God’s Kids-That’s Us

Sermon 1 John 5:1-6 May 10, 2015 Easter 6 Mother’s Day

God’s Kids-That’s Us

Today is a good day to remember what it’s like to be a kid. We can begin by making a funny face. What, you ask, a funny face?

Are you kidding!

Really, let’s see if we can try to look at each other and make a funny face or a silly expression. Making funny faces is one way to be a kid again. Hopefully by just mentioning the idea of being silly makes us laugh inside. We might be adults but according to Scripture we are still kids.

We are God’s kids!

We are bound together in love of God, Christ and one another. This text draws us inexplicitly into the promise of God through Jesus Christ. As we love God who is our parent we also love the child who is the Son. And as we love the Son we heed the commandment of the Son to love one another. It sounds more like a round or a spiral kind of logic that seems a bit too simple to grasp as adults. Life is more complicated than that, we say. Yet, when is the last time we looked at life more simply?

Perhaps on days like today, days in which we bring honor to parents-specifically today mothers, we have the opportunity to look back at what it was like to be the child. Now I know for some looking back at childhood can be painful, or disappointing. Perhaps childhood had many unrequited dreams or lost loves and dashed hopes. But, perhaps also there were times of joy and wonder and amazement that remain untapped.

God, the parent, the creator of life, the creator of this world established all things with love and with care. God’s desire in creation was to fill the world and human life with good things. In creation and in this text of 1^st John we are reminded whose we are. We belong to God and therefore also God’s Son, Jesus the Christ who gave us the example of true love by giving his life for us.

We are God’s kids-that’s us.

You, your neighbor, your parents, your children, your friends and your enemies are all God’s creation and therefore God’s own.

And this makes the idea of loving all God’s children challenging.

But, the writer here tells us these commandments are not burdensome. The command to love is not meant to be hard or weighty or even painful. Yet, we know too well the cost of love. We have been witnesses to the loss of those we love and we have experienced the pain of love that was returned with hurt.

Yet, love is the theme of our faith.

It is the basis of who we are in God and it is the ungirding of our very life.

And so, I return to what it’s like to be a kid and ways in which we too can discover the simpler things, the essence of what makes us smile inside. For, I am convinced that in these simple moments of joy, laughter, and wonder, we rediscover the truth of love.

Here are some ways to be a kid again:

Make a funny face

Color in a coloring book

Eat ice cream for dinner

Plan a play date with a friend

Buy a stuffed animal and pretend to go on a safari

Build something with Legos

Go to the park and swing on a swing or go down the slide

Wear purple or anything you want, striped socks or polka dots

Sing

Dance.

In letting loose we are reminded of the freedom we have in our very being. As we open ourselves up to a freedom of being we open ourselves up to genuine love, a place where love flows freely. In a childlike nature we are more willing to give and receive love. God, the parent has freely given. God has not forced love but offered it from generation to generation, from family to family, from community to community. Love from God doesn’t come to us through fear or any form of coercion. Our relationships with others ought not be based on fear or coercion either.

By allowing God’s love to come through us we are able to trust and in trust our faith grows and this leads us to deeper and more caring relationships.

In God’s call to obedience in love we also recognize that obedience requires recognition of limits. At Helen’s funeral this week her daughter Barbara spoke eloquently of the gift her mother gave to her children-love, limits, and letting go. These were wise words to pass on to another generation. God’s love for us works in the same way.

Limits are given out of love and for protection and care. God as parent does not want us walking into places that will cause us harm. When I took a course in ministry one of the tools they gave us was when to say something and when not to. The acronym they gave us was U-HALT.

It was there to guide us from doing harm to others or ourselves through our actions or words. It was an acronym to use as a self check. Whenever we felt unappreciated or we were hungry, angry, lonely, or tired we should stop what we were doing or saying and take a break.

Our obedience to God in our giving is also obedience in knowing when to stop and take a break. This too is a way of living in love.

As God’s kids-yes, that’s us, we have the opportunity to conquer the world through faith. We can think like kids and believe in the day when love wins. We are all in this mission together. We are compelled and propelled by the love given us as we share the embrace of God with others. We all have gifts given to us and God call us to use them. Let’s plan to go forth together in God’s name of Love.

Perhaps this love thing is simple-we might think too simple-but it is never trite.

 It is true and sure and strong.

Go ahead, make a funny face and discover the child like joy in being God’s own. Amen.