Fellowship, Conversation and Forgiveness

1 John 1-2:2 New International Version (NIV)

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light;in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a great Christian theology and philosopher once said, “Being Christian does not add anything to be being a human being, but puts our humanity into force.”  Being a Christian does not change anything about who we are physically.  The side of Jesus that was flesh only reinforces this.  Even in his resurrected state, Jesus was flesh and bone.  Jesus didn’t set out to create a new kind of spiritual life.  Instead, Jesus created a new pattern for human life.  The teachings of Christ were meant to teach us how to deal in our human interactions.  In doing so, it teaches us more about our personal relationship with God.  Over the course of this weekend, it has never been more clear to me that what God desires from us is a personal relationship with Him and with one another.  Faith isn’t about doing it correctly.  Faith isn’t about one way being better than another.  Faith is about relationships.  Faith is about sacrificial love.  A kind of love demonstrated to us through Jesus Christ.  I don’t like to admit this, and thankfully I don’t have to very often, but I can be wrong.  With Cheyanne, I can play it off or say it in passing.  My admittance of being wrong is a treasure when it comes to my dealings with Cheyanne.  I cannot let her think she is right all the time, even if she is.  On the other hand, I handle being wrong much differently with Griffin.  I felt it important to let him know when I was wrong so he may not be as stubborn as his father when it comes to admitting it.  I go out of my way to admit to him when I am wrong.  One day when I made my admittance, Griffin simply said, “That’s ok.”  Two little words just about brought me to tears.  For him, it was that simple.  For me to even gather the strength and courage to admit that I was wrong and he forgave it in a matter of milliseconds.  As my kids get older, it becomes more and more apparent to me what Jesus meant when he told us to have the faith of a child.  In such a short amount time, Griffin was able to forgive me and move on with his life.  As adults, most of us are terrible at this.  It is difficult for us to tell someone “that’s ok” when God tells us that every day.  

When I sat down to start preparing this message, I started to write what I felt like was a college paper on this scripture.  It wasn’t relatable.  Don’t get me wrong, it had the beginnings of something brilliant but it was not what I intended.  God desires a relationship because of the impact that relationship has on the world around us.  Some of us are deep thinkers, some of us wear our emotions on our sleeve, some of us fly by the seat of our pants, some of us are incredibly faithful, some of us spend a lot of time in prayer, but some of us are a little bit of everything.  Some of us are a none of those things I described.  But God is in each one of us.  A little piece of God is found in all of us, no matter how different we are.  Verse 7, “If we walk in the light... if we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus [then] his Son purifies us from all sin.”  Chapter 2, verse 2, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”  The author of this epistle thought it important to make clear to us that fellowship with God and one another was important.  They thought it important enough to let us know that Jesus was not just the atoning sacrifice for my sins, or your sins but for our sins, the sins of the entire world.  

That right there, the fact that Jesus died for each one of us means that if we cannot agree on anything, we have that in common.  A single commonality means there is enough for a conversation to be started.  It is this conversation, this fellowship with one another, is where God is to be found.  I recently read an article that talked about the need for more creators and less critics.  Being critical of someone is easy, its lazy, and its safe because there is no risk.  When criticism is critical and objective it can serve as a learning experience but other than in that context, what comes from it?  Here is a quote from the article I read from Relevant Magazine, “For the time we spend criticizing others, what good comes from it? Has it strengthened our relationships? Challenged us to grow? Or is criticism merely the crutch we use to justify our personal passivity?”  More often than not, our criticism comes from simply wanting to be right.  We use like-minded statements to justify our criticisms.  

This is why a conversation, not an “I told you so”, is where God is found.  God is found in the voice of the three year old when he says “that’s ok.”  Fellowship, conversation and forgiveness is where God is found.  From those three things we cannot help but to see love and grace.  Here is an obvious statement: funerals are not fun to do.  But the conversations, observations, and fellowship that comes from them are irreplaceable.  The connections that I get to make with grieving families, the strength observed, and witnessing friends mourn together is where God is found.  I don’t think God is selfish enough to plan for this but I do think God is great enough for us witness and experience such things in the midst of loss.  God doesn’t designate someone to pass away for these things to happen.  These things happen because of the love and grace of God.  In the grasp of tragedy, we get to be unified and strengthened.  We get to see family and friends that we haven’t seen.  We converse and fellowship with one another.  Whether we know it or not, we are finding God together.  

In closing, don’t be so critical.  God could have chosen to deal with us in the same manner but when given the choice of love and grace, that is what he chose.  And that is what He chose for all of us... not just some of us.  Don’t be afraid to say, “that’s ok” for the forgiveness found in those two words is more than enough.  Leave here today knowing you are forgiven.  Leave here knowing that God wants a relationship with you.  Leave here knowing that it is going to be ok.  Amen.