So love

The following is a sermon I preached this morning on John 3:1-17.

“For God so loved the world…”

Have you ever stopped long enough to ponder what “so love” is?

“For God so loved the world…”

So love is hard to define, but it’s easy for us to recognize. To help us understand so love, I want to share a few stories with you.

There was a young girl who was sick and needed a blood transfusion. Her slightly older brother had the same blood type so the parents and doctors gently explain the situation to the boy and asked if he would be willing to let them take blood from him to give to his sister. The boy silently pondered the situation for several moments and then with a resolute look on his face, agreed. The doctors performed the transfusion while proud and hopeful parents looked on. Afterwards the boy timidly asked the doctors “how long till I die?” The boy thought he had to give all of his blood to his sister. “So love.”

During WWII in the Nazi death camps, if one prisoner escaped 10 others were randomly selected and executed. On one such occasion one of the 10 men selected cried out that he had a wife and children and begged for his life to be spared. Much to the shock of the prisoners and guards, a fellow prisoner stepped forward and willing died in place of the chosen man. “So love.”

A son gently told he must be humiliated, tortured, and eventually killed for the sake of all, even those that despise him. After much anguish he obediently gives him self for others, and father and son weep together. “So love.”

“So love” is hard to define, yet easy to recognize. We have all heard countless stories like these. We have all heard countless stories of “so love” because humanity, made in the image of a so loving God, is also capable of “so love”. And as I came to this realization I began to wonder, not whether or not we so love, because we all so love. But I began to wonder what do we so love? For example:

There was a loyal husband and father of four who was convicted of embezzlement. It is the scandal of the small country church. The congregation whispered for months “Can you believe the finance officer has stolen thousands of dollars from our church?? From us?? Hadn’t we always wondered how he lived so lavishly?” Meanwhile the innocent wife and children slowly withdraw and eventually leave the church, completely unnoticed. What do we so love? Our money or our neighbors?

Untold numbers of men, women, teenagers, and children get hooked on drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling or countless other things every day because they are looking to fill a void. And we turn our back on them. We decide they aren’t the kind of people we want around. They might steal from us, or mess up our building, or perhaps we are worried that just by having them around somehow our own family and friends might be infected by them. What do we so love? Our comfort zones or our neighbors?

As you can tell from these stories, as well as the stories from your own lives, so love is an incredibly powerful thing. In fact, it is so powerful that it transforms us. Sometimes slowly and imperceptibly, little by little, and other times we are transformed quickly by leaps and bounds. But fast or slow, so love is transforming.

The verse doesn’t just say that God so loved the world, it says God so loved the world that God sent God’s one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Many wonderful, deeply religious, well-meaning, well-intending people have used this verse to tell others that if they would only believe in Jesus Christ all their sins would be forgiven and they would be able to escape hell and spend a blissful eternity in heaven. But to reduce this verse to simply what happens after we die is to miss the point entirely.

In the Gospel of John, eternal life is used to describe a change in life caused by belief in Jesus. Eternal life is used to describe not simply a long period of time but rather continually living in the presence of God. Eternal life isn’t about just about knowing where we go after we die, It’s about the here and now, it’s about being willing to enter into the presence of God and to live our transformed lives there. Eternal life starts now, in the present. It’s about being willing to accept the invitation to believe and to share in the life of a loving relational God.

The invitation to believe is an invitation to be transformed by so love. God intends to transform the world with so love. God intends to redeem the world with so love. That’s why God sent Jesus in the first place. That’s why Jesus’ ministry was so profound and provocative because he lived a life of so love. This transforming power of so love is why we try to emulate Jesus, it’s why we come to church, it’s why we put so much time, energy, and effort into ushering in the kingdom of God, it is because we hope to transform ourselves and the world through God’s so love.

The offer of new life that Jesus extends to Nicodemus flows out of God’s abundant love for the world. God so loved the world, and Jesus, the son of God, the incarnation and personification of God’s love also so loved the world. Jesus’ embodiment of so love is what made his life and ministry so profound. It is what makes his words still resonate with us even today.

But this offer of new life, is an invitation to new life that begins right now. We don’t have to wait till we die to experience the new life offered by Jesus. Because Jesus is more than salvation from death. Jesus is an incredible example of the transforming power of so love, right now. Just take a look around. See how far reaching the effect of his so love is. Hundreds of denominations created, hundreds of thousands of churches in existence, millions of lives touched in one way or another, a world in the process of transformation. And while none of us are the savior of the world, we all hold this transforming power of so love because we are all made in the image of a so loving God.

We all so love something. It’s a love that transforms us and overflows into the world around us. But here’s the thing. What we so love determines how we are transformed. When we so love money we become more and more like the tax collectors. When we so love theology we become more and more like the Pharisees. When we so love our comfort zones we become more and more conformed to society around us. But when we so love God, when we choose to be born anothen, to be born again and to be born from above, we become more and more like Christ. When we so love our neighbors we allow the love of God to permeate our lives so fully that it shines out of us and transforms the world around us.

During this season of lent, as you consider the things that tempt you, I encourage you to remember this: For God so loved the world. For God so loves us.

What do we so love?

Amen.