4th Sunday of Lent
Cycle B
March 11,
2018
4:00pm and
8:00am at Saint Mary, Pylesville
11:15am
at Saint Matthew, Baltimore
What If…?
What if
we had a large and powerful low pressure system?
What if
this happens in the late winter, instead of the late summer? The pressure
inside this low pressure system drops dramatically.
This is
something that the meteorologists – as I recently learned – something that the
meteorologists call a bomb cyclone. What if this system sets up along the
northeast coast of our country in early March?
There
would be lots of rain or snow and very strong winds. Lots of trees and power
lines would come down and lots of homes would be left without electricity.
So,
what if? And, of course, that “What if”
happened just a week ago.
What If God…?
With
that in mind, let’s look at another “What
if.”
What if
God were pure love? Simply love, love itself?
Saint
John, the writer of today’s gospel, in a separate letter says three simple words:
“God is love.” So, God is complete
love and completely loving.
Well
then, what if God loves the world? Saint John says this in today’s gospel: “God so loved the world.”
And again,
what if God so loves the world that he becomes part of it? God, God the Son
takes on our humanity?
Saint
John also says this. “God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son.”
I have
to think that God does this to show us in a very personal way what his love is
like. He also wants us to be certain and have no doubt about his love for us.
What If God the
Son…”
Okay,
but what if God the Son ends up being rejected, crucified and put to death?
Well,
for sure, it’s hard to believe that God the Father – who is pure and complete
love – it’s hard to believe that the Father wanted this to happen. And it’s hard
to believe that the Father required this as the way to forgive or atone for
human sinfulness.
No, a
loving God would never expect this. So, this must have happened because of us.
What
apparently happened is that we rejected a God who is not vindictive and punishing
and excluding. We just couldn’t deal with a God who is pure love – who is
compassionate, forgiving and including.
So,
Jesus turned our picture of God upside down. If we accepted Jesus, we would
have to re-think how we saw God and even what we ourselves were to be like and
how we were to live.
The
result was that we tried to do way with the Son, just get rid of him. But, of
course, the Son, being God, being pure and complete love, patiently endured what
we did to him and even forgave us as he was dying.
Conclusion
Of
course, I am really saying that all of these “what ifs” have happened – much like that storm happened last week.
And I
am even saying that these “what ifs” are
still happening. God remains loving of each one of us every moment of our
lives.
This is
the Good News – that’s what the word Gospel means – the Good News of Jesus, the
Son. It is the core message of the New Testament and sometimes this gets
ignored or distorted, but it is there.
And
what this message does is remove fear and unnecessary guilt and shame. Our
primary feeling about God no longer has to be fear – being afraid of God.
And our
primary feeling about ourselves no longer has to be guilt or shame. Now, we can
feel ennobled and worthy as persons.
Why?
Because we are loved; God loves us and God is love.
And now
we can feel confidence and trust in our relationship with God. Why? Because God
is love and God loves us.
That is
the Good News of Jesus Christ. And the one sentence in today’s gospel leads me
to all of this: “God so loved the world
that he gave his only Son.”
