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February 17,
2008 (Yr A Lent 2 Nicodem
‘08) Rev. Tom Trutner
Last
Thursday, Roxanna and I went to the S.F. Symphony to hear two magnificent
masterpieces by Peter Tschaikowski: his First Piano Concerto and the 6th
Symphony -”The Pathetique.” The music was transcendent and the performance of
the orchestra was superb.
But while I was sitting there, the piccolo caught my attention; there were
a couple of sections in which the tiny instrument’s charming, high-pitched sound
sailed above the rest of the orchestra It was very beautiful and quite
captivating - and so perfect for the context of the music. Not surpirsingly, my
mind leapt to another thought (they call this Monkey Mind in Buddhism) and that
was how some people seem to approach the Bible. (Now you may find it hard to
make that connection, but when the monkey in my mind gets jumping, there’s
simply no telling where he’ll land!).
I suppose this might have been nudged by a more subliminal thought - I knew
I had to preach this coming Sunday and I was going to have to preach on that
part of the Gospels that includes the all-to-familiar John 3:16 - you know, the
one that is featured as graffiti on lots of public walls and often shows up on a
large placard at football games held by a guy with a gigantic rainbow wig:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Fr. Larry
suggested that I try to find a wig like that guy’s and give you a living
example. However, this is the best I could do.
[ put on rainbow umbrella hat and hang John 3:16 sign in front of pulpit]
How’s that for going from the sublime to the ridiculous in 4 paragraphs!
In any event, on occasion I have opined that some people read the Bible in
a way that would be like focusing on the piccolo in the orchestra and claiming
that IT is the key to understanding the whole symphony, disclosing exactly what
the composer meant. And maybe if you just memorized the piccolos’ part and
really took it to heart, then you would understand not only this symphony
of Tschaikowski’s but all the rest of his music as well.
In a sense, this is what I perceive some people doing when it comes to
reading the Bible and particularly John 3:16. They focus on one or two verses or
passages instead of opening up to the full sweep and majesty of the Bible - its
power, it’s beauty, its poetry, its teachings, its messiness, and its longing
for a better world brought about by people who have been transformed by its
message - its whole message - that comes to us both in words and in the person
of Jesus Christ. And while John 3:16 is a wonderful verse, we need
to be reminded that it is not the summation of the biblical witness, and we need
to be reminded also that it behooves us to have a reasonable understanding and
grounding in the Bible so that we don’t we don’t fall prey to spurious biblical
interpretation.
There is a
charming story about a young priest who was being questioned by the search
committee of an Episcopal church in northern California - which shall remain
nameless. A member of the Vestry asked him, “Son, do you know the Bible?” The
priest responded, “Yes sir?” I
really know the
Bible.” “Which part of the Bible do you know best?” was the next question. “Sir,
I know the New Testament best” was the answer. So, he was then requested to
tell the committee something about the N.T., specifically about the Prodigal
Son.
“All right,” the priest said. “There was a man of the Pharisees named
Nicodemus who went to Jericho by night. And he fell upon stony ground and the
thorns choked him half to death. The next morning Solomon and his wife,
Gomorrah, came by and they took him down to the ark so that Moses could care for
him. But as he was going through the eastern gate toward the ark, his hair was
caught in a limb, and he hung there forty days and forty nights. Afterward he
was hungry and the ravens came and fed him. The next day three wise men came and
carried him down to the boat dock where he caught a ship to Nineveh. When he got
there he saw Delilah sitting on a wall.
“And Nicodemus said, ‘Throw her down off the wall.’ And the wise men said,
‘How many times shall we throw her down? Seven times seven?’ And Nicodemus
replied, ‘Nay, but seventy times seven.’ And they threw here down 490 times.
She burst asunder in their midst, and they picked up 12 baskets of fragments. My
question is? Whose wife will she be in the resurrection.?”
The Vestry person looked around at each of the other members of the
committee very seriously. “Friends,” he said, “I think we ought to call him.
He’s awfully young, but he really knows the Bible.”
I
thought that this story was a nice lead-in to the Nicodemus story we have just
heard (Gospel reading: John 3:1-17). What really concerns me, though, was the
number of you who kept nodding in agreement while I was telling the story!
Coming back to John 3:16, I have admit that Itend to be much more of a “big
picture” interpreter of the Bible than one who relishes getting into the
particulars. Questions such as “Why did Nicodemus come skulking to Jesus in the
dark of the night?” “Who was Nicodemus to begin with?” “What does
‘to be born from above’ or ‘born again’ really mean?” (Someone has facetiously
asked the question “Does this mean Nicodemus was going to get another navel?
Think about it.). Actually, all of these questions (except the last one) are
immensely important, but they just aren’t the ones that attract me most.
As I
read John 3:16, the two verbs, “loved” and “gave,” are first thing that I
notice: God “loved” and God “gave.” I firmly believe that all theology should
start with this understanding of God. From creation on forward, the overarching
lesson about God that we learn in Bible is that God loves and God gives. This
loving and this giving defines God right from the beginning.
In the beautiful and powerful creation stories in Genesis, God loves by
giving us this resplendent earth and the companions of humankind, and God said
“it is very good.”
In the stories of Hebrew history - the promise to Abraham (which we just
heard read), Moses and the Promised Land, and even through the stern warnings of
the Prophets, God is present in a loving relationship with Israel and always
giving the Israelites hope. And what could be more reassuring of God’s love and
gift than the Psalm we have just read/sung together: “The Lord shall watch
over your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever more.”
God’s unconquerable and compassionate love begins in eternity and comes to
full fruition in Jesus the Christ, the anointed one who reveals the height, the
depth, the width and breadth of our creator’s
loving and giving for each one of us, for each human life that has
ever lived - or will ever live. And this self-giving love of God finds
its epitome in the Cross. “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay
down his life for his friends.”
The extent of this love overwhelms me at times, I can’t grasp it, but I
know it embracesme, sustains me through thick or thin. All I have to do is read
the 23rd Psalm and my heart and soul (and even body) are calmed, warmed, and
energized. For a child (and maybe many adults, too), the beautiful little song
“Jesus Loves Me This I Know for The Bible Tells Me So” can also do the same
thing. “God is love and he or she who loves is of God,” he writer of
first John says.
But there is one more critically important thing to remember: As God loved
and gave, so must we. As the great former Archbishop of Canterbury, William
Temple, once put it:
“For God is Love, and desires the welfare of all His children; and if we
love Him, we too shall labour for what He desires: we shall labour for the well
being of all His children; the love of God must issue in the love of other
people........If we really loved the God who is made manifest in Christ, we
should cherish the image of Him which is stamped on every human soul.....Let us
test our Christian faith by this.”
I don’t think it could be said any better. What has been the gift of God’s
love for us is the gift we must pass on to others, not in just words but in
actions. And that is the path to the satisfaction of our greatest longings.
Some call it the Mystery of the Divine Paradox - and Jesus said it so well:
“If you lose your life for my sake you shall find it.” We all long for a
sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of contentment and happiness, a
sense of resting in God’s embrace - and the truth of the matter is that these
come our way precisely as a result of our giving ourselves away to the love and
service of others.
So, yes, John 3:16 is a magnificent verse and it holds a magnificent truth.
To paraphrase, God does love us beyond our wildest imaginations; and Jesus tells
about this love and shows us this love; and if we want to experience this at the
deepest parts of our being - indeed, quality of life that is eternal, then we
can -- if we believe him, trust him, and follow him. A great mentor of mine
once said, and i believe it so fully, “God has in his heart our greatest
happiness.”
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