INTO THE LIGHT Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:15-21 March 18, 2012 Trinity Presbyterian Church Rev. Judith Fulp-Eickstaedt

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 is one of those verses of scripture that rattles around my brain in King James version because I learned it at a young age, sometime before I was 8 years old, when I was still attending Monticello Baptist Church and learning my scripture from the King James Bible. I have a few stand-out memories from my early Christian nurture in that community of faith – old hymns that spring automatically from my lips while I am washing dishes or driving in the car, people who sat with me in the congregation while my parents were singing and leading the choir, my baptism, the day I recited the books of the Bible in front of the congregation, and a few verses of scripture I committed to memory in the King James version, including Psalm 23 and John 3:16.

It is not surprising that John 3:16 is among the earliest verses of scripture I memorized. How many of you memorized this verse of scripture somewhere along the way in Sunday School?

Even if you didn’t learn John 3:16 in Sunday School you have likely come to know this verse because it has become a widespread cultural symbol. The cover of the bulletin today is a reminder that you can encounter this particular verse of scripture in some very random places. Tim Tebow was not the first to use sports as a venue for getting this verse into the public’s consciousness. Long before his face painting, even before the famous rainbow man, you could be sitting in a stadium and there it was, the poster that simply said “John 3:16.” You would be driving along in your car and there it would be on the side of a barn or on a small homemade sign pounded into the ground along the interstate – John 3:16. Recently, you see just the numbers, 3:16. I don’t know if the idea is that everyone just knows what it means or if the idea is that if it is something of a mystery people will go and google 3:16 and find this verse. All I’m saying is that it’s out there. As Bible verses go it is, like Ron Burgandy, a big deal. (1)

So what does it mean, John 3:16? The posters and billboards might lead you to believe that it is self-evident, that simply reading John 3:16 will somehow be all you need to know to understand the Christian faith. But, to be honest, this verse leaves me with more questions than answers.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” So, let me get this straight, “God loved the world so much that God made a way to save only a small portion of the world, the people who heard about Jesus and who believed certain things about Jesus, and that was all it took, just believing the right things and you would be saved.” That’s the way I learned it a long time ago, but I have to say that just doesn’t make sense to me anymore. That reading of John 3:16 has done way more harm than good as far as I can see when it comes to interfaith dialogue or, for that matter, any real sense of what it means to live the Christian life.

And saved from what? The verse seems to say saved from death, at least that’s the way I would read it if I simply looked it up cold. But we all perish. No one escapes death. And what is eternal life? Is it life defined only in terms of life beyond death, in heaven, or is the term eternal life meant to point us to a quality of life, the abundant life Jesus talks about, which is a quality of life that begins in the here and now?

Besides these questions there is the way this verse has been used, more often as a way of defining who is in and who is out than as a proclamation of good news. It is hard to unlearn these exclusionary understandings, just as it is difficult to unremember the King James version of the text. But for the sake of the gospel let’s try to come at it fresh, and in context, and figure out what Jesus and the gospel writer are trying to say. Let’s uncover the good news of John 3:16.

The first thing we need to peel away is our culture’s understanding of what it means to believe. For us, belief is a flat concept = involving the mind but not the heart, engaging the brain but not the feet. We would have a better understanding of the gospel if whenever we saw the word “believe” in the NT we would substitute the words, “follow and trust.” The word translated as belief in this passage and throughout the New Testament is not a mental exercise, it is a way of life, a way of understanding oneself in relationship with the world and God. In the simplest terms it means living in Jesus, allowing Jesus to live in you, living the Jesus life.

Next, we need to look at the context, the verses around John 3:16 that we tend to overlook because they are much less familiar. Listen to John 3:14-15. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” How many of you memorized that verse? Of course, you didn’t, because it refers to a very obscure Old Testament story where God sent snakes as a punishment to the grumbling Hebrews in the wilderness and then had Moses put a bronze snake on a pole so they could look at it and not die from the poisonous bites. Really. You can go look it up.

‘

If you learned any of the context of John 3:16 it was undoubtedly John 3:17 which says, 17“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.” Preachers use this verse all the time, and I have done it myself, to say, “See, John 3:16 isn’t an exclusionary text because the verse right after it says Jesus came to save the world. You have to take these two verses together and then you will see that the message is completely opposite of what you thought.”

But if you read on that gets shot all to pieces because after John 3:17 Jesus goes right on talking in terms that seem to be identifying insiders and outsiders. Listen to the next part, “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.” Again, we are dealing with words that have specific meanings for us. We have to get past our flat understanding of the word belief again and now we have to deal with the word condemned too, which in biblical language has for me the connotation of hell. I bring that to the text because Jesus doesn’t mention hell at all here, and in the gospel of John there is not much mention of heaven or hell. Instead the emphasis is on salvation beginning in the here and now. The emphasis is on abundant life.

So what does condemnation mean in this text? We read on and find out that “this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

20

For all who do

evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.” The light has come into the world, Jesus says, but people keep clinging to the darkness because they are afraid that by coming into the light their sin will be seen by everyone.

With these words the text finally opens up to us something we can grab onto and for dear life. We know this judgment, this condemnation. We know what it is to hide in plain sight because of fear or sin or shame. When I was a little girl listening to those Baptist sermons I was sometimes so afraid, especially when the preacher would pound the pulpit or shout. I was sure God was mad at me because of this lie or that secret and that I would never be good enough for God. Adults harbor those feelings too, sometimes slink into the back pew and then slip out before the benediction because they don’t want to look anyone in the eye or risk letting another person see the regrets, fears, or wounds they carried into church that day.

The church has not always done a good job handling people’s wounds either. I know of times and instances when the stigma of divorce has kept people away from the church, a place where they might have experienced healing but instead experienced rejection or were shamed. I know of people, good faithful people who were afraid to reveal their sexual orientation to members of their congregation for fear that they would be rejected. Many churches have consciously or unconsciously given off the message that we should all come in our “Sunday best” meaning not just what we wear but, more importantly, the parts of ourselves we are willing to reveal to one another.

So we come hiding our wounds, hiding our doubts, hiding shame we have been carrying around for as long as we can remember and mostly hiding the fear that if anyone really knew us they could not possibly love us and that surely God would reject or maybe already has rejected us too. Oh, how we cling to the darkness. And the result is exactly what Jesus said. We condemn ourselves to carrying this festering fear around and it poisons life, poisons our relationships within the community, poisons our relationship with God, just as surely as if a venomous snake had come and wrapped itself around us and sunk its teeth into us.

And now we find ourselves wrestling with what it means that Jesus is “lifted up” for our sake and for the sake of the world. In that obscure, very weird Old Testament story the people are being bitten by poisonous snakes and dying. Moses prays to God to take the snakes away, but instead God asks Moses to put a bronze snake on a pole so the people can look at it and live. If Jesus is like that, as the text says, then what is it we see when Jesus is lifted up that helps us to live, that takes the sting of sin and shame away, and allows us to live?

It is simply this. Where we would deny sin the cross shines a light so none of us can pretend we don’t need God. The cross shines a light on the reality of sin and our complicity in the evil of the world, but also points to God’s utter resolve to deal with sin redemptively. In the most secretive places of all, the places where we hide our shame, the cross shines a light. The shame of the cross sheds light on the ways we are shamed and invites us to see that God’s love is more powerful than our deepest shame. There is no shame we can endure that Jesus does not understand. Where we run as hard as we can to get away from the reality of death, the cross shines a light. The cross shines a light on our most haunting fear and proves that God’s power to give life is stronger than all the ways we try to destroy one another. In the end sin, shame and death are defeated. Love wins out over hate. One word of forgiveness wins out over shame and regret and guilt. Life prevails over death.

So what is the invitation of this text? It is the same invitation Jesus extended to Nicodemus, who came to him under cover of darkness, which is the larger context of this periscope. Jesus asked him to come into the light. Jesus asked him to give up the life he had become so used to, the life of a Pharisee, where getting right with God meant getting everything right or at least making sure it looked that way.

Jesus asked Nicodemus to be born again, to start over, to acknowledge the high cost of that religious understanding. Jesus invited Nicodemus to become a part of a community that included known sinners and outcasts, the shamed and the forgotten. This community would not just believe in Jesus, they would follow him, learn from him, love him, and sometimes betray him. But they would live with him and he with them. And all through that long journey with Jesus they would come to know that God can be trusted to love us for all that we are and even in our worst moments.

If you could stand in that light, why would you cling to the darkness?

Will you pray with me, as we enter at time of guided meditation?

“I’m trading my sorrow, I’m trading my shame, I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord. I’m trading my sickness, I’m trading my pain, I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.”

O God, in Christ you invite us to come into the light… To let go of the things we try to deny or hide… To trust that we are safe to lay everything in your hands, Knowing that you love us and want the best for us.

We release to you now those things that bring us pain… We release to you now the ways we have harmed ourselves and others… We release to you now our fear of death… And lay the past, present, and future in your hands… We release to you now the shame that cripples us… We open ourselves to the light of forgiveness… to being fully known and loved still.

For in this way you showed your love to the world. You gave your beloved Child, Jesus, that those who would follow his way and learn from him to trust you completely, would not be destroyed by sin, shame, or death, But would live the most abundant life possible, a life without fear, Knowing that your love and your power to give life Win in the end. We thank you for this promise. Amen.