God so loved the world - God so loved you

-


Fourth Sunday of Lent - - - ‘God loved the world so much’






      ‘God loved the world so much’

In a very real sense, these six words from this Sunday’s Gospel say more than enough and there is nothing further to be said, nothing more one can add!


While short, today’s excerpt is packed tight, complex and rich in meaning. It contains a summary of John’s Gospel and the opposites or polarities presented in it are found here too: darkness and light; acceptance and rejection; his own and not his own; belief and unbelief (see John 1:1-13). There is much with which one might spend time. But, let’s remain with God’s love.



     God so loved the world

Assertions of God’s love echo throughout the Scriptures from their beginning, from the first moments of creation: ‘God saw … it was very good’ (Gen 1:31). In today’s readings, God’s love is very much in focus. From Chronicles, written in the time of exile, we hear that God ‘wished to spare his people’ and ‘tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger’ (2 Chron 36:15). Paul tells the Ephesians that ‘God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy’ (2:4). In the Gospel, John declares that ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son’ (3:16).

In the incarnation of Jesus, God presents people with:
a gift – the possibility of eternal life
an invitation – to believe in Jesus or to refuse to believe and
a consequence – to be saved and to ‘have eternal life’ or to be condemned.

Importantly, this gift is universal – offered to ‘the world’ (3:16, 17), to all. God doesn’t force our response because ‘God so loved’ us – our choice to respond to God’s revelation is freely made and not just once. In every moment, we each choose ongoing openness to the gift of salvation offered us and ongoing commitment to the demands it makes. Some, having once accepted God’s son, later choose the darkness of unbelief and deeds that are evil instead (3:18-20). Regardless of our acceptance or rejection, there is condemnation neither from God nor Jesus. Yet there is judgement and, for some, condemnation. In the choice we make regarding Jesus, the one who reveals ‘heavenly things’ (3:12) and makes present God and the Kingdom in his very person, we cast judgement on ourselves (3:18-19). Judgement and condemnation do not wait for the end times. By our own doing, in the constant here and nows, we make decisions for how we live our life (3:18). Imagine looking back as an older person and seeing how your decisions led to moments of light or darkness, joy or pain. Isn’t our greatest desire to live a life worth living? This is God’s desire too.


Ultimately, this is about love, divine and human. It is about living in friendship with God, about living lovingly now, doing ‘what is true … [with] deeds … done in God’ (3:21), or, as Paul puts it later in today’s letter, living ‘in a manner worthy of the call you have received’ (Eph 4:1). Believing in the gift – in Jesus – and living in response, we are gifted with fulness of life now and eternal life shared with God.


     God so loves the world and God so loves you.

God’s love is a wide and universal love, for everyone, everywhere, always. At the same time, God loves individuals, a personal and person‑specific love.

Our response to this love is as individuals.

The choice seems obvious.

It is as straightforward and as stark as the one Moses puts to the people of Israel: 
     ‘I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life’ (Deut 30:19).

What will you choose?

Remember the God who so loves you!



Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for reading my writing. I'm interested to hear your thoughts - please share.

Popular posts from this blog

‘The kingdom of God will be ... given to a people who will produce its fruit.’

-
Image
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Reflection on the readings* 8 October 2023 Photo credit: Andrea Cairone - https://unsplash.com/photos/ lzM3pbQim70?utm_content= creditShareLink&utm_medium= referral&utm_source=unsplash In this Sunday’s Gospel passage, continuing on from last week, we find Jesus in combat mode. His actions and authority have been questioned by the chief priest and elders of the people and he responds to their challenge, not with an answer but with further questions, posed in the form of parables. Here, he tells the second of three parables (last Sunday, we heard Jesus relate a shorter one, next Sunday will complete the triad). Unlike most parables, these first two at least seem to be easily interpreted - clear in their meaning and in their application.  Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel echo those of Isaiah, words we listen to in the first reading this Sunday. Those who heard them as Jesus spoke them in the Temple were familiar with the prophet’s words. ...
Read more

Longest, darkest night

-
Image
Tonight, we set our clocks back an hour.  Autumn is reaching its end. Winter is approaching. The sun is further away from us each day and its warmth lessens. The trees are ever more rapidly shedding their vividly-coloured tapestry of leaves. The migrating birds are gone. Outside my window, our two squirrels are hoarding horse chestnuts all day long. The light is changing and colours are fading. Nature is entering into its time of rest.  We've come to the point of the year when the nights are longest, when we have more time in darkness than in daylight.  This year, perhaps, we are each living that longest night with a greater intensity. These are dark times in the life of each and every person. This long, seemingly endless, time of pandemic and repeated lockdowns, is not easy. And my spirit is jangled - often.  Tonight, as I sat in our convent chapel in the darkness, my spirit was not at peace. I cried. I told God what God knows already. In a quiet whisper, I poured ...
Read more

You are God's farm!

-
Image
Four words towards the end of today’s reading at Mass really stood out: 'you are God's farm' (1 Corinthians 3:9). While the surrounding phrases are so familiar I could almost recite them verbatim, until today I have never noticed these four words. Of all days, they were particularly meaningful today. On the third anniversary of his death, my uncle Timmie was very much in my heart. At morning prayer, I prayed in thanksgiving for his beautiful personality. So why did these words of St Paul’s strike me? Because my uncle Timmie was a farmer, because I grew up next door to his farm, because I spent hours in his company, in his home, on his land. St Paul reproaches the Corinthians for being ‘still unspiritual’, for missing the point: we are ‘co-workers with God’ but only God matters. It is God who makes things grow. This is something my uncle was keenly aware of and passed on to us. Were St Paul to meet him, he would surely recognise in Timmie a man who was ‘of the Spirit’, someo...
Read more