Lent 4B, 10 March 2024. The Very Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
- Numbers 21: 4-9. Look at the serpent of bronze and live.
- Ephesians 2: 1-10. For by grace you have been saved.
- John 3: 14-21. For God loved the world like this.
O God of love, may we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth – come when it may and cost what it will.
The historical and contemporary misunderstandings and mistreatments of our Gospel lesson this morning are almost too much for me to bear. I knew when Deacon Bob read this passage to you this morning, many of you would start shutting down, going other places in your heads, perhaps leaving the building in your imagination. He had asked me if I wanted to make any edits to what he would read, but frankly I didn’t know where to begin. There are so many edits I want to make, and I’m not sure any amount of editing could solve all the problems in this passage. So perhaps I can bring your imagination back into the building with this First Nations Version rendering of John 3:14-2, a dynamic equivalence translation, which was published a few years ago. That’s a fancy way of saying that it’s a translation focused on retelling the dynamics of the story, not attempting a word-for-word translation of the original. The context for this scene is that Nicodemus, a religious leader in Jerusalem has come to Jesus in the night to learn more about him and his ministry. I’ve made a few more edits to it, so I want you to notice whether and how you respond differently when you hear the Gospel story this way: [1]
Do you not remember when Moses lifted up a pole with a snake on it in the desert wilderness? This is what will happen to the True Human Being, so people will put their trust in him and have the life of the world to come that never fades away, full of beauty and harmony.
The Great Spirit loves this world of human beings [in this way]. [The Great Spirit] gave us [their] Son – the [one-of-a-kind] Son who fully represents [The Great Spirit]. All who trust in him and his way [that is, the way of love, mercy and compassion] will not come to a bad end but will have the life of the world to come that never fades away, full of beauty and harmony. The Creator did not send [this] Son to decide against the people of this world, but to set them free from the worthless ways of the world [that is, ways of greed, oppression, and indifference to suffering]. The ones who trust in him are released from their guilt, but for the ones who turn away from him to follow the ways of this world, their guilt remains. This is because they are turning away from the life of beauty and harmony the Great Spirit offers through [this] Son.
This is what decides for or against them. My brightness has shined into this gloomy world, but because of their worthless ways people loved the gloomy path more than the brightness. When they choose the gloomy path, they do not want others to see, so they hide in the gloom and hate the brightness. But the ones who are true and do what is right are walking in the brightness so others can clearly see they are walking with the Creator.
Why does it matter to find another way of telling this teaching from the Gospel of John? Because God is not a boy’s name, so masculine pronouns for God are problematic. Because the Greek words that get translated Son of Man mean essentially prototypically and fundamentally human, not specifically male. Because eternal doesn’t mean future but timeless, it includes the present moment. Eternal life doesn’t mean a never-ending term of human existence, and it doesn’t mean afterlife; it means fullest-possible life that can come now in the unending presence of the Holy One. [2] The Greek word monogenes means one-of-a-kind. To say that a child is one-of-a-kind is not to say that there are not other children. It’s not the same as only child. Believe doesn’t mean intellectual assent to a concept or idea. It means trust in, have confidence in and commitment to. Commitment to what? The Love of God for the entire world, that is cosmos in Greek. Because John’s Gospel is a proclamation of love writ large. To translate the word judgment as condemnation is just wrong and leads to all kinds of trouble.
For his followers, Jesus was the full embodiment of the Love of God. That does not mean the Love of God is not present or accessible apart from Jesus. To say that Jesus means the world to Christians does not mean that Jesus is the entire world. The term Son of Man originated as a term for mortal or salt of the earth. In the century before Jesus, the term started taking on mythical and mystical meaning, as in the Book of Daniel, where a hoped-for savior was depicted as a mensch arriving on a cloud like a superhero. Here Jesus is saying (with no clouds, or super-heroics) that the essential human is not going to descend from a cloud but be hoisted on a most-gruesome billboard, which the mighty Love of God will redeem. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is predicting that the mighty Love of God will redeem even the most terrible thing that the Roman government could do to a person. Just as the Israelites in the desert looked at the deadly serpent on a pole and were healed, so the Love of God on a cross will be a source of healing if and when we also love.
Oh, I have about fifteen sermons I want to preach. Since I’m already halfway through this one, here’s what I find most important to say today. Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, a leader who has come to Jesus in secret, in the night, that those who do not trust in Love, who have no confidence in Love, who aren’t committed to Love, are already living in doom (not by God, but by their own hardness of heart). Judgment here doesn’t mean punishment; it means exposure, revelation, disclosure of a life either committed or not committed to Love. When the brightness of God next shines on any of us, does it reveal our loving actions or not? The opposite of Love here is Sin. That is the subject of this teaching, the conclusion of which is that brightness reveals deeds done in God, Who is Love. Brightness allows deeds done in love to be clearly seen. If you read ahead in the Gospel of John, you’ll know that Nicodemus went to the crucified body of Jesus in broad daylight with a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloe to lovingly anoint his body and lay it tenderly in a garden tomb. In the light, it could be clearly seen that, at considerable personal risk, his “deeds had been done in God, in Love.”
The assurance given in the letter to the assembly of Jesus followers in Ephesus is that no matter what, God is rich in mercy. God pours out great love on us even when we are poisoned and accounted for dead, when the deeds we do are based on anything but love. The grace of God is wildly and even offensively indiscriminate; it has nothing to do with what we do or fail to do. The teaching here is that Christians are created in Christ Jesus for good (that is, loving) works; and God loves us whether we do them or not, whether we like it or not, and whether we think it’s true or not. I don’t have to point out that some Christians don’t act like they were created for loving works. Let’s not imitate them or justify our own bad behavior because of them. Let’s demonstrate something different in response to the richness of mercy and great love of God, so when the light shines on us, anyone can see extraordinary acts of loving kindness. Doing deeds in God means doing them in Love as opposed to sin. That’s what matters, according to the Gospel of John.
What about people who don’t trust, have confidence, or commit to God? Well, there’s a wonderful old rabbinic story about a student who asked a rabbi, “Why did God create atheists?” [3] After a long pause, the rabbi finally responded with a soft but sincere voice.
God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all, the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visiting someone who is sick, helping someone who is in need, and caring for the world, they are not doing so because of some religious teaching. They do not believe that God has commanded them to perform these acts. In fact, they do not believe in God at all, so their actions are based on their sense of morality. Look at the kindness they bestow on others simply because they feel it to be right. When someone reaches out to you for help, you should never say, “I’ll pray that God will help you.” Instead, for that moment, you should become an atheist: imagine there is no God who could help, and say, “I will help you.”
You may wonder why I’m talking about atheists right before we renew our baptismal promises and officially welcome James Lanning Ardente into the Christian family. It’s because in the Emmanuel Church branch of the Christian family, we prioritize belonging over believing. We prioritize communal pastoral care over personal piety. It’s not that we don’t think thoughts and pray prayers, because we do; but we prioritize acts of kindness over thoughts and prayers. We have a reputation among my colleagues for being welcoming even to atheists, as if that is somehow scandalous! “Of course we are!” I say to them. “We need all the help we can get!” The way of Love is the path we are on, and all are welcome to band together to shine brightness in the gloomy corners of this city, our nation, and the world. James, we are glad you are here! And that goes for the rest of you, too!
- John 3:14-21. First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021) with our rector’s bracketed edits.
- Gail R. O’Day, “The Gospel of John,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p. 552.
- ArtfulDodger, “Eduard Frankfort (1864-1920), “A Theological Debate”, https://forum.gon.com/threads/a-theological-debate-by-eduard-frankfort-1864-1920.1022391/ .
“A Theological Debate”, painting by Eduard Frankfort, 1888. Image credit: ArtNet.