homiletics 5 MARCH 2023 God So Loves The World
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help?
My help cometh from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper:
the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil:
he shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out
and thy coming in
from this time forth, and even for evermore.
+++++++
Psalm 121, among verses and passages of Scripture my mother helped me learn as a boy. Good for a lifetime, those memory verses never go away - - this ancient Hebrew song of hope and faith claiming the promises of God. Today, following our Genesis reading, Psalm 121 echoes the faith of Abraham ->
trusting in God, Abraham’s faith is the foundation of Israel, Judaism and Christianity (and I suppose Islam?).
Paul in Romans this morning is citing Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” - - the faith of Abraham: believing God, and stepping out in faith, brought Abraham to salvation, and Israel into being. Faith:
Faith is like Love, Love is not a feeling, Love is ACTION: how you treat others. Faith is not Belief, Faith is WHAT YOU DO; what you do because of who and what you trust. Faith is ACTION.
As the Faith of Abraham is the foundation of living under the God of Creation, the Baptismal Covenant is the foundation of life in Christ. Standing on the promises of God, we are baptized into the KINGDOM of God: you are already in the Kingdom - - not some nebulous after-life walking streets of gold and wearing angels’ wings, but a way of life here and now, where love and sacrifice are the standard, and the Way of the Cross is the way of life: our destiny as people of God and disciples of Christ.
Nicodemus "does not get it" - - Nicodemus does not understand Jesus, ONE, because Nicodemus is expecting a Messiah who will overthrow the Roman occupation of the Holy Land, restore the throne of David, and usher in the Shekinah, the return of God’s presence to the Temple; and that is not what Nicodemus hears Jesus saying.
Nicodemus does not understand Jesus TWO, because Gospel John takes Jesus deep into spiritual mysticism, a near-incomprehensible discourse that, for Nicodemus, Jesus might as well be speaking in tongues. Nicodemus does not get it.
So, to use a term from a charming book* our 8th grade teacher read to our Cove School class three-quarters of a century ago, “I’ll splainify”. SPLAINIFY ->
In today’s gospel, written long decades after Good Friday and Easter, Gospel John quotes Jesus, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” - -
John 3:16, another memory verse from my childhood, a Bible verse known throughout Christendom. “Whosoever believeth in him” - - I count myself “a believer” - - in God, whom, [Jesus is quoted another place] “God is love”.
In my Father's house are many mansions, and I have other sheep who are not of this fold. God is NOT a self-important-little-fellow banty rooster deity who is exclusive - - members only - - who only loves and allows into his kingdom those who “believe” and are certain that they are the only ones who are “saved” - - if that's what you believe, then as J B Phillips wrote, "Your God Is Too Small" - -
Coming back from the James Webb Space Telescope, the current knowledge of God is that there are TWO TRILLION GALAXIES in the Universe.
God is magnanimous Pantokrator, gracious Creator of all that is, seen and unseen, who at the Big Bang commanded “ye-HI“ BE!! - - who, finishing his work on the Sixth Day, looked at all he had made and loved it. “God so loved the world” - -> Believers and Doubters. Jew and Gentile. Circumcised and Uncircumcised. Sinner and Angel. Male, Female and Unsure, Black, White, Brown. - - Gay, Straight, Undecided. Baptized and Unbaptized, Red and Blue, Slave and Free - - God loves you and “saves you” into God’s kingdom. Yet, as Nicodemus wonders, "How can this BE?"
It can BE and IS because God says so, in and as the Creating Word of God, who is Jesus Christ, the LOGOS.
Two TRILLION galaxies, and our own Milky Way Galaxy is only ONE, and God loves you!
In one of the church’s creeds,** a line says,
the Father incomprehensible,
the Son incomprehensible,
and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible;
and yet they are not three incomprehensibles,
but one incomprehensible.
The Peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God: by the grace of God you know and love God, but it is not possible to understand and explain the Incomprehensible. So try this:
What and Where is the kingdom of God? Jesus’ words from another gospel: The kingdom of God is the love of God spread upon the earth and we do not see it. (GThomas 113)
At John 17:3, praying to God, Jesus says, “THIS is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
For salvation to eternal life, you hardly need a mustard seed of faith, of trust, for “God so loves the world” including you, just as you are, the way you are, no matter what, no exceptions. This IS the Kingdom of God. So be quick to love, and make haste to be kind.
++++++++++
Homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida, March 5, 2023, Second Sunday in Lent, Year A. Text: lectionary readings for the day.
* Elizabeth Hart Ritter, "Parasols Is For Ladies" (1941) read to us by our beloved 8th grade teacher Miss Virginia Parker.
** Athanasian Creed, BCP p.864
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-many-galaxies/
Image: Artist's logarithmic scale conception of the observable universe. The Solar System gives way to the Milky Way, which gives way to nearby galaxies which then give way to the large-scale structure and the hot, dense plasma of the Big Bang at the outskirts. Each line-of-sight that we can observe contains all of these epochs, but the quest for the most distant observed object will not be complete until we've mapped out the entire Universe
