Sermon for 3-10-13

1 John 2:12-17
  I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
  Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.
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The number one thing Jesus talked about was the Kingdom of God. He focused on it more than anything else, trying to help people understand the centrality of it in the Christian life. If we are to live a faithful Christian life, we, too, need to address Kingdom living.

It's easy to think about the Kingdom of God in the future—the Kingdom in which we will dwell after we have passed through the defeated shadow of death. We look forward to life in the Kingdom, where sin and death and pain and sorrow dwell no more. We live in anticipation of this Kingdom.

What is important to realize is that we also dwell in the Kingdom here and now. In Christ, the Kingdom has come near, and we dwell within its reality here and now. It's not fully here, but this life is meant to be a foretaste of the Kingdom divine, in which we experience God's grace and love and mercy while passing it on to others. Sin and death still have power here, so it's not the full Kingdom, but our lives are not to be spent idly waiting for the Kingdom to come.

What this all means is that our lives can be a place, as Tom Wright puts it, where earth and heaven meet. We live with one foot on this earth and another foot already in heaven, experiencing the joy and peace and wonder of the resurrection that has already come to us. In our baptisms, we proclaim that we have already joined with Christ in his life, death and resurrection, meaning that we have died the only death we can die, and life eternal is ours. In Christ, we already live forever.

So we are called to be a demonstration of this Kingdom to the world. We're called to live in such a way that illustrates to others what it looks like when earth and heaven collide. We're called to live and love in a way that invites others into the Kingdom. Today we're going to talk about what Kingdom living looks like.

Let's start by talking about Google maps. How many of you have ever used Google maps?

In the old days, you got a map out and figured out how best to reach your destination by writing down where you needed to turn. If there were 10 turns, your directions had 10 steps. It was fairly basic.

Now, if you get the same directions from Google maps, there are 30 steps, but the same number of turns. Google maps also includes every section of the road where it might change names or numbers, so there are all these steps that tell you just to go straight. So the directions and the turns are the same, but in between there are a series of steps telling you to do nothing other than go straight ahead.

Kingdom living is similar. In Scripture, we find a path for our lives, and there are two types of things we need to do. There are places where we need guidance about what not to do, about where not to turn, about what temptations to avoid. We're going to talk about three of these today. There are also places where we need to know exactly what to do, where to turn and how to act to stay on the narrow path that leads to life.

In our passage from 1 John, John is worried about the temptations of the world. He's worried about this group of people who are drifting from the true Gospel, and he warns them about chasing after the world and losing their relationship with God in the process. When John uses the word 'world', he has a few specific ideas in mind. He doesn't mean that you are free to turn your back on everything and everyone in the world. He's inferring that the ways of the world stand opposed to the ways of God, and he wants to warn his listeners against making unwise choices that will leave the church standing on the wrong side in the end.

What's the first thing he warns about?

Desires of the flesh. Instantly, our minds turn toward sex and physical sin. But John has something bigger in mind. This isn't just about sex. See, the desire of the flesh is, and always has been, to make much of itself. This is the human desire for self-seeking, to make ourselves the center of our own universe, to make life all about ourselves. When we're infants, we're as self-centered as possible—the world exists to meet our needs, and if the world fails, I'll scream. It works pretty well. The problem is that the temptation to act like this remains within us, and we struggle against selfishness our entire lives. Advertising plays on this well—trying to convince us that it's all about us. The Catholic church spend centuries silencing any voice that tried to assert that earth was not the center of the universe.

Let me put it this way. When I was in 2nd grade, I was a pretty smart cookie. I might have even been the smartest kid in 2nd grade. So the temptation is, naturally, to stay in 2nd grade, where I'll always be the big fish, albeit in a little pond. But even though Rachel often wonders if I never matured past 2nd grade, I would have missed out on a lot had I stayed. I wouldn't have fully developed if I chose to remain at that level, even though I'd always think much of myself. When we occupy the center of the universe, there isn't room for anyone else. Including God.

So we need to practice humility. This is how we resist the desire of the flesh, the desire of self-seeking. We put God in the center of the universe, let God occupy the center of our hearts. All of our selfishness is pushed aside and we focus on God. When we focus on God, we see a love that serves others. We, then, want to be like God and we begin to serve others. This pushes us farther out of the center, but somehow we become more fulfilled. When we focus on the world, we might get the world's glory. When we focus on God, we are bathed in his glory, and God throws in abundance in this world as a bonus.

The second warning is against the desire of the eyes. This is a warning against what attracts the senses. The danger of following what attracts the senses is that the appetite of the senses demand immediate gratification. They're not very patient. When you're hungry, you're hungry now. When you see something you want, your brain tells you that you want it now. Reason and thought go out the window, and we follow our senses, pursuing whatever attracts our senses. We seek to immediately pleasure the senses, and in exchange we lose out on long-term gain.

Think of it this way. My dad was once required by his company to take an intensive defensive driving course. One of the things they talked about was how to steer the car out of a skid or other crisis situation. They gave an example of skidding on the road and approaching a telephone pole. This is a seriously bad situation. They told him that the instinctual thing to do is to stare at the telephone pole and figure out what to do. The problem, though, is that you end up steering the car toward what you are looking at, even if you don't necessarily want to do so. The thing to do is to steer the car where you want to end up, even if it means not looking at the telephone pole that's approaching more quickly than you want it to. Letting your eyes remain on the nearest impending crisis will only drag you closer, while staring at your long term goal will help you navigate the mess that's in front of you.

A more real world situation? When I'm out walking the mall and see a beautiful woman, my senses are attracted toward her and my brain says that I must pursue her. If I simply follow the desire of my eyes, my marriage will be in immediate jeopardy and my long-term growth will be squandered by allowing my appetites to rule me. If, however, I have my eyes fixed on the long-term goal of glorifying God through the love that my wife and I share, I am better prepared to resist the temptations that come my way.

As Paul says in Ephesians 1, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.

When the eyes of our heart are focused on Christ and Christ alone, we can resist the desire of the eyes.

Finally, a word about the final warning John gives to his listeners, to us. John tells us that we need to shun pride in riches. Notice the nuance here—it's not the riches themselves that pollute the soul, but it's the pride in them. 1 Timothy has a similar way of putting this—it's not money that's evil, it's the love of it that is evil. There is a great temptation to fall in love with money, to take pride in it, and the danger of this is that when we take pride in it, two things happen

The first is that we forget that it is God who enabled us to have those riches, and we stop being grateful. We think it's all about us and that we're great.

The second is that we stop being generous. When we take pride in riches, all we want is more riches. When all we want is more riches, giving away money goes against what we want. As it says in chapter 3 of 1 John, How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? When all we are focused upon is the desire for more riches, it makes us selfish and unloving, because other people are seen as threats to our wealth rather than brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let us hold onto money loosely and recognize it for what it is—a tool that can do marvelous good in the world and bless others, as well as a powerful temptation that can corrupt our souls and lead us away from Kingdom living.

Friends, Kingdom living is what Christ calls us to. This means that we need to resist temptation and the many snares the devil has laid for us, and we need to be sure we are actively participating in God's Kingdom. We need to fix our eyes solely upon Christ, to love God more than we love anything or anybody else in the world, and let that love be our guiding light in everything we do. I want to close by looking briefly at Romans 14:17, which says that the Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So the Kingdom is not about what we eat and drink. It's not about physical stuff and earthly pleasures. It's not about these small things—it's focused on righteousness and peace and joy and the abundant life Christ has to offer. So what does it mean to live in this Kingdom?

Well, first of all, we need to know that we can only find righteousness and joy and peace in Jesus Christ. Nothing else, no one else, in this world can offer us that. So when our lives are focused on Christ, we discover the righteousness and peace and joy of God. It fills our hearts and then it does an amazing thing. God doesn't turn off the spigot, but rather turns it on full bore, so that it overflows. When we love God like 1 John tells us to love God, the righteousness and joy and peace of God overflow into every facet of our lives, into every relationship we have and every activity we pursue. Our lives become a place where heaven and earth collide, and the love of God spreads from us into the lives of others. When we pursue God with our whole hearts and turn from the temptation of sin, we demonstrate the Kingdom of God to others and invite them in, where they, too, can partake in the will of God forever.

Let us pray