“Achievement or Gift?”

Sermon preached by John Hall on 26 March 2006

Text - 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."

John 3:16 is one of the most famous and most often quoted verses of the Bible. You might have been watching a sports event on TV, when the camera panned the crowd and there was someone holding up a sign or a placard saying John 3:16.

The verse is meant to be a comfort. “God so loved the world, that he gave (sacrificed) his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him, may not perish, but may have eternal life.”

It’s all about God’s extravagant mercy. Mercy is the heart and soul of Christianity.

Unfortunately, there’s also a little hook in this passage. The flip side of “everyone who believes in him may not perish” is “if you don’t believe in him, you will perish.” Some people relish that hook more than the main point. Here’s where the trouble begins.

We need to realize that the gospel of John is not a verbatim recording from the mouth of Jesus. It’s the product of a church — a church struggling for survival, and under attack, and when people are struggling and under attack, they tend to demonize their opponents: “We, who believe in Christ, are God’s friends. Therefore, everyone else is God’s enemy.” Or so the logic goes. And, unfortunately, you will find plenty of this logic in the Bible.

So here’s a verse which appears to about what God does for us, but you can also read it as threat about what we have to do for God, or else. In that case, believing in Christ becomes another good work, by which we earn God’s favor.

Let’s think about this. Is belief, or faith, or trust, something we accomplish? Is it something we choose? Do we become believers by working to become believers? We do, at least, participate in the development of our faith.

Think of faith in a more general way, not as belief in a specific doctrine but as an attitude toward life. Faith is living with trust. Faith is feeling God’s love. Faith is having hope. Is this sort of faith something we deserve credit for having or blame for not having? Again, I’d say we do play at least some role in developing a trusting outlook. We make choices along the way that affect our outlook. We’re not just programmed like robots.

But here’s another way to think about it. Maybe belief, or trust, or faith, isn’t so much something we acquire for ourselves as something God gives us. Maybe faith is God working in us. If that’s so, then faith isn’t something we deserve credit for having or blame for not having.

One of my favorite benedictions says, “Pray for those who cannot pray. Believe for those who cannot believe.” Somehow, that feels more gracious and more Christian than “Those who don’t believe, or can’t pray, will burn in hell.”

We’re all tempted to keep our little scorecards about many things, but when it comes to faith, I’ve come to think that it’s more about what God is doing, and less about what we’re doing. That’s a view that’s open for debate, and I could be totally wrong about it.

But let’s apply this question not just to our faith lives but to our whole lives. When does it make sense to think about our lives as something that we do, something we shape, something we deserve credit or blame for, something we’re in control of? And when does it make sense to think of our lives as a gift, something we didn’t earn, or direct except in some minor details, but rather as something God gives us, something shaped by forces beyond our control?

In the first part of our lives (roughly speaking) we’re taught and drilled to think of our lives as something we control. When we’re growing up, it’s all about figuring out how to do things and how to take care of ourselves — how not to burn ourselves on the stove, how to ride a bicycle, how to read and count, how to make friends, how to get good grades, how to measure up, how to find some footing in a very big, bewildering world.

To learn how to do things, it helps to have some grandiose thoughts. When I was about 8 or 10 I took piano lessons. I imagined myself as concert pianist some day. When I was learning to kick a football, I imagined myself playing for the Cleveland Browns. I remember the first time I was out driving a car alone on the road. It was exhilarating — that feeling that I could go anywhere. I could drive to California.

When we’re young we need to feel a sense of our own power, and maybe exaggerate our power just to get moving, so we can find a place in the world and not have sponge off our parents forever. Parents encourage this kind of thinking. In this period, it’s natural to think of ourselves as being in control.

But later on, something else comes into view. Proving ourselves loses its urgency. The idea of being in control starts to feel a little hollow. What used to feel important feels less important.

I remember — this was a long time ago, but I remember this vividly — actually believing that my happiness as a human being, for the rest of my life, depended on the SAT scores I was going to get on a certain upcoming Saturday. That wasn’t’ the silliest idea I had as a teenager, believe me.

I’m sure I’ve said this here before, but it wasn’t my idea to be a parish minister. At first, I was terrified of the idea. But I ended up here because aspects of my personality, interests I was born with, or interests I picked up at an early age for whatever reason, led me in this direction. It’s something God made happen in my life. This really doesn’t feel like something I chose.

Most of us can probably see that larger forces lead us in directions where we never meant to go. Thousands of computer science specialists in Connecticut have lost their jobs to people in India. The economy has become global — a larger force — and it leaves some wreckage in its wake.

As we go down this path we’re on, something else comes into view — our mortality. You see your parents get older, and get sick. Then your parents die and you feel like an orphan, even if you’re in your fifties or sixties. We are somewhat in control of our health, at least for a while. But then people who eat right and exercise still get cancer, or have strokes.

Life is more like floating down a river. We can try to keep our heads above water and we can help other people keep their heads above water. And by helping each other, we can find some wonderful friends. But we’re not going to change the course of the river. Life is a gift. A lot of it, maybe most of it, is not in our control.

And if you can see that,or to the extent you can see that way, you can also give up wishing your life were some other way. You’re more likely to see the beauty in your life as it is. You’re more likely to enjoy the scenery as you float downriver.

It’s not just about what we do. It’s also about what God does. And there is a lot of peace of mind and joy to be found in that simple thought.

The mission of First Church is to engage and support people in worship, learning, fellowship, and service, so that all may find in our community the Spirit of the living Christ.  We are an Open and Affirming Church: All are welcome into the full life of our community regardless of their race, age, gender, nationality, marital status, economic situation, mental or physical ability, or sexual orientation.