Scripture: 1 John 3:1-3
See what great love the Father has lavished on 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. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
 
Thought for the Day: This passage is not about Jesus’ return at the end of the world. Like everything written in John’s name (likely by an Elder of one of the early churches), this is a deeply mystical, Jewish text. The author correctly understands the hope that lies at the center of Jesus’ message to his people. We are all God’s children—not in some ethereal, unsubstantial way, but literally, at the core of our being, we are created from the stuff of God.
 
For the early Christians the author was writing to, the world was a very harsh place. People thought followers of Jesus were cultish. A mixture of Jews and Gentiles, they had a difficult time explaining themselves to the Roman Pagans and the orthodox Jews. Early followers of Jesus were expelled from their Synagogues and tortured by Romans—much like Jesus.
 
They understood, perhaps more than most modern Christians, that Jesus taught and lived a relationship with God nobody before ever imagined possible. Where both Romans and Jews imagined their gods as powerful, external beings, Jesus taught that God is within. He shows us that God is intrinsic to our nature, and that being one with God is, in fact, our true nature. This lesson remains difficult to understand today as can be seen by going into almost any Christian church in the United States. Few pastors preach unity with God; many preach worship of Jesus as an idol.
 
Jesus preached a message of hope—a message about God who is with us all the time, through the best and worst events of our lives. God for Jesus was not some old man in heaven. Rather, heaven was coming to the realization that God is within us. His is a message of awakening to a higher state of consciousness. The hope in Jesus’ message is not that God acts from somewhere beyond the sky, but that God awakens us to a higher state of being in God’s presence—from within.
 
Prayer: Wake me from this long, dark night of my soul, God of light, God of hope, God of freedom! Amen.