I John 3:1a Driven by Grace-3 03.06.05
(Formed
for God’s Family)
Today, we resume the journey
that we began on the first Sunday of Lent,
and
we continue to reflect on what it means to be "Driven by Grace."
This sermon series is a
dialogue with the Purpose Driven Life, a book by Rick Warren that has
sold more hardcover copies than any other book in
In our first week, we noted
that the beginning place of the Purpose Driven Life is surprising, almost startling.
Rick Warren, the author, says
that if we want to understand our purpose in life,
we shouldn’t
begin with ourselves,
we need to begin with God.
If we want to understand
life,
what
has happened, yesterday and today, we must begin with God.
It’s a bit surprising that
Warren, a Baptist preacher and theologian,
begins
exactly where our tradition begins and ends.
Jean Calvin, our most
influential thinker begins his treatise on faith,
The Institutes
in almost exactly the same way as
400 years ago, Calvin begins
his instruction on faith by saying:
“Without knowledge of God,
there is no knowledge of self.”
“Without knowledge of God,
there is no knowledge of self.”
If we forget that it begins
with God,
everything begins and ends in God,
our
lives, our hopes, our dreams,
and everything that I offer in these sermons will be
misunderstood.
That’s why our series is
titled Driven by Grace and not the Purpose Driven Life,
it is a subtle change but an
important one to remind us that life and faith is first and foremost about what
God has done for us in Christ,
and
secondly, about how we respond to God’s gift.
What we do matters, what God
does in Christ matters more.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Warren surprised
us again.
We used a highly scientific
method to determine that about 40% of this congregation
can
identify their purpose in life.
And then based on nonverbal
responses and other cues
I noted that almost nobody in
this congregation
identified
the same purpose for life as
“to
worship God.”
We recognized that most of us
believe that worship should be a part of life,
but
all of life
as worship.
Today we go further on the
journey and come to our second purpose.
Today, we will focus on
From the beginning of time,
God
has wanted to join us together in a family.
The entire Bible is the story
of God building a family.
After God created the light,
after
God separated the day from the night,
after God created the dry
land and the seas,
after
God created the beasts of the field and the birds of the air,
after God breathed into the
dust and brought forth the first human,
God
said:
“It is not good that man
should be alone.”
God created another to form a
family,
a
community.
And throughout Genesis
God
gathers a family to bless
and be a blessing to the nations.
Ephesians 1:5 says:
God’s unchanging plan has
always been to adopt us into his own family...”[1]
In Matthew, Jesus says:
“Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven,
is
my brother and sister.”[2]
First John, the third chapter
begins:
“See what love God has for
us, we are to be called children of God, and so we are.”[3]
We were created, from the
start,
to
be together,
to be in relationship,
to be in community,
to share our lives,
to
be part of something we call the church,
the family of God.
One way that we become a part
of God’s family is through a declaration of faith.
We say yes to God.
We say, “Yes!” to something
in the universe that is good.
We say, “Yes!” my life is
more than an accident.
We say, “Yes!” this world is
more than an accident.
We say, “Yes!” theere is something
bigger and grander and larger than our lives.
We discern in our hearts that
there is something more.
We take a leap of faith and
say, “Yes!”
Yes to God.
Yes to the love of God in
Christ Jesus.
This past summer I helped
bring our youth to
Our last day together, we got
up at
I went to the airport but I
didn’t get on the plane.
I went back to
I needed to see someone.
You see, almost 30 years ago,
there was a
who
led a small group that I happened to be in.
Up until that point, I wanted
nothing to do with the church,
and
nothing to do with God.
But this cop was so cool and
so interesting
and
also so interested in me that I was overwhelmed.
I was overwhelmed by his
passion,
I was overwhelmed by his faith,
And eventually
overwhelmed by grace.
For once in my life, everything
made sense.
So I left that airport (with
my family) to track down that guy who once upon a time was cop in
I wanted to thank him for introducing
me to the love of God in Christ.
I wanted to thank his for the
precious gift he had given me.
Do you have a moment like
that?
A point of demarcation.
A moment where everything
shifts.
Perhaps it happened during
confirmation?
Perhaps at camp?
Perhaps it was a moment at an
older friend’s house?
Maybe church, during a hymn,
or a prayer?
Perhaps you walked through
the woods and heard the hum of nature,
and
recognized God's voice?
If you have, then you know
you are a part of God’s family.
If you never have, know that
God stands at the door and knocks,
Hoping
that some day, some time,
you will choose faith over doubt,
goodness over chaos,
mercy
over anger.
God waits.
One of the first words that
Jesus said to the disciples was “follow me.”
That choice to follow is a
choice to claim your true identity in the family of God.
One of the outward signs of
our true identity is baptism.
Now this is where we diverge
most from Rick Warren.
For
For Presbyterians, from the
moment we were born,
we
are a part of God’s family.
For
For Presbyterians, we baptize
infants knowing full well that most of them don’t have a clue as to what is
going on
because
we believe that baptism is more about what God
has done for us in Christ
and
what God will do through us
than it is about what we can
do for God.
For
For Presbyterians, we believe
that God can sort out the details of baptism.
So we accept other
denominations baptisms as legitimate while
We understand baptism as an
outward sign of an inward grace.
We don’t baptize children to
secure a place for them in heaven.
We baptize children to
proclaim:
“We get it!
We understand we are part of
God’s family in Christ.”
I am not saying that one way
is wrong and the other right,
but
when it comes to Baptism and who is a part of God’s family, Warren and the
Presbyterian church take two very different roads.
So what does it mean to be
part of God’s family?
If one of our purposes in
life is to be part of God’s family
how
does this affect us?
First, being a part of a
church family helps us grow and stretch and learn.
There was an article in last
week’s Hartford Courant.
Ken Hughes shared a form of
it with the Covenant Class last week.
It summarized the findings of
comprehensive study on religion and teens in
It found that most teens are
religiously curious and deeply interested in faith
but
it also said that while most teens are curious they have little understanding
of their own traditions.
They think of God as a Divine
Butler or a Cosmic therapist.
Why do we need the church
family?
To correct our assumptions.
To point out the problem of
seeing God as a Divine Butler.
To challenge us to think
larger and grander.
To help us see ourselves as
members of a human family.
To help us see the gift and
the responsibility.
What does it mean to be part
of a church family?
It means being a member of a
community that helps us grow.
What does in mean to be part
of a church family?
Second, in a church family, it
means you are needed.
In a church family we are
called to belong, not just believe.
The Bible says we are put
together, joined together,
built
together, fitted together, and held together.[4]
While your relationship to
Christ is personal,
God
never intends for it to be private.
In God’s family you are
connected to every other believer.
The Bible says:
“In Christ we who are many
form one body,
and
each member belongs to the others.”[5]
C. S. Lewis, the great 20th
century writer, noted that the word membership is of Christian origin, but the
world has emptied it of its original meaning.
Stores offer discounts to members.
A credit card says:
Membership has its privileges.
And in some churches,
membership is often reduced to adding your names to the rolls with few
requirements or expectations.
To Paul, being a “member” of
the church meant being a vital organ of a living body, an indispensable, interconnected
part of the Body of Chr8ist. We need to
recover Paul's understanding of membership.
The church is a body, not a building;
an organism, not an organization.[6]
What does it mean to be part
of the family?
It means you get it.
It means you understand that
you are a critical part of the body.
During the past two weeks we
have been taking to new friends about what it means to be a member of this
church.
One of the things that we do
is we read the Westminster Covenant that begins:
Because Christ has no body on
earth, but mine, no eyes of compassion but mine, no feet to go about doing good
but mine, no hands with which to bless but mine, therefore to let Christ live
we elect to do a number of things.
We recognize the joy of being
a member of a family and the great needs of the world.
To be the church, to be
Christ’s eyes of compassion, and Christ’s hands which bless.
We confess, we need each
other.
To be a part of God’s family
is to realize how much you are needed.
Finally, the family of God is
a place where we can take risks together,
be
ourselves, and make mistakes.
There should be a sign at the
front of our church:
“No perfect people apply!”
In church we come as the hymn
says:
“Just as we are.”
In the past week we might
have made mistakes.
Ten years ago we might have made
mistakes
But here in this place we remember
God didn’t make us tiny Gods,
but God
made us human,
with all of our imperfections an idiosyncrasies,
to be together.
Here in this place we can
come late, we can come early.
We can sing in tune or out of
tune.
In this place we are free to
make mistakes.
Here of all places, we give
each other the benefit of the doubt.
Here in this place w give each
other the benefit of grace,
the
benefit of understanding.
Benjamin West was a great American
painter of historical scenes end portraits and one of the leading artists in
the 19th century.
When he was very young, he decided
to paint a picture of his sisters while his mother was out of the house. He got out bottles of ink and started, but
soon, no surprise, ink was everywhere.
His mother came home to the
mess and was not pleased.
But before she could scold
her son, she saw the portraits he’d made.
The mother then picked up the
portrait and declared to her son,
“What a beautiful picture of your
sister.” Then she kissed him.
Later in life Benjamin West
wrote: “with that kiss I became a
painter.”
The church is the place where
we have permission to make a mess and take some risks.
It is that place where we are
invited to explore.
Here is the place where we
grant each other the kiss of peace, literally, metaphorically, spiritually:
And we say with that kiss:
We are with you.
We
will pray for you.
We believe in you![7]
What does it mean to be a
member of God’s family.
It means we grow together,
we
belong,
and make mistakes and forgive one another.
It means we have been put
together,
joined
together, built together, and held together.
It means we were formed for
God’s family.
Here the words of scripture
again:
“See what love God has for
us, we are to be called children of God and so we are.”
Amen