“The Best Credential You Can Ever Have”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Text: John 1:1-14
He was the youngest son of the miller. He lamented after receiving his inheritance. His eldest brother received the mill. The middle brother got the mules. He received the cat. What on earth was he to do with a cat? But this was no ordinary cat, this cat was a yuppie; young and upwardly-mobile. He needed a pair of boots and when he received them, the cat set out to seek out his master's fortune. He bagged a rabbit in the forest and sent it over to the king. The card was signed with the fictitious name, The Marquis of Carabas. For several months the cat caught various forms of game and sent them over to the king with the same inscription, From the Marquis of Carabas.
One day, knowing that the king and his daughter were travelling by coach, far from their home and alongside a river, the cat persuaded his master to remove his clothes and go for a swim. While in the water, the cat disappeared with his clothing and hid them just before the royal coach was to appear. As the coach drew near, the cat ran around crying for help, informing the king that his master, the Marquis, had been bathing in the river when he was robbed of his clothing. The king, of course, took pity on the man, he fetched the finest of clothes for him and brought him into his coach to sit with him and his daughter. The daughter immediately fell in love with the dapper looking young man but there's more. As the coach worked its way through the countryside, the cat ran ahead of it ordering country folk along the road to tell the king that the land they tended belonged to the Marquis of Carabas. Coming to a castle inhabited by a great and powerful ogre, an ogre capable of changing into anything, the cat tricked the ogre, first getting him to show his power by turning into a tiger, then to show it by turning into a very small mouse. At which point the cat devoured the mouse, took over the castle for his master, and when the king learned that the lands and castle belonged to the Marquis, he was so impressed that he offered the hand of his daughter, the princess, in marriage. The poor third brother, now a Marquis, his wife, and a resourceful cat lived happily ever after.
You may recognize the plot of Charles Perrault's, Puss in Boots which, like many other fairy tales, seeks to elevate the pauper to the position of lord. Fairy tales often play on that common human desire to move up, to overcome unfairness, inequality, and poverty, and to gain wealth, prosperity, power and influence.
In life, we see individuals seek those things in earnest and there are those who do so at any cost like Gordon Gekko in the film, Wall Street. Gekko advises those who will listen to get ahead by any means necessary, ethical or unethical, legal or illegal, it doesn't matter, just get ahead. Perhaps a less negative movement toward wealth, prosperity, and influence can be associated with the word “yuppie.” Yuppie was coined for the young, upwardly mobile, urban professionals of the 1980s. An American defined Yuppie-ism as: a late-twentieth-century phenomenon of self-absorbed, young professionals, earning significant salaries, enjoying the cultural attractions of sophisticated urban life and thought, and generally out of touch with, indeed antithetical to, most of the challenges and concerns of a far less well-off and more parochial Middle America.
But a person does not need to throw out the baby with the bathwater altogether when seeking to move up. Education is often seen as a way to success in our culture without necessarily losing ethics and morality. Many will work toward professional and academic credentials that generally bring greater income levels and better prospects. Post-graduate, professional degrees and designations are highly sought after and generally improve status and influence. In medicine it is the M.D., in law it is the LL.B., in accounting it is the C.A., in business and finance it is the M.B.A., in the academic world it is the M.A. or Ph.D. People who are ambitious, people who want to move ahead in life, generally seek out higher degrees and credentials and the wisdom, position, and status they provide. Most people want to move up.
I came across something a couple of months ago that suggested to me that there is one credential that you have probably never heard of as such, but is no doubt the greatest credential you can ever have. C.A.s, LL.B.s, M.B.A.s, or Ph.D.s, are very worthwhile in this world but by far the best letters you could put after your name may be the letters, C.O.G., which I will come back to in a moment.
The thought came to me as I was listening to a Christian speaker unpack chapter 8 of St. Paul's letter to the Romans. He was telling us that building a relationship with God and becoming a son or daughter of the King was the highest privilege that a human being could have. “A relationship with God,” he said, “puts us in the stratosphere of human possibilities, it elevates us beyond anything that this world has to offer.”
One of the things that the Scriptures keep throwing at us is the idea that beyond our earthly story, there is a greater, grand narrative at work. They keep throwing at us the divine realm, the kingdom of heaven, the dwelling place of God. We see that kingdom and story only through glimpses here and there for there has been a separation, a great gulf, between God and human beings almost from the beginning. The scriptures tell us, however, that God desires to bridge that gap. It was prophesied for centuries, it was talked about among godly people, finally it arrived, when on the first Christmas, a babe was born in Bethlehem. It was an incarnation with a purpose. The apostle Paul wrote about the One whom the babe would become and said, “In him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Col.1:19f.).” The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews says that, “Since...the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things...like his brothers and sisters in every respect (Heb.2:14, 17).” He was fully God and fully human. Heaven truly touched the earth, they came together with a purpose in the child of Bethlehem.
The apostle John writes of this, saying that a great light has come into the world (Jn.1:4f.). “He lived among us, and we have seen his glory (1:14).” “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God).” (1:11, 12)
There it is, that designation I was speaking about; C.O.G., children of God, you can be a “child of God.” What scripture points to here is God's desire to restore relationship with us, to bridge the gulf. He offers us salvation, he offers us light for the paths we tread, he offers us abundant life and eternal life ... and that is what makes this of such importance. There is within most of humanity a desire to keep going, a desire to get beyond death, a desire for eternity ... the scriptures tell us that God holds the keys to eternity. He has pointed the way for us in his Son and he invites us to join his Son, to be a part of the family, to be a child of God. “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God).” (1:12).
Being a child of God puts a person in an incredible position. If you think on it, beyond the great academic or professional designations like, M.D., C.A. or Ph.D., there is a small group of people in this world who have incredible titles, they are, of course, the royals. The people we call, “Your royal highness.” I recently heard about the titles given to Prince Charles, for instance. Prince Charles is “Heir Apparent to the Crown, His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cornwall, Knight of the Garter, Colonel in Chief of the Royal Regiment of Wales, The Duke of Rothesay, Knight of the Thistle, Commander of the Royal Navy, Great Master of the Order of Bath, Earl of Chester, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward of Scotland.” Those titles are magnificent. These titles set Prince Charles apart. In his presence, a commoner can only bow and speak when spoken to. Prince Charles, regardless of the tabloid stuff, has incredible power and status and so do his children, William and Harry. They are his heirs, as Charles is an heir of the Queen.
Yet, the scriptures inform us that a child is beyond all that. The child of Bethlehem, the incarnate Son of God is part of an even greater story than our earthly story. He is called not only king, but King of all kings. He is called not only lord, but Lord of all Lords, Wonderful, Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God.
In our contemporary service here at TEMC, we sing a song called Above All. The first few lines, all set in scripture, go like this,
Above all powers, above all kings,
Above all nature, and all created things,
Above all wisdom, and all the ways of man,
You were here before the world began …
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones,
Above all wonders, the world has ever known,
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth,
There's no way to measure what you're worth …
Above all royalty, above all the credentialing agencies of earth there is the Son of God.
A very good friend of mine in ministry used to meet regularly with a group of high flyers … high-powered executives, highly credentialed, highly successful business people; and on one occasion, the group had the privilege of meeting Prince Edward and his wife Sophie on one of their tours of Canada. My friend told me that the others in the group were chatting at length about their work and the considerable positions that they had attained. Prince Edward turned to my friend and asked him, “And what do you do?” My friend did not pause for a moment, he looked at all his friends and with a glint in his eye replied, “Well, they can say what they like but I think I have a much greater job than any of them. I serve the King, nay the King of kings, all day and every day.” God, you see, is greater than anything and any power this world has to offer and what the apostle John says to us in the opening chapter of his Gospel, we may enter into that realm beyond realms, we may become children of God.
It is interesting that this phrase, child of God, occurs numerous times in the scriptures. As one studies the uses of the phrase, one finds associations with the word “adoption,” we can be adopted into the family of God and become his children (Gal.4:4, 5). One finds that the child of God is adopted in such a way that he or she becomes an heir and co-heir with Jesus to all the riches of God. It's as though we are elevated to roles similar to those of Prince Charles in the royal family. As the firstborn of the Queen, he is heir to the throne. Being a child of God makes us co-heirs with Jesus of the kingdom. More specifically, one finds that where the Son of God is, there also the adopted children of God will be. It connects with eternity, Christ is the firstborn of the dead. A greater number will be resurrected to be with him. The children of God will then be with him forever in the greater reality that is kingdom of God. This was God's purpose in bringing about the first Christmas and this is his invitation, “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God (1:12).” What a privilege? What a gift?
Last week, I spoke about the life of Charles Colson and I was reading a column that he wrote about this time of year, 2008. He wrote of an Anglican priest who, at the end of December 1772, in the poor parish of Olney, England worked by candlelight on his New Year's Day sermon. He would preach on the text of 1 Chronicles 17:16, 17. It's a passage that tells us of David's response to God after the prophet Nathan informed him that his descendants would be enthroned forever as kings of Israel. David, the once poor shepherd boy, the man who had repented of adultery and murder, responded to the news by saying, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me thus far?”
“That priest was John Newton, and those words could strike a deep chord in his own heart,” wrote Colson. Newton would have remembered when his rebellious spirit got him thrown off numerous ships, publicly flogged, and ousted from His Majesty's Navy. He would have remembered the shipwrecks and the mutinies—and then the transformation of his heart by the power of the Gospel. As Newton considered those days gone by, he asked as David did, “Who am I, O Lord...that you have brought me this far?” “How can I be now a child of God?”
As was his habit, Newton set to work composing a hymn to illustrate his New Year's Day sermon. In that hymn, he would tell his poor congregation of lace-makers and low-paid artisans about the dangers and snares he had faced. He would reflect on the amazing grace that had saved a wretch like him. It was in Olney on New Year's Day, 1773 that the now-famous words of “Amazing Grace” were first sung. One of the verses, hardly sung today, goes like this;
And when this mortal life shall fail,
And flesh and sense shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
John Newton knew that that is the inheritance of the child of God.
It is a tremendous inheritance, a great inheritance. It puts us far beyond anything this world can offer us. Of course, Charles Colson, who wrote of John Newton, he himself also became a child of God. His life, as we learned last week, was not that of grievous sinner like John Newton in his early life. Colson's life was one of privilege and power, credentials and money and status as Special Counsel to the President of the United States of America. Even there, however, he found that he needed something far greater, that he had an emptiness that could only be filled with a little touch of heaven and the child of Bethlehem.
John Newton and Charles Colson suggest that it doesn't really matter what station one has in life, nor does it matter how life has gone up 'til now. God is a God of grace and love. Even a pauper can rise to the highest heights. God has come to give us something that no amount of prestige or talent or position can offer. You too can be a “child of God,” with all the attendant rights and privileges thereof. It is a high calling, a great privilege, an honour beyond any honour this world can afford … to sit with his Son.
“To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God (1:12).”