Monday Morning Preacher - John 3:16

I finished reading The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McClaren this week, and it was so wonderfully enjoyable. I always like the chance to get a review of what Jesus' message was, because it's so easy to get caught up in the "what should we do about this message" part. Sometimes things just need to be about God.

So this morning's gospel reading (John 3:1-17) was a story about a smart guy - a Judean teacher & authority - who sneaks out in the middle of the night to ask Jesus what he means by this idea of eternal life. You may be familiar with this verse of the story: "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life" John 3:16.

Let's look at that again in a modernized/different/fresher? translation: "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." (The Message)

Here's what I see as the good news: this new life, this "whole and lasting life" is a gift from God. It's not something we can earn, purchase, find for ourselves, or otherwise develop/create or force.

I think the key to the passage is the idea of "believing in" God. We can believe in God in the sense of philosophically believing in God. God=first cause, or God=ominiscient + omnipotent + perfect. A lot of folks run into trouble with this approach, because the Bible wasn't written by Greek philosophers, and God doesn't always fit into mathematical/logical categories.

Or, we can believe in God the way we believe in another person. If you believe in somebody, you believe that they can accomplish what they say they will, even if there are setbacks. It's about trust and confidence. What would it mean to say, "I believe in you!" to God? It's much more personal, much less intellectual.

Of course, beyond this I can't give you the mechanics. How does trusting God lead us into a whole new way of life? How does it bring us into a post-domination, peaceable kingdom? That's the gift and the mystery of it. Sometimes things just need to be about God.