“For God So Loved”
John 3:14-21
March 18, 2012/Fourth Sunday in Lent
“He’s got the
whole world in his hands.
He’s got the
whole wide world in his hands.
He’s got the
whole world in his hands.
He’s got the
whole world in his hands.”
This
was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid.
We sang it in Sunday School and we sang it in Vacation Bible
School. I think we even added hand
motions to it. I was never one to be shy
when it came to singing so I just sang it at the top of my lungs whenever the
song would roll around.
It’s
an uplifting song, which is probably why I liked it so much. But I also distinctly remember liking the
sentiment of the song when I was a child.
I liked the idea of God holding the whole world in his hands. When I was a child I got a picture in my head
of God as a great big person, with large and capable hands, holding onto the
earth. I still see that picture, even
today. As a child that image made me feel
safe and secure. As an adult, it gives
me hope.
But
either as a child or as an adult, the idea that God holds the world, all the
people, all of creation in his hands, is a positive and inspiring thought. So it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why
I chose this as a way to talk about our passage from John, the third chapter,
verses 14 through 21.
More
specifically, John 3:16. This is
probably the most famous verse of scripture.
It’s known to believers and unbelievers alike. We see it in the most unlikely of places …
like sporting events. There always seems
to be some guy with a homemade banner proclaiming John 3:16 at every major
sports contest I watch.
“"For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
For
God so loved the world. Verse 17 further
explicates the idea of God’s love. "Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him.”
It’s
about love. For God so loved the
world. The Son is sent into the world
not for punishment, not so the world could be condemned, but for love. For God so LOVED the world. This seems so
simple and straightforward, I should just stop now. We can finish up worship and all get to lunch
before the Baptists.
Except
for the reality that nothing in John’s gospel is fully straightforward or
simple. John’s gospel contains layers of
meaning. This is the only time in John’s
gospel when the world, or kosmos in
Greek, is used in a positive way. All of
the other references to the world are negative.
John speaks of the world as darkness.
It is enmity and brokenness. It
is separation from God. It is that which
works against God’s purposes in the world.
Yet this kosmos that is negative and dark and broken is also the same
kosmos that God loves enough to send his Son, the incarnate Word into.
God
loves the world, but this is also scandalous.
Surely if the world is as broken as John implies throughout his gospel,
then the world deserves condemnation.
That is what should happen. But
the impulse for God is love. The
motivation for God is love. It isn’t
condemnation. It isn’t for death, but
for life. For God so loved the world
that the world was destined for life, not death.
Claiming
this, claiming the love of God for the world, does not mean that we can gloss
over the verses that follow.
“18 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. 19 And
this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”
There
is condemnation, but as one scholar wrote, it is a passive condemnation. God is not actively seeking to condemn the
world. Instead condemnation comes from
our own inability to move into the light.
It comes from our own resistance, reluctance or just plain stubbornness
to claim the Light of God.
David
Lose wrote about this passage saying that we have to choose which side of the
coin is predominant in our thinking and in our faith. Love or Judgment? Are we more concerned about what it means
that God loves us enough to give us his Son or about the judgment that comes if
we don’t accept that love and the light it brings?
And
it is not that the two are completely separate concepts. Both are informed by the other. But it is one thing to think that the reason
God sent Jesus into the world to bring love and because of love. It is another to believe that the ultimate
reason for the incarnation is punitive.
I
take a stand on the side of love. God
sent the Son into the world for love.
Yet as I’ve said in other sermons and will most likely say again, this
kind of love is not merely sentiment.
This kind of love is a verb. Love
is embodied and enacted. Certainly
Jesus’ death on the cross is testament to the fact that the love that motivated
God was not just warm and fuzzy, sweetness and happiness.
The
love God had and has for the world demands a response of love from us as well. How do we love? Who do we love?
I
attended a conference on Stewardship in North Carolina this past week. It was a positive experience for the most
part. I learned a lot, and came away
with new ideas and inspiration for stewardship in my own life and in the life
of our congregation. However, I was
disturbed by the fact that so much of the conference seemed to be centered
solely on fundraising. I do not question
the fact that money is a fundamental part of stewardship and something that
must be discussed honestly and forthrightly.
But I also understand stewardship to be about all of life. It is how we spend our money, how we interact
with our environment, how we live in relationship with each other and with
creation.
So
I was disturbed that one of my workshops, entitled “Creating a Culture of
Generosity in Your Church,” was more about fundraising than about the full
spirit of generosity. But at our worship
service on Tuesday night, I was renewed in my understanding of generosity.
Reverend
Susan Andrews, former moderator of our denomination’s General Assembly, and
Executive Presbyter of the Hudson Valley Presbytery in New York State was our
preacher that evening. She moved through
her sermon giving examples of generosity, but it was the last illustration that
I found most moving.
A
few weeks before the conference, she and other presbytery representatives were
invited to a meeting by the stated clerk of a small church in her
presbytery. The congregation has only
about 20 active members, and Jerry, the stated clerk, is in his 70’s and is one
of the youngsters. Like so many of other
congregations in our denomination, like us, they are a small membership that
resides in a large church building. The
thing about this congregation is that they have plenty of money to continue
without change for a few more years. The
question has been, though, is that what they want? That’s why this meeting that Reverend Andrews
described was called. Not only was Jerry
there along with the congregation’s part-time pastor, Andrews and the
presbytery reps, another minister had also been invited. The other minister was the pastor of a
vibrant, growing, Pentecostal, Hispanic congregation. Its members come from the growing Latino
community in the Hudson Valley. Many of
their families are low income and, yes, undocumented workers are part of the
mix as well.
The
reason the other minister was invited to attend is because Jerry and the rest
of the congregation realize that holding onto a building for the building’s sake
is not what they are called to do. Their
building is too big for their needs, while this other church needs something
much larger to fill their needs. So
Jerry, speaking for the entire congregation, expressed their desire to give
their church to this Pentecostal church.
They
don’t want to sell it, lease it or rent it.
They want to give it. Their congregation will still be able to have
a small place in the building. They will
use it for worship on Sunday mornings at 9, finished in plenty of time before
the dominant congregation begins their own worship service. And that will remain that way until the
congregation comes to the place when they ask the presbytery to dissolve their
congregation.
The
current congregation knows, as Andrews put it, that the church will
change. Their sanctuary will be filled
with instruments and screens and things it never had before. Aromas of exotic foods will emanate from the
kitchen.
But
this is their gift. Their dying
gift. And to symbolize theirs and our fervent
belief that death does not win, but gives rise to new life, they want the first
Sunday for the new congregation to be Easter Sunday. That is the resurrection.
There
are still hoops to jump through. I am
proud Presbyterian, but we are the keepers of the hoops. The presbytery must vote on this. Andrews realizes that this could be hotly
debated. Will the presbytery retain the
ownership of the property? Will they
require the new congregation to become Presbyterian in order to be in the
building? All of that has yet to be
worked out. But the hope is that the
presbytery will hear the conviction of Jerry and the other members and remove
any obstacles that might inhibit their amazing generosity, their amazing
love.
For
God so loved the world. For God so LOVES
the world, that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may
not perish but may have eternal life. The
world is in God’s hands, and they are hands of love. God loves the world, God loves us, so let us
love in return through word and deed.
Let all God’s children say Amen!
