The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, April 18, was preached in response to 1 John 3.1-7. It was preached from the manuscript below.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the text today,
John the Elder
assures us that
when we sin,
Jesus makes provision.
People have left the community.
This epistle is an invitation
for the followers of Jesus
who have had their lives transformed
by his resurrection and God’s grace
to pursue lives of holiness.
John assures Jesus’ followers,
“Beloved, we are God’s children now;
what we will be has not yet been revealed.”
What has been revealed,
what we continue to see
what continues to be revealed in the world around us
is something else John says.
“Everyone who commits sin
is guilty of lawlessness;
sin is lawlessness.”
This week as Derek Chauvin stands trial
for the murder of George Floyd,
Daunte Wright was killed
by a police officer.
Then Peyton Hamm was.
And then we got video
of Adam Toledo
a 13 year old
being shot
with his hands up.
More deaths,
two of minorities
at the hands of the state
meant to protect us.
“Everyone who commits sin
is guilty of lawlessness;
sin is lawlessness.”
This week a friend of mine said,
“I’m tired
of having to say folks’ name.
Would be nice
if folks were just allowed
to live.
To continue their lives
in relative anonymity
or to gain national recognition
for doing something other
than being killed by a cop…
but here we are again.
The exhaustion is too real.”
The exhaustion is too real,
particularly for the people
who’ve been carrying this country’s
burden of work and sin
since its inception.
The exhaustion is too real
for the people who know
from their own lived experiences,
that sin
is lawlessness.
The exhaustion wants to be real
for those of us,
like myself,
who only started paying attention
in 2014 when Mike Brown was killed.
I’ve barely scratched the surface
and I’m tired too.
I want to be fatigued,
like after a good workout,
but I haven’t
put in the work to be fatigued.
I’ve never had to live it.
In this uncomfortable place,
I find myself in sin.
The sin of despair,
giving up thinking nothing will change.
The sin of laziness and thereby complicity:
someone (else)
can/will/should
do something about systemic racism
especially police violence
against Black people,
Indigenous people,
People of Color.
Finding myself in those sins,
is usually an invitation
to get back to prayer.
To better abide
in Jesus’ life,
in the life and hope
made available by the resurrection.
“See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are…
No one who abides in him sins”
The key to this passage
is the necessity
of abiding in Jesus’ love.
It’s working to respond to God’s grace
by staying close to God.
In the text today,
John the Elder
assures us that
when we sin,
Jesus makes provision.
He stands in the gap for us
when we’re wearied
by the cares and occupations
of this world.
Jesus’ resurrection
stands between us and death,
us and laziness,
us and exhaustion
especially when
we have been doing the work
or living with the United State’s
first sin.
NT Wright says,
“Hope is what you get
when you suddenly realize
that a different worldview is possible,
a worldview in which the rich,
the powerful,
and the unscrupulous
do not after all have the last word.
The same worldview shift
that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus
is the shift that will enable us to transform the world…
There is the bluster of the tyrant
who knows his power is threatened,
and I hear the same tone of voice
not just in the politicians
who want to carve up the world
to their advantage
but also
in the intellectual traditions
that have gone along for the ride.”
The bluster of the tyrant,
the bluster of the state,
the bluster of racist power structures
know their power is threatened.
Everyone who commits sin
is guilty of lawlessness;
sin is lawlessness
whether that’s despair or laziness
or lawlessness behind a badge.
And Jesus,
the resurrected Christ who has defeated death,
has called us children of God.
When we sin,
Jesus makes provision.
The same worldview shift
that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus
is the shift
that will enable us
to transform the world.
We need only abide:
look on the wood of the Cross
look for him at the empty tomb
and know that
When we sin,
Jesus makes provision.
Death and despair
are not the last words.
Alleluia Christ is risen.
Alleluia and amen.