John 3:14-21 “Breaking the Rules”
Professor Christopher Grundy was my preaching professor at Eden Seminary. Amongst the other things he taught us, he emphasized three things a pastor should NEVER do while preaching.
- Engage in eisegesis. Eisegesis is the practice of picking scripture to prove a point. Most clergy are guilty of this practice every once in a while, but most of us work hard to avoid it because so often this practice is done to prove a point that is meant to exclude or harm someone. The most egregious example of this is when someone tries to prove their point that God hates homosexuality and does so by citing one verse in the Book of Timothy. “Don’t do that,” Prof. Grundy told us.
- We should never apologize for scripture. This is called apologetics. Apologetics is a way of defending a doctrine, practice, or scripture that the preacher has decided is misunderstood. Most clergy are guilty of this from time to time as well. We twist ourselves into knots, giving lectures on church history or theological discourse or overly academic scriptural analysis to explain away any questions that the listener may have. In addition to potentially dismissing very real hurts a doctrine or scripture may cause to someone, apologetics also creates the false illusion that the preacher always knows best.
- Finally, Prof. Grundy told us never to preach about preaching. “Nobody cares about your process, or how you ended with your sermon,” he said. The point of preaching is to help the congregation engage with the scripture and to consider how its lessons speak to them today. The work that the preacher did to find that lesson for her congregation is not the point, the lesson is the point. The congregation will know you worked hard by the content of the sermon, not the explanation of how hard you worked.
With apologies to Prof. Grundy, I am going to break all three of those rules this morning.
He will no doubt be unsurprised by this, as he and I never agreed on much. But, I do think he was right that eisegesis, apologetics, and process usually do not belong in a sermon. However, I decided to break these rules for two reasons: one, those participating in the Lenten book study on the book “Inspired” by Rachel Held Evans has given me a chance to hear from several of you about how you approach scripture. For those of you not able to read along with us, “Inspired” is a book about engaging with scripture in new ways as told by a young woman who had grown up with a very strict, fundamental understanding of scripture that was no longer life giving for her. The author offers her readers new ways of thinking about scripture and its purpose in our lives today. The discussions we are having as a result of this book have compelled me to take a step back and think about my own relationship with scripture, and how that relationship affects you.
Second, I plan to do everything you are not supposed to do when preaching because this week our congregation took a step into the public square. On Wednesday a letter to our neighbors was published in the Winona Post that not only condemned Christian Nationalism, but more importantly offered to the community a view of how we consider ourselves to be a part of the long arc of Christianity. Writing this letter was a way for us to think together about who we are as a faith community, and publishing it was a way of not just talking to ourselves, but rather talking to as many people as we can. We concluded that letter with the following, “Our deepest desire is that everyone knows they are beloved in the eyes of God. In all that we do and say, we want that love to be known. This, we believe, was the mission of Jesus Christ. As followers of him, we strive to do likewise.”
“Our deepest desire is that everyone knows they are beloved in the eyes of God.” We share that desire of ours with the community, and we do so knowing that far too many people have been told the opposite. Far too many people in this community have been told there is something wrong with them, and therefore something is separating them from the love of God. I know there are people listening to me right now who have been told that. And far too many people have been told that they are separated from the love of God by having scripture quoted at them. Scripture used as a weapon, or a tool of division. Scripture that is used to keep people out, rather than to welcome them in.
The seven verses I read this morning are often used as a tool of, or justification for, that division. In them, Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a religious scholar who is struggling to understand these new lessons that Jesus was teaching. Nicodemus was struggling to understand, he was struggling to grasp the Divine, to hold onto that which is not possible to fully understand. Jesus says, in response to Nicodemus’s questions, the way to God, the way to true and complete relationship with God was through him. Jesus is saying, “either believe in me, or be condemned.” On Wednesday we told our neighbors that our deepest desire is that everyone knows they are beloved in the eyes of God. And today I read words from our holy text that says, ‘but there is only one way to do that, and if you don’t believe the way we do, then you are condemned.” It is no wonder, then, that the word most often thrown at Christians is ‘hypocrite.’
By breaking the rule of never practicing apologetics – I could explain until I am blue in the face all about the context in which the Gospel of John was written. I could tell you about the community he was writing to and for – a group of people who were already followers of Jesus but who were being persecuted for their beliefs. This was a group of people who needed a reminder that their beliefs were not a violation of their faith in God, but rather an example of their faith. I could go on to explain atonement theology – the belief that Jesus died for the sins of humanity, and that by dying he secured God’s forgiveness for all of us, forever – if we simply accept the grace offered to us. Atonement theology then explains away all of the exclusionary language in these verses, because it can be seen as an invitation to open a door, rather than an excuse to keep it closed. But, how hallow would those explanations sound to someone who has experienced nothing but doors closed in their face.
I could also break the rule about eisegesis – cherry-picking scripture to make a point. That was in fact what I did for the first sermon I wrote this week. Focusing just on verse 14, in which Jesus uses an example from the exodus of the Israelites. The people who were wandering in the wilderness were complaining about God, so God got angry and send a bunch of poisonous snakes whose bite would kill the people. The only way to survive was for the people to look at a bronze statute of a serpent. That was an easy sermon to write: all about how we need to look at the dangers of this world head-on, and by doing so not only do we take away some of their power, but we also can see the possibility of God’s intervention. It’s a great sermon, if I do say so myself, but it also goes out of its way to ignore every other verse in this scripture, because they don’t support the point I was trying to make.
Instead, I have decided to break the third rule – I am preaching about preaching. Because I don’t want to explain away everything in scripture that is hard, and I don’t want to apologize for it. I also don’t want to fall into the trap of just preaching on things that make sense to me, and things I know you will agree with. To do either not only diminishes the Christian church’s relationship with scripture, but it also diminishes the pain that scripture has caused for far too many people.
On Wednesday we told the Winona community that our deepest desire is that everyone knows they are beloved by God. Perhaps one of the best ways for us to live into that statement is to honestly say, without apology or shame, that there are some things in our scriptures that can’t and shouldn’t be explained away. That there are some things that we haven’t been able to figure out how to reconcile yet. And sometimes the best thing we can do is to stop talking and explaining, and simply listen to our neighbors when they want us to know how the Christian Church has hurt them. To simply take in their pain and acknowledge it. This does not mean that we throw out our scriptures, or ignore the verses we don’t like, they are a part of our tradition and heritage and must be worked through. But just because they are a part of our tradition does not make them perfect.
A few weeks ago I suggested that there are moments when the Kingdom of God breaks through, using the metaphor of the musical art of counterpoint – there are moments of consonance – moments of harmony between our lived experiences and the promise of God. And just as there are moments of consonance, there are also moments of dissonance – when our lived experiences clash with the promise of God. But, most of the time, we are in the in-between. When the melody of our lives and the melody of God’s promise are dancing around one another and we aren’t sure how or when they will meet. For me, today’s scripture is part of that dance. I haven’t figured out how to create harmony with it yet, a harmony that includes all of God’s beloved creation. Maybe someday I will, or maybe, hopefully, one of you will teach that harmony to me. Until then, I will live in the midst of the dance, and invite everyone join with me. Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER
This world needs to remember you and return to you, God.
when we use force to bend others to our will,
when we abuse and harm others because they are different,
when we forget that you love them, too,
we need you to remind us and heal us.
This world needs to remember you and return to you, God.
when we get so caught up in our own dreams and wants,
that we allow others to live in hunger and need,
when we forget that we are all connected,
we need you to remind us and heal us.
This world needs to remember you and return to you, God.
when we lose our ability to care for those who are sick and grieving,
to comfort those who are alone and rejected,
to stand up for those who are treated unjustly,
we need you to remind us and heal us.
Make us part of the healing of the world, God,
through our prayers,
through lives lived in worship and service,
through these hearts that we give to you.
We prayer this in the name of Jesus, who taught us how to pray as a community by saying together…Our Father…