The Face of Fellowship (1 Jn. 1:1-2:5)
A German, born in 1929, she grew up under the thumb of fascism. Having been brought up against this backdrop, prominent liberation theologian Dorothy Solle, who died in 2004, did not believe sin to be merely a “superficial feature of poor religious socialization.” When explaining what it meant to her, she didn’t spout pious platitudes or quote verse after verse from the Bible. She instead offered a powerful image for us to consider. “When I try to say how I see the world,” she wrote, “I can’t get away from an image that forces itself on me and won’t let go: the Ice Age – this slow advance of cold, a freezing process which we experience and try to forget. Ice Age in the schools, in the factories, in the high-rise silos we live in, in those smallest units formerly known as families … we don’t just live in an advancing Ice Age; we produce it, maintain it and profit from it … you don’t have to be ‘religious’ or ‘especially sensitive’ to understand what I’m talking about. Sin – the absence of warmth, love, caring, trust – is the most normal thing in the world.” In short, Dorothy Solle believes “sin is when life freezes.” We really only recognize what sin is when we begin to “measure false, unconscious, frozen life … when we, related to one another, begin to learn to love.”
Inspired by our reading from 1 John this morning, I profess that the way we warm-up to love, caring, trust and above all to love, is to be gathered in Christian fellowship. This is not an abstract, idyllic concept. It’s rubber-hits-the-road reality for we who profess to believe in Jesus Christ. When we intentionally and regularly gather together in faithful prayer, praise, and the promotion of holy peace, we disperse the icy clouds of sin and sadness, we drive the gloom of doubt away.
Our fellowship can be said to have a face. By face, I do not mean the physical, first-century Palestinian Jewish face of Jesus. I mean that we have a collective “face” to show the world, whereby the powerful presence of the Risen Christ can be readily acknowledged, shared and lauded. This face is comprised of the beautiful, wondrous diversity of people who have come to know and identify themselves with the Savior of the World.
It has three features in common that I want to lift up this morning. Consider them the marks that Charles Wesley preached about when he said that the aim of 1 John is “to confirm the happy and holy communion of the faithful with God and Christ by describing the marks of that blessed state.” Three features, or marks, that we exhibit as God works through us to press on toward the perfection of love are as follows – the face of fellowship is illuminating, it is forgiving, and it is obedient. Let’s consider these more carefully so that when we leave this sanctuary we can have our best, most authentic faces “on.”
The face of fellowship is illuminating. The author of 1 John could not be any clearer – “God is light” and in God “there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5). Pay attention to that “in” God part. It’s referring to the essence of God being pure light, without any shadow, any dark inner-contours of being. All this world revolves around and is sustained by this Light. We, then, who have been engrafted into full fellowship with Christ, are, in redeemed essence, pure and eternal light. We are a new creation. Just as the spring and summer sun brings about new blooming, so too does the holy Light of heaven strengthen, transform and beautify our spiritual life. Nothing can be more illuminating to the human condition than the glorious proclamation that God is light!
Now, the writer of 1 John fashioned himself a wise elder. One of those seasoned saints who cared enough to mentor others in the faith. We hear this tone in verse 2:1 – “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” This is admirable, but it calls a question to mind — if we are in full fellowship with Christ … how then can we ever sin?
We still sin because in the symphony of salvation that is arranged and conducted by God , we are always free to play the wrong notes. We can always choose to try reading the majestic music and to attempt playing our instruments in the pitch black; this despite the faithful fact that God’s concert hall for this symphony is brilliantly illuminated by the Cross. If you’ll recall, last week I preached that the truest biblical meaning of resurrection has to do with the end-time renewal of all creation. Until such time, then, we do indeed live in the light of the Risen Son, but are not immune to the persistent encroachment of sin on our lives.
So while the face of fellowship is illuminating – shining God’s redeeming love – it also has a shadow side here on this earthly plain. However, this is not something we should spend our precious time despairing about, for the second feature on the face of fellowship is that is forgiving. Whenever we realize that we’ve thought and acted in less radiant ways than our essence in Christ truly is, we must realize that we have not trapped ourselves in a dismal, dark alley. We instead have only to remember to turn anew toward our Advocate, Jesus, and confess the darkness. The Light of Christ does not burn out. It was not a one-time flare from the Cross. It pierces and dispels all darkness and will continue to do so until Christ comes again in glory. Eternal forgiveness stands firm. Eternal forgiveness in fellowship with one another truly is, as the inspirational maxim writer William Arthur Ward once quipped, “a funny thing – it warms the heart and cools the sting.”
When we do not confess our sin, however, we essentially waste its energy within us. I don’t know about you, but I sure don’t want to be a non-energy saving light bulb in this world! We know better than ever what that amounts to in the long run.
Not wasting the divinely driven, holy-illuminated energy of the Risen Son within us and all upon the world takes obedience. This is a third feature on the face of fellowship. “Faith and obedience,” preached Charles Spurgeon, “are bound up in the same bundle.” The reconciliation between our sin and God’s love that occurs in Christ is a call to action, not just some wonderful sounding but otherwise static statement. Being intentional about our fellowship – that is, about being in worship, Bible study, out in mission fields – is the way we lovingly hold one another accountable to this.
I know … “obedience” is a strong word. Yet how much service could a seeing-eye dog offer if it did not know how to be obedient? How well could injustice be prevented if we all stopped obeying the laws that govern us? Why is obeying everything Jesus teaches us any different? Can any of us really believe that our disobedience to his reconciling work will not result in further building up an ice-age for all humanity? It is not obedience for the sake of blindly following some abstract power principle – it is obedience toward the perfection of love, toward the restoration of the paradise garden that we once fully enjoyed with God, who planted it. We may believe we know best how to till it, yet reaching for just one wrong fruit can spoil everything.
Consider the story of the rose and the caterpillar. An old elder tree illuminated truth for every flower in the garden by advising them all to shake off their caterpillars. A dozen or so shouted back, “Why?” “Because if you don’t they will eat you up alive.” Following this, there was a whole lotta shakin’ going on. All but the rose shook off every last predator. She decided to give one little fella a pass, saying, “Oh, this one’s a beauty! I’ve just got to keep it!” The elder tree continued illuminating truth by saying, “Just one is enough to spoil you.” The rose replied, “But look at his brown and crimson fur, and his beautiful black eyes, and scores of little feet. I want to keep him. Surely one won’t hurt me.” A few mornings later, there wasn’t one whole leaf left on her. Her beauty was gone. Tears stood like dew-drops on her tattered leaves.
So here I stand this morning on behalf of our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sustainer. I stand for the sake of holy illumination, forgiveness and obedience. I do not stand alone. You all stand with me in this blessed fellowship we share. And we all stand with all of our other brothers and sisters in the faith across town, across the country and across the world. We are facing the dark corners and frightening undercurrents of the world with the united face of faithful fellowship. This is one way to look at what we are doing here on this earth. Other purposes come to mind, but they all feel rather chilly, as if some deep freeze is intent on settling in on us for good … Amen.
