The opening two verses of the Gospel reading for Thursday, 25 February 2021 ( John 3:16-21), are certainly well known: “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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Simple and straightforward isn’t it? Or so it initially seems. It is one of the most reassuring scriptural passages from my childhood — likely yours as well. It is almost of one piece with “Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so.” God, through love, sent Jesus to save me. But that is not what it says. Scripture is never that simple.
We are just not called to a child-like me-focus here. The focus is broader than me; the focus is God’s human Incarnation into God’s first self-manifestation (incarnation) in creation. “God so loved the world. . .God did not send the Son. . .to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.” And how is the world saved? It is saved by being deemed worthy of having the second incarnation of God’s love, the Jesus Incarnation, born into it. Living in it. Dying in it. What we are called to is an acceptance of the Incarnate God partaking in, and thereby sanctifying, the very world we find ourselves a part of. We are called upon to come to the light that has come into the world, the light that illuminates, colors, and consecrates creation and everything and everyone in it. Stepping into that light is no simple, much less childlike, endeavor. It calls for the emptying of self to make room for the fullness of the world.
Susan Hagen
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