SCRIPTURE: 1 John 1:1—2:2
TEXT: 3we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. THEME: We live in fellowship with God. INTRODUCTION There is a theological problem, troubling the church at the writing of 1 John. Set about the end of the first Century, there is a growing number of believers who see the flesh as the breeding ground for Evil and in their minds, they cannot fathom of how God, who is holy and pure, could corrupt divinity in the trappings of a human being. Urges, passions, temptations, desires, hunger, lust are unbecoming of the divine. So, to accommodate their disdain of the flesh, they invented a Jesus who remains fully divine, and only acts at being human, pretending to suffer on the cross and die. This is the context of John’s letter as he calls us back to the ‘beginnings of Creation’ and the beginnings of the Gospel of John’ and reminds us of the Creator God who becomes the incarnation of the Word. Their humanness has betrayed them and cannot be trusted. How could Jesus be more powerful than they are and keep divinity and humanity in balance? They emasculate God of humanity to keep God holy. If they succeed in keeping God as a tourist among us, pretending to be local, then there is no hope in their Jesus for us to be challenged to live in ways, other than what we are already living. But if Jesus becomes a kanaka like us, then Jesus challenges us to live in imaginative, creative expressions of our relationship with God. SCRIPTURE John opens with “From the beginning”, and sets the church straight with what they have heard about Jesus, seen with their own eyes, and touched with their own hands. The living incarnate God is in the life of the church. This community that believes in Jesus is different from the society it is planted in. They enjoy a relationship with God as their Father, with Jesus as their sibling, and with each other as family. They live in ways that Jesus can be heard, seen and felt. They reflect God’s ways. They are not perfect, but that they are willing explore, venture out, and engage with others. In their relationship with God, they find space to admit when they have caused hurt, ask for forgiveness and forgive others. The enjoyment they have for God is reflected in the way they enjoy each other. The love they have experienced from God is reflected in the way they love each other. But if they do something contrary to the will of God, God’s love for them is abundant enough to forgive them, just as we have seen, in Jesus’ dealings, as he lived among us. APPLICATION The purpose of the incarnation is to reveal who God is to us. Jesus shows us what is possible as we live in relationship with God. Fellowship is to live with enjoyment of God and with each other. How do we live in fellowship with God? God is tangible to us through Jesus. Although by the time of the writing of 1 John, there probably are no living eye witnesses of Jesus still alive. But the examples of Jesus are carried by lives that have been transformed. The Teachings of Jesus are being taught by those who have been taught by their parents, mentors, teachers, rabbis, and in their synagogues. And the touch of Jesus continues by those who participate in the mission of Jesus, caring for others, healing, advocating for the marginalized, helping those in need, paying attention to those who are being ignored, and by being stewards of the gifts God has given, using them in the way God would want them used. God is real through Jesus’ life ministry death and resurrection. This fellowship with God, does not degrade God but demonstrates an extraordinary love for us and invites us to live compelling ways. The dynamics of fellowship with God, touches all aspects of our lives. We are not alone. We cannot escape into dark hidden holes away from God. God journeys with us and sits in the ashes with us, ready to have fellowship with us. The image of an all Divine God untouched by humanity is an image of perfection. We can aspire to be perfect, but we will never achieve it. But the incarnate Jesus, occupying our human rawness, has an abundance of grace to cover our good and not so good intensions, to keep us in the fold. Our lives are in process, a journey, an adventure of faith. It is in fellowship with God and others who are traveling along the way. God is constantly being involved in our lives. We experience fellowship with God in all aspects of our lives; as God is with us in our fears, joys and anxieties. Fellowship is what makes the incarnation so important. It is our connection with God as God connects with us. The fellowship in the fox holes, the fellowship as we march together for justice, the fellowship together as we pray, worship, lament, celebrate and sing. Fellowship with God feeds into the social nature of being human. That is why COVID-19 is so hard to irradiate, it is impossible to keep us apart from each other. We have to live by an alternate truth, have brazen disregard of facts, and even risk death to be together. Just like our incarnate God in Jesus. CONCLUSION Just because we can’t understand something it doesn’t make it not true. Look how long it took human kind to conceive of a round world instead of flat. Or how about the earth being a part of a solar system around the sun instead of the planets and sun revolving around the earth. Sometimes our understanding of God is limited by our lack of imagination. God’s incarnation in Jesus has many unfolding dimensions to it that still unfold for us. These are connecting points intersecting our lives, as we hear God’s voice speaking in our hearts, or see clearly through God’s eyes of compassion, or reach out to touch another person, to say, ‘you are loved’. God is not one step removed, God moves towards us into deeper fellowship with us; from brokenness to wholeness, in acceptance, in forgiveness, meeting us in our fears, worry, anxiety, suffering, loneliness, inhabiting our church, our marriage, our singleness, being with us at work, at play, in health, in families, in mission, in life, at meals, in joy, to motivate us, in our timing, by belonging, in our accomplishments, at communion, in community, in our politics, in our neighborhoods, and moving us from guilt to grace. The incarnation is about fellowship with God and each other.
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