Sermon for 4th Sunday in Lent
Like It or Not
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
John 3:16, many people’s favorite Bible verse. “For God so loved the world, that God gave God’s only begotten Son to die for us so that everyone who believes in Christ may not perish but have eternal life.”
You have seen it everywhere – in the stands at professional sports events, at concerts, along parade routes, just about everywhere. A perfect bumper sticker for our faith.
But I have wondered whether, if people thought about what this verse says for just a little longer than it takes to read a bumper sticker, I have wondered if we think about this verse a bit longer that it might just prove to be one of our least favorite verses in the Bible. Let me explain.
Jesus articulates in this statement what Luther called “the Gospel in a nutshell” – that God is fundamentally a God of love and that love runs the kingdom of God, and that God’s love trumps everything else, even justice, in the end.
Not everyone reads it this way. After all, Jesus says “everyone who believes…” will have eternal life, which perhaps implies a different outcome for those who do not believe. But, before we go there, we must read on, for in the next verse Jesus states that, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” “God did not send his son Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Jesus. Period.
Moreover, the “judgment” to come is not punishment but simply the crisis that befalls those who will not come out of the darkness for fear of the light. It is not judgment as punishment, but judgment as crisis, as tragedy, as loss. God comes in love to redeem such loss, turn such tragedy into victory, and demonstrate true power through sheer vulnerability and sacrifice.
God’s and our vulnerability and sacrifice - the first reason we might not name this as our favorite verse if we gave it any real thought.
Our world, and quite often our lives, operate according to the more traditional belief that security comes not through vulnerability and sacrifice but through power and might.
Of course most of us do not go around wearing tee shirts that say “might makes right,” but too many of us live according to such logic. And it certainly is a popular concept in the United States today – we do not see may red caps that say “help America sacrifice for others,” do we?
We live in a world that seeks security not only through power but also through wealth and consumption, and we are taught from a very early age to avoid true vulnerability, and the truly vulnerable, at all costs. Sacrifice? Sure, when we can afford to. Love our enemies? Maybe if everything else is taken care of first. Vulnerability? Only if there is no other choice.
The kind of self-sacrificing love Jesus offers is frightening to such a world. No wonder some run and hide, as it requires us to trust nothing other than God.
For most of us it is impossible to embrace Jesus’ example of vulnerability and sacrifice until when we ourselves have been brought low by illness, or loss, or a broken relationship, or disappointed hopes or some other way by which the world taught us that no matter how hard we try, no matter what position we may achieve, no matter how much money we may save, we ourselves cannot secure our destiny or save our lives.
We ourselves cannot secure our destiny or save our lives. Only God can do that. Only love can do that. And realizing this can be frightening since it shows how we are so utterly dependent on God.
And, there is a second reason this may not be our favorite verse. That reason is the claim this text makes on us, the claim this text makes on us.
Think about this: God did not ask our permission first before sending Jesus to die for us.
Now, that may seem like an odd detail to point out, but, think of the claim a person, any person, has on us once they have saved our life, let alone died doing it. In the face of such love, such sacrifice, we must surrender all of our claims.
Scholar David Lose notes that he once preached a sermon about the offensive nature of God’s grace, suggesting that we might add four words to the end of our service of baptism, 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.”
After Lose preached this sermon, a friend of his shared a bedtime encounter he had had with his then six-year-old son Benjamin. Upset that his father was putting him to bed earlier than he wanted to go, Benjamin said, “Daddy, I hate you.” His father, exercising great parental wisdom, replied, “Ben, I’m sorry you feel that way, but I love you.” Benjamin’s response to such gracious words surprised his dad: “Don’t say that!” “I’m sorry Benjamin, but it’s true. I love you.” “Don’t,” his son protested, “Don’t say that again!” At which point Ben’s father, remembering the words of Lose’s sermon, said, “Benjamin, I love you…like it or not!”
Why was Benjamin protesting his father’s love? Because he realized he could not control his father’s love and twist it to his own advantage.
Indeed, in the face of such love there is no bargaining and, ultimately, no control whatsoever. If Benjamin’s dad had said that if he ate all his vegetables he could stay up later, or agreed that Ben could stay up later this night if he went to bed earlier the next, then Benjamin would have been a player, he would have exercised some measure of control over the situation and, indeed, over his dad.
Dr. Lose’s story of Benjamin and his father is a good example of how, in the face of God’s unconditional love for us, we are ultimately powerless. Yes, perhaps we can choose to accept it or not, perhaps 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 have died to all of our delusions of actually being in control do we realize that such loss of perceived freedom and power is actually life.
God’s love, you see, is tenacious. 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. 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.
I believe that this is a verse, if we took it more seriously, that this is verse that might and perhaps should terrify us in how it renders us powerless in a world literally hell-bent on accumulating and exercising power. Then again, maybe, as we remember God’s tenacious love, we might also realize that, precisely because this is the one relationship in our lives over which we have no power, it is also the one relationship we cannot mess up.
God loves us all powerfully. God created this love for us, 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.
God is a God of love. God’s love is the logic by which the kingdom of God runs. And in the end, God’s love trumps everything else. Like it or not.
God’s love trumps everything else. Thanks be to God for God’s tenacious love for us all. Forever and ever. Amen. Like it or not.
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose).
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
March 10&11, 2018
