"For god so loved the world..."

Given by the Rev. Penelope Duckworth, March 22, 2009 Lent IV, Year B

In the third chapter of the fourth gospel, Jesus uttered a phrase that is probably the best known and loved of all the phrases of the New Testament.  Many of us know it in one translation or another by heart.  It is, “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.”

“ For God so loved the world....”   Our first lesson today tells us that God set the people of Israel free.  God delivered them from slavery and Jews continue to celebrate that wondrous event.  This year the commemoration of that event, the Passover, coincides with Good Friday, just at it was the first Holy Week.   The Passover commemorates that God so loved the people of ancient Israel that they were set free.  But as our lesson from the Book of Numbers tells us, the people grumbled.  After they left Egypt, they wanted more food, better water, they even began to look back to the food of Egypt and they groused over their newfound freedom.  When they were struck with a plague of their own, a plague of snakes, they repented and asked Moses to intercede for them.  Moses prayed on their behalf and God directed him to make a serpent of bronze so those who were bitten could look upon it and be healed.  “For God so loved the world...”

It is a strangely familiar image and juxtaposition, a snake on a staff, and it brings to mind the Caduceus, the symbol of medicine which shows two snakes entwined on a staff.  Snakes are emblematic of new life because they shed their skins.  We prefer images of eggs that produce baby chicks and ducklings, or the very procreative rabbits at Easter, but the snake is recognized in many cultures as symbolic of new life and healing.

“For God so loved the world...”  The psalm appointed for this Sunday says that God responded to people even when they were foolish, self-centered, ungrateful and rebellious.  God delivered them from their distress and restored their health, and we trust in God’s love to do the same for us and those we love.

“For God so loved the world...” are the words that Jesus spoke candidly to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who visited him under the cover of night.  Nicodemus was a faithful Jew who was trying to understand the teachings of Jesus and came in secret to ask him just how a person could be born again.  Our gospel for today is a continuation of that conversation.  In the first part of this Sunday’s passage, Jesus tells Nicodemus that just as Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up as well.  This truly refers to the cross but it also refers to the triumph and victory of Christ the Resurrected Savior. 

Jesus then explains that the whole history of salvation is in reality a love story, plain and simple.  “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.”  Then Jesus explains that he did not come to condemn the world but rather to save it by transforming the hearts of his followers.  He goes on to speak of darkness and light and how when light comes into people’s lives, they often prefer the darkness. 

Jesus’ coming is similar to someone switching on a light and exposing what is actually happening.  This will illuminate and enlighten some and they will see God’s hand at work in the world around them, but it will infuriate others because it will expose them.  Anyone who has ever seriously tried to live a life of faith knows this painful truth.  To bring the good news does not mean one will always be met with applause and blessing.  The contemporary ironic saying, “No good deed goes unpunished” is unfortunately the real life experience of many Christians.  A variety of forces, known as powers and principalities, are aroused when one seeks to be a force  for good in the world.  The Gospel of John emphasizes that Christ brings crisis to the world.  That crisis is still very much with us.  And yet, behind that crisis-filled event is the meaning that Christ himself gives us: “For God so loved the world...”

“For God so loved the world...” that on this fourth Sunday of Lent, the traditional penitential mourning of the season gives way to joy.  The Latin name for this day is Laetare Sunday and it comes from the opening words of the ancient Mass text which begins “Rejoice, O Jerusalem.”  The theme of joy came to be associated with flowers and especially with the rose and so this is also known as Rose Sunday.  This liturgical understanding goes back to the eleventh century and it also came to be associated with the Blessed Mother.  Consequently, in England this fourth Sunday of Lent is celebrated as Mothering Sunday, comparable to our Mother’s Day.

And so what does that mean for us this beautiful morning in early spring?  I think we need to take a moment and think about God’s saving act and more particularly, the designated recipient of God’s love.  The term that is given is “the world.”  If we pause and reflect, it is the creation as we know it; this fragile earth, our island home.  It is also all of life that shares this earth’s limited resources, and it is also most clearly you and me.  I could as easily have quoted, “For God so loved you ...and please fill in your name...that he gave his only Son that you may believe in him and not perish but have eternal life.”

In bringing us the message of God’s purpose and God’s love, Jesus was well aware of the difficulties we must face.  He understood the human heart.  He knew the reality of evil.  He would not have been surprised by the Wall Street scandals and  human greed, nor by suicide bombers and acts of terrorism, nor by the  slaughter of innocents by armed forces, nor by  traffickers in modern slavery.  Nor would he be surprised by sin and sorrow in our city and even among us here. 

He would expect those unwilling to repent and change to be enraged by his efforts to change the world.  He would expect them to seek to silence him and his followers, to shut out the light that is being cast upon them.   Jesus knows that when we follow him we will also incur the wrath of those forces.  That is why he told us to pick up our cross.

And yet, in the midst of this, despite all this, perhaps even because of all this, he says, “For God so loved the world...” 

St. Paul points out that God saved the people of Ephesus even when they had followed their passions and become children of wrath.  God, who is rich in mercy, loves us despite our failings.  Paul is clear in writing to the Christians of Ephesus in our second lesson this morning.  He says, “It is by his grace you are saved...It is not your own doing...It is God’s gift...It is not a reward...There is nothing for anyone to boast of...”  In other words: God sent Christ as amazing grace... “For God so loved the world.”

Jesus said that the Son of Man must be lifted up and that lifting first took place on a cross.  The cross is our guide and the image for our soul’s healing, much like the serpent on the staff of Moses.  Some days carrying our own cross is very difficult and we may feel the cost of discipleship is too high.   And yet... there is more to the story.  Out beyond the cross--- the Son of Man is lifted further and higher.  And the final word is joy.  Rejoice, O Jerusalem. 

“For God so loved the world...” The Gospel is at its heart a love story.  The words of Jesus ring with the truth of every human heart.      And so on this fourth Sunday of Lent, on this Rose Sunday, we are encouraged to respond to God’s love with our own love, to answer God’s amazing grace with our faith, and as the Son of Man is lifted high, to lift up our hearts because “God so loved the world...”  

AMEN

Copyright © 2009 Penelope Duckworth

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