Better Than Winning The Lottery
April 17, 2024
Fr. John Riccardo
Beloved: See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:1-2
Many years ago now some friends of mine adopted a young boy who was maybe nine or ten years old. He had spent most of his life going from orphanage to orphanage in the country where he was born. Like many such children, though the orphanage gave him a roof, a bed and food to eat, it also came with the kinds of things that leave traumatic scars our whole lives long. To say the first decade of his life was brutal would be an understatement.
I remember sitting in my friends’ home the week they were preparing to fly over to pick up their soon to be new son. They were telling me, and some others who had gathered, about having paid a visit to the orphanage and seen the troubling situation he was living in. They were so excited to rescue him from that and to bring him home!
As they were talking to us, I suddenly found myself filled with almost indescribable joy. This kid had absolutely no idea what was about to happen to him. My friends, you see, were a loving couple, were blessed with a great community of friends, had done very well for themselves financially, lived in a beautiful home (they had several in fact), and were going to be able to give this young child access to things he could never have dreamed of. As they continued to talk, I saw in my mind something like a “split screen.” On one side was this boy in his current living situation. He was abandoned, alone, dirt poor, uneducated, and in the eyes of most people without hope for ever changing any of that. On the other side was what he was about to walk into. And he had no idea that he was about to win the lottery!
St. John is trying to help us understand that what has happened to us is even greater than what happened to this young boy.
“See” doesn’t at all capture the tone with which John is writing. It’s more like, “Look!” – as in, “Oh my heavens, would you look at that!” Look at what? At the fact that you and I have been adopted – not by some kind and wealthy family – by God! God – the Creator of the universe! – is now your Father! John is telling us that we have received something utterly unimaginable, beyond description, and not because we deserved or earned it. Much as it was for that young boy, our adoption isn’t a reward for anything we’ve done or haven’t done.
Here’s the problem: I fear many of us have become used to this gift – this unimaginable, unthinkable, magnificent gift, and nothing is worse than getting used to the magnificent.
St. Paul tells us that before we were baptized we were without God and without hope (cf. Eph 2:12). But now, after having been rescued from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, we have moved from the oppressive yoke of a cruel tyrant into the home of a good Father (cf. Col 1:13). And all of this is even more fantastical than that young boy moving from an abusive orphanage into the home of loving parents.
At this midway point of the Easter season, our attention is beginning to turn slowly to the celebration of Pentecost, which will conclude these glorious days. The Holy Spirit dwelling within us does a number of things, but perhaps none is more important than helping us to know that God is our Father and we are his adopted and beloved sons and daughters. This is especially important because so many of us (all of us?) struggle mightily, at least from time to time, with identity. Given this, maybe in addition to this reading from St. John, it might be worth in the week ahead prayerfully lingering with Romans 8:15-17 and Galatians 4:4-7.
Come, Holy Spirit, and convince us of these unspeakable, indescribable realities! Come, Lord and Giver of life and shatter any and all fear and anxiety! Come, kindly Advocate, and help us know who we are and whose we are!
ACTS XXIX Prayer Intentions
April 2024
For the clergy and lay leaders who will be joining us on campus for a Leadership Immersive.
For our Board of Directors meeting.
For our Episcopal Advisory Committee, Board members, benefactors and prayer partners.
For our Rescue Vancouver LIVE Revival planning.
For all those bringing The Rescue Project to their homes and parishes around the world.
For God’s protection upon Fr. John Riccardo, our team and our families.