Word to the Wise
Wednesday, January 3, 2024 - Jan. 3
[1 John 2:29-3:6 and John 1:29-34,835]See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. [1 John]
I am fond of quoting a line we used as kids: "God is my Father, Mary is my mother, Jesus is my brother. I come from a very religious family!" The very idea of being a "child of God" seems somewhat abstract and transcendent. It can bring up rather mixed emotions if we have had a troubled childhood or were taught an image of God as a stern judge instead of a loving Father. St. Paul speaks of the "spirit of adoption," which makes us "coheirs with Christ!" [Rom. 8:15-17]. All of this crowds into the picture, in this season, of the nativity with its manger scenes and the stories of angels, shepherds and magi.
The johannine community lived in the reality of life with God not just in an undetermined future death but in the here and now. What Jesus' birth makes possible is not something we acquire in the future, but can experience now as beloved children of God. We have only to follow Jesus' command to love one another as he has loved us. [John 13:34-35]. Uh, oh! There's the rub! We do have the example of Jesus' washing the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper in which he says, "I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." [John 13:15].
Every dedicated parent hopes that their squabbling kids will grow up to love one another. Each child must be loved into love, as it were. If we are enabled by God's Word to think of God as our Father, we are enabled to believe that our squabbling is in God's patience and hope for each of us. The incarnation of Jesus Christ as one of us is the best evidence we could ask for. AMEN