God Creatively Alters Us

 This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 3/10 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was John 3:14-21.

We know these verses so well. Today, how might it look to hear this story through the lens of God's creativity? This week’s emphasis is being Altered through God’s Creativity. God’s plan has always been that the overarching arc of God’s work in the world has always been love shown in a particular way to all of God’s creation (Lent in a Box).

The Spirit's creativity is at work in the beginning, recorded in Genesis. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, …a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:1-2). In scripture, wind, and spirit are the same word. God’s Spirit was involved in creation. From the beginning, we see God’s Spirit creatively at work.

God takes the stories of the lives of Bible heroes, creatively altering what is possible. Remember when Joseph’s brothers dumped him into a pit, and he was sold to the Egyptians? God used him for the good of the Hebrew people. In the end, Joseph forgave his brothers with these words, “You intended this for harm, but God intended it for good.” God creatively altered what was possible. 

Today's gospel is the conclusion of Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus. Jesus had told Nicodemus that he needed to be “born from above” (John 3:3), born anew or born again. This, of course, was incomprehensible to Nicodemus. It is a spiritual, not an earthly thing. Later in John’s gospel, Nicodemus speaks up on Jesus’ behalf to the chief priest and elders. His final appearance is after Jesus’ crucifixion, when he brings spices to anoint Jesus’ body. The Spirit worked creatively in Nicodemus’ life.

God takes the stories of our lives, creatively altering what is possible. “God’s creativity is not limited to the plan that we can see or imagine, it is always, breaking it open with grace and love” (Lent in a Box). We often equate eternal life with heaven. That is part of it, but in John, eternal life begins now, in and among God’s people. Salvation is being born from above, redefining one’s “family of origin.” To have eternal life is to live life no longer defined by blood or by the will of the flesh or by human will, but by God (1:13).

To believe is to “trust and bond with…” Everyone who trusts and bonds with Jesus will have eternal life. Later we read, “Those who trust and bond with him are not condemned…” (v. 18). This makes the word “believe” more engaging. Salvation is not by intellectual assent to a belief. It is all about restoration of broken relationships, being restored to the proper bond and trust of true relationship with God. All of this is through God’s creative work in our lives.

We are to continually trust and bond with God. Believing is not a hoop that we jump through to get to the other side once and for all. It is more like taking a long journey through a tunnel. 

John is not saying, if you believe, then God will love and save you. God’s salvation is not a reward for belief. Nor does God withhold God’s love, forgiveness and salvation until we believe. God does not make a one time, take it or leave it, limited time offer. 

John 3:16 says that God so loved the cosmos—this earth, time and space. The church has often misunderstood and thought that God mostly loved us, or at best humankind. “Today’s gospel pulls us into a more profound understanding; that through Christ all the cosmos is being saved” (sundaysandseasons.com). Paul wrote in Romans, “…the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now…” (Romans 8:21, 22). 

Jesus was sent by the Father “that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). This verse “reminds us that the Spirit’s plan has always and will always include the entire world, not just a select few” (Lent in a Box). God loves the whole world and is unwilling to settle for only part of it or for only some of us. To save is the contrast of “to judge or condemn.”  It is “to rescue from danger and to restore to a former state of safety and well-being” (Louw & Nida). God chooses to save rather than condemn the world, which opposes and does not know God.

The coming of Jesus created a crisis. “And this is the judgment, that light has come…” The Greek word for judgment is krisis, from which we get the English word “crisis.” The crisis separates light from darkness, truth from evil, faith from unbelief and those humans on God’s side from those opposed to God.  It is a decisive turning point. What God has done for us in the lifting up of Christ, creates for us a crisis, a turning point, a decisive moment that we might perceive and receive God’s redemptive, life changing love. 

We live in a world that likes to judge others. We think we could do better if we were in the same situation. When we see someone in dirty, ragged clothing, we judge that person. We don’t do well with those who suffer from mental illness. How can we do better? We can educate ourselves about homelessness and mental health issues. Love Inc. works with people getting ready to move into their own places. The Mental Health Association obviously works with mental health issues. St. Susan’s feeds the hungry. 5 & 2 feeds hungry school children. 

Why are we so eager to condemn others and think that somehow we will escape condemnation? How are we so willing to withhold forgiveness, and to what extent does that mean that we ourselves are in desperate need of it? 

“All who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed” (v. 20). People want to cover up their misdeeds, not have them laid bare for all to see. We see this when it comes to political scandals. The worst part of a scandal isn’t the initial crime or act, but the act of covering it up. Don’t we too like to cover up, justify or explain away our own misdeeds? We prefer to call such behavior “mistakes.” 

For John, sin seems to be concrete and structural (such as injustice, hate, lack of mercy, etc.) rather than individualistic. God desires to transform and recreate the dark places in this world into places of light, healing and salvation. God wants to transform us into people of light, healing and salvation. God goes to such great lengths to make us his own, so that we may serve God and our neighbors. 

How do we live transformative lives that bring light, healing and salvation? How does the Gospel, this good news, show up for us? We could be called to develop efforts of interreligious dialogue with our Jewish and Muslim sisters and brothers, taking on joint community projects. Some of us may reach out to immigrant communities and neighbors to invite them to join us in worship and work. This could even allow us to stand up for their rights—to allow for a more just and peaceful society, to help further the reign of God. “Part of the creativity of God is all the vast and varied ways…this good news shows up and alters each of us, as God continues to work for the salvation of the whole” (Lent in a Box).

Amen.

Resources

David Ewart, holytextures.com 

Mike Gable, asmweb.org

Lent In a Box

Karoline Lewis, workingpreacher.org

David Lose, davidlose.net

Marion Soards, Thomas Dozeman & Kendall McCabe, Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year B, Lent/Easter