Who Condemns Us?: March 10, 2024

 Year B, Lent 4                                                     John 3:13-21                                                              

            John 3:16 is probably one of the most well known verses in the Bible.  It’s definitely one of the only ones that you will see repeatedly held up in the stands at a professional sports event. That’s not because it’s specific to any professional sport. Over the years it became a defining verse for some Christians.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to share Bible verses with the world. Yet I worry that anytime we remove a verse entirely from its context, we risk misusing it.  This verse has been used as a weapon at times to differentiate between those who are saved and those who are not.  Some Christians use it to make themselves feel better about their own place in this world (and the next).  It gives them permission to judge those who aren’t Christian---or sometimes just not their kind of Christian.

Today you heard part of the context, but not all of it.  For instance, if you just heard what we read this morning, you don’t know who Jesus is talking to. He’s talking to a pharisee named Nicodemus who came to him at night to ask him a question.  Often times in the gospels, when pharisees asked a question, they were trying to trap Jesus, make him provide an answer that would get him in trouble.  This was not the case with Nicodemus. He was genuinely curious (as were many pharisees) about Jesus.  He was more than curious because later in the gospel he became a follower of Jesus, even making the arrangements to bury Jesus.  At this point in the gospel story he was really just trying to figure things out and the questions that he asked, ended up eliciting some powerful statements on Jesus’ part. It shows that asking God questions is a helpful and fruitful thing to do.

It’s out of this conversation with Nicodemus that comes this iconic verse: “For God so love the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  It’s a lovely verse and very effective in conveying the crux of our faith.  However, it has become a weapon because people have emphasized “not perish but have eternal life.”  In other words, the emphasis has been on, how do we not perish and get to this end goal of eternal life.

When I started reading the Bible, it was often coming from a defensive place for me.  I was around a fair number of Evangelicals in college and I felt like there was way too much emphasis on how to save other people. I would look up the texts they quoted at me and read what came before and after. Sometimes, that helped my cause, sometimes not. When I looked up John 3:16 , I was so excited to read the very next line. It was going to become my new weapon.  Right after this line that turned into a litmus test for salvation Jesus said, “Indeed God didn’t send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” 

I was so excited when I read this, I highlighted and underlined.  Then I read the next line, “Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already; because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” There it went, my verse to counter all the judgement was contradicted in the very next verse. 

Or was it? Notice it doesn’t say who does the condemning or what the condemnation is.  Jesus clearly said in my perfect verse that he didn’t come into this world to condemn the world.  If not Jesus, who is doing the condemning?  Maybe we do the condemning ourselves.  What if we condemn ourselves by not believing that there is a God who loves this crazy world so much that he would risk living and dying as a human just to know us and help us know God?  What if we condemn ourselves by depriving ourselves of the grace that God freely give us?  God doesn’t condemn us.  We do that ourselves. 

            If we are the ones condemning ourselves, there has to be a way to stop.  Because we all condemn ourselves in our own unique ways and for different reasons, then there are different things that we can all do to move away from that which condemns us.  Since we are in church, I am going to tell you one way that applies to all of us—that’s deepening our relationship with God. The self help industry has some great stuff going on, but we have to be careful when we start focusing too much on the self.  Sometimes that makes things harder. Often it’s when we focus outside the self when we can truly free ourselves from condemnation—that means focusing on other people and other parts of the world that might need God’s love.

 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.”  In the past when I have read this verse, I have always interpreted “eternal life” as life after death.  That is the reward for believing in God.  That is what we are being saved for.  In chapter 17 of this same gospel, Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God. 

When we hear the word eternal, we often equate it with immortality.  I am not sure that was what Jesus meant.  Perhaps Jesus wasn’t talking about the quantity of years as much as he was talking about the quality of life.  What if we define eternal life not by a time or even a place, but a relationship?  Eternal life is our relationship with God now and forever.  Eternal life starts now.  It’s not a reward for good behavior.  It’s a relationship. It’s a relationship that makes our life better in the future, but also right now. 

That also means we can’t just ignore the challenges of this world and say, “Well God will fix it all in the next world.” We have to work for change now because this world matters.  It’s the very same one God created. These people on this world matter. They are children of God. Eternal life starts now.  Condemnation can end now. 

We know this because God came to this world not to condemn, but to save. What we as Christians can do is make sure people know that they are not condemned by a God that they cannot see or touch---that God lived and died so that we could know what it is to be loved and to be whole.  Eternal life starts now.  Condemnation ends now.  Salvation is here and it’s been here all along. 

Slightly Alive: March 15, 2021

 Year B, Lent 4                                                           Ephesians 2:1-10                                                                               

             One of my favorite movies is the Princess Bride.  If you have not seen it, you should…now.  I can wait.  Just pause me and come back.  Since you have now all seen it, I don’t need to recap the whole thing.  There is one scene near the end where they were trying to bring the main character (Wesley) back to life.  Two men took Wesley to a man named Miracle Max.  Miracle Max examined the body and proclaimed him “mostly dead.”  The friends asked him what he meant and he replied, “There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive.”

            I was reminded of this quote when I read Ephesians this week.[1]  It starts with, “You were dead through your trespasses and sin in which you once lived…”  It’s unusual to hear, “You were dead…”   There are a few people out there with near death experiences---you might even meet someone who died on the operating table for a minute and lived to tell the story.  But you are never going to find someone with experience being dead.  Yet Paul, was speaking to a group of people.  While he was speaking of spiritual death (rather than physical death), for Paul, it was no less serious.  Spiritual death was like the character in Princess Bride—mostly dead, but still slightly alive.  While being dead through trespasses and sins is serious, there is a part of that person that is slightly alive—and that is the place where God’s breaks in.

            The first four verses of Ephesians are heavy with talk of sin and death, but there is a major shift about half way through our reading for today.  “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…”  God loves us, even when we are spiritually dead, even when we don’t have time for him, even when we have fallen away from him.  Often when I read the New Testament, I am almost envious of these new Christians.  They had an excuse for being spiritually dead in the past.  They may never have heard of Jesus Christ. 

            Knowing that, I imagine that once they did hear about him, it was a complete transformation.  It was a true conversion experience.  And you know, I want that.  I was baptized as an infant.  I was raised in the church with a Christian family. My church never scarred me. And now I have been to two seminaries and served in two wonderful churches.  I have no excuse for being spiritually dead. 

            Despite not having a good excuse, I have to admit, that I have felt that at times. I felt it when I was going through infertility treatments.  I felt it after my miscarriage.  And I have felt it over the past year as I have gazed out on the empty church every week, as I explained rules that I don’t understand, as I yelled prayers for a dying person through an open window because it wasn’t safe to be inside.  I would imagine that many of us have felt it, especially over this last year. 

            Yet God, who is rich in mercy and lavish with his love, makes sure that there is always a part of us that lives in his light.  God doesn’t need a big opening.  Despite the grandeur and greatness of God, it’s amazing that he can work his way into such small places. And when we accept that light and see it for what it is, God expands to fill every dead space within us.  It may not be a conversion experience, but it is no less miraculous. 

            You might wonder, well what must I do? That sounds great. Nothing. You can do absolutely nothing to earn this kind of awe inspiring love. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God…” That is both maddening and liberating.  It’s maddening because we find value in the things we earn.  Even the love we experience from family and friends can be dependent on our action and inaction.  On earth we have been taught to earn love and we have learned that we can lose it as well.  God’s love is different than any we have experienced. It is often compared to the love of a parent for a child, but it’s even greater than that.          We are loved not because of who we are or who we are trying to be, but whose we are.  We are God’s creation---the jewel of God’s creation.  Paul writes, “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works….”  While we cannot earn God’s love with work---we have been created to do good work. 

        Here is where I have to disagree with The Princess Bride. Being slightly alive is far different than mostly dead.  It might not always feel the way at the time, but it is.  Why? Because we are alive in Jesus Christ.  We are alive because of Jesus.  In a time in our world where we are seeing so much death, let us be grateful for the life we have.  “For we are what God has made us” and not only that, we are created to do God’s work, to shine God’s light in the darkest places.  So it’s ok, if you don’t always feel like a super Christian or even a slightly passable Christian.  You might not even feel fully alive.  God still looks at you every minute of every day and says to whoever is listening, “That’s my child and she is going to do wonderful things.” 

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[1] I was actually reminded when I read a commentary on Ephesians that mentioned Princess Bride.  That was just too hard to explain.  I give credit to this commentator for the illustration: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-ephesians-21-10-5

 

March 15, 2015: John 3:14-21

Walking through the Darkness

Year B, Lent 4            

                                                                        

Some of you may have heard of the Netflix original hit called “House of Cards.”  The show centers around a political power couple who are both cunning and at times diabolical.  There was a scene in episode three where the very powerful main character (Frank Underwood) questions himself and the idea of justice.  He goes to the church at night to meet with the bishop. He tells the Bishop “I understand the Old Testament God, whose power was absolute, who ruled through fear. But Jesus?” The Bishop responds, “There's no such thing as absolute power for us, except on the receiving end... It's not your place to choose which version of God you like best…. You serve the Lord, and through Him you serve others. Two rules: Love God, and love each other. When the Bishop leaves, Frank looks at the crucifix and says, “Love. That's what you're selling. Well, I don't buy it.” 

I thought of this scene as I was reading the Gospel for this week.  This reading starts in the middle of a story.  Nicodemos was a Pharisee and the Pharisees had a great deal of power in these times. They were the authorities on the scripture and the law.  Some of them supported Jesus, but many were suspicious.  We see throughout the Gospels that Jesus was fairly critical of them. He was not one to kowtow to those in authority.  Nicodemos was curious and open minded, but also suspicious.  He went to Jesus under the cover of darkness because he did not want others to know that he, a religious authority would have to ask someone like Jesus a theological question.  In the dark, he and Jesus ended up having an enlightening conversation.  

Our reading for today picks up at the very end of the conversation when Jesus told Nicodemus something that would go on to be the most famous quote from the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not parish but have eternal life.”  This has become a bit of a rallying cry for Christians over the years and I am not sure why.  The only thing I can figure out is that it concisely sums up some critical parts of our faith.

What I find mystifying about the popularity of this text is that it renders us, the people of the world, powerless.  Think about it. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.  Whose idea was that?  Which one of us would have made that suggestion had God asked us?  We can’t know because God never asked anyone if it was ok if he sent his son to die for us.  Because if he had asked me, I would have said no thank you.  Thanks, but no thanks.  I would have asked God to go back to the drawing board on that one.  There must be another way to give us eternal life.  There must be a less violent method.  But God didn’t ask us.  He just did it.  And now we have to live with this knowledge that God loves each of us so very much that he sacrificed himself for us.  And there is nothing we can do about it.  In the face of such sacrificial love, we are powerless.

Frank Underwood, the character from House of Cards chose not to believe in such a God.  He decided that if this was the kind of love that Jesus was providing, he would pass.  And while most of us would not say, or possibly even think that, we act like it.  We act as though we have some power over God…that we have any power in this relationship.  But we don’t.  We choose to believe.  We can choose to pray or go to church.  We cannot choose how God loves us or how God shows that love.  One of my favorite writers and theologians, David Lose, said it best when he said, “God loves us; whether we like it or not.” 

No. We cannot determine how God loves us.  We choose how to respond to that love.  We choose whether we will share that love with others.  We choose how we love God in return.  In today’s passage, we do not hear how Nicodemus responded to Jesus.  Unlike some, he did not decide immediately to follow Jesus.  He took some time.  Nicodemus showed up two more times in the Gospel of John.  The 2^nd time, he was there to defend Jesus to his peers.  He did not defend him as the Son of God or Messiah.  He said that Jesus deserved a fair hearing.  Nicodemus defied his peers when he defended Jesus in this way and took a huge risk.  Nicodemus did it in the daytime. 

Nicodemus returned one more time after Jesus was crucified.  He was one of the two people who anointed Jesus after his death. It was Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who put Jesus in the tomb.  Jesus had told him that the Son of Man must be lifted up.  Maybe seeing Jesus being lifted high on the cross was the moment when Nicodemus realized what that love truly meant.  In that moment, he made a decision.  He could run away and hide like so many of Jesus’s disciples or he could choose, choose to participate in God’s radical and relentless love.   He no longer waited for darkness to approach Jesus.  He chose to be a point of light in the darkness.  In some people’s eyes, he was probably a fool, to give up such a powerful post in the Jewish tradition.   He wasn’t giving up power.  He was admitting what was true and real.  The only power we have is a gift from God. The way that Jesus displayed his power was to die in a way that seemed weak.  In doing so, he transformed the world.  He turned everything upside down, much like his mother Mary predicted in her famous speech known as the Magnificat. She said, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”[1]

We all have a choice.  We have a choice that we make every day. We can follow Christ. We can love others and love God. But the choice is not whether or not we allow God to love us.  We are powerless in the face of such love.  It is priceless.  It is not for sale.  God’s love will follow you to the grave and beyond.  The question is, will far you follow him? Holy Week is only a few weeks away.  Holy Week gives us all a tangible way to follow Jesus as he shares a final meal with his disciples, as he washes their feet, as he stands trial for crimes he has not committed, as he dies on a cross, as he is buried and finally as he destroys death and is resurrected.  Come to at least one of our Holy Week services.  Don’t do it because I have asked you.  Do it so you can experience the depth of God’s love.  In order to appreciate the light, you must first walk through the dark.

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[1] Luke 2:52-53