Our Second Lesson today, from First John, chapter 3, tells us ALL ABOUT it!  LISTEN AGAIN to these REMARKABLE words:  “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not been revealed.  What we do know is this:  when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

    Friends, the FIRST item on Gods list of unfinished business is to teach you and me OUR TRUE NAME!  Yes, the name “CHILDREN OF GOD!” You know, the so-called JOHANNINE Literature of the New Testament, which includes the Letters of John, here, DIFFERS significantly from the theology of the Apostle Paul’s epistles.    Indeed, these writings sometimes SHOCK us with truths that HAVEN’T DAWNED on us before.  Here, for example, as we’ll see, the writer will go on to say that being called “children of God” means that we ourselves not only bear God’s name, but that we, one day, will be TRANSFORMED into beings LIKE God!


    Yes, to bear God’s name is RISKY -- to those of us who, constitutionally, just don’t like CHANGE!  Andrew Lloyd Webber, the British dramatist and composer, wrote a musical quite some years ago that appeared in London’s West End (and, maybe, in New York, too), called Whistle Down the Wind.  Maybe you saw the MOVIE, of the same name, that  it’s based on, back in 1961 -- starring Hayley Mills.  Webber changed the SETTING from a village in Lancashire, England, to rural Louisiana, U.S.A., back in the late 1950s.  And he added lots of songs.  But he kept the plot basically the same.

    On a certain farm an adolescent girl enters the barn one evening and is STARTLED to find, hiding in the hay, a bleeding MAN asleep.  To make matters worse, just then he WAKES UP.  “Who ARE you?”  she asks.

    Equally startled, the man, delirious from a bleeding wound in his side, cries, “JESUS CHRIST!”
    
    Of course, he means it as an epithet.  But the girl really BELIEVES he’s Jesus Christ.  She confides in some other children.  And they’re convinced  he’s Jesus, too.  For the kids have learned in church and Sunday School, that Christ was WOUNDED in his side -- and also that, one day, he will RETURN.   The children vow to HIDE this man, to treat his INJURY, and to bring him FOOD and DRINK.

    In fact, the man, far from being Jesus, is actually an escaped CONVICT, who’s MURDERED two guards, was shot HIMSELF, and now is bleeding and desperate!  The REST OF THE MOVIE (and of Webber’s musical) revolves around the determination of the sheriff and the villagers to FIND and CATCH the criminal -- and the EQUAL determination of the children to PROTECT the one whom they believe is God’s Son!

    But, friends, to me the most REMARKABLE aspect of Whistle Down the Wind is how the criminal himself is transformed.  You see, when these innocent CHILDREN GIVE him the name of Jesus Christ, oddly enough, as evil as his life has always been, the fugitive begins to TAKE ON some of the traits of the divine.  He SOFTENS in his attitude; displays KINDNESS, even LOVE to the children; CHANGES!

    Tell me, YOU, TOO, bear the name of Gods child!  How is it CHANGING you?  IS it changing you at all?   In one city where we lived and I was a pastor, we’d sometimes pay our next-door neighbor’s teenaged son to mow our lawn.  His name was “Christopher.”  And one day, after he mowed, as I was paying him, I asked, “Do you know what the name “Christopher” MEANS?”

    He DIDN’T, so I told him the legend of St. Christopher.  Even though the Roman Catholic Church now has UNsainted Christopher, because he probably was NO MORE than a legend, the story's a GREAT one.   Supposedly Christopher was a GIANT of a man, and a Christian, who lived during the days of ancient Rome.  It was this strong man’s occupation to station himself on the bank of a broad river and, since neither bridge nor ferryboat was there, to carry on his broad back and shoulders travelers who came along.  They would, of course, pay him upon arrival at the opposite bank.

    One stormy night, standing at his place on the river, trying to shelter himself from a driving rain, this giant noted how swiftly the water was rising and what towering waves were beating on the shore. Just then a mysterious little CHILD appeared out of the storm and asked, “Would you, please, take me to the other side?”

    Most reluctantly, Christopher hoisted the child onto his high, broad shoulders -- and was AMAZED at how HEAVY this youngster was.  Nevertheless, with great difficulty, he bore the child down the steep bank, and plunged into the waves.  Madly swimming, the current threatening to carry them both down the stream, the man, with great difficulty, reached the far bank at last.  With his last ounce of strength he gently lifted down the boy onto the ground.  The youngster THANKED him -- and then, mysteriously,  suddenly, disappeared.  Later the giant realized with amazement that the boy had been the CHRIST child -- who was himself bearing the WEIGHT OF THE SINS AND SORROWS of WHOLE WORLD.  Hence forever afterward the giant has been named, “Christopher,” which means “CHRIST-bearer!”

    But, friends, ALL of us who call ourselves Christians are CHRIST-BEARERS!  We’re all children of God, who calls us each to BEAR CHRIST INTO THE WORLD.  How well are you trying to DO this?  At home?  In your work?  At school?  In your leisure and recreation?  God’s unfinished business is to TEACH us OUR TRUE NAME – “Children of God” and, thus, “Christ-Bearers,” so that we NEVER FORGET it!

    And SECONDLY, God’s unfinished business is to HELP US UNDERSTAND THE WORLD!  Now, whenever the Johannine writings USE the word “world,” they mean the world apart from God, the world that hasn’t heard and/or REFUSES to hear the good news of Christ and what it means for salvation. Here our writer declares, “The REASON the world does not know US is that it did not know HIM!“
         
    How NAIVE we Christians often are!  We tend to think the world LISTENS to what we have to say.  We can so easily shut our eyes to the ENTRENCHED EVIL and GREED and SELF-INTEREST in society, in blithe confidence that political correctness ALONE can make a difference.  It CAN’T!   Only God’s Holy Spirit, working THROUGH us, as we deliberately enter the many DARK and DREARY and HURTING places of this world, and sacrificially GIVE of ourselves, of our TIME, of our EFFORTS, of our LOVE, can make a difference.  The world, you see, doesn’t give a HOOT about the many things we Christians SAY.  But it can’t help but notice what we Christians DO, in the name of Christ, to fulfill Christ’s command of LOVE!

    Yes, friends, God’s UNFINISHED BUSINESS is to teach you and me OUR TRUE NAME AND to HELP US UNDERSTAND THE WORLD!   And FINALLY--and this is the most wonderful fact of all! — God’s unfinished business is eventually to TRANSFORM US into beings LIKE JESUS CHRIST!  Listen once more to our writer here:  “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we WILL be has not yet been revealed.  What we DO know is THIS:  when he is revealed, we will be LIKE him, for we will see him AS HE IS.”

    You may SMILE in total disbelief.  You may be as shocked and skeptical as the CRIMINAL hiding in the barn in Whistle Down the Wind, when he first realizes that the CHILDREN think he’s Jesus!  But it’s TRUE!   C.S. Lewis, that quintessential Oxford don who was converted from a life of seemingly self-sufficient ATHEISM to become one of the Twentieth Century’s greatest APOLOGISTS for CHRISTIAN FAITH, put it so well.  In his wonderful book The Grand Miracle, he DESCRIBES this total transformation, destined for all of us Christians.   Listen!  “We are to be REMADE.  All the RABBIT in us will be SWALLOWED UP -- the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit.  We shall BLEED and SQUEAL as the handfuls of fur come out; and then surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet IMAGINED:  a REAL MAN, an ageless GOD, a SON OF GOD, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and DRENCHED IN JOY.”

    Yes, friends:  GOD’S UNFINISHED BUSINESS!  May God COMPLETE it in ALL of us!

Prayers:
    Almighty God, through your only Son you overcame death and opened to us the gate of eternal life.  Grant that we who celebrate our Lord’s resurrection, may, through the renewing power of your Spirit, in him arise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.
    Great Creator of all, the heavens sing your glory; the earth and sea and sky proclaim your might.  Accept our thanks for the loveliness we hear in the many voices of creation, in the singing of birds and the call of beasts, in the rhythms of running water and the surging of the waves nearby, in the sighing of wind in trees, in the laughter of children and friends.  Grant that we may ever hear in them the music of your love and goodness, through Christ.
    Merciful God, let your blessing rest upon your Church throughout the world, and particularly on this congregation and those represented here this morning; that your people may abound in peace and truth, in unity and service.  Grant grace to our President, the Congress, the courts, and to all who rule our land, as well as leaders of nations everywhere, including Canada, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, and every country and state; that your will may be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that peace may prevail, particularly in the Middle East, in divided Korea, and in ALL troubled regions.
    God of healing, give power to the weak, strengthen the poor, comfort the sad, and heal the sick in body, mind, or spirit--particularly any in this place of worship this morning who may know pain.
    Finally, God of eternity, we remember in  your presence those who have gone before us in faith.  Help us to follow their example, and bring us with them to the fullness of your kingdom of love and peace: through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  AMEN.