church "High Point" NC small friendly family

LENT 2

March 20, 2011

(Genesis 12:1-4 5-17 & 3:1-7; Ps. 32; Romans 5:12-19; Mathew 4:3-11)

the Rev. Ken Kroohs

St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church

High Point, NC 27262

the Rev. Ken Kroohs

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life.

A familiar passage. One aspect I will not spend time on is the question of whether this is a statement of exclusivity or not. Whether the word “ONLY” is assumed. Does Jesus say ONLY Christians may have eternal life. Does this teach that the ethical atheist, agnostic, Moslem or Hindu are left out?

I will not spend a lot of time on that for a couple reasons. First, it takes more time than I have! Second, my primary conclusion is appreciation that such judgment is God’s job – not mine. That said, if pushed, I will tell you that my strong suspicion — with deep respect for those who disagree — my strong suspicion is that the ethical non-Christians have the opportunity for eternal life. If you wish to discuss that please let me know and we will find time to chat.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. I am struck by how the number of “John 3:16" signs at football games and on telephone poles seems to have dropped. Maybe, an optimistic conclusion, but maybe people who posted such signs discovered that changing the world takes more than a black marker and a piece of torn cardboard. Again, I can respect their intentions without believing in their tactics.

When we ask the question about salvation ... or eternal life ... or however we wish to phrase it we discover two very different approaches. I will use extreme, exaggerated examples not out of disrespect but simply to illustrate the differences.

One approach is the faith ... or maybe a better word would be belief approach. For God gave his only begotten son so that anyone who believes in him shall have eternal life. .... This approach focuses on the belief in Jesus. An extreme example was provided by a man I spoke with several years ago. He came in and immediately told me the story of his salvation ---- he told me the restaurant he was in, the table, the other three men who were with him, the time of day, and everything else including the exact words of the prayer he prayed which saved his soul for all time.

Or so he believed. You see this man came to talk to me at the request of his family. He was abusing his wife, stealing from his in-laws, doing drugs, and rumor had it ... dealing drugs at a middle school. Yet his salvation was assured – he believed.

The other extreme actually was described by my mother. She was Roman Catholic and I suspect considered herself Roman Catholic even after her funeral service in a Methodist Church! We lived in an area very similar to High Point but never owned a car. So we went to the church you could walk to: Dutch Reform, briefly Lutheran, Congregational, UCC, and after they moved they went Methodist.

Anyway, I do not remember the context of the conversation but I remember her telling me about a “first Friday” tradition ... that if you attended mass every first Friday of a month you would achieve eternal life.

That extreme example, which was never Roman Catholic church teaching, is an example of “works righteousness”. In contrast to the belief approach, this approach assumes you build up points by specific actions and if you get enough points, you are saved.

I have deliberately exaggerated these examples but not by much. Notice that the belief approach does not consider your actions, and the works approach does not consider your belief. Neither is what Jesus spoke about. So let’s look at what Jesus actually was saying in the third chapter of John.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night ... apparently so the other Jewish leaders did not know he was changing sides. Nicodemus immediately agrees that Jesus has come from God BECAUSE of the works Jesus has done. Over and over again Jesus made it clear He did the various miracles so people would believe He came from God and Nicodemus so believed.

Nicodemus does not ask a question but Jesus teaches anyway by saying a person must be “born from above”. Jesus tells Nicodemus to quit being a literalist. He does not mean a physical new birth, but a spiritual birth.

That said, let’s not minimize the “birth” image. Clearly Jesus is speaking about beginning again .... a complete change in our lives. That we are to reject the life of the world around us and embrace a life with Jesus.

The next few verses can be understood a couple ways. I have grown to believe that Jesus is not criticizing or insulting Nicodemus but simply stating a fact. If you cannot understand what I say about earthly things, how can you understand about spiritual things ... about God.?

In other words, it is important to believe in Jesus BECAUSE it is not possible for us to fully understand God. In other words, God is so much greater than we are that we will have to accept the mystery of God’s majesty .... and God’s mercy.

BUT that does not mean we cannot understand what God wants from us. It does not mean we cannot understand that what God wants is what is best for us.

So let’s consider exactly what happened that day. Nicodemus came to Jesus to ask about salvation – eternal life. Since he came at night, I suspect Nicodemus was not trying to trick Jesus in some way as other Pharisees had done. Rather Nicodemus was asking a honest question. Nicodemus had reached the point in his life where he wanted a closer relationship with God. He wanted a closer relationship with God but did not know how to accomplish that. He had studied and read, and probably prayed by himself. But now he knew he needed something more — something more direct. Something that took more than being alone.

And so he asked Jesus. Jesus tells him ... this deeply religious leader of the church .... that he has to start all over.

In many ways that is itself a confusing statement. No only can we not start all over physically but even in a more general sense we cannot start all over. We cannot just erase all our experiences, our personal history, our families. All of that comes with us however we move into the future.

So I suspect the important part is the focus on the spirit. OK — this may be a bit of a reach but it feels right to me. If we take the part about believing in Jesus — thereby believing in God, and link it to the statement about being born of water and the spirit, and remembering Jesus’ comments about not understanding ----- I think we do get to a teaching that believing in God DESPITE our inability to fully understand intellectually. Not to ignore or minimize intellectual understanding but to recognize that intellectual understanding does have limits and it is when we reach our intellectual limits we must turn to belief.

We do just that all the time. ..... Do you really understand intellectually how an airplane flies? Or can you intellectually explain how electrons are organized in an atomic plant so your light bulb comes on? Or ..... can you intellectually explain how your brain works when it considers these very questions? ...... All the time we take our intellectual understanding as far as it will go and then simply act out of belief. ...... So it should be with God.

OK .... if we accept that, then how do we take Nicodemus’ question a few steps further and ask how it affects our lives. How do we live out the “born again” instruction?

Although this particular teaching does not stress this point, I do think living out the “being born again” instruction has a lot to do with the community we are part of. Everyone knows that our actions, our lives are influenced by the people around us. If we spend time with people who party hardy, we may not party as hardy as they do — but more than we would otherwise. If we spend time with people who exercise we are more likely to exercise. The influences of other people are part of who we are.

So being in a community that is close to the one we would want as a “born again” person, is important. Knowing that community will not be perfect, will have lots of flaws is especially important because otherwise our disappointment can drive us away.

Part of being in that community and seeing the flaws is knowing that our desire to start over, to be “born again” is not going to be realized in one moment. We will fail. We too will not be perfect. A good community will help us start over on a regular basis! It is not a one time thing.

Next is to realize that starting over ... being born again ... being in touch with the spirit of God will affect all aspects of our lives. It is not about one hour some Sunday mornings. It is about 24/7 ----- again understanding that we will fail at least as often as we succeed.

Nicodemus was impressed with the things Jesus had done ... healing the sick, feeding the hungry, touching the lonely. In summary, Nicodemus had been impressed with the things Jesus had done to make a better world.

Being in closer touch with God will first of all change us, but the change in us with change the world. Probably in relatively small ways – but it will change the world. The change in us may mean a few more hungry people are fed. Or a lonely person is visited. Or a homeless person gets shelter. Small things ...... EXCEPT if you are the hungry, lonely, homeless person. If you are the hungry, lonely, homeless person then the world has been changed in an amazing and dramatic way! To us it may seem small but to the recipient, it is huge.

I don’t mean to be disparaging of people who post cardboard signs saying “John 3:16" — I assume their intentions are good. And who knows. Someone just might read the sign, go home and find a Bible, and change their lives because of that sign. Maybe. But I can say with certainty that the world is better when a hungry person is fed.

There is another part of this teaching I don’t want to miss. John 3:16 is important but John 3:17 may be more important. 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.

One of the reasons I said I strongly suspect the ethical non-Christian can achieve eternal life is because John 3:17 stresses the saving of the world. True, it can be read as a statement of Christian exclusivity – but I don’t think so.

You see, I suspect the phrase “the world may be saved through him” has a couple different layers of meaning. The layer we focus on is the forgiveness of sins. That through Jesus our sins are forgiven. True and good.

But a second layer could be through the actions taught and inspired by him. That our world will be saved ... made better because people do the things Jesus told us to do. That if we start over, focusing on the spirit of God, in community with other like minded people ... if we start over as often as necessary ... this world will be better.

I can find no intellectual challenge to that conclusion.