In the First Epistle of John . . . the Apostle writes, “See what love the Father has given us.”  John does not talk about God the Father exhibiting His love.  He does not say, “See what love the Father has shown us,” as if God the Father shows us He loves us by doing things that please us.  . . . No.  The Apostle John says, “See what love the Father has given us.”  God the Father Almighty has given us His love as something tangible that we can feel and touch and put in our pocket or in our purse.  God the Father Almighty has given us His love so that we can carry it around with us and be nourished by it when we are hungry or defended by it when we are in danger or remember its weight and Presence when we are tempted.  . . . And so, the Apostle John writes, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”

    The Apostle John uses two Greek words for “children” in his Epistles.  There is the Greek word “teknion” . . . and the Greek word “paidion”.  . . . Has anyone here seen Star Wars One and Star Wars Two?  Do you remember what a “padawan” is?  A “padawan” is a Jedi learner; a student assigned to a Jedi Knight to assist and be instructed; . . . to learn and perfect the disciplines and skills of a Jedi Knight.  Perhaps you will recall that from time to time a “padawan” is referred to, in the Star Wars movies, as a “young one”.  . . . Well, George Lukas, the creator of Star Wars, seems to be an educated man; he seems to have lifted the idea of a “padawan” from the Greek word “paidion”, which is a term used to refer to an inexperienced child:  a learner.  . . . But when Saint John exhorts us to “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God,” . . . he does not use the Greek word “paidion” as if we were inept in heavenly things; . . . Saint John uses, instead,  the Greek word “teknion”.  “Teknion” conveys the sense of a child that is the member of a family, . . . a precious child; . . . a cherished child.  . . . So that, when Saint John writes, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God,” . . . he is declaring that we are not so much adopted sons and daughters, as Saint Paul suggests, but we are, rather, the begotten children of God:  we are the divine sons and daughters of God!  . . . And how did this come about?  How did God the Father beget us, and how did we become the divine sons and daughters of God?  . . . It came about on the Cross.  . . . The Second Person of the Trinity, in the person of our humanity, writhed in agony upon the Cross, like a woman suffering the pangs of childbirth; . . . the Second Person of the Trinity, in the person of Jesus, writhed in agony upon the Cross . . . until, with a rush of water, you emerged with Jesus from the Baptismal Font . . . and the priest dried you with a towel, as a nurse might receive a newborn into a towel and wipe its head and face, . . . and you were anointed with oil . . . and, just as Lili was last Sunday, you were presented to your family, . . . presented to all those men and women who were now your brothers and sisters, . . . because, by the birth agony of the Cross and the water of Baptism, you have been given God the Father’s love; . . . you are a “teknion”, . . . the Lord God Almighty has begotten you . . . and birthed you . . . and made you His son; . . . made you His daughter.

    Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter.  . . . It has been nearly a month since we observed the rigorous sequence of Holy Days that are the climax of Lent:  Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday and the somber keeping of Good Friday and the solemn candlelit gathering of the Easter Vigil which suddenly burst into the joy of Easter followed by good food and drink and conversation and Easter Day.  . . . It is now a month after our intentional keeping of Christ’s Passion and joyful Resurrection; . . . it is now a month later, and the daily demands of common necessities have dulled, somewhat, our focus upon the exquisite delight of just how precious a gift it is that the Father has given us.  . . . And so, lest we become overwhelmed by worldly business and neglect the Father’s love altogether . . . the Sunday Lectionary has appointed Saint John’s First Epistle for us to hear; . . . for us to hear John say,

See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and so we are.  . . . Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who hopes in [Christ Jesus] purifies himself as [Jesus] is pure.

The Lections for the Fourth Sunday of Easter have appointed for us to hear Saint John tell us that the gift of God’s love that we have received; . . . that has been entrusted to us; . . . the gift of divine sonship and daughterhood is not a static thing.  The gift of the Father’s love is a living thing which must not be neglected.  It is not to be neglected because the gift of the Father’s love is intended to grow in us and cause our souls to thrive and to transfigure us so that when each of us comes into the Presence of God the Father Almighty He will recognize us as His son . . . as His daughter; . . . He will recognize us because we shall be like Him.  . . . And so, Jesus reminds us, today, that “I am the good shepherd.”  Jesus reminds us that the sons and daughters of God the Father are governed neither by their DNA nor by their hormones.  The children of God have Jesus as the chemistry which forms and shapes their lives.  The children of God have the simplicity, detachment, and obedience of God the Son to govern their lives.  . . . So that, by daily prayer, we, the children of God, are aided by the Good Shepherd to keep our lives simple and free from wants that excite rather than still the soul.  By our daily prayer we come to the voice of the Good Shepherd, Who refreshes our souls with deep and tranquil and living waters.  . . . By our daily prayer and by hearing and reading the Holy Scriptures the Good Shepherd teaches us righteousness and keeps the wolf from harming us with his pernicious evil, . . . so that even in the midst of chaos and hatred, . . . entrusting ourselves to Christ, the Good Shepherd will anoint our wounds and bind them.  He will sustain and purify our lives so that each of us shall become the image of Him.  By being attentive and obedient and conformed to the shining light and healing words of the Good Shepherd, the Son of God, Second Person of the Trinity, Who birthed us into the divine life and causes us to thrive; . . . by attentive obedience to the Good Shepherd . . . we shall, by stages, become the image of Jesus.

    For, what does the Apostle John say?

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the work of the devil.  No one born of God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him . . . because he is born of God.

On this Sunday, a month beyond Easter, . . . remember the gift which the Father has given you, . . . that you should be His divine children; . . . remember that you are born of God . . . and that the most important thing about your life . . . is that Jesus is your shepherd.  Alleluia!