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Greensboro, NC

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Greensboro, NC

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March 26, 2006 Lent 4

John 3:14-21
"Living in the Light of Christ"

Back in the Good Old Days…

Back in the good old days of 1999, before 9/11 and the War on Terror, back in the days when the federal budget deficit was only 6 trillion dollars instead of 9 trillion, back when you could buy Gasoline for a dollar sixteen, and 4 million fewer Americans lived in poverty and a higher percentage of Americans had health insurance.

Back in the good old days of 1999 a US Harris poll found that number one fear of adult Americans was…snakes.

Now I don't know about you, but I am perfectly fine with snakes as long as I can see them—oh about where John and Gay Cass are sitting. But if a snake suddenly appeared behind me where George is, or came out from underneath this bible, or the microphone suddenly turned into a snake, I would be scared…WIT LESS.

It's the surprise element, the suddenness of being confronted with something that I can't control that can harm, perhaps even kill me, that frightens me.

Having a snake suddenly appear at close range poised to strike is a lot like the consequences of sin. Often we are only vaguely aware of the direct consequences of our sins—the loss of trust when we lie or steal—the loss of respect when we act less than honorably—the loss of good health when we abuse our bodies with food, drugs, too much stress or too little rest. And these are just the sins we individually commit. How much more are we unaware of the corporate and institutional sin we participate in by buying cheap goods made by workers paid less than a living wage; burning the fossil fuels in our homes and cars that are destroying our planet; failing to use our economic and military resources to protect the vulnerable and powerless; and I'm hardly scratching the surface of the sin in which we are all enmeshed no matter the purity of our intentions.

And, when we sin we are rarely aware of how our actions can backfire and turn around to bite us or others. In last week's sermon I mentioned that despite what our culture teaches us about striving for the goal of becoming autonomous self-reliant and self-sufficient individuals, that's really impossible. We are all interdependent. Our sins affect one another. Do you think it was only those Israelites who complained that got bitten by the snakes? Ponder for a moment some wrong action you took that ended up hurting someone else, perhaps even someone you love. While we can instigate and initiate sinful actions we have little control over their consequences.

Today's scripture lessons tell us there is only one remedy for sin, God's saving action. Human sin has consequences, including pain and affliction. The only cure for sin is to turn to God. God's mercy delivers us when we turn to God, and in doing so, in doing so, we turn from death to life.

The constant theme throughout the entire biblical narrative is that God persists in saving us from sin even though we persist in sinning. Why?? The answer is found on countless bumper stickers: John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life,”

God saves us from sin which alienates us from God and harms us and others because God so loves the world. God acts for us again and again, never rejecting us. God persists in loving us despite our rejection, and in that great and powerful love is our salvation.

Salvation is always a statement first about our need for it, 2 nd God's action in giving us salvation, and lastly the consequence of salvation for us.

What is that consequence of our being saved by God? For us as followers of Jesus Christ salvation means walking, living in the light of the Savior. Being saved, living in the light of Christ, is more than our mental assent to: “yes, Lord I accept you as my personal savior.” Salvation is more than a fire insurance policy keeping us from the fires of hell in the afterlife.

Gail O'Day, a NT scholar, reminds us that eternal life does not mean mere endless duration of human existence after we die on earth, but the term eternal life in the gospel of John is a way of describing our life here on earth now--- as living our life in recognition of the unending presence and love of God in our lives and in our world. Or said another way, eternal life is not postponed until we are dead, but begins now, in the present, in orientating our lives towards God's love for us and having faith in God's will for us.

In turning away from sin, in repenting, and turning towards the salvation God offers us through Jesus Christ, our life is reshaped and redefined by the love of God in Jesus. The ancient fathers and mothers of the early church tell us that it is not possible to know God, only to love God. Or said another way, salvation is not a concept, but a way of life now. So that living in the light of Christ, accepting salvation, is about cooperating with the ongoing transformation in growth and development God seeks and is already doing in each of us and in our world.

Because we are beloved children God yearns for what is best for us. And always to that end, God is actively working in our lives preparing our hearts and minds to receive the wholeness, the salvation here and now that is ours in Christ Jesus. Not just in a time after death. God is in the business of bringing what is life-giving to us right now. Turning us away from sin. Yet the changes in our lives are often slow and difficult, because they come about only when we are ready and when we allow them. Since God loves us, force is never used. Authentic love is never controlling or forceful, but always inviting, respecting the personhood of the beloved.

    -- M. Robert Mulholland Jr.  SHAPED BY THE WORD writes: “I HAVE COME to realize that the primary work of God's grace in our lives is to liberate us from this destructive bondage to the crust of self in order to shape us into wholeness.  God seeks to create in us a whole new structure of habits, attitudes, and perceptions; of dynamics of personal and corporate relationships; of patterns of reaction and response to the world.”

Moving us from death and sin towards fuller and fuller salvation, new life.

As we live in cooperation with the light Jesus shines on the path towards new life, it is important to notice, and celebrate, occasions of new life. The simple acts of care, kindness, compassion we participate in through Operation in As Much, Adapt a village of AIDS orphans in Africa, this congregation's preparing and serving meals for the Urban ministry's night shelter every fourth Monday month in and month out for nearly 20 years, our bringing macaroni and cheese and canned goods on Sunday for the Servant Center, the Small's adaption of a baby from a third world country, these and the other ways we reach out with love to our neighbors and one another, should not be dismissed as obligatory actions, required of Jesus' followers, but rather recognized for what they are--as signs of eternal life of our living and moving and having our being in God's presence. Signs of salvation.

The same is true for the small steps we take in resisting sin—resisting our addictions, our demons, our courage when acted upon, our voices raised for justice. In all these acts we are living in the light of Christ Jesus.

For God so loved the world, God came and comes to fully participate then and now in life with us. Jesus redeems us for life in the here and now, not just in the hereafter. In the epistle lesson Paul reminds us we were dead to sin, but that God out of God's great mercy and love has made us alive together in Christ Jesus. By God's grace we have been saved and this is NOT our own doing, says Paul. It is a gift of God. Let us accept that gift and live in the bright light of Jesus' redeeming love, continuing his ministry to the sin sick, the outcasts and the powerless, speaking truth to power. Or said another way, let us continue to be “United in Christ, reaching out with love, transforming lives.”

Let us pray: God of all time and places, in Jesus Christ, lifted up on the cross, you opened for us the path to eternal life. Grant that we may joyfully walk in Jesus' light and not cling in fear to the darkness that permeates our world. Amen.