Born to Become

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday January 4, 2009, the 2nd Sunday in Christmas.

Jeremiah 31:7-14
Psalm 147:12-20
Ephesians 1:3-14
John 1:10-18

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

About fifteen years ago, I heard a report on National Public Radio saying that monogamy was not the human being’s biological default. The story said it is in our nature to have more than one mate. Polyandry, polygyny, polygamy; I don’t remember if the story said whether it was more than one husband or more than one wife or both; but to our sensibilities, it doesn’t really matter. Our society is built around monogamy or at least the concept of one mate at a time.

Scripture is filled examples of men having more than one wife and/or concubine at a time. Pop culture rings in from “The King and I” as Yul Brenner sings that the bee goes from flower to flower to flower; the flower does not go from bee to bee to bee.

Anyway, back to fifteen years ago, it disturbed me that what I thought was normal was not the biological imperative. But it got me thinking about something the Reverend Bill Clark preached at First Presbyterian in Lamar, Colorado. Bill reminded the congregation that people have a choice. People can act the way people do when our humanly omnivorous appetites are allowed to come to the forefront; or we can act as we are called to behave in a still more excellent way by our Lord Jesus Christ.

I was overjoyed by this notion. Yes, we may well be hard wired in ways that aren’t beneficial for us; and no, we don’t have to act on these impulses. Our call as the children of God is to become better than our sinful selves. I may well be naturally set to have more than one partner, but I am called by the Lord to a faithful monogamous relationship with the one I love. Dear Marie, by Christ may I forever be your loving faithful husband.

“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”

Born by the will of God. Yes, there is fleshiness to our existence. To use the words of the New International Version, there is an aspect of our existence that is born of “natural descent, human decision, or a husband’s will.” But we are called to become so much more than that and what is more comes from being born by the will of God.

The news reminds us everyday of the sinful nature of human life. Terror, pain, and suffering are found far too often in this world. Judging people as children of Adam and not Children of God makes taking advantage of other people tolerable.

Demonizing others by ethnicity or race and not treating others as children of God means we do not have to extend God’s peace and grace. Just ask anybody within 50 kilometers of Gaza. Ask the Muslim family who was kicked off of an AirTran flight last week because one single passenger thought their conversation was suspicious.[1]

But for those who believe in his name, he gives power to become children of God, born of God, and from his fullness receive grace upon grace. From God’s own fullness, we receive the Lord’s unmerited favor.

The Parable of the New Community in Matthew 20 shows us what this grace looks like as the landowner pays his laborers the same wage regardless of the time of day they started. The workers are promised they would be paid “whatever is right.” We would expect them to be paid by the hour or by the bushel, this is the way we would expect to be paid. This is the way we would expect to pay. But these workers weren’t promised what is fair; they were promised what is right, and everybody received the same wage. The people who started later in the day received merit they did not deserve by generally accepted accounting principles.

Matthew 18 reminds us of grace beyond imagining when we are called to forgive without keeping track of how many times we forgive those who sin against us. After all, if we are counting up to seventy-seven times plus one, we haven’t really forgiven at all. There is no grace in either being abused seventy-seven times or in counting to seventy-seven times. Forgiving transgressions without being abused is at the root of grace. This is displaying God’s unmerited favor without being a victim. And Jesus was never a victim.

Jesus tells us to use our voices to share the good news of his extravagant grace with a world that thirsts for the Word. Our instruction is simple: come to the Lord, hear the Word, be changed by the Good News, share the overflowing grace of God with the world, and rejoice—rejoice with the Lord and the entire heavenly host. Come, hear, share and rejoice.

We are called to respond to the Word of God in faith, not in fear. We are to respond to a relationship with a living being, the Living God; not out of fear of reprisal from laws we could never hope to keep. The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians Paul says, “In Christ you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”

As we have received grace upon grace through Christ and were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, we are to share these with the world. And over the past few weeks we have heard some wonderful examples of this sharing.

We have heard about Grapevine Faith High School Head Football Coach Kris Hogan who showed the love of Christ giving fifteen young men abandoned to Texas youth criminal justice system hope just by giving them fans at a football game. Hogan showed these young men the grace and peace of our Lord giving them the message “You are just as valuable as any other person on planet Earth.”

Where Simeon was ready to die, we are called to be ready to live. Hogan’s example shows us that we are to do more with the grace we receive than die happy, we are to live happy—joyfully doing the will of Christ showing God’s grace in all creation.

Washington Capital’s web producer turned substitute goalie Brett Leonhardt demonstrated the value of showing up when called. Leonhardt’s example teaches that showing up is the beginning of every good act. Making yourself available is always the first step toward being useful.

Mary giving herself—not passively allowing herself to be taken but voluntarily giving herself—shows us that only when we say yes to the Holy Spirit can we make a dent. Mary shows us that saying no to God makes us benign to creation. History is made by people who show up.

The Gospel of John also reminds us that the people who are the most ordinary can be indwelt and empowered by the Spirit to become extraordinary. The man we know as John the Baptist is simply known as John in the fourth gospel. He’s not the Messiah, not Elijah, not one of the prophets, so in the eyes of the temple leaders he was nobody. While in one sense he is “just John,” the witness of history shows him to have been more than that. He was indwelt and empowered by the Spirit of God to become the Baptist.

We are born to become. We are born to become the children of God; born of God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that we may see the glory of God through the Son. It is by God’s only Son that we come to know the Father and the Father’s heart. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we reflect this grace through our actions.

It is by saying yes when called that we participate in history; we participate in the inbreaking of God in all creation. It is by serving the Lord with imagination and perseverance that we discern how to show God’s grace and peace to a thirsty world. It is by being ordinary that we may be empowered to do something extraordinary. And this is our call—not just to receive Christ and by him become the Children of God—our call is to return this gracious gift to the world.

Again as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, as we receive the mark of the seal of the Holy Spirit, we receive the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people to the praise of God’s glory. By sharing this mark with others through good works we reflect the face of Christ to a world that needs it, now more than ever.

[1] AirTran Apologizes to Muslim Family Removed from Plane, http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/02/family.grounded/index.html, retrieved January 3, 2009.