There is a story about a Greek man who brought his wife to America following World War II. He and his wife settled in a Southern city. Although they spoke little English and had very little money, they set out to open a restaurant, which unfortunately quickly went broke and to top it off his wife was pregnant. When things seemed the worst he went up the street to the local Christian church and asked several of the elders if they would lend him enough money to try once more at his business. He promised that he would pay the men back even if it meant mowing their lawns. The businessmen of the church, who themselves were still picking up their businesses, after the war, dug deep down into their pockets and came up with the money. The Greek worked twenty hours a day to get his restaurant started. As time went by more and more people came to his restaurant. Over four decades later the Greek retired and his sons run the corporation that runs a chain of restaurants. The Greek and his wife occasionally serve as greeters in one of the restaurants and always greet the people coming in the door with the words, “God bless America.”
That is a nice story. Whether it is true or not I cannot tell you, but I can tell you this, it is the kind of story that we often hear and the kind that makes you proud to be an American. But before you stick your chest out and hold your head high we should look at our text and see where God fits into this picture, other than the words, “God bless America.”
Our text begins with words that remind us of the beginning of our Bible as well as the beginning of John’s gospel. “1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life” (v.1). John reminds us that the Word of life was from the beginning. The Word of Life is our Bible, Holy Scripture, the Word which proclaims God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Word of Life is True God. God is that Word which said, “Let there be,” and there was, the creation of all things. The Word of Life is that Word which never changes. Theses, hypotheses, theories, all these come and go and change from time to time, but the Word of Life never changes.
The Word of Life is also Jesus Christ. Jesus is the oral Word of God, that Word of promise first made to Adam and Eve and the beginning of the Christian church. Jesus is the written Word of God, that Word given to Moses and the prophets. Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies from of old. Jesus is true God born in human flesh. The Word of life is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary.
The Word of Life is the one who John says he has heard, seen, looked at, and touched. With these words, John gives a fourfold witness of who is Jesus. We remember that no case can be made with only one witness, at least two witnesses are needed. Here John gives us a complete fourfold witness that Jesus is the Word of Life because he has personally heard Jesus, seen Him, looked at Him and touched Him. Jesus is the Word made flesh.
Moving on to verse five of our text John says, “5This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (v. 5). Here John uses the two extremes of light and dark to make his point. The symbolism of darkness is that of chaos, evil, sin, and so on. Darkness is literally absence from light. People who do evil do not want to be seen doing the evil they do so rather than do their evil in the light they do it in the absence of light, in darkness.
The symbolism of light is that of being pure, holy, perfect, like God, and so on. Light reveals imperfections. Light dispels the darkness. Light brings life. Light helps us to see where we are going, to help us to stay on the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life. God is light and in all these examples we can exchange the word God for light and we can say that God reveals imperfections. God dispels the darkness. God brings life. God helps us to see where we are going, to help us to stay on the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life.
Light overcame darkness. On the cross, Jesus Christ, true God, the Light of the world, and true man, suffered and gave His life for the sins of all people of all times of all places. More importantly, Jesus gave His life for you and for me, personally.
Now comes the crux of the situation as John tells us in verse eight (8) to ten (10), “8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” First, you may recognize these words as a part of our liturgy on Sunday mornings. These words remind us that, if we claim to be without sin we claim we do not need a Savior. Unfortunately this seems to be what many people want to claim in our world today, or at least that some people believe they are not that big of sinners. This claim is the implication of our opening story, not that we need anything from God, but that we are self made people, that we got to be where we are by our own designs and that we do not need anyone, let alone any god, to help us out. Yet, we still want to profess some type of religion, maybe even Christianity, by saying, “God bless America!”
Maybe the question we all want to ask is, “How sinful do we need to claim to be?” If we only need to claim to be a little sinful, then, that we can do. We are a very proud people here in America. We really do not want to believe that Jesus had to die too much for us, we really are pretty good people. Jesus had to die for the other guy, maybe even a lot for the other guy. It is similar to the comments that are made when, on the way out after the service, someone says to me, “You really told them, pastor.” The implication being that I am not the sinner to which you were speaking. The point really hits home when I hear statements like, “I did not like what you said about, and you name the sin, it sounded like you were talking to me.” How sinful do we need to claim to be? In a past issue of the Lutheran Witness Dr. Moellering talked about our need to remember Psalm 22:6, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.” This is what we sing in hymn 437, “Alas! and did my Savior bleed, And did my Sov’reign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?” Interestingly enough, as a side note, the Lutheran Worship hymnal changed that last line to “For sinners such as I?” Thankfully our Lutheran Service Book changed it back.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” If we claim to have done nothing for which we need forgiving, how can God forgive us? And to claim to be without sin is gift refusal so that our sin remains on us. But, “if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” And confess our sins we do. I hope and pray that as we read and speak the words of confession in our liturgy that we hear and mean the words, “we poor sinners confess unto you that we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against you by thought, word, and deed.” And I hope and pray that as we use the words of the other service of confession we hear and mean the words, “I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punishment.” Yes, Jesus has already taken care of our sins. He has already earned their forgiveness. By denying our sins, by claiming to be without sin we can deny claiming that forgiveness as our own. Denying our sins is denying forgiveness and then we are be left to our own devices to save ourselves, then “we would deceive ourselves and the truth would not be in us.”
The very reason John is writing is so that we might confess our sins and be given Jesus forgiveness as we read in the last two verses of our text, “1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (2:1,2). We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ. Jesus pleads our case before God the Father, our eternal judge.
Not only does He plead our case, He is also our atoning sacrifice, that is, He gave His life for ours. When we claim our sins, when we confess our sins, when we admit our wrongs, Jesus freely takes the punishment for our sins so that we might be seen as sinless before the Father in heaven.
All this He does because of His pure love for us, for all which it is our privilege to respond by thanking and praising, serving and obeying Him, so that we may live under Him in His eternal kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. Simply put, it is all God’s giving and all our being given to, and anything else is considered work righteousness.
What does this mean? This means that instead of living our lives as if we have anything to do with where we are, and that means for all our circumstances of life, whether physical or spiritual, that we live our lives sincerely giving thanks and praise to God, not like the couple in our opening story. This means that we readily and freely admit and give credit where credit is due, to our Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This means that we give God the glory for putting us where we are and giving us His Holy Spirit so that we might serve Him in all we thank, say and do, so that His Kingdom may be extended, that His people may be strengthening, and that above all praise and glory may be given to His Holy name.
Finally this means that we give thanks and joyfully respond as the Holy Spirit works in us our response of faith; to be in Divine Service and Bible class as often as offered; to volunteer to serve according to the gifts and abilities He has given us to serve and sometimes even to learn new abilities; to invite especially our unchurched family and friends to Divine Service and Bible Class to hear God’s Word; and ultimately to live lives to the praise and glory of His Holy Name. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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