Sermon: John 18: 33-37/Revelation1: 4b- 8

Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, and so our readings are about Jesus as king and our focus is on God's kingdom.

Of course, we live in a kingdom! And our king, as his mother before him, calls himself a servant of the people – he is in his role to serve us. This is a model from our faith, from Christianity – the model of the servant king.  But, still, how different to the way Jesus lived out his kingship.  In spite of all that King Charles does and all the places he visits and his heart for our planet.  In spite even of his recent cancer diagnosis and treatment, King Charles remains insulated from the pain and suffering in the world.  He lives in palaces and travels in entourages and eats banquets and receives the best care for his medical needs.

Already then, we start to identify the differences between King Charles and King Jesus.  No palaces for Jesus.  No luxuries.  No privileged lifestyle that sets him above those around him.  Jesus is not able to walk away from pain.  It is all around him as he teaches and heals, and the climax of his time on earth finds him unable to avoid one of the most painful deaths that humans have ever invented.  This is a very different king and a very different kingdom.

 
Our Gospel reading today gives us John’s version of the conversation between Jesus and Pilate.  There are not many words here and yet so much is said. You can feel the space between these two men as they respond to the situation they find themselves in.

Let’s look at Jesus’ words in verse 36.  He says: My kingdom is not of this world.  If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews.  But now my kingdom is from another place.

When we think of God’s Kingdom – the kingdom of which Jesus is king – these words are vital.  Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. Jesus says that if his kingdom was of this world his servants would be fighting.  But this is not what God’s kingdom is about: we do not need to fight to protect Jesus, to stop him being hurt or killed.

Jesus’ coronation was with a crown of thorns that pierced him.  Of course, this crown was given to Jesus to mock him.  But it is also a potent symbol of his kingdom.  He is a king who does not leave others to suffer – he suffers with his people.  It is very apt that our suffering servant King’s first crown is one of thorns that brings him pain. 

We are not Christians to avoid pain – that is not how it works. As we reflect over the past year I know that suffering has been quite central in the experience of some of us. Suffering is never easy, it is never something that we choose for ourselves and it is not what God desires.  But I wonder if we can find some encouragement as we recognise that Christ’s kingdom is born out of pain, and suffering, and poverty. 

For me this raises a question: where is Christ’s kingdom being born into our world at the moment?  In the suffering that we see on our TV screens and hear on our radios, God seems absent.  I do not believe for one moment that God causes any of that suffering and pain.  I do not believe it is his will.  But I do believe that his kingdom can be found there – that Christ himself can be found in that pain: he is there with the suffering; with the injured; with the maimed; with the hungry; with the naked; with the poor and homeless.  If Christ feels absent to us, we may need to look for him in a different place: we may need to look for him amongst the suffering and find him in our own suffering.

Even in these difficult times, when we see suffering all around us, God says to us:  Be still and know that I am God. 

Are you a Miranda fan?  Over the past few years Miranda has struggled with chronic fatigue.  She had to give up the work which she loved and face up to some difficult realities.  I am a fan and on the day I was writing this I listened to an interview with her on the program ‘Young Again’. It was not a big part of what she said but in explaining what she went through and what she learnt she mentioned ‘being still’ – not running from the emotion welling up in her but being still in it.  To find God’s presence in these times of suffering we need to still ourselves: God is always there.  Don’t beat yourself up if God feels absent – that is not what God wants.  Still yourself; just be still; and just trust.

Later in our passage Jesus says (verse 37): You are right in saying I am a king.  In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.

More powerful words.  Jesus says that the reason he came into the world was to testify to the truth, and that everyone who is on the side of truth listens to him.

And Pilate responds, ‘What is truth?’

We live in a world where truth is constantly compromised.  We live in a world where we can not trust what our public figures say; where we can not trust film and photographs.  It feels like there are many, many people in the world currently who would echo Pilate’s words and say, ‘What is truth?’

Different versions of the Bible translate the last words in verse 37 slightly differently, but I wonder, what does it mean to be ‘on the side of the truth’, or to ‘belong to the truth’, or to ‘love truth’?

The opposite of the truth is lies.  We all know how destructive lies can be.  In personal relationships lies destroy trust and love.  This translates and magnifies when lies happen on a community and national level.  Lies undermine love; they undermine trust; they divide people.  God is love and God is one.  God is the opposite of lies: God is truth.  Of course this is one of the descriptions Jesus gives of himself:  I am the way, the TRUTH and the life.

One thing we do as we come to church each week is to confess.  Again, here we find the truth.  We need to bring the truth of our failures to God to mend that relationship with him.  Truth can be difficult to say, and painful to hear, but there is something about the truth that liberates us and cleanses us.  Earlier in John, Jesus talks of ‘knowing the truth and the truth setting us free’.

When truth is painful, or awkward, the temptation is to sweep it under the carpet, or bury it, or ignore it, or to numb ourselves from the pain it causes.  Can I may be just give one example of this?  Climate change is real – it is happening and it is already having a huge impact on people’s lives across the planet.  But it is a hard truth to face.  To be honest, it is an overwhelming truth to face.  So, what do we do?  We ignore it.  We pretend that it is not our problem.  We convince ourselves that there is nothing we can do about it, that we have no responsibility.  We may numb ourselves from the pain it causes, by drinking alcohol, or booking holidays, or going to concerts – we throw ourselves into something else.  I completely understand this.  But I believe also that God wants us to face the truth – it will be painful; it is painful.  We may need to mourn and grieve together but Jesus didn’t just say he was the truth, he also said he was the way and the life.  And here is his model to us: his way is not to avoid the pain and suffering.  His model is to go through the pain and suffering, facing and being the truth, and find the life that is on the other side of this.  Life in all its fullness and colour.  That seems difficult to believe, it may seem impossible, but God’s kingdom is an ‘upside down place’ where truth is found in contradictions: where suffering can bring joy and where death leads to life.
How do we testify to our faith in our current age? We need to seek the truth and face the pain. 

Is there a truth you have swept under the carpet? That you have numbed yourself to.  In God’s ‘not of this world’ kingdom maybe that is something that you need to go away and start facing.  It may bring pain, but God is in that pain, and I believe he will show you the way through it.

Verse 7 of our Revelation reading says:  Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.

When I read this, I thought: why will we be mourning? The answer that came to me is that I will be mourning because I have missed the point of my life here on earth.  Jesus will come with his truth, and I will see my life for the sham it often is.  I will see that I have not faced the truths in this world, I have not grieved, and I have not let myself suffer to find that deeper relationship with my God.

God invites us into his kingdom.  His kingdom which is born in suffering, that abides in his truth and ultimately brings the love and life which we all seek.  I encourage us all to face the truth Christ brings us, to not shy away from the suffering it might bring: to seek that deeper life with our God who is love and longs for us as we long for him.

 

Autumn

As I step in to Autumn

the days close around me.

The edges of light draw in.

I am not restricted:

I am held.

Encircled.

And I slip,

foetus-like,

into the place of rest.

 

When the clouds are heavy

and the storm breaks,

I sense my vulnerability.

The encroaching fear

needles me.

Will the flood sweep me away?

 

But the holding is gentle

and the silence is safe:

it beckons me deeper.

Encased as a seed,

I tumble into the abyss

and curl into the loam.

 

I am planted deep in the divine.

The darkness shines.

I wait to hear love’s call.

Photo by Red Dot on Unsplash

Musing #10 The End of the Summer

As someone who remains caught up in the rhythms of the academic year, the end of the summer is a time that evokes a mixture of feelings.  The freedom that enabled me to set my own pace has come to an end: I step back into the structure of a school day and a working week with all the restrictions and pressures that brings.  And yet that structure is also reassuring and familiar and, at the beginning of a new year there is the hope for the year ahead: new relationships; achievements; projects.  Another opportunity for a new beginning.

This year, as I came to the end of my summer break, I observed a different feeling, that has been there before but is difficult to name.  It is a sense of being scattered.  My summer weeks were packed full of activity and connection.  Each meet up, with family and friends, old and new, was a cherished time and yet somehow it feels like I left a part of myself out there, at each meet up.  And I am left with this sense of being scattered.

I am reminded of the wisdom which teaches that we need to stop and rest because we need to give time for ourselves to catch up with ourselves.  It is like these parts of myself have got snagged into the lives of the people I met with and it is difficult for them to untie themselves and make their way back to me.  There is a delay in the re-grouping.  And there is then a need for me to gather, not just wait for them to turn up.

Autumn, of course, is a time of gathering: we gather up the fruit of the seeds we earlier planted (and the seeds that planted themselves!).  In recognising this I reflected on all the meeting-ups and re-connections I had over the summer in a different way.  Each of them has produced fruit of some kind.  I spent some time looking through my diary and remembering my summer days.  I identified some of the fruit that they had produced: a new insight; a piece of knowledge; a deepening connection; a reconciliation; a felt empathy; a source of support.  These fruits are life giving and yet I nearly left them strewn across my summer.

So, my work now is to gather in the fruit.  Some of it I will eat with relish now: it will bring me joy as I step back into the routine of another school year. Some of it I will preserve and use to sustain me through the winter ahead.  Some of it is small and sweet and easy to swallow.  Others of it are complex: giving me something to chew on and mull over.  All of it gives me strength and becomes a part of who I am.

As you reach the end of your summer maybe you also feel scattered: maybe you equally have a harvest that needs to be gathered and relished, so that it doesn’t rot where it was left.  As we step into Autumn let us gather the fruits of our summer sowings to strengthen and encourage us on the road ahead.

 

 

Sermon: James 2:1-7/Mark 7: 24-37

Theme: God's Grace

Something was said to me recently that wasn’t new, but hit home in a different way.  The comment was:  Everything from God is given…  Everything from God is given: it is a gift.

We know this – grace is the basis of our faith – and yet that simple fact touched me again and released some of the tension in me.  There is nothing I can do to make those ‘God moments’ happen – they are not as a result of my effort, or my goodness, or my ability.  They are graced moments given by God.  

I think that our lives are probably littered with those moments but often we are not awake enough – alert enough – to recognise them and relish them.  So, there’s a letting go of the straining to achieve and of the effort (because all is grace) and there’s a waking up to what is already there: waiting for us to notice.

There’s a tension in this – letting go and waking up feel like opposites.  And I find a tension within me because I long to draw nearer to God, and yet my faith teaches me that there is nothing I can do to make it happen: everything from God is given.

The words and stories that we find in our reading today are helpful in this tension.  There is nothing we can do to earn or achieve God’s presence but look at these words.  What todays readings speak to me of is our attitude.  Because our attitude can definitely get in the way of God’s grace – prevent it from reaching us.

Our reading in James is subtitled: ‘Favouritism Forbidden’.  These are strong words from James.  He points out that when you favour the rich and dismiss the poor you have ‘become judges with evil thoughts’ (v4).  When I reflect back I can’t think of times when I have favoured the rich and dismissed the poor but, honestly, it wouldn’t take long to think of a time when I have favoured one person over another.  Part of me feels like that is ‘just human’: one of those things that I just can’t change, but life has taught me differently through the grace of God.  I can honestly say that there have been people in my life who I have found difficult and avoided, but when I have let go of my discrimination and judgement something has opened up within me and changed within me.  There has been some kind of release.

Because you see, God does not discriminate.  That is difficult for us to get our heads around: how can God love that awkward, bossy, angry, violent, aggressive, patronising, self-important person as much as me?  Well, he does.  And it is when we can leave our prejudices behind that we can walk a step nearer to God’s grace.  The picture that comes into my head is of God’s grace literally pouring into the world.  When we discriminate it is like we put up an umbrella and we stop God’s grace and love from reaching us.  Maybe God’s grace feels a bit too much for us – some how we need that protection. More and more I just want to be soaked in it.  It is completely from God but letting go of my prejudice will help me to stand in a place where it can reach me.

Our Gospel passage gives us two more clues as to what we can do to change our attitude and be in the right place in our hearts to receive God.  In our Gospel we have two healings.  They are quite different.  In the first a Syrophoenician woman comes to ask for healing for her daughter.  Note that, in this passage, Jesus is wanting to stay hidden.  I wonder if he was seeking out rest and refreshment?  But the woman comes and falling at his feet, makes her request.

Jesus’ answer sounds harsh: First let the children eat all they want for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.

How would you respond to that? How would it make you feel? In our current culture where offence is so easily given and taken I can imagine people being outraged – getting up and walking out, but not the woman in our story, she says: Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.

She is able to accept what Jesus has said and she trusts in his love, his generosity and his power – she knew that he could help her.  She accepted her position and believed Jesus could and would help her. And it is this that seems to change Jesus’ response – he says to her: For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.  It is almost as if Jesus is compelled to respond and heal because of the woman’s words.  Her words must have come from her heart – they were not ‘just’ words.  So, here is another way to put ourselves in the way of God’s grace: to humbly and sincerely know our status and to have complete confidence in God’s love.  Again, I can’t earn God’s healing or grace – it is a gift of God – but is it my attitude that is getting in the way?

Lastly, the story of the deaf and mute man.  It does feel in these stories that Jesus is reluctant to heal.  We read that the people who bring this man to Jesus beg him to touch their friend.  Jesus takes him away from the crowds and then: put his fingers in his ears, then he spat and touched the man’s tongue.  I wonder what is going on in the man’s head…!  I wonder if he trusted Jesus?  I wonder if Jesus needed to do those things?  However, what I find more interesting is the word that Jesus speaks.  He says to the man: be opened.  We can take that literally:  physically his ears needed to be opened and  a metaphoric opening of his mouth was also necessary.  But to me there is something more significant going on here, spiritually.  It’s like there is some kind of blockage in the man that needs to be opened.

I wonder which part of us is blocked.  Have we closed ourselves off from God in some way?  Can we submit to Jesus and let him open us up?

God’s grace, God’s touch, God’s love is not earned – it is given freely as a gift.  This life we have is a gift from God.  There is nothing we can do to earn God’s grace – that is why it is call grace.

But let us examine our hearts – are they ready to accept the gifts that God is showering on us:

Have we rid ourselves of discrimination?

Are we aware of our status before God?  Yes, we are his children, but do we come with the humility which acknowledges God for who God is?

Do we have faith in God’s power, love and generosity?

Have we opened ourselves up to what God wants to do in us?

Can you picture yourself standing in the showers of God’s grace? Can you come out from the shelter, put down the umbrella, even take off your coat and hat: God wants us to receive and absorb all he has to give!

 

God is like a sleeping bag

 

Maybe,

God is like

a sleeping bag.

 

On one of those dark nights,

When life was battering you,

You found him;

climbed into him:

you rested in his gentle holding.

 

And then the morning came,

And you thought about how you could keep God with you.

It was easy at first:

Folding the end of him and rolling him up.

But the bag in which you would carry him,

soon seemed full.

Some of you will be experts at this,

but when God is your sleeping bag

don’t expect to stuff the last bit of him in.

 

If you could, what good would He be to you?

That sleeping bag stuffed into its own bag?

I guess you could lay down and rest your head on him.

He may soothe your thoughts;

smooth out your anxieties.

But how would He touch your heart?

How would He cradle your soul?

 

I guess you could sit on him.

He may enable you to take the weight off your feet,

whilst you wait.

For something; for someone.

Or maybe you could use him as a meditation cushion?

As you sit on God would He seep into you

And still you?

 

But I am not sure

That He will ever let you squeeze him into that bag.

I feel that as you begin to enclose him,

He will expand;

He will open out.

And when you go to pull the chord and hem him in,

You will look up and see that He has spilled out

And stretches beyond your grasp.

 

He gave you rest.

He held you in the darkness.

Is it impossible to carry him with you,

so that He is there when you need him again?

Is there something that you can carry that will contain him?

 

Yes!

You can carry him inside yourself.

In that space of your soul

Which longs for his presence,

and echoes the universe in its capacity to expand.

When you carry God inside you

your soul will grow.

God will gently push the edges outwards,

Sometimes slipping through its porous perimeter

And touching the world around you.

 

And if your soul should ever

become full of God,

He will pour out of you,

and cover the world

in a blanket of love.

 

 

 

Love is like a sleeping bag

 

Maybe,

Love is like

a sleeping bag.

 

On one of those dark nights,

when life was battering you,

you found her;

climbed into her:

you rested in her gentle holding.

 

And then the morning came,

and you thought about how you could keep Love with you.

It was easy at first:

Folding the end of her and rolling her up.

But the bag in which you would carry her,

soon seemed full.

Some of you will be experts at this,

but when Love is your sleeping bag

don’t expect to stuff the last bit of her in.

 

If you could, what good would she be to you?

That sleeping bag stuffed into its own bag?

I guess you could lay down and rest your head on her.

She may soothe your thoughts;

Smooth out your anxieties.

But how would she touch your heart?

How would she cradle your soul?

 

I guess you could sit on her

She may enable you to take the weight off your feet,

whilst you wait.

For something; for someone.

Or maybe you could use her as a meditation cushion.

As you sit on love would she seep into you

And still you?

 

But I am not sure

that she will ever let you squeeze her into that bag.

I feel that as you begin to enclose her,

She will expand;

She will open out.

And when you go to pull the chord and hem her in,

You will look up and see that she has spilled out,

and stretches beyond your grasp.

 

She gave you rest.

She held you in the darkness.

Is it impossible to carry her with you?

So that she is there when you need her again?

Is there something that you can carry that will contain her?

 

Yes!

You can carry her inside yourself.

In that space of your soul

which longs for her presence,

and echoes the universe in its capacity to expand.

When you carry Love inside you,

your soul will grow.

Love will gently push the edges outwards,

Sometimes slipping through its porous perimeter

And touching the world around you.

 

And if your soul should ever

become full of Love,

She will pour out of you

Like a blanket

Settling gently on the world.

 

 

Sermon                                                                     John 3:1-17

About this: A recent sermon which includes one of the most famous Bible verses.  The Bible text is included in the talk. The formatting of this as I published it to the blogsite is a little strange - sorry about that!

Let’s start with the truth!  This passage includes one of the most famous verses in the Bible.  It is a familiar passage.  Yet, the truth is, when I sat and read it to start preparing for this morning I thought: Crikey!  What does this mean?! I felt very much with Nicodemus in his puzzlement about Jesus’ words. 

Please don’t let the familiarity of these words get in the way of their meaning. Let’s be curious, question and grapple with these words to truly understand what is being said to us.

I’m going to focus in on a few verses but let’s also walk through the story to put those verses in their context.

Verses 1+2: Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’

So, the first thing to notice is that Nicodemus is a man of standing in the Jewish Ruling Council.  He comes to visit Jesus at night because he doesn’t want to be seen, but these initial words of his tell us that he recognises Jesus as someone special.

Verse 3: Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’

Jesus’ response to the compliment that Nicodemus gives him is provocative.  Honestly, if you heard this for the first time – as Nicodemus did – would you know what Jesus meant?  This phrase is often translated as being ‘born again’ – for me that translation carries a lot of baggage.  It feels as if the concept of being ‘born again’ was adopted by the Evangelical wing of the church and became a definition of an Evangelical Christian and therefore associated with a set of Evangelical beliefs.  Being a ‘born again Christian’, for me, has become tainted with a sense of being exclusionary: a sense of people saying I’m a more authentic Christian than you are: I’m a better Christian than you are.  I find this translation, which talks of being ‘born from above’, more helpful – I am drawn to it. 

Understandably, Nicodemus doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying.  I think what Jesus is saying is that in order to see God’s kingdom something has to happen to us: something that we are not in control of.  I was not in control of my own physical birth – none of us choose to be born.  I think this being ‘born for above’ is also out of our control.

Let’s continue reading Jesus’ response to Nicodemus in the Message version of the Bible.  Verses 5-8:

Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

“So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

The first thing to say about these words of Jesus is that they are a bit harsh!  They are harsh for a reason.  Jesus is talking to a leader of his faith – the Jewish faith – and this leader does not understand how God works.  Nicodemus is in a position where he would be teaching about God and yet he needs Jesus to teach him things which – to Jesus – are basic.  However, I don’t think the fact that we are not leaders in the Jewish Council lets us off the hook.  How long have you been a follower of Jesus? How well do you understand what Jesus is saying here? These are the fundamentals of our faith – we need to grapple with these words.

So, what is Jesus saying? Firstly (look at the words highlighted in yellow), I think Jesus is pointing to the mystery of God.  God – God’s spirit – is not in our control.  We can’t see it; we can’t fully understand; we can’t put it in a box; we can’t decide who it touches and when it touches them.  The things of God are from God – we can not manufacture them.  God is God: outside of our definitions and control.

Then (looking at the words highlighted in grey), how do we respond to our God?  Just because we’re not in control doesn’t mean we should do nothing.  We need to put ourselves in a position to receive God’s touch. We need to submit ourselves to God; we need to be baptised into a new life.  We need to do what we can to put ourselves in God’s way.  We’ll come back to this…

Verse 9 shows us that Nicodemus still doesn’t understand (and let’s be honest – do we really understand what Jesus has said?).  Nicodemus asked, “What do you mean by this? How does this happen?”

And so in verses 10-15 Jesus vents some of his frustration with Nicodemus. Jesus said, “You’re a respected teacher of Israel and you don’t know these basics? Listen carefully. I’m speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don’t believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can’t see, the things of God?

“No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

In trying to get Nicodemus to understand what he is saying Jesus mentions an old testament story that Nicodemus would have been very familiar with (The story can be found in Numbers 21: 4-9).  He gives Nicodemus a bridge into what he is saying.  In the desert God commanded Moses to make a bronze snake on a stick and lift it up.  Anyone who looked at the snake was healed from the poisonous snake bites they were suffering with.  Jesus says in the same way it is necessary for him to be lifted up – so people can see him and trust him and gain eternal life.

And then we come to the famous verse!  Let’s read it along with verse 17 – in the Message version:  This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. 

Again, please don’t let your familiarity with these words stop you from being curious, grappling and questioning.  Sometimes reading familiar words from the Bible in a different translation can help us to question a bit more.  I honestly looked at these famous words and thought: what does this mean?  I have been grappling with these words – questioning them.  I’m going to share what came out of these words for me but please do grapple yourself!

So, here’s what I observed:

I notice that God GAVE his son.  And knowing that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one we know that this means he GAVE himself.  I heard recently on a podcast that one definition of love is to give your life for someone else.  God is the definition of love and he demonstrates this at high personal, incarnate, expense.

He gave himself so that no-one need be destroyed.  My understanding of this verse is evolving.  One way of understanding what Jesus did is that he paid the price – of his life – so that we can be reconciled with God.  I find this idea difficult – why would a God who is love demand such a price to be paid?  What I see played out in life is that when I walk outside of the way of love it leads to me to destruction and the destruction of others.  I think we all know this at a visceral/instinctual level.  We know we mess up; we hurt people; we destroy.  Jesus shows us the way of love in completely giving himself: he is the way, the truth and the life.  The way of love looks like failure – it leads Jesus to death.  The way of love worked out in our own lives may also look like failure.  But we know that this self-giving way leads to resurrection: to new life.

Note that ANYONE can have whole and lasting life by believing in Jesus.  But what does it mean to ‘believe in Jesus’? In my grappling with the text this was the central question that came up.  I think in the 21^st Century when we think of a person who believes in Jesus we think of someone who believes that Jesus lived, died and rose again.  But these words were spoken to Nicodemus – Jesus was sitting right in front of him – he didn’t need Jesus to tell him to believe in his existence!  So, what did Jesus mean when he said to believe in him? In my Cruden’s concordance I found a definition of believe that makes sense to me: to be fully persuaded.  Am I/ are you fully persuaded by Jesus in all he said and did?  Being fully persuaded by Jesus is not an easy path: it is the narrow way: if we take Jesus’ words seriously they are going to have an impact on our lives.  Jesus calls us to be his apprentices – to draw near to him, learn from him and become like him – this is the kind of believing he wanted for Nicodemus and this is the kind of believing he wants from us.  This understanding of believing gives us a lot more to work on (remember I said we’d come back to what we can do?!).  It is not an overnight zap and change – this was never how Jesus changed people’s character when he was on earth.  We are on a journey and our call is to daily walk with Jesus: walking in his way; being formed by and responding to the spirit.

It is so important that we read verse 16 with verse 17.  Jesus didn’t come to condemn or accuse (equally we should not condemn or accuse).  Jesus came to put things right and to teach the way of Love, with the ultimate consequence of giving his life.  He loves us that much.

God is mystery and will work as he wills.  But we do have a choice.  If we are fully persuaded by Jesus we can live out our lives as his apprentices: learning the way of love.  And, when we do this, we will have glimpses of that kingdom.

Photo by Bhaskar Agarwal on Unsplash