Fathers who have known God from the beginning
Those brought up without pretentious designs, fakery, & do not first love the world
The young have new passions and are excited when the Spirit fills them. Their primary task is conquering the misdirections of the Evil One. This is the time to win this battle. It’s much harder if youth are poorly formed as adolescents and struggle to become God-fearing and holy men and women later in life.
The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas
1 John 2:12-17
Luke 2:36-40
John tells us we need to separate the love of the world, or the things of the world, from the love of God. It’s not a startling claim, but it does need some details, which John provides.
He separates the love of the world from the love of the Father, saying that if we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. Let’s think about what it means — to love the world.
John is precise. He cites sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life. These things are not from the Father. While these are obviously distractions from God and drive us toward immortality, the point John makes centers on their temporary nature. The things of the world — what he calls enticements — are passing away.
Focus on the world, and you get endorphin jolts, caffeine kicks, and a host of fading pleasure highs. Yet, whoever does the will of God remains forever. The world can’t offer anything but temporary pleasures.
The definition of pretentious is very telling, an excellent word used by the English translators of the NAB. Newer versions translate the Greek to “pride.” That’s a good word, too, but pretentious has more meat on it.
Pretentious means claiming, or behaving as if one is important or deserving of merit when such is not the case. Pretentious, by the way, is an adjective, and it’s not even a strong enough word to merit being called a noun. The noun is pretend, unfounded, or false. That’s so much deeper than mere pride, which focuses upon riches, honors, or pleasures.
To claim a greater excellence or importance than the truth warrants is to be pretentious, lifting our chins with faked distinction. To lay claim to more than is one’s own. That’s a fairly horrendous thought, something we laugh about when a child says it. “That’s mine,” a child would say. “You can’t have that.” “You don’t own me.”
John begins by saying, “I am writing to you children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name’s sake.” He then writes to the fathers, because they’ve known God from the beginning. And he spoke, then, to the young men, “because ye have conquered the Evil One.”
He repeats a message, then, to all three. So interesting. The children, because they know the Father. To the fathers, again, since they’ve known him since the beginning. And to the young men, encouraging them because they are strong and the word of God remains in them. They have conquered that Evil dude.
Commentators say that John recognizes the strength of youth as distinct from that of children and their fathers. Young men are envigorated, energized. We see that in sports. The young are the champions. John ties their youthful strength to the Holy Spirit. We see that in the youth movements, too. The young have new passions and are excited when the Spirit fills them. Their primary task is conquering the misdirections of the Evil One. I like how John places this essential growth path upon the young. This is the time to win this battle. It’s much harder if youth are poorly formed as adolescents and struggle to become God-fearing and holy men and women later in life.
Children are challenged in everything. They have to deal with making mistakes. They’re fragile if their fathers and mothers berate them for not knowing the right way to go. God forgives them, even if their parents do not. He tells them they can know the Father.
We know this because John says the fathers have known God from the beginning. It begins as a child, grows in the young, and remains in the adult. If they don’t follow this path, a pretentious life may fill that void.
So how does this fit into the gospel, which is about the prophetess, Anna? Luke slides by that word rather quickly — the prophetess Anna. I think of the women in our church. How many of them are prophetesses? How many of them are fortelling, whether they’re talking to an individual or to a group? We can identify true prophecy, I think, by the lack of pretentious behavior.
Anna was advanced in years. She was 84. She was a member of the rather unfamous tribe of Asher, the eighth son of Jacob, so one of the ten tribes. Asher appears to have been, throughout its history, fairly disconnected from the other tribes of Israel. Together with Reuben and Gad, Asher is one of the only tribes of which no person has ever been identified by name after the conquest, when the Hebrew nation was taken to Babylon. Asher and Gad are the only tribes not mentioned in the list of heads of tribes. This Asher connection harkens to God’s continual use of the lesser people, the poor, and those set aside.
John‘s letter speaks specifically to men. It’s interesting how the lectionary authors match this gospel about a woman. Anna was married and widowed after only seven years. She lived in the temple, fasting and praying. She basically lived there. A mix of legend and partially approved apparitions positions Anna as Mary's teacher, who also lived at the Temple. She already knew both Mary and Joseph when they visited the Temple.
Anna's entire life was a setup to announce the child Jesus when he was brought to the temple. She correctly grasped that purpose, giving thanks to God and speaking about the child, telling everyone who had been awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem, that here he is.
The parents, Mary and Joseph, had fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law of the Lord. They sacrificed doves, what they could afford, and they brought their child to the temple for the circumcision. All this to proclaim their love of God. When they had done that, they returned to Galilee to their home town of Nazareth, and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.
They had come into the city of Jerusalem, and they weren’t going back to Bethlehem, where the children were killed in Jesus‘s name. Instead, they went to the town of Nazareth, where he grew up. Jesus became strong, filled with wisdom in the Father's favor. The Holy Spirit was upon him. This is a summary of John’s messaging in his letter. A non-pretentious upbringing, exhibiting “whoever does the will of God remains forever.”
We’re not sure about the timeline of Bethlem, Egypt, and Nazareth from this scripture reading. But the connection between the first letter of John, speaking about growing in knowledge of the Father, does have a special meaning. We have known the Father since childhood. The devil challenges us in the extreme during our adolescence. And in our adulthood, we have a history of relationships with the one who made us, the one who lives in our hearts, and the one who joined us as human beings.