03-20-21

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 20, 2021
Scripture: John 3:16
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.

Thought for the Day: These are familiar words for many Christians, yet our familiarity can breed assumptions that may not necessarily be entirely accurate – three specific ones in this verse. The word ‘world,’ in the original Greek, is Kosmos. This word did not simply describe earth, but everything. God loved everything on earth and everywhere else in the universe – people, creatures, air, rocks, plants, stars, water, etc. The word ‘believes’ is another word that is so much more than what we have made it. I have often replaced believe with belove, for it is not simply an intellectual statement one makes, but a relationship based in mutual love. And ‘eternal life’ in John’s Gospel is what happens, not when we die, but the moment we begin to live as one of God’s beloved. So often the passage has been interpreted to a simple method – punch your ticket with the right words so that when you die you go to heaven. That does not make sense as John’s Gospel is the poetic Gospel, and the last thing the author wanted was to make things mechanical. It is a divine dance into which we are invited, a dance that never has to end.

Prayer: Lord God, you love us and all of creation, calling us into a relationship of life-giving love. May the fullness of life, your eternal life, be our experience this day and always. Amen.

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