Sermon Text: John 3.16-17 Title: "So Loved the World"

Preached: February 28, 1999

As a baby pastor, way back in Seminary, way back in the early eighties, I grew up in the faith with presuppositions about the Gospel of John: John is sort of nebulous and unclear. John is too easily broken up into proof-texts. John over-emphasizes the Divinity of Jesus to the detriment of the rest of the good news. I came to the conclusion that John is best used in congregations within which I would not be comfortable. Hardcore fundamentalists, I figured, would just love the nebulous language, the powerful God-only Jesus, the heavy pronouncements, and the lack of social action. And, of course, they do love that snappy verse that they can print on poster board and hold up at football games.

As a baby pastor, way back in seminary, way way back in the early eighties, I decided I would avoid preaching from the gospel of John. I especially would avoid preaching from the third chapter of the gospel of John, particularly that John 3.3: "You must be born again;" but especially, especially, really really especially, I would never ever preach a sermon based on John 3.16, the conservative chestnut: "For God so loved the world that..." well, you know.

As a baby pastor, way back in seminary, way way way back in the early eighties I was deluding myself, however. For we must deal with John, no matter how problematic it is. John uses, yes, difficult, nebulous language. John portrays a Jesus who seems totally full of himself. John has little pieces that are quoted all over the place, well out of context, to the point of cultural boredom. John forgets to make any demands upon Christians beyond the relatively ethereal notion that we must believe in Jesus -- a truly light weight notion when compared with the Lukan beatitudes or chapter 12 of Romans.

But John is an important part of our tradition. It has been read as scripture for almost two thousand years. It has informed the lives of many people of faith and shaped, especially, the character of Christianity in America. The gospel of John demands our attention; it will not be ignored. It sits there like a guy in a rainbow colored wig, ready to pop up during the extra point with a sheet of poster board. The gospel of John has become part of who we are; and especially, especially, really really especially, John 3.16.

When we actually sit down and deal with John, fortunately, we discover that there are things there that we never remember hearing; at least not much. So today I want to talk about two verses that we don't hear very much, no matter how often we hear them. John 3.16 and 17. {Read verses 3.16-17} When I was a baby pastor, I used to gloss right past these verses with a "been there/done that" kind of attitude. But now that I'm, oh, say, an adolescent pastor, I know enough to stop for a minute and face down my presuppositions.

I remember that I always feared John because I was afraid it helped perpetuate the exclusive, judgmental, hyper-critical attitudes of the fundamentalists I knew and avoided. Yet, as I learned to actually read and re-read John, I began to realize something. In it's own way, the gospel of John is extremely, almost frighteningly inclusive. God so loved the WORLD...

Currently as we face a society in which a conservative world view, and often a nasty kind of conservative world view, has gained dominance within much of our cultural purview. Our economists are overwhelmingly conservative; our politicians are overly conservative; the press is dangerously conservative; and the religious leaders who gain widespread attention are beyond conservative.

What makes the current conservative worldview truly frightening to me is the dualism it promotes with regard to people in our society. People are -- and try to remember ANY movie you've seen lately -- people are portrayed and seen as either good or bad. When those very popular, very conservative religious leaders talk about "the world," they invariably mean that the world is the bad side. The world is evil, to be hated, to be loathed, to be battled, to be avoided, to be defeated. And anyone who doesn't agree with them is part of that world. We are fortunate, however, for we have the gospel of John; and so we know that God so LOVES the world.

Throughout the years the Church has been at its worst when it has taken the nebulous catch phrases of the gospel of John, along with pieces of poorly interpreted Old Testament text, and used them to judge, criticize and condemn. Throughout the years, the church has been at its best when it has remembered that John 3.17 says: "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

The overwhelming good news of the passage is that the world includes us. Indeed, despite Paul's exhortation, we find ourselves, just about all the time, to be in the world AND of the world. Or as Michael Jackson and friends once declared; we are the world. And so, God loves, even, us. We are included in the love. No matter how imperfect we are in our ability to follow Christ on the path of faith, no matter how easily we place our desires before the love of God, no matter how surprisingly often we not only do harm to others, but intend to do harm to others, no matter... God so loves us, that God's only begotten was given for our sake, not to condemn, but to save.

Yet there are challenges in the passage, as well. Primarily, there is the challenge that we are still in the world. And while God is able to love the world, too often those of the world are fully capable of unbelievable hate. This past week, many people were riveted by the testimony at a trial in Texas, where three white men killed a disabled black man in a terrible, heinous, inhuman way. They chose their method with diabolical intent: to act with deliberate viciousness, to terrorize children, and to demonstrate once more that people with a lighter skin color are still able to inflict upon people of a darker skin color the atrocities of injustice without flinching. God may love the world, but in the world within which we live, people can hate.

The death in Texas once more reminds me that I cannot love as God loves. For I could not love, I do not think, those three poor specimens. I do not believe I could. We lightly say; "Hate the sin but love the sinner," but I fear I could not but hate some particular sinners, and revile, and scorn, and loathe and despise; come up with a word... Which means that I, too, would find myself trying to justify my own hatefulness, my own spitefulness, my own critical judgementalism; I could hear myself saying: "It's okay for me to hate because what they did was so heinous..."

Though we are always called to follow Christ, who is our Way, our Truth and our Life, we find ourselves in circumstances which prevent us. Each time we try to begin loving in the pattern of God, we realize that we still are babies in faith. We can love some of the people, all of the time; we can even, in those mountaintop moments, love all people, for a short while. But we cannot love the world sacrificially and forever. And so, we must read the gospel of John.

Nicodemus, a good and righteous follower of God's laws, a teacher in his own right, comes by night to inquire of Jesus. He knows that Jesus is also a good teacher, and a powerful miracle worker, and he is checking him out. So he asks questions, questions he thinks are straight forward, questions which ought to have easy, or at least understandable answers. Yet he cannot comprehend the answers he gets. Yet one answer he gets resonates with me. For he is told he must be born "from the top," meaning both born from above and born again.

{{The greek word "anothen" is used to mean both "again" and "from above." Later in John, when the evangelist tells of Jesus' garment, how it is woven in one piece from the top, John uses "anothen." In my mind I hear it like a jazz musician asking for a repeat: "Take it from the top!" And so, Jesus tells Nicodemus: You must be born from the top." From the rest of the story we surmise that Nicodemus hears: "You must be born again; but does Jesus really mean: "You must be born from above?"}}

We, sometimes good and righteous followers of God's path, come in the morning to inquire of the Lord. So we bring our questions and get our answers; but they often lead us, again, into confusion. I am fine with God loving me, but how can God love the whole world? I am fine with believing in Christ, but will I ever be able to love like Christ? And perhaps, at that moment, with hateful thoughts toward those who have done wickedly, I realize that I still am a baby pastor, a baby in faith, a baby in following Christ. And once more, I will need to be born again, born from heaven above, if I am ever able to make any progress.

Yet, until we are able to do better, to accept the challenge of loving in the way of Jesus, we live as a babies in faith, growing more with each new re-birth, and we find our re-assurance that, far from seeking to condemn us for our imperfections, Christ is come an emissary of God's love, for the world, for us.