Not just the heavens...”(1 John 1: 1-4) (Please read Psalm 19 and 1 John 1: 1-2:2)
Many people have struggled with loneliness and boredom over the months. They have turned to alcohol and pornography, some to on-line shopping or gambling, to deal with the emptiness. Many of us have had the opportunity to learn new skills. Some have a new appreciation of the beauty of their surroundings. Because a creator God made the scientists and is himself the instigator of the science that observes and classifies his creation, we now have new vaccines against Covid-19. Science does indeed declare something of the glory of God, though God rarely gets the credit! Some of you, I know, have taken the time to dig deep into God’s Word and find new revelations in the old, old story. Some of you have stayed close to the LORD or grown even closer. Some have reflected in prayer and poetry and shared their insights with us...and we’re grateful. Some, I know, have strayed...some have (both) strayed and stayed! It has been a time of learning...
I count myself so fortunate to have had some great teachers over the years. They are etched into my memory and my heart. When I was at school it seemed my teachers were all ancient, but we all know that when we saw our teachers, years later, doing their shopping, that they looked just the same. They never aged. I could easily devote an hour to each one of them, and tell you what they were like, what they taught me...not simply subject matter... and why I am still so thankful to them...
Some of my best teachers were older; I met them when they were well into the ninth and tenth decades. Rothney Hammond was an old Baptist Minister...and, in case you don’t know, old Baptist Ministers never retire. In the weeks after my conversion, I used to travel to his home for personal bible study. He was a great teacher. He knew his subject well. My last memory of him was our studying John’s gospel together, and of him seeing something new in the text. This discovery caused him to break into a huge grin and declare that he, the teacher, had learned something new from God’s word. The best teachers have always been the best students...always learning...always humble...even to the very end. That last bible study was just a few days before Rothney died suddenly in his bath. Brenda, his wife, found the old man there... smiling. “Joy in God is never out of season.” (Matthew Henry)
Last week we learned that Jesus died and rose again for us...for the church, for those who would come to know him and believe...so that we would not only live to/for ourselves... that life he gave as a gift...but give or share that life (and truth) with others. Otherwise, we’d be a dead religion.
We learned that this was true, living religion...and that the church is declining, in part because of its failure to live out its true calling...Last week we read from the climax of John’s Gospel – an empty tomb - and the story of how the church began with a woman’s declaration to the male disciples: “I have seen the LORD!” (John 20: 18). Mary (and the other women) was not believed (Luke 24: 10).
Later, that same day, the Risen Jesus stood among the huddled, scared disciples, shared his peace with them, showed them his hands and side, breathed on them the life of God and created them anew and gave them a mission, and power to preach and teach forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name (John 20: 19-23). They were overjoyed when they saw the Lord! (2020). The very first Easter changed everything! All of us who are real Christians living twenty centuries later can say, I too, have seen the Lord...
This week we have read from John’s first letter. (It bears reading in its entirety, over and over again. For there is bound to be new things to be found there...it is as plain as it is profound...women and men on their death-beds have been saved for eternity by hearing God’s words in John).
Though the Gospel and the first letter were both written by the time John was an elderly man (the last man standing), the Gospel recounts the experiences of a time when he was in his mid-twenties...
The letter...teaches us what John had learned of the Word of Life, sixty years since John first heard Jesus say, “Follow me!” One of the angry young men (a Son of Thunder) was now a loving old minister. John never lost his love for the Lord. The danger of growing older is that we grow colder. The older he grew, the more he loved his flock and the more concerned he grew for their (spiritual) happiness, harmony and their holiness. John can do nothing about his reader’s physical safety, but he can where their souls are concerned!
Two generations had passed since the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the church had faced and survived severe great persecution. But commitment was declining; believers were conforming to worldly standards; compromising their faith by listening to false teaching which abounded...and refusing to be counted for Jesus. It is not a new problem. Hence this letter...
God still speaks to us through John; God still addresses our need to know the difference between light and dark...between truth and falsehood; our need to grow in love for God and one another. By your love for one another the world will know you are my disciples, Jesus said... addressed is our need for the assurance that we do possess eternal life...
John’s letter, like any other letter or book in scripture, is a declaration of God’s love and truth...meant to be taken to heart...believed... and lived out...then, given away!
Read 1 John 1: 1-4 (RSV):
Age has not dimmed John’s light. The Lord still has work for the old man. (The Revelation to John is yet to be written).
No less than 3 times in the prologue, John says we DECLARE to you the Word of Life! Clearly a reference to Jesus...
Our life... this new life... comes from God. John doesn’t just speak for himself; he speaks for the other apostles whose own declarations have led to persecution and physical death. On behalf of his dearly-departed friends and the God with whom he has fellowship, John declares in one urgent, breathless sentence:
It’s true, it’s real; we’ve heard and seen; we’ve looked (contemplated deeply), we’ve touched with our very hands; the fellowship we have is with Father and Son...and we want you to know it too! We want you to live the life, to know the joy we experience. We cannot be happy until you do...
We want to be a happy church. Happiness is not perfected until it is declared. We (the church) are commanded in scripture to do no less than to witness to our faith...to declare what we have seen and heard, to what we know. Age has not dimmed John’s desire to declare the Gospel. We should be no different.
We have the cure, no less, to the world’s every ill. “Could a mariner sit idle when he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort, knowing that his patients die? Could a fireman watch men perish, and not give a helping hand? Can you sit at ease in Sion with a world around condemned?” (Corrie Ten Boom)
How can we rest assured if we don’t even offer (sometimes with words) what we know? What do we declare? A living Christ or a dull religion...a challenge to the world around us or comfortable club?
For John the beloved, Jesus is alive...every bit as much as when he lay his head in the Lord’s bosom! Age has not dimmed John’s light...Our light comes from God, because God is Light.
The hills around us are beautiful but they are silent about how we should live or about how we can know God. The hills and the heavens may tell the glory of God, but they cannot revive the soul; or make wise the simple; or bring joy to sad hearts; they cannot be faithful or forgive us, atone for us; the hills and the heavens cannot love us; or stand beside us, or be with us forever. We have to look above the hills for help... to the Word of Life, to the God who is Light, to the God who is Love.
Let us pray:
God, so near and far, journey’s beginning, journey’s end: our way to you is Jesus Christ. You are the truth which guarantees our integrity; you are the Life, calling us through death to resurrection. Help us, Lord, we pray to trust you and, with quiet minds, to walk in the light, to declare your truth and live your life for your sake and for the world’s. Amen.
MFR 09/04/21