Look in front of you and what do you see? A child of God. Turn to the right and what do you see? A child of God. Look left. A child of God. Turn around and look behind. All I can see here are children of God. How did that happen? How did all these children of God end up here? Are the people who enter this place the ones who never make mistakes? No. Are the people who get out of bed on Sunday better than others? No. Are the people who attend church, pray and try to keep the commandments somehow more worthy of the high honor of being a child of God? The Bible says no. We read in the first epistle of St. John that the reason we are children of God is because God loves us so much we become part of the divine family. “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called children of God. Yet that is what we are.” We aren’t the children of God because of our goodness but because of God’s goodness. We don’t earn our way into God’s family, we are called into it as a freely given gift.
Now there are children and there are children. Some children, when they are younger, take a lot of care and tending. You have to wipe their nose and cut up there food. Or maybe you have a problem child. That’s the one you have to tell something a thousand times before they finally mind. But young or old, problem child or momma’s pride and joy, you’re still somebody’s child. So when the Bible tells calls us the children of God, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have it all together. No, we are children of God who grow in the spiritual life. The image that the Jesus presents in John’s gospel of the Good Shepherd helps us understand what it means to be a child of God. I was surprised when I met real shepherd for the first time in Huitzila, Mexico. (Not many shepherds in Baltimore… or Chicago.) A shepherd does not try to exert absolute control over his flock. He in fact was behind the flock, not in front. The shepherd trusted in, believed in his flock. He believed enough to let them wander over the hills on their own without determining each step for them. He believed enough to let them make mistakes even though it will make his job harder. He believed enough to trust that they will respond when he points out the right direction to them. When Jesus says that he is the Good Shepherd he is letting us know the kind of faith that he has in us as his flock.
Child of God, what shall you do? Have faith that our Good Shepherd calls us each by name, in all of our uniqueness. That changes not only our relationship with God but also our relationships with one another. Jesus says in the gospel that since he is the Good Shepherd all the sheep, even the ones who do not belong to the fold, must hear his voice, “and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” The children of God have the obligation, therefore, to reflect the togetherness, the unity, the oneness, that we possess as the one family of God. That means, primarily, that we must work to overcome any separations, any barriers, any divisions that have crept up over the years which prevent our living in unity. Too, we must forgive and be forgiven for the hurts and resentments that inhibit our living as one. And we must reach out to those who feel estranged or alienated, who feel they don’t belong, and invite them into the family of God to which every single human being is called. We must do whatever is necessary to reflect that all are members of the one family of God.
Child of God, how shall you live? By imitating Jesus, our Good shepherd, who “lays down his life for the sheep.” The willingness to lay down one’s life for others serves as the pattern we see in Jesus. If you saw a child of God who was hungry, you’d feed him. If you saw a child of God who was sick, you’d visit. If you saw a child of God who was lost, you’d show her the way. The message Jesus lived and died for is that there isn’t anyone out there who isn’t a child of God! So we shall love as Jesus loved, laying down our individual lives, in the interest of the deeper and wider life we have in common. Jesus does not use power or force but lays down his life. To really correct a world going horribly wrong we must move from a love of power to relying on the power of love. In the end, it is only the power of love that lasts. Martin Luther King, Jr. had no military strength, no political office, no economic clout. He had no power but the power of love — and he more than all the power mongers changed the country. In that he imitated his Good Shepherd who was powerless to prevent his own execution — but who saved the world by the power of his love. The epistle today concludes, “When it comes to light, we shall be like him.” We shall be like our Good Shepherd when we move from the love of power to the power of love. With the power of love our young people grow up to be the divine creations God intends them to be. With the power of love our church transfigures the neighborhood. With the power of love our hearts are filled with peace and joy. That’s the power, the power of love.
“I know mine and mine know me,” says Jesus in the Gospel. Because God has been generous to us, we are generous in response. Because God has shown us the path of life, we strive to follow that path wherever it leads. Because God sent Jesus to teach us how to live, we trust that his way is the right way. We are called to live out who we are, children of God.
