Thought for the Day-A Sermon for a Fractured Church

Woodman (Waldarbeiter) by Georg Baselitz, 1969

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street, City of London on Tuesday 7th January 2025 and St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 8th January 2025 based on the text of 1 John 3.22-4.6. You can listen to an audio recording of the passage and this reflection at this link. 

A sermon for a fractured church, the First Epistle of John is believed to have been written by a man of senior years, overseeing a network of first century house churches in what is now modern day Turkey.

Most agree the reason for the letter is a schism in the community, with a number of its established members breaking away.

Some cite the passage we have just heard as key to understanding the reason for the split - that there were those who could not accept that Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. In other words, denying the truth of the incarnation that we have been celebrating for these past twelve or so days. The author of the letter doesn’t hold back - describing such people as false prophets and agents of the Antichrist. 

It is a matter of record that in the first few centuries after his crucifixion, fierce debates about who Jesus was were commonplace - especially amongst his followers. This was a time when many conceived of the universe in a dualistic way. A heavenly sphere existing above the created order below. Much writing from this period echoes that way of thinking. There were those who felt that God would not demean himself by taking on human flesh - so if Jesus was divine he must have only ‘appeared’ to be human. Others felt that the one true God could not be both Father and Son - and certainly could not have suffered and died on the cross. So Jesus must have been human but somehow appeared to be divine - a sort of model or example for how to live a righteous life - but could not be God himself. 

We don’t know for certain what the break-away group believed - because the letter doesn’t tell us clearly. What it does offer however, is assurance to those who remained. Reminding them of the fundamentals of their belief - their identity as a community of Christians. And it shows us all how best to embrace that belief. The shocking truth that God took on human flesh and walked among us - dying on the cross and rising to new life for our salvation. The result of which - the new relationship between God and his people - simply could not be real unless Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. The man - the person - of Jesus - cannot be separated from his message and ministry, His divinity.

The letter tells us that the best way to engage with this reality is to seek to know both man and message for ourselves, in the context of a worshipping community. When we follow Christ’s commandments; when we seek to live as he lived, when we love ourselves and each other as he loves us, we abide in him and he abides in us. When we walk in his light, we are enlightened - we are transformed. Because Jesus is fully human and fully divine, because he is fully God and fully man, by seeking to know him - by learning to abide in him, we come closer to knowing God, our true selves and each other. We come closer to knowing what it means to live life in all its fullness. A fullness that can only have meaning beyond our individual relationship with Jesus.

Gathering with others in fellowship gives us the chance to learn to see the love of Jesus at work in the lives of those around us - as they, like us, seek to walk in his light. Then the Body of Christ - in all its infinite variety - can be seen for what it truly is - and the identity of the one who is drawing together the shattered pieces of our own lives, this fractured church and our broken world, is revealed.

An Epiphany. 

Image : Woodman (Waldarbeiter) by Georg Baselitz, 1969