Acts 3: 12 - 19; Psalm
4; I
John 3: 1 - 7; Luke
24: 36b - 48
A
homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 19, 2015.
“THE
LAST TIME,
THE NEXT TIME,
AND THE IN-BETWEEN TIME”
(Homily text:
I John 3: 1 - 7)
We begin this morning with a
personal confession:
“I know I haven’t made a mistake
since the last time, and I know I won’t make another mistake until the next
time, and in between those two times, I’m good.”
Now, let’s modify that statement a
little (italics shown for emphasis):
“I know I haven’t done something wrong since the last
time, and I know I won’t do something
wrong until the next time, and in between those two times, I’m good.”
And yet another modification follows
here (also with italics):
“I know I haven’t sinned since the last time, and I know I
won’t sin again until the next time,
and in between those two times, I’m good.”
The issue of our life in God as we
find it in our relationship to the Father through the Son, and the serious
matter and reality of sin, is the topic that is put before us in our epistle
reading from the First Letter of John, heard this morning.
The writer says, “No one who abides
in him (in the Father through the Son) sins; no one who sins has either seen
him or known him.”
And just a bit earlier, the writer
says this: “Everyone who commits sin is
guilty of lawlessness, sin is lawlessness.”
And yet a bit earlier, the writer
says this: “….All who have this hope in
him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”
Is the standard put before us of our
life in God – as we hear it in First John – impossibly high to attain, given
the reality of the “last time, the next time, and the in-between time”?
Reflecting on my own personal
Christian life, I’d say that standard is impossibly high to attain. I know myself to be a “fully-trained
sinner”. I know how to do bad things, I
don’t need any training in how to do those bad things, and I find that the
distance between the “last time”, the “next time” and the “in-between time” to
be short, so short that sometimes the “last time”, and the “next time” crowd
out any “in-between” time.
I can safely say with St. Paul, “So
I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at
hand.”[1] A bit later on, Paul will add, “Wretched man
that I am! Who will save me from this
body of death."[2]
Then what are we to make of these
impossibly high standards, given the reality that we know ourselves to be “fully-trained”
sinners?
Perhaps just this is the point: We are called to be ever mindful of the
purity of God as we see that purity in the person of Jesus Christ. Think of that standard of purity as a
yardstick…unless we are aware of the full measure of God’s holiness, it can
become very easy to think that our standard of holiness is good enough. But, as Christians, we are called to be
mindful of the contrast between God’s standards and our own, in order that we
might attain – with God’s help – an ever higher standard of holiness and
purity.
Is the writer of the First Letter of
John painting a rosy picture that has nothing to do with everyday Christian
living? Absolutely not. For just a short chapter earlier, the writer
says this: “If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But if we confess our sins, he who is faithful will forgive us our sins
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[3]
So the writer is quite realistic in
assessing the reality of our walk with God.
He affirms that, oftentimes, we miss the mark, we fail to meet God’s
high standard of purity.
But the goal of our Christian living
is to make the distance between the “last time” and the “next time” longer and
longer.
May we, with the help of the Holy
Spirit, attain to holiness of living and purity in our walk with God.
AMEN.
[1] Romans 7: 21
[2] Romans 7: 24
[3] I John 1: 8 - 9
