“A World Only God Could Love”
Gen. 1:26-31; John 3:16-21
We have heard the scriptures speak this evening
Of
God’s love for the world.
First
we heard of God who created the world
And
pronounced it good.
Then
we heard of God who so loved the world that
He
sent his only son that whoever believes
In
him should not perish
but have eternal life.
God
sent the son into the world
Not
to condemn the world but
That
the world might be saved
Through
him.
Scripture says that God loves the world and yet
When we
look at the world today
We
seem so unlovable.
We see
the stories on the evening news
Of
heightened violence in the Middle East
With
21 soldiers dying last week in Iraq
Not
to mention the psychological
Damage
that has been imposed
On
these young people;
We see
the stories of violence in schools
In
Where
lone gunmen went into the schools
And
killed at least one person
And
terrorized many.
And we
have to wonder: How can scripture suggest
that God
loves the world when the world seems
so violent
and self destructive.
Is scripture realistic or just seeing
through rose colored glasses?
A
closer look at scripture helps us realize that humanity
Has
been disappointing God for a long time.
From the beginning of creation
when God
pronounced the world good,
human kind
has been sabotaging things:
From
the disobedience of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3
To
the murder of Abel by Cain in Genesis 4.
Which
we see reflected in the ongoing war in
And
the violence in schools right here in the
It was wickedness that brought about the
flood in Genesis
And
when there are floods that destroy whole cities
Even
today we can’t help but think that
We
are any more innocent than they were
Back
in Noah’s day.
And yet God didn’t give up on the people
in Noah’s Day
And
God hasn’t given up on us either.
After
Noah’s flood there was a rainbow as a symbol
Of
God’s Covenant relationship with us.
The
rainbow is still in the world today
To
remind us of God’s promise
And
Covenant relationship with us.
God
still loves us despite our efforts to sabotage God
And
to hurt each other and even destroy each other.
God
loves us not because we are perfect or loving
But
because God is perfect and loving.
According to William Barclay, God loves
us
back into
relationship with him.
Barclay says that God is like the
loving father
In the story of the Prodigal
son who will not rest
Until the prodigal son is back into his
bossom.
In the story of the prodigal son, the
youngest son
Demands
that the father give him his portion of the inheritance.
In
the western culture we think this is disrespectful
But
in the eastern culture this was the same as
Saying
to the father: “I wish that you were dead.”
Ken
Bailey, a Middle Eastern scholar says that this was
the ultimate
insult a son could give his father.
“I wish that you were dead.”
And yet the father loved the son so much
even in his disobedience
And
destructive behavior that he gave the son the inheritance.
The
son went to a far away country and squandered
The
father’s inheritance (according to the older brother)
When
he got hungry he came back home.
He
didn’t come home because he was truly sorry.
He
came home because he was truly hungry.
We
live in a world that is obsessed with motive.
The
father cared only that the son was home.
The
father didn’t make the son into a servant as the son requested
But reinstated him as a fully invested, fully
loved son
who had once again a claim
to a third of the father’s wealth as his
inheritance.
The father loved him so much that he was
completely restored.
Now
we don’t know what the younger son did with this
Restored
wealth and the restored status.
For
all we know he might have requested again
To
have his new inheritance to squander it.
The
story doesn’t tell us because
The
story is not about the son
But
the love of the father.
And that is the answer to today’s
question as well.
How
can God still love us in this world of violence,
And
self destruction and disobedience to God.
God
loves us because God is love.
God
is free to love us despite what we do.
Karl Barth, the famous German theologian
who saw
The
worst that man could do to man in the Nazi’s
Treatment
and killing of 6 million Jews,
Spoke
of a God who loves in freedom because God is love.
God
doesn’t have to love but God chooses to love
And
God chooses to love us- it’s amazing.
And
it makes a claim upon our lives.
We have been following the story of the
Amish families
who just had
the funerals for the five young girls
who were
killed in Nickel Mines,
We were amazed at the headline
“Amish way: Forgiveness”
These
Amish families have reached out to the family
Of
the man who murdered their children
With
forgiveness and compassion and God’s love.
A researched says:
“The hurt is great…but they don’t balance the
hurt with hate.”
This is hard to believe and yet it is
a powerful witness
To a God who said “Love your
enemies”
And the God who
sent his only son into the world
To die,
that the world might be saved
through him.
And so we have a challenge today.
First
to realize that the love God has for this world
Is
a love that God has for each one of us.
There
is nothing that we can do
to make God
stop loving us.
God;s love is that powerful.
God
may be disappointed in us,
and saddened
by our action but
God still loves us and forgives us.
Secondly,
“if God so loved us we ought to love one another.”
It’s not just the Amish way, it is the
Christian way.
It is radial, it will catch people’s
attention, they will talk about you
but more
importantly they will talk about God who is love.