Text used – John 3:1-17

• Context matters.
  • Popular book that came out a number of years ago: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss[1] → point of the title is that there is a vast difference btwn the phrase “eats [COMMA] shoots & leaves” and the phrase “eats shoots & leaves” without the comma
    • First e.g. = list of actions → someone eats, then they shoot, then they leave → This example is the sort of phrase that would be quite at home in any Louis L’Amour … very Wild West.
    • Second e.g. = simple description of the diet of China’s favorite cuddly creature: the giant panda
  • Importance of context extends far beyond what’s actually in a sentence – extends to where that sentence is found → Take this recent headline for example: “Elon Musk’s Neighbors Fed Up With Eyesore Yard Covered in Broken-Down Cybertrucks.”[2] It’s the kind of writing that would mean one thing if it were found on a news site like CNN … but takes on an entirely different meaning when you stumble across it on it’s actual home: the site for The Onion, a wildly satirical publication started in Madison, WI in 1988.
  • Another element of reading context: just as important to pay attention to what’s been left out as it is to pay attention to what’s still in → We’re going to play a little bit of a game this morning.
    • Telephone → “The lake was full of rubber ducks.”
      • [HAVE SOMEONE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MESSAGE CHAIN DELIBERATELY OMIT THE WORD “RUBBER” PART WAY THROUGH → get final sentence, then introduce initial sentence]
      • The picture that you form with the final sentence is a very different picture than the one you image with the initial sentence, isn’t it?
  • And what got me thinking about the critical nature of context was our Scripture reading this morning because it contains one particular verse – possibly one of (if not the) most well-known verses in the whole Bible … a verse that is almost exclusively repeated out of context, but a verse whose context really changes the whole story – verse: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.[3]
    • Well-known because it’s many people’s favorite verse → some of the most essential parts of the gospel message in one easy-to-memorize verse AND reassuring in it’s description of how much God loves us: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son …
    • Well-known because it’s also a verse that’s been used by many as a gatekeeper verse → used to exclude those who they feel don’t “believe right”: so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.
      • Used as a “my Jesus is better than your Jesus, so you’re going to hell” sort of litmus test
    • If nothing else, it’s well known because of Rollen Stewart, the guy who used to make an appearance at a wide variety of American sporting events in the 1970s and 1980s wearing his rainbow wig and holding his “John 3:16” sign.[4]
  • And the context for John 3:16 is not only interesting but also crucial to the full message of the gospel.
• Narrative context – John 3:16 is embedded in this fabulous story of Jesus and Nicodemus
  • Nicodemus = funky rebel character in Scripture
    • Very first verse of today’s text tells us he’s a Pharisee … not exactly a term of endearment, right? Throughout all of the gospels, it’s the Pharisees and their strict, legalistic interpretation of Jewish Holy Scripture (First Testament Scripture) that dog Jesus and his disciples at every turn. Eventually, it’s the Pharisees who will arrest and convict Jesus … who will convince Pilate to condemn him to death. And Nicodemus is one of them.
    • BUT we also have Nicodemus admission at the beginning of today’s text: [Nicodemus] said to [Jesus], “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”
      • Today’s text continues with Nicodemus willingly learning from Jesus
        • Asking follow-up questions (like … more than just one, so clearly he’s genuinely interested)
        • Trying to understand → working toward belief
      • Further on in Jn → Nicodemus is the one who argues with the Sanhedrin (council of Jewish leaders) against arresting Jesus[5]
    • So Nicodemus is inhabiting this radical, tenuous place in our gospel story. I think it’s safe for us to guess that’s why he came to Jesus at night – so he wouldn’t be seen collaborating with this counter-cultural, troublemaking, pot-stirring rabbi.
  • Bulk of the story = Jesus trying to teach Nicodemus about the power and work of the Holy Spirit
    • Bringing new life through baptism – text: Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’[6]
    • Describing the unexplainable, unpredictable nature of the movement and work of the Holy Spirit: God’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.[7]
      • Scholar: Jesus is playing on the [Greek] word pneuma, which means both spirit and wind. God’s Spirit is an uncontrollable and unknowable as the wind. The new life that Jesus has in mind is elusive, mysterious, and entirely God’s doing. The incomprehensible wind of the Spirit blows where we do not see. People experience God’s grace in more ways than we understand.[8] → This begins to hint at why the context of this story for that particular verse – John 3:16 – is so crucial. Jesus is making it clear to Nicodemus that God’s will … God’s Spirit … God’s movement … God’s call … God’s grace are all wholly unpredictable and often impossible for mere humans to understand.
  • Nicodemus plays into this struggle to understand – text: “How are these things possible?”[9] → Jesus’s response = typically complex and cryptic reply (for Jn’s gospel)
    • About how impossible it is to believe heavenly things when you won’t even believe earthly things
    • About how the Human One came down from heaven just to be lifted up again for the sake of salvation
    • And it’s in this context of struggling to understand … in this context of a secret, nighttime conversation about belief and unbelief … in this context of one being pressured by “his people” to believe one thing when his heart is clearly telling him another thing … that we find Jesus delivering that much-loved verse: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.[10]
• But this is not the end of the story! This is the part of the context that is so important and that has almost always been left out! – verse 17: God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.[11]
  • Gr. here is really telling –
    • Gr. “judge” = also separate
    • Gr. “save” = also heal
    • So “God didn’t send his Son into the world to separate the world, but that the world might be healed through him.” Friends, it is not news to anyone that our world is nothing but separation right now.
      • Separation along political lines
      • Separation along economic lines
      • Separation along racial and ethnic lines
      • Separation along religious lines
      • We have done nothing but separate ourselves into our own personal silos for too long. We have forgotten that the context of God’s love coming into the world was for healing and wholeness, not to judge and divide us into the “saved” and the “saved nots” … not to decide whose story matters and whose story is “irredeemable” … not to decide whose love counts and whose love is “an abomination” … not to decide which of Jesus’ followers are “Bible believers” and which ones are “just pretending” … not to decide who has the right language or accent or human-constructed theology or gender to speak God’s word and who’s “not good enough.”
        • Scholar: God’s desire in sending God’s Son is not condemnatory. Rather, it is redemptive. The whole mission and purpose of God in Christ is to rescue and recover humanity, from being deeply embedded in self-defeating pursuits in a physically absorbed life. God in Christ wishes to reclaim, rename, and reauthor the stories of our lives with a new life empowered by the grace of God and made manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.[12]
• If we are going to call ourselves Christians … if we are going to take on the work of spreading the good news of the gospel through our words and our actions and our way of being in this world … if we are to indeed declare that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life,” we cannot do so without also declaring that God didn’t send that beloved Son into the world to judge us or condemn us or nitpick us or separate us, but to bring us salvation … to make us whole … to set us once and forever free from those things that try to tie us down – the things around us and the things within us … to fully enfold us in that love that covers us and gives us peace. That is the part that we cannot leave out, friends, because that is indeed the good news. Amen.

[1] Lynne Truss. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. (New York: Gotham Books), 2003.

[2] https://www.theonion.com/elon-musk-s-neighbors-fed-up-with-eyesore-yard-covered-1851446594.

[3] Jn 3:16.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollen_Stewart.

[5] Jn 7:50-51.

[6] Jn 3:6-7.

[7] Jn 3:8.

[8] Brett Young. “John 3:1-8 – Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Gospels – John, vol. 1. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015), 59.

[9] Jn 3:9.

[10] Jn 3:16.

[11] Jn 3:17.

[12] Emmanuel Y. Lartey. “Trinity Sunday – John 3:1-17 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 3. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 48.

Text used – Acts 2:1-21

• More than just about any other story in Scripture, the story of Pentecost is a story that is meant to be interacted with – meant to be told and retold, not in a “let me read you the words on the page” sort of way but a “let me spin this tale for you with the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts” sort of way. It’s the kind of story that can’t (and shouldn’t!) sit still – a story of movement – a story born of the movement of the Holy Spirit, a story that inspired the movement of the earth Church, and a story that continues to move in and through us today. It’s a story with life and breath and speech and SOUND! So we’re going to explore our own faith through the sounds of this ancient story today.
• FIRST, the WIND

• • Interactive reading → wind

[sound of wind]

One: With rushing wind and holy fire,

Many: God who moved over the deep in a holy breath,

One: Come to us this day, this Pentecost day,

Many: Arrive in the wind!

ALL: Come, Holy Spirit, come.

[sound of wind]

• • With everything that’s been going on with the weather lately, this one feels a little too acute … a little too intense. We know just how powerful wind can be.
    • Make or break moment in a variety of outdoor sporting events
      • Story of the boys’ first soccer game this year: very windy day → many a goal ended up flying wide because of the wind
      • And I’d be willing to bet that Geoff and Lance and Kim might have some stories about various golf shots flying off in an unintended direction thanks to the wind.
    • Less trivial side = terror and devastation that can be wrought by wind
      • Recent headlines of tornadoes in Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, Iowa, Tennessee, and more
      • Derecho winds that hit Iowa in Aug. 2020 (126-140 mph winds)[1] or the Boundary Waters and Canada in July 1999 (started with 58 mph winds in eastern ND and peaked at 100 mph winds in the Boundary Waters area before blowing through southern Canada and all the way to the coast of Maine at an average of 70-80 mph)[2]
      • Story of the St. Peter tornado when I was 14 yrs. old
        • From news report done by KARE 11 last year on the 25^th anniversary: It’s been 25 years, but few in southern Minnesota have forgotten. On March 29, 1998, an intense supercell spawned 14 tornadoes in the St. Peter-Comfrey region, killing two and injuring 21 others. In about a four-hour span, the storm caused roughly $300 million in damage, including heavy damage to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. … On the same day, that same weather system produced an EF-4 tornado that flattened the small town of Comfrey. Three-quarters of the buildings were either damaged or destroyed by 200 mph winds, including the school and local churches. … KARE 11 meteorologist Belinda Jensen says the twister that touched down in Comfrey was on the ground for 56 miles, and debris was found more than 130 miles away.[3]
  • Wind can be a nice gentle respite – a cooling breeze on a hot day. Wind can be an ally, filling the sails of a ship to get it moving or drying out a wet field so a farmer can get back to work after the rain. Wind can be insistent – hurrying us along as it pushes us (gently or not-so-gently) from behind or impeding our journey as we try to best a strong headwind. Or wind can be outright ruinous as we see in hurricanes, tornadoes, and derecho-type weather events.
  • Text: When Pentecost Day arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting.[4]
    • Gr. “wind” = “breath” = Spirit → And the rest of that phrase makes it clear that the wind-breath-Spirit that blew through the disciples’ place that day was a powerful one. It was a strong breath. It was a violent wind. It was a forceful Spirit.
      • Wind to catch attention
      • Wind to get things moving
      • Wind to burst open the doors and fling wide the shutters – to make sure that the whole house (and everyone in it!) was open and ready for the work God had for them to do
  • We all know that feeling of being buffeted by the wind – pushed and nudged and taken by surprise. Sometimes it causes us to stumble. Sometimes it causes us to close our eyes or turn our faces away. But we cannot help but be moved by it. As you listen to the wind this morning, think about how God might be nudging you … pushing you … surprising you … moving you.
    • [play wind sound]
• SECOND, the FIRE

• • Interactive reading → fire

[sound of fire]

One: With tongues of flame and hopes rekindled,

Many: God who lit a fire over the heads and in the hearts of the disciples that day,

One: Come to us this day, this Pentecost day,

Many: Arrive in holy flame!

ALL: Come, Holy Spirit, come.

[sound of fire]

• • Fire is a lot like wind in that it can be both useful and dangerous.
    • Useful: candles (in the absence of electricity or when you’re in a meditative/contemplative/quiet/romantic mood), cooking over an open flame (camping, bonfires, campfire nights here at church), warmth (story of staying on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation during Spring Break in college)
    • Dangerous: fires that consumes homes … businesses … communities … millions of acres burned by wildfires every year
      • Current fires burning in Canada → poor/potentially dangerous air quality here and across the northern part of the U.S.
      • Did you know that there’s even a bird in Australia – the Black Kite Bird – that will pick up a burning stick from one fire, carry it to a safe space, and drop it into dry grass to start another fire so it can prey on the other creatures escaping the fire it just started?[5]
    • And yet even in the aftermath of that danger and destruction comes new life. → plant life that is renewed and regenerated following a forest fire
  • New life … new vision … new hope … new opportunities … new challenges … new faith. These are the things wrought by the flames of the Holy Spirit amongst the disciples that first Pentecost morning. – text: They saw what seemed to be individual flames of fire alighting on each one of them. ⁴ They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them to speak.[6]
    • More than 1000 yrs. later, a similar experience would strike a particular English clergyman by the name of John Wesley (excerpt from Wesley’s own journal): In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.[7] → That burning flame of the Holy Spirit that lit upon each of the disciples that morning has been burning throughout the ages – igniting people’s faith, warming their souls, and illuminating the work that God has for them to do in this world.
      • Not always a flame that burns brightly → Sometimes the people … the circumstances … the environment around us try to douse that flame, to hide it under a bushel and keep us from sharing and even keep us from experiencing the joy and life-giving nature of our faith. But the flame of the Holy Spirit is a persistent flame – a flame that may flicker but will never truly go out.
        • Lyrics of “Soul on Fire” by Third Day: God, I’m running for your heart. I’m running for your heart ‘til I am a soul on fire. Lord, I’m longing for your ways. I’m waiting for the day when I am a soul on fire … ‘til I am a soul on fire.[8]
        • So as you listen to the sound of the flames, think about what part of your life needs the light and warmth and spark of God’s Holy Spirit this morning.
          • [play fire sound]
• THIRD, the COMMUNITY

• • Interactive reading → crowd

[sound of a crowd]

One: With spacious grace and depth untold,

Many: God who is present each time we gather together,

One: Come to us this day, this Pentecost day,

Many: Arrive in conversation and connection, companionship and sacred sharing!

ALL: Come, Holy Spirit, come.

[sound of a crowd]

• • It is no secret that I’m an introvert, friends, and I know I am not the only one in this room.
    • Clarification: “introvert” is not someone who hates being around other people or someone who is excessively shy → actual definition of an introvert is someone who tends to focus inward instead of outward and who gets their energy from time on their own
      • By extension: “extrovert” = someone who tends to focus outward instead of inward and gets their energy from being with other people
    • So with that working definition, the “crowd” aspect of this Pentecost story is admittedly intimidating for me. Crowds are not always my favorite places to be.
      • At a conference/meeting/retreat → need my own room to process, unwind, and rejuvenate at the end of the day
      • And yet I will also admit that some of my most formative faith experiences throughout my entire life have been in the midst of crowds.
        • Call to ministry happened in the midst of a crowd of hundreds of college students
        • Confirmation of choosing Dubuque as my seminary happened in the midst of a crowd of others exploring their calls
        • Jesus’ words in Mt: I assure you that if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, then my Father who is in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.[9]
    • Granted, this initial Pentecost crowd was decidedly bigger than “two or three.”
      • All the disciples
      • “The crowd” big enough to contain people from a wide array of places – hundreds of square miles of territories: Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; as well as residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya bordering Cyrene; and visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans and Arabs[10]
      • And amidst that crowd – amidst the multiple languages being spoken AND all the crowd noise AND all the muttering about drunkenness and new wine AND whatever else may have been going on around them in that moment – GOD SPOKE. The Good News of the gospel rang out in the ears and minds and hearts of each and every one of them in their own language, not because of any effort on the part of the disciples (no Duo Lingo or Babbel for these guys!) but because God knew the word about Jesus and grace and salvation needed to spread. So as you listen to the sound of the crowd this morning, think about where and how God might be calling you to speak.
        • [play crowd sound]

[sound of wind]

One: With rushing wind and holy fire,

Many: With visions birthed and dreams restored,

One: Blow through our lives, Holy Spirit. Light your fire within our hearts. Bless our time with one another and with you.

Many: We have arrived on this day, this Pentecost day.

ALL: Come, Holy Spirit, come.

[sound of wind]

Amen.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_2020_Midwest_derecho.

[2] https://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/jul4-51999page.htm.

[3] https://www.kare11.com/article/weather/southern-minnesota-super-storm-25-years/89-37b8419a-6eb1-4ff7-8729-a7c874d7e0cb.

[4] Acts 2:1-2.

[5] https://www.birdnote.org/listen/shows/black-kites-do-birds-start-fires.

[6] Acts 2:3-4.

[7] Excerpt from the journal of John Wesley, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.ii.xvi.html.

[8] “Soul on Fire” by Third Day, © 2015 Lead Us Back: Songs of Worship album, released by Capitol CMG Publishing and Essential Music Publishing.

[9] Mt 18:19-20.

[10] Acts 2:9-11a.

Text used – 1 John 5:9-13

• We’re going to full-circle everything this morning, all.
  • Last week à started the congregational conversation about renewal
    • Continuing that conversation after worship today → talking about how to reach out to the people who are already here = basically a discussion about developing discipleship
  • And this is yet another one of those funny little God-moments, y’all … one of those times when the sermon that I planned months ago falls so perfectly into the space and time that we’re occupying together that the timing of all of this truly had nothing to do with me and everything to do with a God who is not done with us yet.
    • In talking about reaching out to one another – about deepening our discipleship together – Percy: Disciples are learners. … In learning to live to the glory of God, our desire is to become more like Jesus in thought, character, attitude, behavior, and purpose; to live lives that are pleasing to [Jesus] in every way.[1]
      • Goes on to loops the congregation into that description: The church is a community of such people, everyone of them in process, beginning from wherever they are and moving in a new direction with a new purpose. Such people can only hope to reflect God’s glory dimly and with a great deal of refraction, but the process of drawing closer to God and being transformed is what the adventure is all about, and also what brings glory to God.[2]
    • And this morning’s Scripture reading is all about that exact thing – scholar: In these verses, we find four terms prominently repeated: believe, Son, life, and testimony.[3] → If, as Percy describes, we do indeed have a desire to deepen our discipleship and become more like Jesus in thought, character, attitude, behavior, and purpose, then this passage is the gateway to those depths.
• Context for 1, 2, and 3 John[4]
  • John Wesley’s descriptions of these particular books of Scripture: “How plain, how full, and how deep a compendium of genuine Christianity!”[5]
  • Author = unknown BUT scholars agree same author wrote all 3 letters
    • Possibly same author who wrote gospel of John
      • Share some similar phrasing: “love one another” comes up a lot in all texts
      • Share some similar particular word choices
    • Unsure about order in which these letters were written
    • Unsure about particular destination of these letters
      • Particular city/church a la Corinthians?
      • More general “Christians at large” → circulated from city to city?
    • Unsure about date of authorship
    • Somewhat unsure about particular genre of these letters
      • Scholars agree 2 and 3 John are personal letters similar to ancient letters of recommendation
      • But 1 John is, as one scholar put it, vexing. It doesn’t necessarily follow any of the general patterns of ancient texts so it could be an essay, or a treatise, a sermon or a manifesto, an encyclical or a circular letter, to name but a few proposals.[6]
  • But as we read through the text of 1 John, it becomes clear that this little epistle was written with a few major Christian tenets in mind.[7]
    • Speaks of the nature of God
    • Speaks of the communal context in which we hear and experience God’s word
    • Speaks of a tentative understanding of the end times without skewing highly condemnational
    • Speaks about who Jesus is and what Jesus does
    • Speaks about what Christian life should look like
    • Basically, this little book is all about deepening discipleship!
• Today’s passage begins with a reminder that it all comes from God: our efforts, our testimonies, our faith, our life, our eternity … it all comes from God
  • Text: If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son.[8] → For all intents and purposes, all, this is why we do our Glimpses of God on Sunday mornings: because as human beings, we don’t always reflect God as fully or as perfectly as we’d like to. As Percy put it, “people can only hope to reflect God’s glory dimly and with a great deal of refraction,” but we also believe that God is moving and working and dancing and sparkling and living in the world and the people around us. We believe that God is showing up in new and stunning ways each and every day. If we didn’t believe that, we wouldn’t be here. And our Scripture passage this morning assures us of that – that even when our testimony or the testimony of others around us fall short, God is still working and speaking and showing up! “If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater.”
    • Also want us to notice an intentionality in this phrase: “If we receive human testimony” → Gr. “receive” = hold, grasp, seize, catch, put on, choose, collect → This receiving of testimony is about more than just letting others’ stories and experiences of God go in one ear and out the other. This is about more than politely nodding our head when we hear that testimony before moving the conversation along. There is an intentionality about the way that testimony is received. We intentionally take it in – we grasp it, seize it, catch it, choose it – and we intentionally keep it in a way that is honoring and noticeable – we hold it, we collect it, we put it on like a favorite sweater or a well-loved t-shirt.
    • And just in case we either aren’t grasping that idea that God’s testimony is greater or we’re underwhelmed by that idea, let’s look at that for just a second. → Gr. “greater” = more in every sense of the word: wider, more intense, deeper, louder, brighter à God’s testimony is so much more that we cannot fail to see it! Praise God!
  • The good news according to our Scripture this morning: that testimony is already within you! – text: The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son.[9] → Thom Rainer, who’s done a lot of writing about church renewal: Membership in the church is not country club membership. It’s not about paying your dues and getting perks.
    • Cycles back to Percy’s idea that the “church is a community … in process, beginning from wherever they are and moving in a new direction with a new purpose” → I would hope that you’re here this morning because that word that God has written on your heart has drawn you to this place – because that testimony that God has sunk deep in your heart is one you want to explore and pray over and share. I would hope that you’re here seeking to deepen your understanding of God and your relationship with God through worship and through your active presence in this Christian community.
    • Nothing about this promises a perfect testimony or an eloquent testimony or a testimony that looks anything like anyone else’s … But it does promise that God is an active and inextricable part of that testimony because it comes from God in the first place.
  • And just in case you’re unsure about the core of that testimony, the writer of 1 John outlines it for us: And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life.[10] → At the end of this Easter Season in the church, this testimony is about the good news of the life everlasting.
    • Empty tomb = LIFE
    • Folded graveclothes = LIFE
    • All of those beautiful and baffling appearances Jesus made to his disciples after he was raised from that grave = LIFE
• And for us today, in the midst of all the chaos and pain and disfunction and fracturedness of the world around us, the good news is still LIFE!
  • “LIFE” means different things for each of us because we all have different places in our lives that needs that infusion of God’s good news: relationships, personal habits, daily routines, situations, experiences, moments from the mega to the mundane.
    • What this LIFE doesn’t mean = others are beyond God’s reach – scholar: Labeling others evil and ourselves as good distorts the complex reality of human nature and God’s unpredictable grace abound anywhere and everywhere in God’s created, groaning world. When we listen to the words of this author [of 1 John], we must be careful not to presume too much about our own righteousness as God’s chosen.[11] → Too often, passages like this that talk about how we find God through the grace of Jesus Christ get used as a weapon – against those who struggle with belief, against those who have been so hurt by the church that their belief has been shattered, against those who grew up with no knowledge of or access to the gospel message, against those whose life circumstances have wrung the faith out of them one excruciating and devastating heartbreak at a time. But the love of God and the grace of Christ are not a weapon.
      • Percy: The gospel is an invitation. While the gospel proclaims important news, its proper form is always an invitation … The thing about invitations is that they require a response in order to be activated.[12] → Your testimony is that response! Your own particular story about seeing God and hearing God, finding God and noticing God, following God and getting to know God better is your activated response to God’s own testimony in Jesus Christ. And our call as Christians – our call as this church … the Presbyterian Church of Oronoco here in this time and place – is to live into that testimony every minute of every day, not just for a couple hours on Sunday morning.
  • Definition of the church from my friend, Kara Root, pastor at Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church up in south Minneapolis: The times I feel my deep love for the church are when it’s transcendent, mysterious, and unknowable and when it’s messy, haphazard, and human. And my favorite moments of all are when it’s all of these at the same time. Church is a broken and messed-up collection of beautiful souls longing for the world to reflect the truth of God’s love. These people show up with each other, believed there is a reason to come, a reason to risk, a reason not to quit.[13] → What better testimony could there be? Amen.

[1] Harold Percy. Your Church Can Thrive: Making the Connections That Build Healthy Congregations. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003), 26.

[2] Ibid, 26-27.

[3] Nick Elder. “Commentary on 1 John 5:9-13” from Working Preacher, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/seventh-sunday-of-easter-2/commentary-on-1-john-59-13-6.

[4] C. Clifton Black in “The First, Second, and Third Letters of John: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, vol. 12. (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 365-368.

[5] John Wesley quoted by C. Clifton Black, 365.

[6] Black, 370.

[7] Ibid., 374-376.

[8] 1 Jn 5:9.

[9] 1 Jn 5:10.

[10] 1 Jn 5:11-13.

[11] Bonnie Miller-McLemore. “Seventh Sunday of Easter – 1 John 5:9-13 – Pastoral Perspective” in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary – Year B, vol. 2. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 540.

[12] Percy, 18 (emphasis added).

[13] Kara Root. The Deepest Belonging: A Story About Discerning Where God Meets Us. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2021), 5.