Believe it or Not
a sermon based on John 3:14-21
by Rev. Randy Quinn

For those of us who have chosen an intentional Lenten fast, there is good news today: we are into the second half of Lent. I noticed that when I turned in my Lenten Devotional booklet this week and saw the staples! We are past the half-way point.

There are 40 days of Lent, but Sundays do not count since they are always considered days of celebration in honor of the Resurrection. So the truth is that there are 45 days in the season of Lent. And today is the 26th day of that season.

For those of us who have been serious about a Lenten fast, that is good news. Whether you chose to fast from one meal a day or one meal a week or are fasting from chocolates or caffeine or any other particular food, or maybe you are fasting from television or video games, by now you have found yourself experiencing a different kind of hunger. It’s a longing for something we want, not something we need.

And for those who have experienced that hunger, as I have, it’s important to remember that one purpose of our fasting is to remind us of our dependence upon God. It is to experience the truth of the words of scriptures that we don’t live by bread alone; rather, we live by and depend upon the very word of God (Dt. 8:3; Mt. 4:4).

For those who have not been as intentional about the Lenten discipline of fasting, I invite you to start now. There are rewards involved in fasting that cannot be described or understood until you have given it a try.

I remember one Lenten season, for instance, during which I fasted from refined sugar. What I realized by the end of the season was that I could taste the sweetness of natural sugars more easily. I realized that God had been giving me sweet things but I hadn’t noticed because my taste buds were not properly “tuned” to that sweetness. I had been eating sugar so often that I was over stimulating my sense of taste. It had become like many addictions in that I needed more and more sugar to believe something was sweet. What was worse, I had acted as if the naturally sweet things in nature were not sweet at all.

That Lenten fast allowed me to experience the sweetness God intended for me, not a substitute sweetness that marketers and manufacturers want me to eat so they can benefit. Now, it may be that only someone who has experienced that can fully understand what I’m saying, but it does provide an interesting point of entry into our text for today.

John 3:16 is probably the most well known scripture verse. It is a favorite of many, in part because it seems to summarize the essence of our faith. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16, NIV). Although I don’t think it is complete without the next verse, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (Jn. 3:17, NIV).

But we have heard it so often that we forget how profound it is. We have recited it so often that we have failed to see the power in it. We have become so familiar with it that we no longer listen to it. Like the refined sugar in my diet, we have become so accustomed to it that we miss the point of it.

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
(Jn. 3:16-17)

I know I’m guilty, but I do try to not use “church words” in my sermons. I try to speak using language familiar to all of us – and to define words that are not commonly used outside of the church. The other extreme, in my mind, are the signs that frequently show up at sporting events with the simple message: “John 3:16.”

For me and probably for you, that sign makes perfect sense.
For people of faith, that message is clear.

But what about the people who have never read the Bible? What about the people that I assume the message is trying to reach? They haven’t a clue about its meaning. In the end, a simple sign with a profound message is only “preaching to the choir.” It uses insider language to speak to insiders about a story that is intended for outsiders.

But this week I came across a preacher who was asking a different question. He wondered, why don’t they make the sign say “John 3:19”? Go ahead, look it up. John 3:19 is true, too. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

Why not that message? Well, because that isn’t news. That isn’t profound. That message simply states the obvious. You need not look any further than the front page of the newspaper to see the evidence. People do evil things to one another all the time. And in retaliation, good people often do evil things, too. “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth,” they say. Some so-called good people even choose to carry concealed weapons so that if they encounter evil people with guns they will be able to “speak their language,” the language of hatred and violence, the language of darkness and evil.

That is the message of John 3:19. And it’s an all too common message in our society today. John 3:16, on the other hand, speaks powerful good news. John 3:17 offers a new way of understanding what God is about. And believe it or not, it’s true.

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
(Jn. 3:16-17)

God could address the evil of our world with a violent flood. In fact, God did that once. And it didn’t work. God could address the evil of our world by bringing a violent cataclysmic end to it. In fact, in the Revelation of John, that kind of destruction is described as a possibility for us and for our world.

But our text for today reminds us that God prefers to use the language of love. God chooses to speak of reconciliation and offers the gift of eternal life. That, by the way, is also how the book of Revelation ends – not in destruction, but with an image of restoration and hope (Rev. 21:1-6).

Believe it or not, God – the All-Powerful One – chooses not to exert power over us. God – who is pure and holy – chooses not to require us to become holy before hearing us or coming to us. God uses the vulnerability of love to invite us into a new way of living.

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
(Jn. 3:16-17)

It’s as simple as that. Believe it or not.

The problem is we have been taught there is no such thing as a free lunch. We begin with the assumption that we must do something in order to deserve God’s love. We act as if there is something we must do to deserve the free gift that God is offering to us.

Too many of us have accepted a “free gift” in the past only to find out that there was a catch. The “free meal” included a sales pitch. The “free dog” did not include the cost of the shots (not to mention the costs of owning the dog). We have seen too many “buy one get one free” to believe that God could offer us the promise of eternal life as a free gift with so strings attached.

We know we deserve to be punished. So we think there must be a catch. We know what we really deserve. So we find it hard to believe that God would find a way to pay the price for us.

But the truth is:

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
(Jn. 3:16-17)

Believe it or not, it’s true.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.