No, really... I LOVE you!

This is an excerpt from a sermon I gave this morning on John 3:16-17. It was inspired by watching the news and seeing so much hurt and pain in the world, and knowing that there are many out there who wonder just how much God loves them, and whether God's love extends beyond the boundaries we would set up for it.

So here we are. With a Bible verse, John 3:16, which we’ve known longer than probably any other Bible verse… “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” I mean, really? The whole world? Even those who don’t believe? Does God really love the whole world? That’s really where John 3:16 takes us, isn’t it? Just who does God really love?

If you have wrestled with this one, little verse, then you are in good company with people from all over the world, throughout all of Christian history. And in trying to parse out the verse, it has been the root cause of much division, abuse and harm. First of all, John 3:16 has been used as a weapon, all for the sake of ‘bringing people to believe.’ Seeing threats to believing in Jesus and therefore to eternal life and salvation everywhere, Christians engaged in the crusades, the Inquisition and witch trials, colonization with missionary underpinnings, and the Holocaust. All in the name of saving souls. Does God really love the whole world?

Not just that, though, but pervasive use of John 3:16 in modern Christianity has led to individualism and lessening concern for the suffering of this world. Reading John 3:16 closely has led to an excessive focus on individual salvation— am I saved? Do I know Jesus as my Lord and Savior? The role and place of the community, the common good, is always secondary, even incidental to a focus on the individual. (Tim Johnson) And also, if the over riding goal is to keep people from perishing in the life to come, then the problem of their perishing in this life due to lack of food or health care or a deteriorating environment seems unimportant. (Tim Johnson) Does God really love the whole world?

And that’s when I hope we hear the Good News in this frequently quoted verse: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.”… “God so loved the world…” Do you hear it? This isn’t a weapon, it’s a healing salve. It isn’t about individual salvation, it’s about the redemption of all of creation! We don’t ignore the suffering of this world to look only to the glory to come in the next, because God sent God’s only Son to THIS world, to save THIS world, because God loved THIS world. Here. Now. God SO loved the world! How much? So much? So much that God sent God’s Son to die. And, sent God’s Son to die for a world that didn’t know, understand, or even love Him. In fact, God sent his Son to die for a God-hating world, according to Professor David Lose.

We can’t always accept this truth. That God loves the world and everyone and everything in it. We need there to be conditions, because conditions give us the sense of control or order, even fairness. Does God really love the world ??

We bargain…
But, what about me, all the times I missed church, forgot to leave an offering, or ignored the homeless person on the street?
And God says, “No, really… I love you!”

But, what about your brother’s Jewish friend Joshua?
No, really… I love him.

But, what about Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, ever caught in self-destructive cycles of addiction?
No, really… I love her, and I love him.

But, what about Fred Phelps, the hate-mongering anti-gay pastor from Westboro Baptist who protests churches, plays, and military funerals?
“No, really… I even love him, too.” God says.

But, what about the peoples of Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Libya, and the oppressive governments they’re rebelling against?
No, really… I love them.

But, what about the director of FEMA after Katrina, or the CEO of BP after the Gulf Oil Spill, or the engineers at the nuclear power plant in Japan, the ruin of your beautiful earth?
No, really… I love them, too.

But, but… “No.” God stops us. “I really love you. All of you.”