There is a
term that comes up a lot in John’s Gospel.
It’s “the
world.”
In John,
“the world” doesn’t mean the planet earth or nature.
It means the
way things are – the system
-- the way of the world, so to
speak.
It mostly means
human society.
The world
doesn’t come off too well in John.
When he
talks about “the world” John doesn’t have much good to say.
The world
hates Jesus. The world hates the disciples.
The world in
John is a fallen place, a realm of darkness.
Disciples unfortunately
have to live in the world,
but they should not belong to it.
We find John’s
basic attitude in the hymn
“I have decided to follow Jesus.”
You know the
line I mean.
“The world
behind me. The cross before me.
I’ll follow him.”
It’s all pretty
clear. Jesus good. World bad.
But in
today’s lesson, right smack dab in the heart of John,
we find a most peculiar-- a downright amazing -- verse.
When John
saw what he had written, he shook his head and muttered,
“Where did that come from?”
It may be
the most famous verse in the New Testament.
But we usually
miss what a shocker it is
in the context of a book about how
bad “the world” is.
John 3: 16 –
“For God so loved the world . . . . //
For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whoever
believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.”
It was hard
for John to write that
because John and the world
were
clearly not on good terms.
He felt
hated by the world. He says that straight out.
And it
sounds as if he hated the world right back.
That’s not
an unusual attitude.
Lord Byron
wrote:
“I have not loved the world; nor the
world me.
But let us part fair foes. I do
believe,
though I have found them not, there
may be
. . . hopes which will not deceive, . . . I would also deem
O’er others griefs that some
sincerely grieve,
That two, or one, are almost what
they seem – . . . . “
“I have not loved the world; nor the
world me.”
Byron didn’t
much like the world because it didn’t like him.
John was the
same way.
He felt
rejected by the world, judged by it.
He wasn’t
what the world thought he ought to be.
So naturally
he responded in kind.
The world
wasn’t what he thought it ought to be either.
I don’t know
how that strikes you,
but sign me up with Byron and John.
The world
hasn’t always judged me kindly
and I am perfectly ready to return
the favor.
I had unkind
labels for every girl in college
who declined to go out with me.
Nowadays, whenever
someone honks their opinion of my driving,
I have to fight a reflex to express
my opinion of their honking.
The world is
addicted to judging, condemning, guilting,
and shaming.
Not good.
So I judge
the world back, condemn it, guilt it, shame it
– and in judging the world, I join
it.
I become
part of the elaborate network of mutual condemnation.
Then I bump
into John 3: 16 and it jerks me up short.
“For God so
loved the world . . . . “//
That’s good
news and bad news.
The good
news is that I’m part of the world God loves.
The bad news
is that God loves the rest of the world too.
What could
he be thinking?
God’s love
for the world runs right through Scripture.
Genesis
Chapter 1 verse 31:
“God saw all that he had made and
indeed it was very good.”
It wasn’t
perfect but it was very good.
Sociologist
James Davison Hunter has written a helpful book
titled To Change The World.
It’s about
how Christians are called to relate to American culture,
how we can make a positive
difference.
The first
step he says is appreciation. Hunter writes,
“Goodness, beauty, and truth remain
in this fallen creation . . . .
(P)eople of every creed and no creed
have talents and abilities,
possess knowledge, wisdom, and
beauty that are . . .
in harmony with God’s will and purposes. . . .
(T)here is a natural life . . . a
natural order in creation. . . .
the dazzling processes
of growth in a tree
or a bug or a newborn baby,
the intricacies of molecular biology
the stunning ordered complexity of
mathematics,
the underlying logic of music
all speak of an order
that God has created . . . .
These things . . . ,” Hunter says,
“Christians should
neither dismiss nor disparage
but rather be grateful
for and be delighted by
because they
are gifts of God’s grace . . . .”
There really
is something good about the world.
People may
be wrongheaded, neurotic, and dysfunctional.
But there is
still something there to enjoy,
something to shake our heads and
laugh about,
something that makes us say, “That’s
special.”
So here’ s a
suggestion for a Lenten discipline this year.
Suppose we
ease up on the world a little.
It’s easy to
get stuck in an attitude
-- easy to get grouchy and grumbly
seeing
everything and everybody
through a lens of negativity.
Suppose this
Lent we keep eating chocolate
and checking our Face Book pages,
but we take a break from focusing on
faults.
We have to
start with a 3 step process of garbage removal.
The first
step is knowing that the world’s judgments of us are rubbish.
The second
step is forgiving the world for being too broken
to see us as we really are.
The third
step is to know that our judgments of the others
are every bit as twisted as their
judgments of us.
Then we are
free to begin enjoying people.
Our
appreciation and delight muscles
are likely to be out of shape.
It may be a
strain at first.
This takes
practice.
One way is
to sit still for 5 minutes
and let people come randomly to
mind.
As each
person’s image pops up,
we hold onto the thought of them
just long enough to think these
words:
“Equally a child of God.
Equally destined for
likeness with Christ.”
So what does
this have to do with the Christian faith
and the sacrament of Confirmation?
Check the
vows of the Baptismal Covenant.
What have we
promised in our Baptism?
What does Confirmation
spiritually empower us to do?
“To respect
the dignity of every human being.”
“To seek and
serve Christ in all persons,
loving your neighbor as yourself.”
We cannot
make a positive difference in this world
with our hands
until we
have first looked kindly upon this world
with our eyes.
That is how
we bless this world and convey God’s blessing.
We cultivate
our appreciation of things and of people.
So this
Lent, I urge you to take on this arduous discipline.
Cheer up.
Lighten up. Be kinder.
Take a close
at someone each day
to find a spark of goodness to enjoy.
