John 3:16
For God so loved the world …

It may be that John 3:16 is the best-known of all Bible verses.  I know it was the first verse I memorized as a little girl in Sunday School.  And I have heard many Sunday School lessons and sermons on it in my life; I’ve preached many sermons on it in my life!  People who don’t know anything else about the Bible probably have heard of John 3:16.

Back on January 8, 2009, University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow called attention to the verse in dramatic form when he had John 3:16 written on his eye black during the NCAA championship football game.  Three years later, on January 8, 2012, Tebow was playing for the Denver Broncos when he led them to a 29-23 playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.  In this game, Tebow passed for 316 yards and averaged 31.6 yards per completion.  Once someone noticed the coincidences, Google searches for John 3:16 exploded.  Time magazine referred to it as the “John 3:16” game.

It is likely that no one in modern American history has made more people aware of John 3:16 and its meaning than the Rev. Billy Graham, who once called the verse, “the gospel in miniature.”  He preached to more people around the world than anyone else in history, and often he used this as his text. 

What is it about John 3:16 that makes it so special?  Why are we so drawn to it?  What is it that holds our attention?  Why do we put so much importance on this one verse?  It holds so much meaning in so few words; it does summarize the message of the gospel in brief form. And the truth that it tells is life changing.

I want to focus this morning on one part of the message, the very first phrase:  For God so loved the world …  What do you hear when I read those words?  How do they make you feel?  Do they speak to your heart and your soul?  What if you were to read those words after being told all your life that you were no good; that you were going to be judged by God; that you were going to hell?  What if you believed those things about yourself?  How would this verse change your life?

The problem with people – especially those of us who live in the Western world – is that we assume that everything has to be earned, including the love of God.  We believe that God will only love us if we are good enough or holy enough or righteous enough.  As Edwin Searcy, a pastor serving a congregation in the United Church of Canada writes, “We assume that if God loves anyone, it will be those who love God; but the text does not read, ‘God so loved the church’ or ‘God so loved the faithful’ or ‘God so loved the pure’ … This story is about God’s deep and abiding love for the world.”

But what does it really mean for God to love the world?  Brett Younger, professor at McAfee School of Theology at Mercery University says, “God does not love just those who gather on Sunday, not just the religiously inclined, not just those who have heard the name of Jesus, but the whole world…”  I love what William Barclay wrote in his commentary:  It was the world that God so loved.  It was not a nation; it was not the good people; it was not only the people who loved him; it was the world.  The unlovable and the unlovely, the lonely who have no one else to love them, those who love God and those who never think of him, those who rest in the love of God and those who spurn it – all are included in this vast inclusive love of God.  As St. Augustine had it: ‘God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.’”  

I remember hearing a sermon when I was a teenager that really made an impression on me.  It was a sermon on this verse.  Our pastor read the verse out loud, “For God so loved the world …”  And then he said, “When you read this verse, you should insert your name here.  Because God so loved you that he sent his Son.”  And he had everyone repeat the verse, putting their own name in.  So I said out loud, “For God so loved Elisabeth that he gave his only Son …”  And he had us repeat it, twice.  “For God so loved Elisabeth …”  I can’t tell you how powerful that was.  I had never really taken it in before, how much God loved me, personally, how much value God placed on my life.  It changed the whole way I thought about God, and my relationship with God. 

It is my firm belief that the church’s first mission is to get the word out to people that God loves them.  There are lots of people out there who have never heard that message spoken out loud, and others who may have heard it, but don’t really believe it.  Maybe because no one else has ever loved them, so why would God?  Maybe because they feel unworthy of being loved by God.  Maybe because they think that they have done things that are so awful and unforgivable that God could never love them.  Maybe because they have been told that they are unacceptable or living in sin or going to hell.  Maybe God, for them, is a judge seated on the bench just waiting to sentence them to death.  But no matter what they have done, no matter who they are, no matter what life has done to them, they need to hear loud and clear that God loves them.  God loves everyone.  Mikeal C. Parsons, professor of religion at Baylor University, writes, God’s love knows no favorites … God’s love transgresses all human barriers placed in the way, embracing and enveloping persons for who they are – God’s children formed in God’s image.

Imagine if that teenager who committed suicide because he was being bullied had believed deep inside that God loved him?  What if that couple who couldn’t seem to stop arguing and calling each other names believed that God loved them? How much differently would customers treat the people behind the counter if they believed that God loved everyone?  How much differently would we treat the people who live in our own homes?

In a world – in a country – that is so divided, we need to recognize and acknowledge that God loves people who are different from us.  God loves both Republicans and Democrats, both liberals and conservatives.  God loves both rich and poor, both white and people of color, both gay and straight.  God loves women and men, boys and girls, infants and the elderly.  There simply is no person or group of people who are outside God’s love.  That can be a bitter pill to swallow for people who like to sit in judgment of others, to point out their flaws and faults and sins.  But it is how God operates.  As the writer of 1 John puts it, “God is love.”  That is his very nature.

God’s love is not necessarily a warm, fuzzy kind of love.  It’s not that fragile.  God’s love for us is a deliberate act of will. God chooses to love us.  He chooses to work for our good, for our best interest, in all things.  God always has compassion on us, and always forgives.  No matter what we do or where we go or how many times we make the same mistakes, God will love us anyway.  The only thing that will stop God from loving us is if we flat out reject his love and turn away from it.  We do have the power to say “no” to God’s love.

Brett Younger writes, God’s love does not coerce us into relationship, but does require us to choose whether we will love God in return.  A steppingstone can also be a stumbling block.  A healing presence can be a disturbing presence.  Every light casts a shadow.  God comes to our death-bound situations, where we can see the life God offers.  We have to decide how we will respond to God’s love.

In our smallness and our pettiness, we can be guilty of deciding who is worthy of God’s love.  But the fact of the matter is, none of us is worthy.  That’s not the basis for receiving God’s love, thank goodness.  God loves us simply because we are his children and we belong to God.  What we could never earn, God freely gives.  Not only to me and you, but to everyone.  God loves everyone.  For God so loved the world …