The Power of Love

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Today's Readings: Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In last week’s children sermon, Paul used a great analogy about spring cleaning and how Lent is a time to look within our hearts and see if there is anything we need to clean up inside. This goes so well with our Lenten call to repentance, which again, isn’t just feeling sorry for our sins, but turning toward the NEW life we are given in Christ; turning from human things to that which the divine is doing within and among us as the kingdom of God has broken into our midst. To turn to the divine from human things is to clean out, to surrender, to let go of all that which does not serve God’s will and God’s kingdom. Dare I say, one of the practices that we as a Church (big C; the universal Church) could clean up is our tendency to lift up just one verse and run with it; using scripture out of context.

Today’s lessons are GREAT examples of how we have done this. As I tell my Confirmation kids, if we as a Lutheran church had a tagline it would be this, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). This is a great verse! There’s nothing wrong with this verse; nothing wrong with memorizing it and calling it to mind throughout your life. The problem comes when we forget the rest of the story. If we remembered only this verse, we may find ourselves falling into what Dietrich Bonheoffer called ‘cheap grace.’ This is when we begin to think that we can continue focusing on our own will, on human things, and bad human habits because *shrugs* God will forgive us anyway. So easily we forget the rest of the story. So tempted are we to move on that we often forget even the following verse, “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” It may be easier to keep sinning and putting ourselves first, because, you’re right, there IS grace for that, but that is NOT what we were made for. God created us in Christ Jesus FOR good works; that is our destined way of life, the way of the kingdom of God. Turn from cheap grace to transformational grace!

In our gospel reading we also heard a key verse often taken out of context, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that God gave the only Son, so that everyone who believes in God may not perish but may have eternal life.” This too is a GREAT verse! There’s nothing wrong with this verse; with memorizing it and calling it to mind throughout your life. But I cannot tell you how often Christians have used this verse to condemn their neighbors.. Proclaiming only those who believe will have eternal life, all others are damned to hell. This harmful message of judgment and condemnation is a Christian tradition from which we need repentance.

If we, once again, read just another verse we hear, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.” Jesus Christ came to save the world, not to condemn it. ‘For God SO LOVED THE WORLD’ that God become flesh and died to save what God created and held so dear. As we read on we hear the judgment laid upon us from God is that we love living in the shadows where we can do our own thing, follow our own human desires, rather than turn to the Son/sun, feeling the rays of light warm our souls as we live into the life we were created for in the kingdom of God. Repent; step into the light, turn and see that you are in the presence of God and get to work for Christ’s kingdom.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t make a case for God’s wrath and condemnation; Lord knows we’ve been doing it for centuries, BUT may I challenge you this Lent to open your Bibles and make a case for God’s love. There are a lot of different lenses through which we can read the Bible, because the Bible is a compilation of many books written by many different people and nowadays has been translated into many different versions. The Bible is as complex and diverse as God’s Church on earth. We will likely never all agree on which lenses to read the Bible and that is okay. I trust the Holy Spirit is still at work and the Word is still alive regardless of our shortcomings. All I can do is faithfully share with you how the Spirit has moved me to see how scripture has revealed to us overall a God of love.

There are verses in the Bible that sound a lot like exclusion; like if you don’t do or say or believe certain things you will not make it to heaven. However, when we look at scripture as a whole, I find those words of condemnation and exclusion to be the exception rather than the rule. For me the overarching revelation is that of a God of vigorous love. A God who creates us for relationship; out of all creatures chooses to make us in God’s own image and calls us good. The rest of the story, it seems, is about how no matter how far we go from God, no matter how many times we break our sacred bond, no matter how royally we screw up.. God pursues us in love.

I love this quote from Rev. Joy J. Moore, – “From the very beginning we were created in this relationship with God and this entire story is God recovering that original intent. And sometimes I think we need to be reminded that the story begins with good news! We are in a great relationship with God! WE choose to step out of that relationship and GOD continues to edit the story to write us back in, ultimately with the life, death, resurrection and ascension and promised return of Jesus.”

How true is this, that ultimately in Christ, God has edited the story forever. Christ Jesus has done the work, has built the bridge, has cleaned house, has rewritten our history and our destiny! In Christ all creation has been reconciled to God! It does not sound to me like that excludes anyone or even any thing that exists. It sounds to me like the kingdom has come and our salvation has been bestowed – by grace you have been saved! We do not deserve the grace, love, mercy, or salvation given to us through Christ, yet our God offers it anyway.

It is not doing or saying or believing certain things that will punch our ticket to heaven. That has all been done for us in Christ Jesus. It is the relationship with this God of love that transforms us to see the salvation that is both present and eternal future. Love is the only force that can transform our world, that can recover God’s original intent and our original relationship. God’s love is for you and it is for the entire world. You will never encounter another human being that God does not love. Love has created and saved us. Love is the only thing that can save the world.

Amen.