More Than a Bumper Sticker*

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Year B

John 3:14-21
(homily preached at St Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, Indiana)

Today’s Gospel Reading

Made me think of bumper stickers

I am not a big fan of bumper stickers

For one I have a very particular husband

   who likes the cars neat and tidy and un-decaled

I don’t like them because…most of the time…

they think they say a lot in a few words but

really they end up saying nothing

Or they think that’s all there is to say about something

         That is complicated and deserves way more

reflection and conversation

Like the one that says

‘BEING NICE TO PEOPLE IS A GOOD IDEA’

That is on my daughter’s car

I know…it’s harmless

So sure…I guess…being nice is a good idea

But it is so minimal…surely there is more to talk about

Or even the popular COEXIST

It isn’t that the sentiment is wrong

It just seems so minimal…I want so much more

Can’t we do better than plain old being nice to people?

And can't we do better than beige coexistence?

I want more

In today’s Gospel we have THE bumper sticker verse…

the most famous verse in all of scripture

The only one almost universally known by its citation alone

John 3:16

For God so loved the world

that he gave his only son

so that everyone who believes in him

may not perish but may have eternal life

No doubt this is a great line

And very good news

But on a bumper sticker…

I want a lot more

My gut tells me that this ‘believing’ business is not as easy as we might wish

…as a one-liner…it seems orphaned…

plucked out of its context

and plucking verses out of a gospel narrative

Makes me uncomfortable

So bear with me

I want to zoom a ways out and then work back in a bit

In the beginning of the Gospel of John

We hear about the light coming into the world

And how darkness will not overcome it

The darkness versus the light theme is set up from the beginning

The play between Darkness and Light

Fills John’s narrative

And on either side of today's gospel passage is a story

About believing

Nicodemus is in front…Today’s passage is the tail end of that story

And the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well comes next

And these two stories illuminate each other

Aside: Remember Nicodemus?  He’s the upright Jewish leader who visits Jesus at night…not quite ready to make his interest public.  They have a discussion about being born again…being born from above and Nick goes all literal and wonders ‘How can I go back into my mother’s womb?’ 

Remember the Samaritan woman at the well?  She comes at high noon because the other women have shunned her.  Jesus comes and she gets sassy with him…he asks for a drink of water and she says ‘You don’t even have a bucket---good luck!’ Then Jesus starts talking about living water and never getting thirsty again.  She goes all literal too and wants some of THAT water…anything to not have to come to the well at the hottest time of day!  But then he reveals her to herself, and himself to her...and she believes.  And then she goes to tell everyone she can find.

Nick is male

She is female

Nick has a name

She is THAT woman

He is a religious leader

She is a religious outsider

Nick comes by night

She meets Jesus at the brightest part of the day

Nick misunderstands and remains clueless

…the jury is still out on Nick

She also misunderstands but believes and goes to witness with passion and energy

He stays safe

She trusts and risks

In our text today

Between these two stories

I hear the invitation

To leave the darkness…which is sometimes where we feel at home

Where familiarity brings us comfort

Where we know our own hiding places

In John’s Gospel the reader…the hearer

Is included in the drama

And the drama unfolds as a crisis of decision-making

It is asking each hearer

Will you believe?

Will you step into the light…whatever and wherever that next bit of light might lead?

I was just in Denver for a week

Helping with my grandson Theo

And one thing I really wanted to do was to go to church at

The House For all Sinners and Saints

It is a Lutheran Church

Nadia Bolz-Weber, the founder, has become quite a rock-star preacher

and I really wanted to hear her and to experience this unique community

Now this is inner city Denver

The congregation is wildly, wildly eclectic

From khakis to dreadlocks and everything in between

Beautifully colorful

Not quite Evansville

Not quite New Harmony;)

The liturgy

Was BOTH deeply traditional and sacramental

AND beautifully imaginative and creative

But it wasn’t until my flight home

As I was reading Nadia’s latest book

Accidental Saints

Finding God in all the Wrong People

That this play…this way that John’s Gospel

Puts before us Darkness and Light

Got real and concrete

It came in Chapter 14

The Dogs of Good Friday

The community had gathered for the traditional Good Friday Liturgy

The Passion Story…sung

The singing of  “Were you There”

The Cross…venerated

(…part of that veneration was placing purple tulips on the cross that laid atop the Altar)

It had become the community’s custom

After the solemn liturgy ended

To pack up that cross

And the purple tulips

And take them to a place in the neighborhood

A place of darkness…a place of crucifixion

That year, there had been a profoundly gut-wrenching incident

Of a young mother who shot her three children before shooting herself

So they went there

They walked the clunky cross down the dark alley where

a chain link fence held back a pack of barking dogs

They laid the cross on the concrete

The people sat down

And the chanting and prayer began

Soft, quiet, mournful

But as soon as they began the barking stopped

After some time

They packed up

Leaving the tulips in a pile on the spot in the darkness

And as they walked back to their cars

The barking picked up again

And now I will quote:

“A week later I got a call from Laurel,

who works for a faith-based community-organizing group.

“One of our gun-violence prevention clergy called me this morning,”  Laurel said. “One of the families in the neighborhood told him that a group of random Christians came to the area of the murder/suicide singing, praying, and bearing a cross.  He wanted to make sure that we knew the neighborhood noticed.  Pastor Tyler wanted you to know how grateful he is for what House for All did and how you all helped to bring a sense of healing.

It was so dark.  We had no idea anyone was watching.”

This story seems to be compelling me to find my way

From my nicodemus-ness

…my fondness for safety

…And comfort

…And an easy Christianity

It seems to be inviting me

From that

and toward

HER

Toward the Samaritan woman’s lightness and courage and passion

In John’s Gospel

The hearer is given stark choices

Believing versus Unbelieving

Living in the light versus Hunkering down in the darkness

The thing is…at least for me

These decision moments are not one and done

I have to keep navigating

Between my Nicodemus and That Woman

The Dogs of Good Friday story

Is a story about bringing whatever light or faith

any of us might have on a given day…in a given moment

Whatever light is within our grasp

It is about bringing our bit to places where healing is needed

But we don’t bring it alone

It is when together

we gather all our little bits

then…then…healing happens

to everyone…the giver, the receiver, even the passers-by

And the source of those bits of light

Is the love of God

That came into the world

Was made flesh in Jesus

Who suffered, died, was buried

Who rose on the third day

Ascended and who is now present among us

Through the power of the Holy Spirit

Present

In the most ordinary of ways

In our gathering and our singing

In our confession

In our eating and our drinking

The source is the love of God

Present and always inviting us to

Come

Come into the light

Come live in the light

Come share the light