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I read about some children out on the playground at school, teasing each other as kids so often do. 

"Works in Progress"                              November 2, 2008.                                Jack Keating

Cicero United Methodist Church                              Text: 1 John 3:1-3

I read about some children out on the playground at school, teasing each other as kids so often do. They started that day to pick on a child who was adopted. "You don't have real parents," they taunted. "You don't even know who your real parents are! You're just adopted." And to that the adopted child replied with a smile, "Oh yeah? When you were born your parents didn't have a choice. They had to keep you. But my parents didn't just have me. They wanted me!"

Well brothers and sisters, you too are a child of God because God wanted you. From eternity, God chose you to be his own. Before you were ever born, before you ever had a chance to prove yourself to be a sinner, God chose you to be a part of his family. And he made your place in his family possible by carrying out a plan of salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ. Then, in God's good time, God made his choice and his adoption a reality by sending his Holy Spirit into your hearts and making you his own. God put his name on you when you were baptized. And that work which God began at your baptism he continued into your hearts to this very day, so that you can say with confidence, "I am a child of God." That's what John says in this morning's lesson. God has called us to be his children and what we will be has not yet been made known.

Much like the saints we will pause to name and remember in just a few minutes this morning, we have been magnificently created by God who has begun a great work in us. But what we will be still has not been made known. And until we too come to the end of our days in this place, and the full extent of what God creates us to be is known, I want to remind you that we are all God's children --- That's what we are!

So my first suggestion to help you realize that is to BELIEVE IT!

You know John was not a young man when he wrote these words - perhaps in his 90's. And you would think that by this time he would take his place in the family of God for granted. But not John. Can't you hear the wonderment in his words? "How great is the love the Father lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Most of us have watched the musical" Annie" at least once in our lives. All the children in that orphanage hope that someday, someone will want to take them home and make them their children. But not in Annie's wildest dreams did she ever think that someone as rich and wonderful as Daddy Warbucks would choose her to come and live with him! Why would someone want anyone so plain and ordinary as herself? For Annie it was one of those "pinch ­me-and-tell-me-it's-real" experiences.

And so it is with being a child of God - but in a much more dramatic way because it's real. There is no reason I ought to hold this hope in my heart - that God would want me and choose me to be his child. I have no right of birth. The human race lost the right to be automatically counted in God's family when Adam and Eve fell into sin.

And not only have we lost the right, we have done nothing to earn the right, have we?  Have you always used God's name with respect? Have you always loved his Word and used it diligently? Have you always loved your parents and honored them? Have you never lost your temper and said something you later regretted?  I know that I haven't kept one of God's commandments perfectly. I do not deserve to be God's child. Nor do the saints we will remember today. Like me, each of them were fallible, sinful human beings.

And yet John says, without a doubt, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" But did you ever wonder ... How can he be so confident? How can WE be so sure? Because God would not have sent Jesus to die for our sins if he didn't love us. And God would not have put his name upon us in our baptism if he didn't want us to be his children and choose us for himself.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are'" Wonder at this. But please, don't for a second doubt it or not believe it! Because that is what we are! And if that is what we are ... can't you just imagine what's in store for us someday? And John invites us to do just that.

So the second suggestion I have is to IMAGINE IT!

Listen then to what John goes on to say: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." There is so much that God has left to our imagination! What will it be like in heaven? Will there be beds and pillows and houses and streets and cities? Will there be trees and rivers and gardens and seas? Will there be basketball courts and golf courses? And if there are golf courses will I still have that annoying slice in my swing? Will we have opportunities to study at the feet of some of the greatest teachers of all time, or will we know everything perfectly? Will my body be twenty years old or forty years old or will there be some gray hair and wrinkles only with their strength diminished? John says, "Now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known."

But there is enough even to fuel our imagination. John says that, "we will be like the Father." I don't think that he's referring to what our bodies will be like in the resurrection. But even then, what does that mean? I'm not sure! What I think John is referring to, more than what we'll look like, is what our lives will be like. We shall be like him - perfect and holy! We shall be like Adam and Eve in the beginning ... created in the image of God and made to be like God. Gone will be our sinful flesh and all those terrible temptations. Gone will be the guilt and the shame we feel when we've failed to do the good and managed to do evil! Can you imagine that? Can you imagine having only pure and peaceful and happy thoughts in your mind all the time? Can you imagine the joy of loving perfectly all the time?

And that's not all. John says that we will see God as he is. I remember visiting an elderly Christian lady, a week or two after Easter several years ago. As it would turn out, she would live only a few months after our visit. We were talking about Easter that day - and about the resurrection. And she looked into my eyes, with a joy and twinkle in her own and said, "Can you imagine? We'll see Jesus face to face! Can you imagine what that will be like?"

I think John did a lot of imagining at the end of his life. Imprisoned on an island.

Separated from his friends. Living into his 90's under the terrible conditions on a prison island. I doubt if there wasn't a morning that John didn't rise and think, "Maybe today I will get to see Jesus face to face!" I doubt if the sun ever set that John didn't pray, as he prayed at the end of his book of Revelation, "Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

Friends, when life isn't treating you fairly ... when you are struggling with your health ... when you can't seem to keep a handle on your emotions ... when you wonder why bad things can happen to good people ... would you take just a few minutes to imagine? God's children have that right! You have that right! Because that is what we are! Believe that it is so. Imagine what it will be like.

And finally I'd suggest that you try to WORK AT IT!

John goes on to write, "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." Children - consciously or unconsciously - imitate their parents. If you saw me standing next to my two brothers, you could easily tell that we come from the same family. We don't all have the same color eyes. We don't all have the same build. One of us has considerably grayer hair than the other two. But if you looked at us side by side, it would be quite obvious that we were from the same family. Because we all stand like this (with rounded shoulders). And is you put our father in front of us, you would know where we got it from. No matter how often my mother said, "Stand up Straight!" we still ended up standing like this. Because children naturally imitate their parents.

Can people tell who your heavenly Father is by taking one look at you? And do you look much like the other children of God that you see in God's family? Is your walk through life straight and true? Can people tell from the smile on your face that you are radiating with the joy of God in your hearts? When you open your mouth, is your speech characteristic of your Father's Word? Is it truthful? Honest? Pure? Kindly? Are your desires for heavenly things and not earthly pleasures? "How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" Remember who you are! And remember whose you are! God has purified us with the blood of his Son. He has called us to be his own. He put his name on us in our baptism and made us adopted members of his family. And at the same time that I know that I am God's child, I also know that I want to be more like him every day.

That's why John says, "Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." But in this case, the English verb just doesn't quite catch the flavor of what the text says in the Greek. Maybe a better translation would be "Everyone who has this hope in him keeps on purifying himself, just as he is pure." I wasn't born with rounded shoulders and poor posture. That was something I learned by walking beside my father as a child. And in the same way, we become more and more like our heavenly Father every day we walk with him. We keep on purifying ourselves, just as he is pure.

What does it mean to "keep on purifying ourselves?" It's very simple really, just not always easy. It's something that we do - or maybe we should say that God works in us by his Spirit - every day. First, we examine ourselves so that we can see the impurities and imperfections. We look at how we act and talk. We examine our feelings and our attitudes and our desires. Are they godly and godlike? If not, we bring these impurities to the throne of the Father and claim the promises he has given us. In the first chapter John wrote, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." In humbleness and thanks, we determine to rid our life of this sin or that. We cannot tolerate it any longer. It has no place in our lives. Because we are God's children! That is what we are! And if we are unsuccessful today because we are weak, we will look to him for strength and try again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. And even if in this life we are not able to become just like him in every way, we will not despair. Because in our baptism God promised never to forsake us as his children. And we know that one day, when we are with him in heaven, we shall be just like him! For we shall see him as he is.

When Phyllis was 16 years old, she got pregnant and had to leave High School. Her dreams were shattered and she was heartbroken. She rented a small, cramped apartment, in which she would live and raise her son. But she soon discovered that it was never going to work out. She didn't have enough money, and she was living off handouts. Eventually she had to go on public assistance - welfare. She was barely surviving in poverty, defeat, and despair.

But Phyllis refused to accept her life of mediocrity. She said, "Enough is enough. I refuse to pass this lifestyle down to my children. I'm going to make a difference with my life. I'm going to be the child God wants me to be." And she rose up and started believing for bigger and better things. She started expecting the supernatural favor of God. She rid her mind of her former thoughts of defeat and failure. She developed a "can-do" mentality. When times were tough she wouldn't give up but remembered, instead that she was a child of God. She did her part and God did his.

Phyllis got a job in a school cafeteria working the cash register. The job paid minimum wage, and Phyllis was grateful for it. But Phyllis wasn't satisfied with that. She knew God had better things in store for his children and she dreamed a bigger dream for her life. She didn't just sit back and accept the status quo. She decided she wanted to go back to school and she got her high school diploma. But still she wasn't satisfied.

She wanted to go to college. She worked all day and then attended college classes at night. In just four years, she graduated from college with honors. But Phyllis still believed God had more in store for her so she went back to school and got her master's degree.

Today she is reaping the rewards of that effort and God's blessings. She's not on welfare anymore; she's a school principal in the same district where she used to work the cafeteria cash register. She, too, broke the curse of poverty and God blessed her family. Phyllis says, "I went from welfare to faring well. God kept his promise to his child."

And that is the promise that we believe each of the saints we will name today has already come to experience. And if you're hoping for that same promise maybe you might want to take some time to commit to memory these verses of scripture - at least the first. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Believe it to be true. Imagine what it will be like in heaven someday! And work at becoming more like him every day of your lives. AMEN.