I brought with me two things that I spirited out of my spouse’s china cupboard this morning, and she is only now seeing that I have secreted these out while she was still asleep. One is one of four precious glasses that we have, parfait glasses, that we call the “Great Aunt Edie” parfait glasses. These are so precious, such a treasure to our family. They were given to us from my mom, who got them from her mother, who got them from her Aunt Edie. They are so precious and such a treasure, I only remember, in 26 years, eating out of them once. The rest of the time they stay within the china cupboard to be looked at and imagined what it would be like to eat out of the Great Aunt Edie parfait glasses.

 

Such a precious thing that it’s mere apoplexy for her to see me holding it up here.

 

But this, this is also a family treasure. It came from her great-grandmother on her mother’s side. It’s the MooMa (that’s what they called her), the MooMa pitcher. We use this all the time. This is a regular standard, staple, in our family system. You can see some of the nicks and scratches on it. It’s really held up pretty well, considering the generations that it has served. This is a daily standard. We serve water out of this pitcher. We serve iced tea out of this pitcher. We serve lemonade out of this pitcher. At some point in the day, pretty much something is going to be poured out of this pitcher. They are both beloved, but this one is much more used and handled and worn by the family.

 

So it is with some texts in the Bible. There are some texts that are beloved, that are treasures, but you seldom use them. Ah, that’s true. Do you know what, arguably, the central scripture in the Bible is (at least in the Hebrew scriptures), the Old Testament scriptures? How about the Shema? Those verses from the Old Testament which read, Here, O Israel, the Lord, thy God, the Lord is one and ye shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.

 

So central, that when Jesus was asked what is at the heart of the law, it was those verses that he recited. So central that orthodox Jews tie phylacteries on their wrists and on their foreheads, and in those little boxes, on a piece of paper, are inscribed those words, the Shema. That has traditionally been the central text.

 

But these words, from John 3:16. It seems to me, begin almost to become a new kind of Shema, to sort of nudge the old one off center stage a little bit. These verses you know by heart. Well you do, even if you don’t think you do. If I say to you, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever….” See, it’s written in there, for some of you before you even knew it. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be….” You even know it in the King James’s Version. That’s how deeply you know it. So you may have caught, though I was trying to read the scripture from the NRSV, somewhere between the printed word and my head, I slipped back into the King James Version that I first learned these words from. It’s a new American Shema. It’s the only text so beloved to you, it’s probably the only text that as you watch the NCAA Playoffs this afternoon, that you’re going to see lifted up on a poster when they scan the crowd outside. John 3, and then particularly, 16.

 

You love these words, and you use them all the time. So let’s hear carefully what they mean, lest our familiarity with them, we lose the treasure, we lose how valuable they are. Note that they say, they’re teaching us, that God loves the world. That’s what it says. God so loved the world. The world. The whole world. The earth is the Lord’s, says the psalmist, and the fullness thereof. God loves the sunsets and the sunrises. The mangoes and the apples. God loves the Gulf and the rivers and the mountains and the deserts. God loves the world, and God loves you! Because you are a part of the world. You are a part of God’s creation.

 

There is really a case to be made for a kind of a Christian ecology out of this text. Because it says so clearly that God loves the world and wants us to take care of the world that God loves so much. God loves the world.

 

So much, that God sent his Son to save the world, so that the world might not perish. Picture Jesus in a kind of a Coast Guard life boat, coming across the waves to rescue you. Picture Jesus coming down the side of a mountain to bring a stranded climber off the side of a cliff. God so loved the world, God loves the world, how much? That he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. God does not want you to perish. God is trying to save you, trying to save the world, because God loves the world. And you, you are a part of God’s world. For that reason, we can be pretty sure that God is not calling you to condemn the world, which is a temptation that we often slip into. It’s easy to fall into the notion that what God really needs from us is to condemn the world. To gripe about some specific part of the world. To lament something in the world that we don’t like and that we think is wrong.

 

But the text doesn’t say that, does it, this central text that is written on your heart. It says, God loves the world. And God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world. And if God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, what’s the likelihood that God’s calling you to come into the world to condemn the world? It’s not very high, I think. It’s not likely that God said, Jesus, don’t condemn the world; save the world. Lift up the light of my love. But Bill, you condemn the world for me.

 

No, don’t condemn the world, but rather stand with God, who loves the world, and sent not his Son to condemn the world but to love the world, so that the world through Him might be saved.

 

God loves the world. God did not send you to the world to condemn the world. God sent Christ to save the world so that those who believe in Him would not perish.

 

Therefore, don’t be darkness in the world. Because in the third chapter of John, (though we don’t have this part quite as well written on our hearts and minds), John links them together. Since God loves the world, don’t be darkness in the world. John couples this notion of God loving the world with images of darkness and light. God loves the world and sent his Son not to condemn the world, but to save the world, so that those who believe in Him would not perish. Therefore, don’t be darkness. There is enough darkness in the world. Don’t add to people’s darkness. Don’t point out to people, Look how dark it is around you. The darkness is its own burden.

 

That’s what I see here in the third chapter of John. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than the light. The darkness is its own burden. If you know anybody who is really enmeshed in a sinful pattern of some kind (by sin, I mean our refusal to live out God’s intentions for our lives), somebody who is really enmeshed in doing something that is other than what God intends for their lives. You know how miserable that is. Although at some times we may think that it is really more exciting. It always leads towards misery, to be doing something that is not a part of God’s intentions for our lives. It is its own burden. The darkness is its own burden. God does not need you to condemn it.

 

Lamar Williamson, a wonderful New Testament who was a dear friend of Irvine Williams (who was the pastor of this church for many years) says, “This is what it must be like to be an insect. Not that we are insects, but that this must be what it feels like, to be this enmeshed in sin. When you walk into your kitchen and you turn the light on, and the bugs all run for cover. Because they’re just not comfortable in the light.”

 

Sometimes we know what it feels like to feel this way. We don’t want to be exposed. We don’t want to be seen. Don’t add to the burden of the darkness. It’s burden enough. But rather, be the light.

 

Some of you are here today enmeshed in patterns that are not a part of God’s intentions for your lives, and that’s important. Here’s the good news: God has sent Jesus, who is the Light of the World, so you can begin to walk away from that by taking a step toward the Light. Take a step, even a baby step, toward the Light, which is Christ. That’s why he is holding the lantern in his hand. He is the Light of the World. Take a step to whatever is Christ-like. Whatever is good, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, says the Bible. Think on these things. Walk towards the Light, even a baby step, to leave sin behind.

 

And if you find yourself embracing the Light, feeling good about being in the Light, then for Heaven’s sake, for Jesus’ sake, be a light for others! Lift your light up so that others seeing it may have some beacon of hope. You be the light. You reflect the light of Christ in your life, so that seeing it, others may know where to go.

 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “You are like the salt of the earth. You are like the salt of the earth, spread out to season the world. To be the change within the world. You,” says Jesus, “you are the light of the world.” Don’t take your light and hide it under a bushel basket. Rather, lift it up. Lift your light up as is if it’s on a great city, so that others seeing it may know the way to walk.

 

Ah, this is a beloved text. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have eternal life. But it is a text that calls us not to condemn the world, but to love the world. Because God loves the world and desires that the world should not perish. Don’t be the darkness. Be the light. In your light, reflect the light of Christ, who is the Light of the World.

 

 

©John T. DeBevoise 2006