No Matter WhatMarch 15, 2015

John 3:16Grace and peace to you from God

our Father and from the One God sent into the World to save the world, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, amen.

When people find out I’m a retired Air Force officer and now a Lutheran Pastor I often get asked, “Aren’t those two professions opposed to each other? How do you reconcile them?” To some extent I have to grant these folks a point. I mean the military is all about killing people and breaking things. If we’re not killing people and breaking things, we’re training to do them… On the other hand Jesus said we should love one another and pray for our enemies.

I guess I was lucky I washed out of pilot training. In the Air Force the pilots, special ops, and security forces are about the only ones who do the actual mission. All the rest of us are in support positions. In my case, I always looked on my job as a

problem solver. My job was to know the laws and regulations well enough to know when we could bend the rules and when we could not. I helped people solve their assignment problems or their promotion problems or problems they had dealing with any of over 75 “Personnel” programs that all affected their lives. When the system didn’t seem to work for someone, that’s when the personnel officer could step in and grease the wheels of bureaucracy. I never really bought into all that “might makes right” stuff. I was just doing my job the best I could, trying to help folks.

Today’s Gospel contains just about everyone’s favorite Bible verse, “For God so loved the world…” I sometimes wonder if people thought about what this verse says for just a little longer than it takes to read a bumper sticker, it might just prove to be one of our least favorite verses in the Bible. Let me explain.

Jesus says in this statement what Luther called “the Gospel in a nutshell” – that God is fundamentally a God of love, that love is the logic by which the kingdom of God runs. It’s the coin of the realm, the cash that makes the world go around… And God’s love trumps everything else… everything… even justice, in the end. I don’t think we humans get that last bit. Love even trumps justice in God’s Kingdom.

I realize not everyone reads it this way. After all, Jesus says “everyone who believes…” will eternal life, which may

imply a different outcome for those who don’t believe. If we read on, in the very next verse Jesus says, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Period. He doesn’t say, “Only the good people,” or “Only the people who believe…” Jesus says the world. In the Greek the word used here is cosmos, meaning the universe, actually… Then Jesus then goes on to explain the “judgment” to come isn’t punishment, but simply the crisis that comes to those who refuse to come out of the darkness because they fear the light. It’s not judgment per se as punishment, but judgment as crisis, as tragedy, as loss. God comes in love to redeem such loss. God comes in Jesus to turn such tragedy into victory, and to demonstrate true power through sheer vulnerability and sacrifice.

This is the first reason we might not name John 3:16 as our favorite verse if we gave it any real thought. Our world – and quite often our lives – operate according to the more human or practical belief that security comes not through vulnerability and sacrifice, but through power and might. Oh, we probably don’t go around wearing t-shirts that say “might makes right,” but we live according to that logic just the same. We live in a world that seeks security, not only through power, but also through wealth and consumption. We’re taught from a very early age to avoid true vulnerability – and the truly vulnerable – at all costs. So,

sacrifice? Sure, when we can afford to. Love our enemies? Maybe, if everything else is taken care of first. Vulnerability? Only as an absolutely last resort.

The kind of self-sacrificing love Jesus offers is frightening to a world that knows only need-based love. It’s no wonder some run and hide. How can we trust nothing, but God alone? Most of us find it impossible to embrace Jesus’ example…except when we’re brought low by illness, loss, a broken relationship, or disappointed hopes. We only find this vulnerability when the world teaches us through the school of hard knocks that no matter how hard we try, no matter what position we achieve, no matter how much money we save, no matter what we do, we cannot secure our destiny or save our own lives. Only God can do that. Only God’s love can do that. And it’s frightening to be so utterly dependent on God.

There’s a second reason this may not be our favorite verse as well, and that’s because of the claim it makes on us. Notice that God doesn’t ask our permission first before sending Jesus to die for us. I know, I know, that may seem like an odd detail to point out. But think of the claim a person – any person – has on us once they’ve saved our life, let alone died doing it. In the face of such love, such sacrifice, what can we possibly offer in return?

As I think about this claim God makes on us I sometimes want to add four words to the end of our service of baptism.

After all the prayers and praises, when we get right down to the actual Baptism I really want to say to the tiny infant, there, not by his or her own will, but because somebody brought them, I want to add four little words, saying, “Child of God, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…like it or not.”

There’s a story about a young boy who was upset because his father was putting him to bed earlier than he wanted to go. The boy said, “Daddy, I hate you.” The father, full parental wisdom, replied, “I’m sorry you feel that way son, but I love you.” The boy’s response to such gracious words surprised his dad: “Don’t say that!” The father said, “I’m sorry, but it’s true. I do love you.” “Don’t,” his son protested, “Don’t say that again!” At that point the father, simply said, “Son, I love you…like it or not!”

Why was the son protesting his father’s love? Because he realized he couldn’t control his father’s love and twist it to his advantage. In the face of such love there is no bargaining and, ultimately, no control whatsoever. If the dad had bargained by saying if he ate all his vegetables he could stay up, or agreed that the boy could stay up later if he went to bed earlier the next night, then the boy would have been a player, he would have exercised some measure of control over the situation and, even, over his dad. But in the face of unconditional love we are powerless. Yes, maybe, as some say, we

can choose to accept it or not, and maybe we can run away from it, but we cannot influence it, manipulate it, or control it. In the face of this kind of love, we are powerless. And only when we’ve died to all of our delusions of actually being in control do we realize that such loss of perceived freedom and power is actually liberating and life giving. God’s love, is tenacious. And so God’s love will continue to chase after us, seeking to hold onto us and redeem us all the days of our lives, whether we like it or not.

So maybe this is a verse, if we took it more seriously, that might terrify us in how it renders us powerless in a world literally hell-bent on accumulating and exercising power and control. Then again, maybe as we remember God’s tenacious love we might also realize, precisely because this is the one relationship in our lives over which we have no power, it is also the one relationship we can’t screw up. Because God created it, God maintains it, and God will bring it to a good end, all through the power of God’s vulnerable, sacrificial, and ever so tenacious love.

So, no matter if love this verse or not, God loves you, like it or not! May you bask in God’s love. May you never resist or reject God’s love. May you trust always in God’s love. And may God’s love surround you and protect you where ever you go, no matter what. Amen.