Fourth Sunday in Lent
Numbers 21:4-9 Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 Ephesians 2:1-10 John 3:14-21 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is unpredictable but always present and always faithful. Amen John 3:16, probably the most well-known Bible verse in the world and as such probably the most misused Bible verse in the world. Seen on signs at sporting events, or at protests, sadly usually held by people advocating hate, scrawled as graffiti or on billboards by the road John 3:16 has become shorthand for the idea that unless you believe in Jesus you’re going to hell. Frankly, I’ve never understood this evangelistic strategy using God’s ultimate act of love to inspire fear that leads to someone “accepting Jesus as their personal savior” so that the evangelist can add another tally mark in the “souls saved” column and all this happens because eternal life has been come to be understood as the reward of the next life after this life has been endured. I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like particularly good news to me. So what are we to do with John 3:16 and it’s offer of eternal life especially if that doesn’t mean going to heaven while everyone else goes to hell? We have to revise our understanding of what God’s love does and what is meant by salvation, that big loaded church word that gets tossed about all the time. When we take these questions to the Bible and begin to look through scripture we find this: that salvation is not seen as a future reward but a present way of life, to be saved is to live life in the presence of God. Each of our readings for this morning illustrates this view which can be summarized as: some ways lead to death, God’s way leads to life. Take for example our first reading from Numbers, this is the time in the story of the people of Israel where they are in between, God brought them out of Egypt but they are not yet at the promised land, they are wandering in the wilderness, and in the wilderness they’ve quickly forgotten just how hard life was in Egypt and they find ways to complain about everything to God and Moses culminating in this story where their complaints no longer make sense, there’s no food, there’s no water, and we hate this food that appears everyday they whine. And this seems to be the last straw for God, who sends poisonous serpents among the people who when they start dying from snake bites realize that they have sinned against God with their complaining so they go ask Moses to pray to God for them to take away the serpents, they wish to be saved from the serpents. And God delivers them, but not in the way that they expect, God tells Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole and when someone is bit, if they look at the bronze serpent they will live and the thing that has been an instrument of judgment is now the instrument of salvation. God does not undo the snakes that the Israelites let loose in the world with their complaining, but God gives them a way to endure the consequences and now whether the snake means life or death depends on the actions of Israel, turning away from God leads to death, turning toward God leads to life. This still happens when we indulge in self-involved complaints or speak ill of another person, we unleash the poisonous serpents of words into the world that come back to bite us and when we realize our mistake and we confess to God and ask for forgiveness God does not undo what we unleashed on the world but God does forgives us and shows us a way to live that leads to healing and life. Some ways lead to death, God’s way leads to life. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians approaches things a little differently, Paul defines alive and dead not based on whether our heart is beating but on our relationship to God. Paul considers death being apart from God and life to be in the presence of God. The trouble is as humans we can’t seem to stop sinning and separating ourselves from God. In fact God knows that it is impossible for us to do and say all the right things that would lead to being in the presence of God, of bridging the gap between human and divine, so God takes care of it all for us. God works through Christ to make us alive, and through Christ brings us into the presence of God as a gift, and that gift becomes a reality for us when we trust that it is so and begin to live in the presence of God. We are saved by grace through faith. “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. 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” adding John 3:17 makes a difference God wants the same quality of life for all creation, abundant life lived in the presence of God and God offers this life to all, freely, it becomes a reality in our life when we trust the promise and begin to live in the presence of God and even this trust is a gift of God who continually reaches out to us, calling us, turning us toward God. But there’s still the talk of judgment in John and in this talk the point that John is trying to make takes us back to the image of the bronze serpent, remember how it became both an instrument of judgment and of salvation at the same time Depending on how the people related to the bronze serpent? That’s how the judgment John is talking about works Jesus lifted up on the cross an instrument of death becomes the way to life lived in the presence of God and whether Jesus means life or death, salvation or judgment depends how people relate to Jesus, turning to Jesus means life -life lived in the presence of God, turning away from Jesus means death- life lived apart from God. Salvation and judgment are present ongoing realities, and God is always reaching out, offering life abundant, to us and all creation and the way God reaches out is through us. When we share the good news of life lived in the presence of God with others, the loved God has for the world and we share it because we have experienced the gift of life that God has given us, we share it because we know that God offers that gift to everyone, no matter what snakes we’ve unleashed on the world, we know God will find a way for us to live with them and while that way is unpredictable, God is always present and always faithful. God’s way leads to life. Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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