John 3:13-17 NRSVUE
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “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.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Trigger warning. This sermon mentions child abuse. I won’t be going into any details, so it’s still suitable for all ages.
It’s kind of an odd thing for a Pastor to say, but I am the Black Sheep of my family of origin. As in, when I entered the church for my Great Aunt’s funeral, the whole room went silent and all eyes were on me. As if I was going to grow a second head, or breathe fire, or say something really uncomfortable. Probably the last one… I mean, if I was going to grow an extra body part, I’d choose to grow another arm, wouldn’t you?
I didn’t… say or do anything uncomfortable, that is. I also didn’t grow any body parts or breathe fire.
It was still a weird day.
The center aisle of St John’s Lutheran Church in Salem, Oregon, is very narrow.
Too narrow for the rolling cart that is usually used to transport the casket to the front of the church after the viewing.
So the male members of my family took on the job of pall bearers. Three short men on each side of the casket, shuffled sideways down the narrow aisle, but the aisle was so narrow that they didn’t really fit. So each time they shuffled past a pew, each of these short men would rise up onto their toes to shift their behinds over the backs of the pews.
Shuffle, shuffle, lift.
Shuffle, shuffle, lift.
Shuffle, shuffle, lift.
We’re all standing as the casket slowly processes.
Shuffle, shuffle, lift.
Shuffle, shuffle, lift.
And I’m thinking… If Aunt Alice was next to me, she would have been making the most inappropriate comments! It was all I could do to keep a straight face.
By that time in my life, I had already been a Church musician for many years and been a part of many services, so I knew that something going sideways is very normal for services.
But then, it went further sideways.
Do you remember those old preprinted funeral bulletins that would leave a blank space for you to type in the person’s name and pronouns? They used one of those, that’s fine, it was the mid 2000’s, but many churches were slow to adopt computers. But I didn’t know you could actually do that verbally…
So this Pastor who sounds Rev Lovejoy from the Simpsons, gets up to welcome the mourners and says,
“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life of, Alice Christine Dahlen. We come together in grief, acknowledging our our loss of, Alice.
May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, and sorrow hope, and in death resurrection…
And on and on he went. Every dang time her name came up in the liturgy, it was the verbal equivalent of “insert name here.”
I could practically hear the Times typewriter font.
By this time, I am trying so hard not to laugh out loud that I’m shaking with repressed laughter.
Fortunately I sat in the front so my family couldn’t see my face.
Then the organist began to play.
Something you may not realize is that being a musician is a very physical job.
I play flute, guitar, auxiliary percussion, and piano – very badly.
I have carpal tunnel, so bad that my hands go numb while playing guitar, and I’m only 53.
Alice planned her own funeral, decades beforehand, and she asked that the old organist be brought back to play for her funeral.
The old organist was in her 90’s and, as many organists do, she had severe arthritis in her hands and feet. Playing a pipe organ is a whole body workout. The base notes are played with your feet and there is no sustain pedal, so you have to hold down the keys to keep the notes sounding.
Combining arthritis, age and the full body workout of playing a pipe organ meant that she played very, very, very slowly. Which was understandable.
But then, Alice had also requested the old soloist be recalled from retirement. As a singer, I can tell you from personal experience that as we age, we lose range and we lose control of our pitch and vibrato.
Alice had chosen that old chestnut, “Oh Jerusalem,” and friends, those old musicians did their very best. I mean, they gave it everything they had left.
The soloist warbled, “Jer-uuuuuuuu – sa -lem. Jer-uuuuuuuu – sa -lem.”
And I just could not hold it in any longer. I covered my face with my hands and I laughed so hard under the cover of the booming organ that that whole pew shook. I heard someone say, “look, she’s crying so hard that she’s shaking!”
I’m glad they assumed that.
By the time the service was done, I was laughing so hard that I actually did cry from laughing so hard, so quietly. Alice had a great sense of humor. She would have loved her funeral!
Fortunately, after that pew shaking performance, my family left me alone.
You see, the reason that I am the black sheep of my family is because I and my cousins are survivors of child abuse. I did grieve very hard for my Great Aunt Alice, because she took me in when I moved out of my parents house at age 14.
I became the black sheep when my daughter was born. I told my family that I would not allow my uncle, the pedophile, around my children, so either he could come to family gatherings or I and my children could… well, they chose him.
In their eyes, you either towed the family line… that line being, all families have their problems, so get over it. Or you were out. So because I would not accept child abuse as normal, I was out.
This idea of dualism –
People are either right or wrong.
People are in or out.
People are bad or good.
People are saved or unsaved.
Dualism is problematic.
Because it doesn’t make space for the complexity — the nuances of life.
Or the nuances of faith.
Our reading today is from the gospel of John. The gospel of John was not written by the Beloved Apostle, but it was written in Syria, around the year 90 AD in a community founded by John the Beloved.
The gospel of John is full of metaphorical and allegorical language, as the authors, we think there were at least 2 authors, seek to “give flesh” to deeply spiritual ideas.
And poetic language is really, really hard to translate.
Today’s reading contains two of the most problematic translations in the book of John.
If you look at verses 15 and 16 you will see the phrase, “eternal life.”
The Greek phrase that is often translated “eternal life,” actually reads something closer to, “the life of the age to come.” (Borg, Evolution of the Word, p307)
That Greek phrase, “the life of the age to come,” means basically the same thing as, “God’s Kingdom Come.” It represents the hope that God will transform our lives through faith and that our faith will transform the world.
Our United Methodist Mission statement expresses a very similar idea.
“To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
Basically, to know God, that is, to be a disciple which means “student” of Jesus, is to enter into the life of the age to come. To live according to God’s Reign here on earth as it is in heaven, like we say in the Lord’s Prayer.
That changes how we read John 3:16 doesn’t it. Makes it sound more like this:
16 “For God so loved the world that They gave Their only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but enter into the lifestyle of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
Also the word that we usually translate as Believes ???????? (pisteu?n), has a little bit more meaning to it. It does mean to believe, but also to put your faith in, or put your trust in.
So we might more accurately read John 3:16 as:
God loved the world so much that God sent Their only Son, so that everyone who puts their faith in him will not be a part of this death-dealing way of life, but enter into the lifestyle of the Kingdom of Heaven here on this earth.
The essentials are still there — God loves everyone so much that anyone who is willing to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven is welcome. But the definition of believe is expanded and the concept of “the life of the age to come,” is put into more modern language. We’re still talking about Heaven, but also this life too.
The second problematic translation in this reading is in verse 17.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
???? (s?th?) — healed, well, cured, saved, wholistic wellness)
The word in question is saved, or ???? (s?th?) in Greek.
So the is a word that is pregnant with meaning.
It is often translated as healed, well, and cured, as well as saved.
The concept of sothe is wholistic wellness. Being well in mind, body and spirit.
Being spiritually, socially, physically, and mentally healthy.
So these verses aren’t just talking about the afterlife.
John 3:13-17 are talking about All of Life.
Life here on earth becoming like life in Heaven.
Which doesn’t mean that all of our problems are supposed to go away when we put our trust in God.
I wish, but no.
It means that we change when we put our faith in God.
Our values change.
Our words change.
Our behaviors change.
And when we change, we change the world around us, for everyone.
It was only by putting my trust in God that I found the courage to hold boundaries with my family of origin. And those boundaries were costly.
I never spent another holiday with my family of origin again. And my grandmother took all my pictures down off her walls.
But multiple generations of child abuse ended with me.
My children grew up safe.
Because safety for children is a part of the values of the Kingdom of Heaven.
But they grew up with only Tom’s side of the family as their extended family.
And I became the Black Sheep of the family, because in their minds, the only option was to either accept that abuse was normal, or reject the abuse which they defined as rejecting them.
They couldn’t see the third way that the Kingdom of Heaven offers, even though they believe in God.
They couldn’t see that I could both love and protect my children and not want my uncle around them. That I did love my uncle, who was actually a really good uncle to me, and know that he couldn’t be trusted around my children.
Life is complex. It’s nuanced.
Multiple things can be true at the same time.
We can love people and still hold boundaries.
People can not be ready to put their faith in God and still be welcome in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus didn’t come to condemn anyone, but to save everyone.
And sometimes we just don’t get it.
We just can’t hold that much complexity.
We can’t escape the dualism of in groups and out-groups until we come face to face with God.
On the day that my grandmother died, I was at home with my children and I smelled my grandmother’s perfume. She always wore Oscar de La Renta perfume.
My husband Tom, is allergic to perfume, so I was hunting all over the house, trying to find where this smell was coming from.
Did one of my kids get into my box of perfumes?
Where is that smell coming from???
Finally I ceased searching and came to a stop in front of the living room window.
I could feel my grandmother’s presence so strongly.
I could feel, without words, that she loved me and that now she understood my choices.
There was no sense of judgement or apology. No right or wrong.
Just love and understanding.
She could see clearly now, and everyone was loved and understood, including me.
Then the smell of her perfume was gone, and so was she.
I found out the next day that she had died at that time.
God did not come to condemn anyone.
God came that everyone might find wholeness…healing…wellness…salvation.
Even the people we don’t understand in this life.
