Do you wonder if you're part Viking?

 See what love God has given us, that we should be called Children of God; and that is what we are (1 John 3:1a). Easter 3B, 1 John 3:1-7

There’s this really great advertisement I saw on the History Channel for its series called “Vikings” that shows a pudgy, balding, middle-aged man running out to his mailbox day after day, disappointed that something—we’re not sure what—hasn’t arrived. Finally, the envelope he’s been waiting for shows up—it’s the results of a DNA ancestry test. He rips it open, scans the results with disappointment, but then, at the very bottom of the page, he sees it—0.012% Viking. Suddenly he jumps up, he screams, and he’s transformed into a fur-robed, sword-wielding warrior. He knew it all along—he’s a Viking. 

According to recent estimates, 26 million people have purchased one of those genetic ancestry testing kits. The journal “New Genetics and Society” recently published an extensive study based on interviews with Swedish, British and American individuals who used genetic ancestry tests to prove they had “Viking blood.” Many of these test-takers were looking for the results to validate who they are: One person said that knowing he was descended from Vikings explained his tendencies toward violence and explosive anger. Another said it explained her desire to see “new lands” and her inability to stay in one place…These test-takers, I think, are looking for justification. 

As Christians, we see “justification” in a different light, the light of the sunrise on Easter morning. “Justification” is the word used in Scripture that means in Jesus we are all forgiven, declared to be righteous by God even when we weren’t—when we aren’t. Justification is not a once-for-all free pass that means we’re going to heaven when we die and so nothing matters here now. Theologically, for us as Anglicans, Justification is a living and dynamic reality and is intrinsically related to Sanctification—to growing closer to God every day.  

John calls us “children” three time in this short passage. “See what love God has given us, that we should be called Children of God; and that is what we are” (3:1). “Beloved, we are God's children now” (3:2). “Little children, let no one deceive you” (3:7). We are children…we are God’s children…and we remember Jesus saying “Let the little children come to me, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these,” and “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” We are called children of God, called to be saints who are always growing more fully into the likeness of God our parent. 

Children are frail, and children fail and children fall. John is not naïve, he recognizes this, too. Just last week in our reading John said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1:8). So in today’s reading, when he says, “Those who have been born of God do not sin,” I think what John is telling is us not that we are perfect, but that we must make no compromise with evil. As children, we should recognize that we are immature. As children, we should recognize that need to be taught so that we can mature and grow. As children, should recognize that we need to practice and exercise in order to become strong and skilled. We do this maturing—we get our schooling and strength training—by prayer, and by fellowship, and by reading Scripture, and by the Sacraments, and by reaching out to help and welcome and heal those around us—all of them children of God, too.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed (3:2).” We are God’s children now—when people see us, they should exclaim, “Oh my, you’re just the spitting image of your parent!” We are God’s children now—not fully grown, independent adults, but children, children who need help, and who need to work, and need to grow into what we should be, “for what we will be has not yet been revealed.”

You don’t need to pay 23AndMe to tell you about your heritage, your DNA—In today’s Epistle John tells you for free: You are a child of God. In fact, the Common English Bible translates verse 9 as “God’s DNA remains in [you].” My prayer for us this week is that we will be like those Viking-seekers—but instead of trying to justify our anger or our wanderlust through some minute percentage of ancient Norse warrior blood, we will know instead the justifying and sanctifying power of God’s grace in our daily lives. I pray we will know that our heritage—our defining inheritance—our DNA—is found in the blood of a loving Savior who justifies us for nothing less than joining in the salvation and healing of the world. I pray that everyone will see the image of our Parent when they look at us.

"See what love God has given us, that we should be called Children of God; and that is what we are."