Promises

I have no problem with the over-use of the word “love.’ I love my morning cup of Earl Grey. I love my cats. I love Motown. I love the Episcopal Church. I love the sky. The more things I love the happier I am, the better person I am. But all this love is just a tiny hint of the love that God has for me, for us.

In today’s readings, God makes a promise to Abram. He will make a nation of Abram; he will bless him. More than that, Abram will be a blessing to all the families of the earth. In other words, every man, woman and child on this planet is blessed by Abram (later Abraham). Genesis 12:1-4.

Abram did nothing to deserve this blessing, this promise. He had not yet even been circumcised, so he was nothing at all. Yet God decided for God’s own reasons to build up a family through this one man. At this spectacular attention, we can only shrug our shoulders.

Moving ahead to the time of Christ, after many more promises from God, we arrive at the realization of God’s plan. Matthew takes pains to remind us of Jesus’ genealogy. The first 16 verses of the Gospel according to Matthew are not read in church; they are not part of the Lectionary. They were there to assure early disciples that Christ, indeed, belonged to this long line that started with Abraham and God’s promise.

If Abraham had been another sort of person, he might have wondered what God intended by this great promise. What was the point? 1800+ years later, the product of that promise arrived. God’s work takes time.

Nicodemus, an upright Pharisee, calls on Jesus in the night. In the Gospel according to John, images of night and day, darkness and light are never accidental, so we may assume that Nicodemus is “in the dark” about Jesus. He tells Jesus that “we know you are a teacher who has come from God”. If Nicodemus had a “so” or a “but” ready after this assertion, we never hear it. Jesus seizes on this bit of nascent faith to tell his visitor that he must “be born from above.” John 3:1-17.

Do not underestimate the importance of birthplace and condition in first Century Palestine. It was everything. (See again first 16 verses of Matthew’s Gospel) Being born again or born from above or born of the spirit was a much more startling notion than it is today. In the parlance of our time, organizations, celebrities and we ourselves experience new life/rebirth all the time. We hear the phrase “new birth” in the Sacrament of Baptism. We’re used to it. Nicodemus was not.

Jesus bombards Nicodemus with unfamiliar concepts, bizarre scenarios and a double reference to the Book of Numbers and the Book of Daniel. Poor Nicodemus! All his life spent following the torah is now null and void. His head must have been spinning.

He must be born anew. The spirit will make this happen, unexpectedly, like the wind. A life in the flesh is not like this new life in the spirit.   Jesus is from heaven and must be lifted up like the bronze serpent that healed the dying Israelites in the desert. Numbers 21:5-9.

Did you ever see the episode of The Simpsons when the family were at a huge stadium for some event and someone in the crowd held up a John 3:16 sign? It got a lot of laughs in my house and in many houses, I’m sure. Or this is even better. 

I have a hard time not remembering that and other comic moments around that quote. Such is our modern age. Do I just a little bit judge people who seem to have such a simplistic approach to the Gospel? Do I think they're doing more harm than good?

Perhaps I’m as stymied by the true meaning of “God so loved the world…” as Nicodemus was by the idea of being born from above. But there is nothing so important, so absolutely crucial to a true life in the spirit as grasping that verse.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but may have eternal life.

I had to sit with that for a while.

At study group, we stayed with that verse for a while, too. We had to let it lose all its silly, pop culture references, all its false simplicity and pull out its true simplicity. God loves the world. It makes him smile. It gives him joy. He’d do anything for it. He’d run into a burning building to pull it out. He’d wait for a thousand years for one phone call.  He cherishes any wee scrap of love he gets in return. It’s beautiful. He can’t take his eyes off of it.

The promise given to Abraham and the promise made by Jesus are because of that love.