Dear Friends
John 3: 14 – 18
Jesus said to Nicodemus: 14‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 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. 17‘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. 18Those 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.
John 3: 16 is many people’s favourite bible passage. They find comfort in it and a reassurance that salvation is theirs through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the centre of our faith and it’s a pretty good test of whether we are on the right track as Christians to measure our thinking, our decision making and our actions against Jesus and discover if they seem to agree.
The problem is it is so easy to make Jesus into whoever we want him to be. For instance Jesus can be the teacher who tells us what to do. This is very useful if you are a parent or a teacher who wants to keep their children in order. A sort of ‘Jesus wants you to be a good boy’ approach, which although true is miles away from the Gospel, which says, ‘Jesus still loves you even when you have got into a fight with your sister and broken the new ipad’.
I’ve included the verse in a slightly longer passage than usual in a daily email to help us think about who we think Jesus is and how we might discover how the emails I’ve been sending over the last 3 months measure up to the standard of Jesus Christ. This will probably take three days to ensure that the emails aren’t the size of a small book but three days is a good number of days to choose anyway if we are talking about the work of Jesus. However, please bear with me. I beleive these verses have a lot to say to us in the present situation of coming tentatively out of lockdown. They give a lot of hope, and direct us with some rocklike guidance about our decisions and actions in the future new world in which we will have to live.
So to begin with, ask yourself the question, ‘What has Jesus, the Saviour of the world, got to do with the global pandemic we have been facing, which seems less about salvation and more about destruction?’ If you have an answer, measure it up against the passage above and see how satisfactory it feels. My guess is that, for many of us, it may not feel a very satisfactory answer at all. But hang on in there and see what happens next week!
A prayer
O Lord, who has taught us
that to gain the whole world
and to lose our souls is a great folly,
grant us the grace to lose ourselves
that we may truly find ourselves anew
in the land of grace,
and so to forget ourselves
that we may be remembered in your kingdom.
that to gain the whole world
and to lose our souls is a great folly,
grant us the grace to lose ourselves
that we may truly find ourselves anew
in the land of grace,
and so to forget ourselves
that we may be remembered in your kingdom.
Amen.
Reinhold Neibuhr 1892 – 1971
I don’t know who painted this, but it is a good picture to meditate on today!
If you would like to join us for Evening Prayer tonight (Friday) it is at 5pm.
The link is:
Topic: Zoom Evening Prayer on Friday
Time: Jul 3, 2020 05:00 PM London
Time: Jul 3, 2020 05:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 889 4394 8282
Password: 795088
Password: 795088
If you would like to join us for Evening Prayer tomorrow (Saturday) it is at 5pm
Topic: Saturday Evening Prayer via Zoom
Time: Jul 4, 2020 17:00 London
Time: Jul 4, 2020 17:00 London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77301733042?pwd=cWxZMEhHRDZCR2Uvc084bllpNWw0UT09
Meeting ID: 773 0173 3042
Password: 0dH8nm
Sunday services:
9am Parish Communion in St Mary’s (this will be recorded and available to watch later in the day)
10.30am Zoom Worship
11.30am Messy Zoom
6pm Zoom Evening Prayer
Every blessing
Andrew