Loved

This is my first sermon after my internship ended in November, my first pulpit supply in 2018, and my first time at Faith Lutheran in Bagley. Wonderful congregation, beautiful 50's style sanctuary complete with a Formica altar rail. A lot of small town charm in that church. It was affirming and good to get back to what I was called to do.

Epistle: Ephesians 2:1-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21

Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, and from our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus the Christ - 
Amen

Spring is in the air. Never mind the snow, but looking ahead at this week, Spring is in the air. I love Spring. The warm weather, the trees, the grass, the sound of that first rain, the birds coming back… it's the season of my birthday, my son's birthday, Lent and Easter… even the word “Lent” itself means “spring” after all. Softball and baseball and the opening of fishing on open water… Planting season for the farmers, budding season for the plants… so much hope of new life is present in the world of spring… I just love Spring.

When we love something, or someone, we take care of them, and maintain that relationship. I try to spend more time outdoors in the springtime, and likewise spend more time with those I love. What are some of the ways that you express your love?

God’s expression of love is right here in today’s Gospel lesson. It’s the bible verse you see at baseball games, in parking lots, on bumper stickers, shirts and tattoos. “For God so loved the world that [God] gave [God’s] only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NRSV) Or something to that effect. Of the bible verses that we memorize as kids in Sunday School and Confirmation - this one is probably the most popular. Because we love this verse, as Christians. God loves us. God loves the world. God loves you and me and the apple tree and there’s nothing we can do about it. God loved the world so much that God gave us Jesus the Christ to experience humanity for Godself, to show us how to live and to love and to care for one another. To teach and preach and share and care and to serve. God loved the world so much that God bestowed on us a Savior, to save us from our own broken humanity.

As Christians, we hold onto this verse, put it everywhere so we remember. As Lutherans - we have a double treat for this week, with these verses from Ephesians 2. In particular, Ephesians 2:8-9 are the backbone of our Lutheran understanding of justification by faith. That we are saved from our sins because of God’s Grace, expressed through our faith. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NRSV)

Love, grace, faith, belief… words that depend on one another and that are the building blocks of our relationship with the divine and each other. We show our love to those we hold dear by spending time with them and cooking and cleaning and taking out the garbage for them. How do we show our love with our neighbors? Our co-workers, our classmates, our friends? We may not cook for them and clean for them, but we may offer them support in their time of need. Love is what holds the world together. Some may say that it’s money that makes the world go round, but it’s love that holds the world together.

Did you folks see this in the news the other day? For the briefest of moments, news outlets were reporting that the leaders of North Korea and the United States were going to engage in face-face conversation. First, South and North Korea joined together in the Winter Olympic games, and then started engaging in more talks of peace, and then, for the briefest of moments, a glimmer of hope for peace between our two countries. Then reality set in and whatever happened might not, and it all disappeared from the news cycle. Something else to talk about.

Love is what brings people together. Love is what brought God to humanity, in the form of Jesus the Christ. But when love falls apart, when relationships between people begin to fray, and connections are lost… Then our broken humanity falls in between. We have a God that loves the world, continuing to create and love you and me and the evergreen tree, and then our humanity gets in the way. We begin to look inward, or belly-button focused as an old professor used to say. We start pointing out how people are different than us, and how that makes them better or worse than ourselves. We forget about seeing God in humanity, seeing God in the face of our neighbors, and then start thinking that someone needs to be treated differently because of what they look like, who they love, how much their clothes or cars or houses cost… We lose sight of God in each other.

When we lose sight of God in each other, we turn inward, and lash outward. Sometimes, even to the point of death. To paraphrase Paul the Apostle, even death on a cross. Because God loves the world, and God gave humanity Jesus the Christ, God Incarnate… and when humanity did what humanity does, humanity lived, loved, and broke apart, and lashed outward, to the point of death.

That’s why we’re all here, right? Here in this season of Lent, we have hope of spring, even with the piles of snow everywhere, but we know it’s coming. And yet here we are, in the middle of Lent and as Lutheran Christians in Northern Minnesota awaiting Springtime, we know what comes at the end of Lent. Easter doesn’t come without Good Friday. Springtime doesn’t come without the long and drawn-out winter.

Love falls apart, relationships fall apart, humanity falls apart, and somewhere in between it all, Christ hangs in the balance. Between all that we hold dear and all that we dread, Christ hangs in the balance. God is there between light and shadow because no matter what, that love, and that grace that is poured out on Calvary awaits us. Because God loves the world, and God gave us God’s son to hang in the balance between light and shadow because we have God’s grace, freely bestowed on us all. The Gospel writer continues in verse 17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17 NRSV).

You are loved by a God that gave us a son. You are loved by a God that saves us all from our broken humanity, our sin, our greed, our hate, our bigotry, and calls us to in turn love one another. And when our broken humanity gets in the way, when our sights turn inward, and we lash outward, we know that Christ hangs in the balance. We know that our love and grace and forgiveness are expressions of God’s love and grace and forgiveness through our faith in God.

Spring is almost here. Lent is in full swing and the birds have just started to come back. Remember that you are loved, and to share that love with one another.

Amen.