyed and sat. Then I praised him and patted him, and with a calm voice I tried to assure him that everything was going to be fine. "It's okay, Bruno. Okay." I no sooner finished saying that and he was trying to charge off again down the road after my sister. Once again I had to command him to sit. He obeyed and sat. Once again I praised him and patted him, "It's okay, Bruno. Okay." And then again he suddenly lunged forward to run after my sister who was walking away from us. It happened again and again. Later I learned that the word "okay" was the command Bruno had learned for "go." The poor dog. I was telling him, "Sit and go" over and over again. "Sit, Bruno. It's okay, Bruno. Okay."
I think that's the same kind of confusion we may have about God's forgiveness in our lives. God is saying we're okay. And we think that means go. Go and do what you were doing before. But God in Christ has told us we're okay, not so we can run off and do what we were doing before, but so we can become more than we were before. So we can become more like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit leads us through this process. Traditionally, in the church we have called it sanctification, this process of growing in spiritual likeness to Christ. It's a lifelong process for us, one that's never finished, no matter how old we may be. Paul writes about it to the Philippians:
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
-- Philippians 3:12-14
We all know that children tend to be like their parents. Some of this is because it's in their DNA, and some of it is because when you raise a child you have a lot of influence over them and your behavior rubs off on them. I know there were some things about my mother that drove me nuts when I was growing up and I swore I'd never do them. Now there are times when words come out of my mouth and I realize that I sound just like my mother. When I forget, my siblings are always good about reminding me. "You sound just like Mom," they'll tell me. It's not usually meant as a compliment. But how can I help it? They say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because it's true. There's no way we can get around the fact that the strongest influence anyone has on the kind of person we become comes from our parents.
We aren't only the children of our mothers and fathers. We're also children of God. We may have our parents' DNA, but we were also created in the image of God. In our rebellion we've distorted that image so that it may be hard to see, but that doesn't change the way we were created. As children of God, our lives are a journey back to God's intention for us. We know that none of us are perfect. None of us are complete, but one day we will be. Until then, we're on a journey, growing more and more into the spiritual likeness of Christ.
People outside the church will often look at the church and pass judgment on us, saying that the Christian church is full of hypocrites. To them, it probably does look that way. But they don't really understand the point of being the church. It's not so that we might become a select group of people who are better than the rest of the world, because we know that's not the case. We are every bit as sinful as people are outside the church, maybe even more so. What we are dedicated to, and what we support one another in pursuing, is the process of becoming more than what we are. We're not defined by artificial labels like Christian. We're defined by whose we are. We're defined by Christ. Our lifelong calling is to become more and more like him until the day when we see him face-to-face.
Later in John's letter he talks about what it means to be like Christ. It means to love as Christ loved. "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7).
Are we living as children of God? Are we allowing God's Spirit to work in our lives so that we are growing more and more Christlike in the way we love one another?
As children of God, we're not called to become Christians. We're not called to become church members. We're not called to become successful. We're not called to become powerful. We're not called to impress the world or even to be understood by the world. We're called to become like Christ. Amen.
Then there are Christians who want to teach alternative theories of creation that have nothing to do with science at all, in science classes. There are Christians who condemn victims of natural disasters, claiming that they suffered the destruction of a hurricane as punishment for their sins. Many Christians are quick to tell you who is going to hell and who isn't. In the name of Christianity, people have been burned at the stake, lynched, herded into gas chambers, and suffered every atrocity known to humanity.
When someone calls me a Christian, I long to tell them that I'm not one of those. I'm a follower of Jesus, but, please, if the word "Christian" conjures up images of people who are close-minded, bigoted, vindictive, and judgmental, if that's what being a Christian means to you, please don't call me a Christian. That's not a group with which I want to be associated.
In today's passage from 1 John 3, followers of Jesus are not identified as Christians, but as children of God. That's a label that's easier for me to live with. And yet, John reminds us that it doesn't really matter what we might call ourselves because, so far as the world is concerned, people will see us the way they want to see us. As Jesus followers, we can't expect the world to understand us any more than it understood Jesus. Just as they misunderstood what it meant for Jesus to be the Son of God, we can expect them to misunderstand what it means for us to be children of God. But it's crucial that we understand what it means.
According to John, for us to be children of God means that we will be like Jesus. Now, I don't know about you, but that makes me more than a little uncomfortable. It sounds so presumptuous, doesn't it? As children of God, we will be like Jesus. It sounds like we think we're better than other people, and that's one of the problems so many people have with the Christian church. There is a perception that we believe we're better than other people, we're "holier than thou." The fact is, just because we're children of God, that doesn't make us any better than anyone else in the world. We're still broken, imperfect people, sinners. What sets us apart from the rest the world is that we're in the process of becoming more than we are. We're on the way toward becoming like Jesus.
How is that possible for us? Through Christ Jesus, God has forgiven us and freed us from all our sinfulness. God doesn't just forgive us so that we can resume our lives but now without the burden of our sins weighing us down. Through his forgiveness he makes it possible for us to become more than we were before. As broken people, his forgiveness sets us on the path toward wholeness. We're not the same. We're being transformed.
It reminds me of an incident that happened a few years ago when I was visiting with my sister in Massachusetts and we were walking her dogs. My sister, Wendy, has two Labrador retrievers and twice a day she loads them up in a truck and drives them to an idyllic little country road that meanders through the woods and cranberry bogs. One of the labs is a golden named Bruno who is very, very protective of my sister. On this particular afternoon, we parked the truck at one end of the road and had walked about a half-mile or so when Bruno darted off after a rabbit and hurt himself jumping over a large rock. He started limping and we realized that he couldn't make it back to the truck without doing more damage to his leg. Wendy headed back to get the truck while I waited behind with Bruno. As soon as she walked away, he went nuts trying to go after her. I held tight as he pulled on his leash and I commanded, "Sit, Bruno." He obeyed and sat. Then I praised him and patted him, and with a calm voice I tried to assure him that everything was going to be fine. "It's okay, Bruno. Okay." I no sooner finished saying that and he was trying to charge off again down the road after my sister. Once again I had to command him to sit. He obeyed and sat. Once again I praised him and patted him, "It's okay, Bruno. Okay." And then again he suddenly lunged forward to run after my sister who was walking away from us. It happened again and again. Later I learned that the word "okay" was the command Bruno had learned for "go." The poor dog. I was telling him, "Sit and go" over and over again. "Sit, Bruno. It's okay, Bruno. Okay."
I think that's the same kind of confusion we may have about God's forgiveness in our lives. God is saying we're okay. And we think that means go. Go and do what you were doing before. But God in Christ has told us we're okay, not so we can run off and do what we were doing before, but so we can become more than we were before. So we can become more like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit leads us through this process. Traditionally, in the church we have called it sanctification, this process of growing in spiritual likeness to Christ. It's a lifelong process for us, one that's never finished, no matter how old we may be. Paul writes about it to the Philippians:
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
-- Philippians 3:12-14
We all know that children tend to be like their parents. Some of this is because it's in their DNA, and some of it is because when you raise a child you have a lot of influence over them and your behavior rubs off on them. I know there were some things about my mother that drove me nuts when I was growing up and I swore I'd never do them. Now there are times when words come out of my mouth and I realize that I sound just like my mother. When I forget, my siblings are always good about reminding me. "You sound just like Mom," they'll tell me. It's not usually meant as a compliment. But how can I help it? They say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree because it's true. There's no way we can get around the fact that the strongest influence anyone has on the kind of person we become comes from our parents.
We aren't only the children of our mothers and fathers. We're also children of God. We may have our parents' DNA, but we were also created in the image of God. In our rebellion we've distorted that image so that it may be hard to see, but that doesn't change the way we were created. As children of God, our lives are a journey back to God's intention for us. We know that none of us are perfect. None of us are complete, but one day we will be. Until then, we're on a journey, growing more and more into the spiritual likeness of Christ.
People outside the church will often look at the church and pass judgment on us, saying that the Christian church is full of hypocrites. To them, it probably does look that way. But they don't really understand the point of being the church. It's not so that we might become a select group of people who are better than the rest of the world, because we know that's not the case. We are every bit as sinful as people are outside the church, maybe even more so. What we are dedicated to, and what we support one another in pursuing, is the process of becoming more than what we are. We're not defined by artificial labels like Christian. We're defined by whose we are. We're defined by Christ. Our lifelong calling is to become more and more like him until the day when we see him face-to-face.
Later in John's letter he talks about what it means to be like Christ. It means to love as Christ loved. "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7).
Are we living as children of God? Are we allowing God's Spirit to work in our lives so that we are growing more and more Christlike in the way we love one another?
As children of God, we're not called to become Christians. We're not called to become church members. We're not called to become successful. We're not called to become powerful. We're not called to impress the world or even to be understood by the world. We're called to become like Christ. Amen.
