1 John 3:1-7
How many friends do you have on Facebook? Facebook sets a limit at 5000. We all know of people who are out to collect as many friends as possible.
Robin Dunbar, a professor at the University of Oxford said the ideal limit on friends is actually 150. More than that and we limited humans simply can’t keep track. If you have more than 150 friends, your relationships and meaningful contacts will start to suffer—eventually your number of friends will end up to be about 150 people. We seemed to be wired to maintain a certain number of meaningful relationships at any one time.
Dunbar based his research on Bill Gore, the founder of Gore-Tex, the company that makes hiking boots and lots of weather-protective jackets like the ones we have on. Gore started his company in 1958 producing quality products for outdoor enthusiasts. And when his company grew, his family-like work environment evolved into a large manufacturing company with close to 200 people. When Gore walked around his large factory, he discovered that there were many people who didn’t know his name. He felt disconnected with them and dreamt of creating a different kind of work environment.
Instead of enlarging the workplace to allow more employees, Gore capped the number of workers who could be hired in any one place at 150. Gore discovered that everything ran smoother when people knew each other. The employees felt as though they had a personal stake in what happened at the factory. I believe this is the reason why we have 3 full-time pastors each serving one of the congregations with about 150 people.
God’s Number
The good news today is that unlike Dunbar’s 150 number, God’s number is limitless. There is no limit on the number of children in the family of God. There’s no limit in God’s love for all the people.
The Apostle John says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God” (3:1). Then he goes on to say something to the effect of, “Yet that is precisely what we are—children of God!” God does not place a cap on how many people can come into God’s presence. Gore-Tex caps at 150. Facebook caps at 5000. God doesn’t have a cap. We may stumble, choose a path that is crooked than straight and narrow or at times be deeply disappointing to God. But when we search for God and call on God for forgiveness and new life, God’s door is open. God welcomes us back as his children.
Children of God
When we are the children of God, the world will not know us or understand us until Christ is revealed in his return. What makes the children of God different from the rest of the world is the love of God. We are at odd with the world that prides individualism when we belong to the community, the Body of Christ. In a society that finds personal identity through social networking, we find our true name in baptism and in following Christ. The source of our oddness is the love of God that makes us into God’s children. By God’s love, we are no longer strangers, orphans lost in the cosmos, without hope or direction except for our own imagination and self-rescue. We are loved, claimed, and redefined as nothing less than God’s children.
By sheer love, we are adopted out of the social system of the world and into the family of God. We still live here, usually in a home that looks ordinary. Like everyone else, we do our work, pay our taxes last week, support our neighborhood, and care for the common life. But unlike everyone else, our heart’s true home is in a different time and place.
In some ways, our annual trip to Yosemite is a reflection of being the children of God. We help each other prepare the meals for all to enjoy. The world says that if you can afford it, eat at the Ahwanee. We eat together after we have said grace. The world says every person for himself or herself. We meet new friends every time we are together. The world says don’t trust strangers.
John tells us that the love of God makes us nothing less than the children of God. We do not always act that way or think that way. We do not look like God’s children—not yet, at least. But the truth comes before the appearance. We are God’s children now because God has claimed us for that relationship. Never mind that we do not yet appear to be God’s children. Never mind that we have more changes to undergo. As God’s children, we do not appear until Jesus appears. When he comes, we become visible, radiating outwardly the truth that till then is hidden. Only then are we fully, purely, and completely like Christ.
Love without Limits
If the Scriptures say that God loves without limits then we need to take that blessing on faith. The challenge as beloved children of God is to also view every person that we encounter along life’s paths as another brother or sister in Christ.
God’s family is indeed that large—there’s room for everyone at the table. When we hear visitors at Yosemite who are speaking another language different from ours or people in a car with an out of state license plate or even someone who may have cut in front of you at the cafeteria, they are all children of God. We are called to treat each other with the respect that God first offers to us.
We don’t get to say—I’ve done my part; I’ve cared for all the people that I can care about today. I have reached my limit. There’s no Dunbar’s number on caring. What God asks of us is to receive this love so that we can share it as Jesus does. When we say that we are the children of God, members of the Body of Christ, we are saying that we wish to follow Jesus, to serve Jesus and to live as Jesus did. What Jesus did was to offer love. We are asked to love as freely as Jesus did.
Let us pray.
Thank you, O God for loving all of us and the whole world and making us your very own children. Teach us to love others as Jesus Christ loved so that others would also received grace, mercy and forgiveness from you. May our experience of being in your beautiful world like Yosemite remind us of your glory and majesty. In Christ, we pray. Amen.