You Are Blessed Because God So Loves the World

You Are Blessed Because God So Loves the World

Ephesians 2:1-10, John 3:14-21

We are several weeks into Lent now, a season where we are intentionally twisting the tradition a little bit. While we believe that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, in our traditional worship practices, we assign to Jesus the mind of God, living and acting with godlike knowledge and focus. Several of you have told me it feels awkward to let Jesus be human, and react to the situations of the gospel stories with human understanding.  

So I want to be clear, this is an exercise that is intended to encourage us as representatives of the Christ in our time and place. It is up to us to see the challenges in our life as challenges to the faith we have in the God of love. We are empowering the spiritual soul within us, to react to our own life and times, with the grace we have seen in Jesus. 

The human systems that confronted Jesus, are replicated by the human systems in our time. It is so easy to read the Bible stories as fairy tales, where the immortal Jesus slays dragons and evil unicorns. But Jesus of Nazareth lived in the real world, populated with real people, involved in human systems and communities with distinctions of class, race, power, and money, just like we do. When we let Jesus be human, we also allow the situations he lived in, become human sized too. It is then that Jesus becomes a model for love in action, and not just an action figure engaged in comic book fantasies. 

There is a battle in most religious bodies, that struggles with the imperfections of the world, and the perfection of eternity. As humans we love to simplify our equations, usually reducing difficult issues into an either/or; is it good or is it evil? While there are plenty of scriptures to provide us with guidance, there are still folks who consider themselves holy, and who believe that God is pure and hates the messiness of this mortal life, especially the messiness of others. 

In direct confrontation to this artificial argument comes in the famous John 3:16, “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.” The blessing in this passage is that we cannot in good faith, align ourselves with those who want all of their focus on eternal life. God so loves THIS world, that his love in action demonstrates life lived well. 

This famous passage is lifted out of the long discussion in John’s gospel between Jesus and Nicodemus. From the description provided of Nicodemus, we believe he was a part of the Sanhedrin, the Board of Directors for the Temple in Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin included mostly Sadducees, but also some noted Pharisees.  

The Sadducees were the conservative party, associated with wealthy in the community, and well connected politically to the Temple and to the arrangement between the Romans and the Herodians. The Pharisees, were more idealistic Jews, and distinctively believed in an after life, and the urgent necessity of following the rules. The Sadducees did not believe in life after death - and that made them “sad you see,” which is how I remember which is which. 

Nicodemus only appears in John’s gospel. Where the gospel of Mark defines Jesus as a ‘man of action,’ in John’s gospel, Jesus teaches in long and poetic conversations and sermons. Nicodemus the Pharisee, is presented as inclined towards Jesus, and his message that ties this world to the next through compassionate faith in action. 

In the letter to the Ephesians, which may or may not be an original work of the apostle Paul, claims that we were dead because of our sins, captured in the human cycle of violence and power. The temptations of this flesh and blood world, had overwhelmed our senses and silenced the voice of God within us. It is through the work of God’s grace, made known to us in Jesus Christ, we are able to live and rise above the limited perspective of this world.  

We have talked repeatedly this season about listening for the voice of God. We know that our culturally trained ears can mislead us, trying to interpret what we hear into the artificial categories and organization of the world. We are such good imitators, that our standard practice of protest is to react against power, in a process that mimics the power we protest against. This is how the cycle of violence gets perpetuated. 

In Jesus the Christ, we see life as usual - interrupted. Jesus does not fight fire with fire. Jesus does not dream of armies and direct conflict. This is not an easy transition for us, it is a little outside of the range of our experience. We know the words about non-violent protests. We have read about Mahatma Gandhi, demonstrating against the violent oppressive colonial occupation of India by the British. 

We know how Gandhi’s non-violent protest model was promoted by Martin Luther King, Jr., even if it was hard for the wider community to fully embrace. The call to non-violence necessarily includes teaching about the true meaning of strength and power. We are so programmed to imitate each other, it is difficult to even consider strength as a different response than fighting fire with fire.

The celebration of God with us is focused on a God who knows how hard it is for humans to seek values that are other than the typical motivation of the world. God so loved the world that through Jesus Christ we are offered a model of living to a different standard. 

Still, for centuries we have tried to domesticate and normalize the life and teaching of Jesus. Even the verses of John 3:16 are reduced to an infant formula, it is enough to believe IN Jesus, not have the faith of Jesus in the God of creation, and to live LIKE Jesus. We try to make it easy for ourselves, and make belief the test of faith.  

Jesus asked us to follow him. Nowhere does it say Jesus asked us to worship him. This very passage in closing his conversation at verse 21 resolves with the words, “But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” 

True faith is love in action. During the high seasons of the church year, we get a sampling of the strongest passages of the gospel of John, since the church does not give John his own year in the Revised Common Lectionary. While this year is the year of Mark, who displays Jesus as ‘the man of action.’ Today the passage from John - that so often gets cut off to say believing in Jesus is enough, is exposed. This passage does not  summarize the gospel, a better summary when we say “Love God and Neighbor.” If you believe in Jesus, then you will follow him and do what he does. 

Nicodemus is like many of your friends. He is a good man who loves what is good and what makes the world around him better. The good news about Jesus the Christ intrigues him, and Jesus makes him welcome. Jesus does not put pressure on him, but invites him to consider an option to the rigid form of religion the Pharisees created in the effort to be faithful. Jesus avoids the common error of insulting the good, because it is not perfect. 

This conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus -seen as a single piece - is a model of invitation to a life marked by doing what is right and true. It is not a test, but an invitation. Here Jesus is inviting a man, who already is faithful to God, and already concerned for what is faithful, to experience the freedom of God’s good love. 

When we do church right, not only do people feel the welcome of God’s love, but they are inspired to touch the world with that love. Not only do we encourage each other with the goodness of Jesus, but we are compelled to share that good news. Not only do we do good things for each other, but we do good things in the light of the community, so that the community might clearly see that the truth of God is in those deeds.