Richard Davenport

April 28, 2024 – Fifth Sunday of Easter

1 John 4:1-11

                In medieval days, when you went to school for a classical education, one of the subjects you studied was rhetoric. Rhetoric is the study of argumentation, not arguing like two people yelling at each other.  Rather, the more formal and structured system of 1 or more people trying to persuade either each other or outside strangers of their point of view.  You don’t have to study rhetoric to present an argument, after all, we do that all the time, but if you want to have a sense of how best to do it, the kinds of things to do or not to do, then studying rhetoric is a good idea. 

                One of the things you look at is how to appeal to people.  Do I win you over by playing to your good moral character?  “This is the way to go because it is what noble and righteous people do.”  If you are concerned about doing the right thing, then this sort of argument might persuade you.  The Bible speaks this way in many places.  The book of Proverbs, for instance, is full of aphorisms along these lines.  But not everyone is swayed by this sort of thing.

                I could also try and persuade you using logic. If I lay out a well reasoned position, “This thing logically leads to this thing, and then that thing logically leads to the thing after that,” that may make sense to you.  If I can bring you along and show you how each piece follows, one after the other, I might be able to get you to accept the conclusion I’m drawing. 

                One final example is authority.  What is the source?  If you’re a fan of physics and I’m trying to convince you that light works a certain way, I might appeal to Albert Einstein.  If he says it works that way, you might assume he knows what he’s talking about and accept what I’m trying to tell you.

                There are many more nuances to rhetoric and I won’t run you through the whole list.  People spend their whole lives studying all of the different ways to approach the topic.  St. John’s letter today deals with rhetoric.  Really, his whole letter is one long argument.  He is laying out his appeal, what he wants his readers to do.  In brief, he wants his readers to be children of God so they can be in fellowship with God and with the rest of the church. He takes some time explaining what exactly that means throughout his letter.

                That’s an important point.  Most books of the Bible are historical narratives, they’re telling the story.  Here it’s a little different.  He wants his readers to do something, but, in order to get them to do that, he has to convince them it’s what they should do.  The section we have for today isn’t so much about what he wants them to do, as it is why they should do it. 

                He’s giving us a comparison.  There’s God on one hand and the world on the other. John wants you to listen to him and not the world.  That seems pretty straightforward.  As readers of John’s letter here, we’re predisposed to accept what John has to say, since it’s part of the Bible.  But why? Why do we listen to what John has to say, or to the Bible as a whole?  Some of the stuff in it is difficult to make any sense of, the wild visions in Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, for instance.  A lot of other stuff is easy to understand, but hard to fathom, so many of the miracles described in the Bible are hard to wrap our minds around.  What is it that draws you to the Bible?  What makes you listen to it?

                I can ask the same sort of question about anything else.  These days, many will say your lifestyle is what it’s all about.  You can choose what you do, you can choose who you are. Whatever kind of relationship you want, who you want to be attracted to, you can choose it all! 

                Why would I be interested in any of that? Well, you want to be happy, don’t you? How can you be happy if you’re living a lie?  How can you be happy if you aren’t living in a way that’s true to you?  You have to make your own and don’t let anyone tell you how you should live it.

                Does that appeal to you?  Rhetorically speaking, that might be an appeal to emotion. Presumably everyone wants to be happy, so if I convince you that you’ll be happy by doing this, then you’ll go along with my suggestions.  Maybe I’ll convince you that you aren’t really attracted to the people you thought you were attracted to.  Maybe I’ll convince you that you aren’t really a woman or a man, like you might have thought.  Maybe I’ll convince you that the relationships between men and women that everyone thought were stable and normal in generations past are really outmoded and restrictive.  Free yourself from all of that nonsense and you’ll be happy.

                Maybe you listen and are persuaded by that sort of thing.  Whether you are or you aren’t, I have the same question for you, “Why?”  Perhaps you think you’re already happy enough and don’t need to make major changes like this.  Ok, fair enough.  But, for all of you out there who are looking for a little more happiness in their lives, why not?

                We spend a lot of time hearing all sorts of arguments.  That’s really all advertising is, but arguments and appeals take many forms. People everywhere want to tell you this idea or that.  This will make you happy.  This will make you rich.  This will make your life fulfilling.  This is the right thing.  This is the wrong thing.  Who do you listen to?  How do you sort it all out?

                Much of our lives is spent simply accepting what people tell us without spending much time at all evaluating whether what they say makes any sense, whether what they say will actually do it, whether what they are offering is something you really do want.  You’re probably wise enough to avoid sleezy looking guys standing on street corner selling heroin, but there are so many other things we accept without a second thought, no matter how destructive they end up being to ourselves or to those around us.

                Young men going off to college are told that if they want to be cool and have friends they need to start drinking heavily and they end up alcoholics.  Young ladies are told if they want anyone to like them they need to look like supermodels and they end up with eating disorders.

                Many times God calls people to account for a lack of action, watching my neighbor go hungry, failing to proclaim the Gospel, failing to forgive.  These are all serious problems, since they are all, at their source, a lack of love, love that has come to me from God and is meant to go through me to the world. Here it is not a lack of action, but a lack of thinking.  We don’t take the time to even ask basic questions about programs, ideas, or organizations that purport to change our whole life.  Why do I trust what this person says?  Does it make sense?  Is this even what I want?  Does this fit with what I know of myself and the world?

                St. John makes an appeal to authority.  He argues that God is the one who created you and that he loves you as a perfect Father loves his children.  He says that there are many different paths to salvation, eternal life, spiritual fulfillment, to love.  But only one will actually get you there.  The Creator made all there is and knows how perfect life and perfect love can be yours.  St. John argues that God’s voice is the one you should listen to, because he is the only one who actually knows.

                I would guess that St. John’s argument is one you find persuasive.  God created the world.  God created you.  Sin brought death into the world and the Father sent his Son into the world to undo that sin, bringing life instead of death.  I assume you’re here today because what John and others have said in the Bible fits, it makes sense, it explains things in a way other ideas can’t. His words about God, about love, about salvation, all fit.  You’ve seen sin in the world, sin in yourself.  You’ve seen how, despite your best efforts, you still fail at being good and perfection is impossibly out of reach.  You’ve seen how, no matter how safe anyone tries to be, how healthy they try to live, death still comes for everyone.

                God offers an answer to all of that.  It isn’t just principles for good living and self improvement, as you might find with Buddhism or other religions or philosophies.  God shows you directly.  He shows you a love that goes beyond sin and evil.  He shows you a life that goes beyond death.  He shows you something no one and no thing in the world can give, and he offers it to you freely.  To be the recipient of that gift is to receive everything the world is unable to offer.  It is to receive the love of a perfect Father and everything that goes with it.

                You have already received all of this.  It’s already yours.  Through the promise he makes in his word, through the work of the Spirit in baptism, through the blood of Christ in communion all of this is yours, love, salvation, life, all of this and more.  John warns that, though you already have all of this, there are many out there who would tempt you to throw it all away.  However good and noble they sound, they all demand that you do something you cannot do.  They all require you to somehow achieve perfection.  None of them really make a lot of sense, but you only see that when you take the time to really listen to what they have to say, when you hear how they’re appealing to you, the emotions, the authority, the logic.  Are any of these things worth your trust?

                John tells you to test it all.  Do any of them have the track record God does?  Do any of them speak with the authority God does? Do any of them actually deliver on what they promise like God does?  Don’t be caught up in religions and ideologies that promise something only to rob you of it in the end.  Test everything against the one thing that never fails, the love of God that comes to you in Christ Jesus.