February 14, 2008 -Pt 2 with Feb 3 08

Sunday, 14 February 2008
2 Lent, Year A
St Philip’s Church (Gorton Abbey Hey Team)

Genesis 12: 1- 4
Psalm 121
John 3: 1-17

The last morning I was here we had the story of Jesus on the mountain with both Moses and Elijah. A voice came from the clouds saying, “This is my Beloved with whom I am well pleased” – It’s the voice of God referring to Jesus.

I asked you to use your imagination to think: What IF you thought that the voice of God was talking to each one of us? Could you believe that God would say to you, “YOU are MY Beloved with YOU I am well pleased!”??

I have faith that is exactly what we are supposed to believe!
We are to believe and know that we are loved by God just as Jesus was loved.

Our story this morning makes that point again.

We’ve got this man called Nicodemus. He’s a Pharisee, a leader of the Jewish people – in this case more like a scholar / theologian than a minister.

Nicodemus and Jesus go into quite a bit of religious discussion. It’s not really a straightforward conversation. Nicodemus is clearly not getting what Jesus has to say about being re-born, and the being born of the Spirit, and the differences between earthly and heavenly life. Jesus tries several ways to get his point across.
Until finally we have the verse that so many of us know.

It’s a verse that captures the essence of Christian belief, doesn’t it? I think it was the very first Bible verse I learnt by heart and still is one of the few I can recite.

What I want to focus on are the first six words: “For God so loved the world.” In my mind, these sound familiar to “You are my beloved”. Do you hear it?
They’re both talking about God loving: God loving the world, God loving Jesus, God loving US as we’re apart of the world.

So, have you been able to imagine that you are God’s beloved?
Maybe … Maybe not ….

If it’s a little difficult, maybe it’s easier to understand that God loved the world. Then we can think about the whole world, everything in the world, and ourselves as part of that. And God in that way loves us.

Whether we can imagine that we are God’s beloved or God loved the world, as Christians, we are supposed to love God and love our neighbors, right? We know these two commandments well – we say them almost every week at the start of the service. The problem is how to show it – it’s simple to say but not easy to do.

A fortnight ago I talked about some of the things the Church has suggested we “take on” for Lent in terms of being generous (or loving) to our neighbors. They were very concrete practical things to do.

Today, with Jesus telling us God loves the whole world, I want to stretch our ways of being generous beyond how we act toward our neighbors to being generous with our thoughts – our views about other people … neighbors or strangers.

Today, as well as Lent being a time to take something “on” instead of giving something up, I want to remind us that Lent is a time to look at ourselves and what we do. It’s a time to take stock of and reflect on how we act: Like this …

It’s very easy for us to put people into categories isn’t it? I know it happens to me everyday as I am out shopping, am on the bus, or walking in town. I look around and think about the people around me: the way they look, are dressed or how they talk. We might each have ways of sorting people : it may be the color of their skin, it might be if they look like they have money or don’t; if there are too many clothes or too few; what you overhear them say to a child or what you don’t hear them say.

You know what I’m talking about … I make judgments; usually not so nice judgments – we all do. It is so easy. And it wouldn’t be a problem if I was only thinking GOOD things but most of the time VERY quickly, I make up my mind as to who’s in and who’s out – basically who’s “good” and who’s “bad”.

For me, Lent is the chance to remember hearing Jesus say, “God so loved the world”. When I listen to those six words, THEN I’ve got to reassess the comparisons I’m making. I have to examine how I’m separating other people from myself.

I’ve got to realize that God loves the people I’M judging just as much as me.

Here’s a small example : I was talking with a friend about her children playing outside on her street. As we talked, she called the children of a family living at the end of the street, “a bit rough”. Now that was a judgment. Granted she doesn’t want any harm to come to her children and I don’t know details of the situation, BUT there’s every possibility that she only made that statement by looking at them, isn’t there?
At the time, I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say, “do you know the family?” or “what exactly have they done?” Or what about, “they’re God’s children too, aren’t they?”

No! I just “hmmm’ed” along with her. How quickly I forgot that God so loved THEM in the world too! Not just me. I went right along with her separating us – the “good” people -- from them - the “rough” people.

I am NOT talking about not being safe or acting street wise, nor allowing law breakers or criminals. I AM talking about the broad judgments and opinions we so easily and quickly hold. Because I know it happens to us all the time.

Lent gives us the chance to take a look at how we act. Just take a minute, can you think of a similar situation in the past week where you made judgments or separated people into “us and them”??

What’s really amazing is that God still loves us even when we are judging.

The deep question for me this Lent is : Can I be as generous to others (for example, my neighbors) as God is to me? As you can see, there are times when I really struggle to answer “yes.”

At the same time, I’m positive we can make a start at loving God and our neighbors IF we believe that God loves us – the world - first. For me, that’s what makes it possible to give up what I might easily do in order to be who I want to be.

SO, this week I guess I’m saying Lent is about BOTH taking on AND giving up. It’s about continuing to take on the generosity, while giving up the judging of others. And being able to do both because God so loves the world that I am apart of and I am God’s beloved. I hope this next week you can do the same. Amen.

To help, I’ve got a little slip of paper with a reminder to “take on” and “give up” because we ARE God’s beloved and God so loved the world which I’ll give to you later.
Amen.


HERE"S MY HANDOUT TO HELP REMEMBER ...


YOU are God’s beloved …
Take on gratitude Give up complaining
Take on optimism Give up pessimism
Take on kindly thoughts Give up harsh judgment
Take on trust in God Give up worry
Take on hopefulness Give up discouragement
Take on forgiveness Give up bitterness
Take on love Give up hatred
Take on positivism Give up negativity
Take on understanding Give up anger
Take on maturity Give up pettiness
Take on compassion Give up jealousy
Take on complimenting Give up gossiping
Take on appreciation Give up gloom
Take on patience Give up giving up
~ for God SO loved the World