When You're the Perfect Child
I John 3:18-24 encourages you to love God not just with your heart, but also your hands and your time and your money. Love others with new energy from the risen Jesus that flows to you through faith. When You're The Perfect Child you can know it and show it. May 10, 2009.
It’s known as inheritable genetic modification and it could soon change the way parents have children. The technique modifies genes in eggs, sperm or early embryos and results in what some call designer babies. Parents could choose hair color, for example, or decide to give birth to a boy who’s a muscle-bound sports hero or a girl who’s a slender and intelligent book worm. Techniques of genetic screening are already being used where doctors screen for gene combinations in embryos that create higher risks of diabetes, heart disease or cancer. In the future parents will be able to create a perfect child with perfect looks and born with perfect health.
Of course, there’s a scary side to inheritable genetic modification. Who’s going to stop parents from aborting an unborn baby with some DNA glitch they don’t like and doctors can’t or won’t fix? If you’re not the perfect child, are you doomed? That question has serious implications not only for gene alteration but for all of us as children of our mothers, and all of us as children of God.
You know it
“Dear children,” this Bible section begins, addressing us as still-developing believers who, no matter what our age, have a need to grow in our faith, “let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” When it comes to love, reciting the Nicene Creed is simply not enough. The solid strength of confessional Lutherans like us – that we hold firm to the Bible’s teachings and will not compromise on these timeless truths for the glory of God and good of people – can become a wicked weakness if we stop there and then think that God loves us only because we are guardians of the truth. “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15-17). Jesus calls himself the Vine in today’s gospel and he warns that God “cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit” (John 15:2). Love is not just a feeling and not just a faith. It is a fruit. Love is a produced action, or it isn’t love … it is dead, rotten wood destined for the flames.
Do you know what an “erg” is? It’s the term of measurement for a unit of mechanical work. For example, it takes a certain amount of ergs for you to pick up that hymnal. “Erg” is also the Greek word for “action,” when the Bible says, “Love with action.” Love is work. Marriage relationships grow with work, and it doesn’t just happen. Parenting is work (and having parents is work). Friendship is work. Going to church is work. Work is work. Sometimes it’s hard work! No wonder “our hearts condemn us.” We usually prefer to love without doing much work. We’d rather pay someone to care for the poor than actually do it ourselves. We’d rather spend one day treating mom like a queen then every day treating mom like a mom. So how can we be a perfect child? Not by our own behavior. Then how?
“This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” Mikey’s older brother constantly harassed him. He was jealous because Mikey got better grades in school. One day he got Mikey in trouble – even though Mikey really didn’t do anything wrong – and Mikey felt terribly guilty about it. He moped around all day long and then went to bed. Mikey’s mom tucked him in that night and told him she knew he didn’t do anything wrong. If that wasn’t enough to quiet his nagging conscience she also told him that even before he was born she knew that she’d name him, “Mikey” and he’d be a special boy. She knew she’d always love him and always forgive him for anything no matter how terrible. And she knew she’d be packing his favorite cookies in his lunch the next day. There is the truth that quiets a hurting heart. “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
God knows so much more than your hurting heart. God knew, even before he painted the colors of tulips at the beginning of the world, that he would someday create you and he already knew then what color he’d paint your unique personality. God knew every one of your sins for which his own Son suffered, and now they can’t catch him off guard. God knows your emotional makeup and spiritual weaknesses, and so he fills in the gaps and nurtures you like a shepherd who knows each of his sheep by name. God knows the confirmation vow you made to remain faithful unto death, and your heart hunger that longs to say “no” to your favorite sin for good. God knows your name written in his book of life, he knows the exact day and time he gave birth to you in baptism, he knows you are receiving his body and blood today for your forgiveness, and he knows the prayer you prayed three years, seven months, sixteen days, two hours, and thirty-eight minutes ago and have since forgotten – but he hasn’t. And like a caring mother tucking in her troubled child, God wants you to know that he knows. “Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.” When You’re the Perfect Child you know it. That’s confidence before God. There is nothing that gets in the way of God and you; nothing you do can make him love you less.
You show it
A mother walked in on her 5-year-old who was sobbing. “What’s the matter?” she asked. “I just figured out how to tie my shoes,” her child whimpered. “Well, honey, that’s wonderful. You’re growing up, but why are you crying?” she asked. “Because now I’ll have to do it every day for the rest of my life.” When You’re the Perfect Child and you know it, you face a demanding future. Responsibility can be scary and daunting. But not with God. “We receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.” We are God’s children who delight in obeying his commands and pleasing him. And because he delights in his children obeying his commands and pleasing him, God provides us with just the right blessings for doing his will. We will have everything we need to carry out any of his commands, as much as a 5-year-old’s parents will make sure that child only wears shoes with laces that are easy enough for a 5-year-old to tie, or a 16-year-old’s parents will make sure that the car is insured for their new driver to get to work. “From him,” the Bible says, thereby qualifying the word “anything,” not to mean we receive everything we think we want but everything God knows we need that comes “from him” to help us obey his commands and please him.
“This is to my Father’s glory,” Jesus says, “that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8). When You’re the Perfect Child you show it. How can you perfectly keep God’s commands? It starts right here, “This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.” Believing in Jesus connects you to Jesus like a branch to the vine. All of the vine’s nourishment nourishes you. All of the vine’s life enlivens you. All of the vine’s direction directs you. Jesus Christ is the perfect Son of God, and you’re connected to him. That means you perfectly obey God’s commands. “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them.” When you obey God’s commands it is really you and God who are obeying God’s commands. When you bear fruit it is really you and the Vine who are bearing fruit.
It had been a few weeks since he heard Jesus tell him, “Here is your mother” (John 19:27). John, the man of God and disciple of Jesus who wrote these words before us today, took that command of Jesus seriously. Jesus was dying when he said it. John had figured that Jesus wouldn’t be here to care for his mother. So John began checking in with her, comforted her in grieving her son’s death, and made plans to take care of her as best he could. But then Jesus rose from the dead. Now Jesus, Mary’s son, Mary’s perfect son, is here. What can John do that Jesus cannot? How can John ever dream of being the type of son to Mary that Jesus himself can be? But soon, Jesus will leave once more when he ascends. But he will not leave John alone. John will indeed be a son to Mary, and he will be as good of a son as Jesus himself because John is connected to Jesus by faith. Everything Jesus ever did to love his mother, John can also do because he is in Jesus and Jesus is in him.
In Jesus you are the perfect child of your mother and of God. Live it. Love her with actions that mean more than Hallmark words. Love God with not just your heart, but also your hands and your time and your money. Love others with new energy from the risen Jesus that flows to you through faith. You are the perfect child. Know it and show it. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on May 10, 2009
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