Belief, Faith, & Risk

For the collect and readings for this Sunday, click here.

The Second Sunday of Lent

March 16, 2014

The Rev. Christopher L. Caddell

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone that believes in him may not parish but have eternal life.”

I can tell you exactly when and where I memorized that verse.

It was the summer after my fifth grade year and at Vacation Bible School at First Baptist Church in Odessa, TX. 

My best friend and his family were members of First Baptist, and he had invited me to go with him several times, and each time I had dodged the question.  Truth be told, as good a friend as he was, I had no interest in spending a week of my summer in a Sunday school classroom – particularly not one that was not at my own church.  The more he pressed, the more I dodged.

Until, just about the time I thought I had worn him down, he said, “You know, …. Melissa is going to be there.”

Lesson number one: Be careful what you tell your best friends, lest they use it as leverage against you.

So just a few days later I found myself sitting in a Sunday school classroom memorizing John 3:16.  

My friend had neglected to tell me that at First Baptist most of Vacation Bible School was segregated – boys in one class, girls in another.

Believe it or not, we are still friends to this day.

It’s doubtful that there is a piece of Christian scripture better known than John 3:16.  If you grew up in the Bible belt, it’s almost unavoidable.  Even Episcopalians have a particular fondness for it, as it is one of the choices of comfortable words after the confession in a Rite I Eucharist.  John 3:16 is ubiquitous in the Church, and rightly so, for it contains one of the most concise descriptions of what the gospel message is – God loved, so God gave, so that we might live.

Yet for all its notoriety, if you were to ask someone what comes just before or just after, and your likely to get a few blank stares.  Ask them what was the context and to whom was Jesus speaking, and you’re not likely to get an answer.

I’m not suggesting that you embarrass your friends with bible trivia, but rather I want to suggest that the context is important, and while John 3:16 is a good summary of the gospel message, it is just that – a summary.  It does not capture the entirety of the message, and without context it can be taken as a fairly simple formula for salvation. 

Believe in Jesus and all will be well.

Of course, when taken in its full context, that is not the picture that is painted.

Nicodemus – a Jewish leader, man of respect, one to whom everyone would look to – comes to Jesus under the cover of night.

He knows about Jesus, perhaps even witnessed some of Jesus miracles.  What he hoped to gain by meeting Jesus is not clear.  Perhaps he wanted to reason with him.  Perhaps he just wanted to be in his presence.  But whatever his reason, Nicodemus comes very close to what we might think of “believing” in Jesus.

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

Nicodemus is so very close, just on the verge of understanding, and at the same time, he doesn’t seem to get it at all.

Nicodemus wants it both ways.  He wants to believe in Jesus – he can see Jesus is clearly a holy man – but he does not want that to change things, especially if it means that he must change himself.  Nicodemus is comfortable with the way things are, comfortable with a life as a respected teacher of Israel, comfortable with the way he is.

Nicodemus does not want to risk anything so he comes under the cover of night, hoping he wont be seen, hoping no one will recognize him.

In the Church we speak often of belief and faith.  Often we use them interchangeably.  Faith has become the big umbrella word for someone who believes, and vice versa.  We speak of believing as if it were something we have fixed in our minds.  I believe in God … I believe in Jesus Christ… I believe in the Holy Spirit…

And yet, our readings today challenge what we mean by those words.  Faith and belief are not static things, unchanging, something we have or don’t have, and certainly not a box that we check off like it is an item on the to-do list.

Rather, faith and belief imply listening and discerning, movement and change, uncertainty and risk.

Abram was fairly old when God told him to leave his home, his family, his livelihood to journey to a place that was still unspecified.  I try to imagine what that like, and yet I cannot.

Pack up.  Start walking.  Leave behind everything you know to go literally into the unknown.

Yet, seemingly without hesitation, Abram goes.

The story of Abraham and Sarah is a long one – full of drama and hardships.

The journey is long.  There are unmet expectations.  There are famines, battles, losses, more travels, domestic disputes, rescues, more losses, unthinkable demands, and all of this will last much, much longer than Abram ever expected.

Following God will be what defines the next 100 years of Abram’s life.

For Abram, believing and having faith is something that will cause him to risk, to move, to change, and that will be the very nature of how he lives the rest of his life.

The challenge that Abram and Nicodemus’ encounter places before us today is one of faith and belief.  Not the static faith and belief that merely identifies us as Christian, but the faith and belief that causes us to act, makes us move and change, allows us to risk everything even when we cannot see exactly what lies ahead.

In our personal lives, that may mean reaching out to a broken relationship, being the first to ask for forgiveness and seeking reconciliation.  It might mean giving up a bad habit or something to which we cling to for a sense of security, even though that may make us extremely uncomfortable.   It may mean we need to look at how we use our time, and make changes that allow us to reclaim those things that are important – family, friends, self, and God.

But it is not just our own individual growth that challenges us. There is a challenge here for us as a community as well.  To have faith and belief in a church community means that we are willing to listen to and be directed by God’s Spirit and where it moves – and it is something that moves.

That means that we should be looking for and expecting God to act in all parts of our common life together – in the way we worship, the way we pray, the way we reach out to others in the community, the way we fellowship together …. The list can go on and on.

Our church and school must take risks if we are to be who it is God has called us to be.  That takes all of us listening, discerning, moving and changing.  And while it is what we do as a community, it will take each of us responding to the different movements of the Spirit to make it happen.

Think about this – How are you different from this time last year?  How about 10 years ago?  How have you changed?  What has God moved you to do?

Try something different.

Join the choir.

Become a reader or acolyte.

Go on a mission trip.

Invite someone you don’t know to go to lunch.

I don’t know what the Spirit is moving you to do, but I do know it is not the same old thing that you’ve always done.

Uncomfortable yet?  You should be.  There’s risk involved.  The possibility of failure is there.  And that is what it is to have faith and belief.

I don’t know what brought you to church this morning.  I doubt you were chasing a girl – or maybe you were.  But with that risk in mind, I want you to hear and learn not just John 3:16, but John 3:17 as well.

“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.”

Our task is not “to get it right.”  It’s not about being careful and cautious.  Our task is to risk everything in order that we might follow Jesus more closely.  We will get it wrong from time to time, but it is Jesus’ mission not to condemn us for those failures, but rather to redeem them. 

That is our faith; that is our belief.  That all things are being perfected through God in Christ.  And when we truly believe that, no risk is too great, no change too scary, that we cannot follow where the Spirit blows.  Amen.