This I Know
“This I Know” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! This is the last Sunday of the Going Gray sermon series, where we are considering how Christians have become divided over issues of faith, and how we might focus on common ground, rather than on the things about which we disagree. We have previously talked about respect and affirmation for what is excellent and worthy of praise, and an approach to the Bible which is guided by seeking the mind of Christ.
While seeking the mind of Christ sounds good — at least to me — I recognize that not all Christians have the same emphasis about what is most important in the message of Christ or the person of Christ. This might seem surprising: we’re all reading the same Bible and believing in the same Jesus, right? I would hope the answer is Yes, but how that plays out is a bit more nuanced than a black and white answer. We may have taken our own opinions so much for granted as gospel truth, that we have lost sight of other possibilities. If this metaphor is helpful, we are talking about tributaries of the same stream, but the further we get from the source, the more those steams may diverge and the more varied territory they may travel through. If our stretch of water is the only one we’ve traveled, we may think it’s the only one which does — or should — exist. As in other sermons in this series, I am indebted to the writing of Pastor Adam Hamilton in his book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White.
I have chosen a text this morning which I hope is familiar to you. I would guess that many of you know some version of John 3:16 by memory. Say it with me, if you want. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This has been characterized as “the gospel in a nutshell,” and I would hope that nothing I preach today — or ever — would challenge or contradict these words. This passage is part of a larger conversation between Jesus and Jewish rabbi and theologian Nicodemus. Although Nicodemus asks some questions of Jesus, the questions seem to be motivated by genuine curiosity and respect from Nicodemus, unlike some biblical questioning where Jewish religious leaders were clearly trying to entrap Jesus in public. We don’t know if Nicodemus leaves this conversation as a believer, but he certainly seems to come in with an open mind, and he does come back into the story after the crucifixion.
There are many other texts in the New Testament — and in the Old Testament, depending on your perspective — which talk about Jesus and give us insight to who he was and is. I cannot reference all the material in this sermon, but sharing those passages and what they tell us about Jesus is my goal nearly every Sunday. I hope we can learn and question and consider together with a posture of genuine curiosity and respect, like that of Nicodemus. I want you to listen to some descriptions of Jesus, and imagine how these might take believers down paths of discipleship which could end up in different places. This is Jesus quoting the prophet Isaiah, as recorded in Luke 4:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he has anointed me
To bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
And to let the oppressed go free.
And here is an understanding, Jesus is my personal Savior and Lord, which is supported by texts Like John 3:5 No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. Being born again leads to a life of personal holiness as described by Paul in 1 Corn 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
So is Jesus a personal Savior, who died for my salvation and believers as a collection of individuals, or is Jesus the liberator of the oppressed, concerned with the salvation of the poor and the marginalized? Jesus is both. From the beginning and for all time and eternity, Jesus is both our personal Savior and the Savior of the world. It is important to hold these understandings of Jesus Christ in either hand, because most of us tend to lean one way or the other. Christians who lean toward personal salvation tend to emphasize evangelism and sexual purity, while Christians who lean toward a social gospel tend to emphasize service and political action, or political protest. Going Gray means holding on to what we believe, whether it is a social gospel or a personal evangelical gospel while acknowledging that Christians who may hold beliefs different than ours are rooted in their understanding of who Christ is. So that when one group of Christians say, “I can’t believe they would allow same-sex relationships,” and another group says, “How could they support deporting immigrants who are seeking asylum,” we have some understanding of how our sisters and brothers in Christ may have reached that belief. Like any belief, these positions are influenced by personal and cultural conditioning as well as our understanding of Christ.
Seeking the mind of Christ when it comes to the character of Christ means going back to the Bible and paying particular attention to the words of Christ, particularly when he is talking about himself. It means acknowledging that we bring, not only our Christian faith, but our own personal and cultural bias to that process. I believe that it’s a gift — not everyone would agree with me — but it is certainly a fact that Jesus’ teaching do not lay out a series of theological propositions. Jesus doesn’t tell us what we ought to believe about predestination, the inerrancy of scripture, or justification by faith. He doesn’t explain how his death on a cross will save believers for all time, or even tell us why bad things happen to good people. Jesus never said he was starting a church or a new religion. Jesus told parables, rooted in his own time and culture; Jesus tangled with the Jewish religious leaders of his day; Jesus was immersed in and referenced and quoted the Hebrew writings we know as the Old Testament and honored them; and most of all, Jesus gave us the example of loving God and loving neighbor.
Diane, at my request, reminded the kids of a song which is familiar — it even holds an echo of John 3:16: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Those are true words, for sure, something I hope you each hold in your mind and your heart.? If you don’t already have John 3:16 memorized, you might consider committing it to memory. If you already know it by heart, look at John 3:17-18
“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. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Do those verses add anything to your understanding of John 3:16?
At Labor Day Family Camp at Camp Mack years ago, the leaders invited participants to re-work that simple verse into other statements which are true, or This I Know. I don’t think we ever got all of the verses collected, but know some of them were powerful. How would you complete the verse, “Jesus loves you, yes it’s true . . .” What is your gospel in a nutshell? In the coming week, I’d invite you to write your own verse to the meter of “Jesus Loves Me.” What would you say about who Jesus is to you or who Jesus is to other people? It might not have anything to do with love: possibilities include grace, justice, salvation, justification by faith (good luck getting that into the right meter) But what is the This that you know about the gospel? If you are willing to take on the This I Know assignment, please send me what you have written by next Friday, February 6, and I will put the collection together without your names attached. You may write more than one stanza, if you like. I would encourage folks who are joining the livestream to participate as well.
I think the witness of the gospel is that Jesus is bigger and more elusive than our black and white categories. Jesus confounded the Pharisees and the zealots of his own day, who were operating from their own black and white categories. Savior, Lord, Teacher, Friend, King, Servant, Lion, Lamb, Alpha, Omega — all of these understandings of Jesus challenge us to see beyond black and white images to nuances of gray. The Bible tells me so. Amen.