Sermon 16th October 2016 John 16 God and the world
Of all the Gospels John is the one that seems to swing from one extreme to the other. On tone hand john most memorably assures us of the love of God.Probably the most well-known verse in the Bible is John 3:16 – God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him, should not die, but have eternal life’. In fact John 3:16 became part of popular culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s at sporting events, when a man named Rollen Stewart would put on a rainbow coloured afro wig and a John 3:16 T-shirt. He became expert at getting himself in front of the cameras at the biggest sporting and cultural events, including the royal wedding of Charles and Diana. But sadly Stewart grew increasingly fanatical about his crusade. In 1992 he even took a maid hostage with a loaded gun at a Los Angeles hotel, demanding a national press conference to proclaim his new message that the end of the world was imminent. He plastered John 3:16 all overthe hotel windows, and it took a SWAT team nine hours to negotiate his hostages release.
Perhaps not the best way to set an example of God’s love. But Johns gospel also tells the young Christian church that they will face deep hostility from the world around them, who won’t understand them, and who will hate those who oppose the worlds culture of selfishness and injustice. At the start of the gospel John writes that the world was made by God and yet it doesn’t know him. A few verses before today’s reading we read ‘Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you.It’s a blunt and uncompromising message. We might expect others to politely ignore our ideas about God, but no, John insists that we shall be hated for our beliefs, just as Jesus himself was hated by his world, by the religious establishment of the Jews as well as the civil and military power of Rome.
The early church had seen exactly what this meant as they were excluded from the Jewish synagogues and persecuted by the Roman authorities, whose emperors they refused to recognise as gods.
Well of course all that was a long time ago.Even if the days of Christendom are long gone, we do at least live under a government that tolerates Christianity, even to the point of allowing some of our bishops to continue to sit in the House of Lords. We are not constantly at odds with a pagan occupying power, as the early Christians were. But it’s not hard to see that even today being a follower of Jesus can invite hatred, persecution, and even be a death sentence in some countries. In this nation we’ve seen the hatred of the new atheist movement led by Richard Dawkins, the companies who fire staff for being open about their faith, or for the heinous crime of praying for someone.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising to us though, because although we absolutely want to say that Gods love reaches out to every human being, the message of the gospel is that the world is in a mess, human beings are living fruitless and hopeless lives because we have rejected God and cut ourselves off from that life sustaining relationship with him. If we even mention the word sin, the world laughs at us. Its seen as such an outdated concept, when in our world today people feel they have a right to live however they wish, and as long as they don’t directly harm anyone else then they don’t see the problem.
But John’s gospel is pretty clear. The Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong about three things. Sin, Righteousness, and judgement. Those are concepts that are generally meaningless to many in the world today. They simply don’t get it.
First we read, the world is wrong about sin, because they do not believe in Jesus. Do we really have to believe in Jesus in order to know about sin, to know whether something is right or wrong. There are plenty of decent folk out there, who will say that they try to lead a good life.Most of the time they will say, our consciences keep us pretty well in line, don’t they?The thing is throughout human history there have been so very many decent respectable people who have victimised, imprisoned, tortured and killed others, believing sincerely that they were doing the right thing. Many more simply shut their eyes to the need of others. I’ve seen that reflected in some of the responses to the refugee crisis across Europe where some are quick to condemn and accuse, without a clue about the real human tragedies and suffering involved.
How many of us have failed to see the world through Gods eyes, and failed to give ourselves to others in need, as he gave. If we really believed in Jesus, following his example and teaching, opening our hearts to allow his Spirit to guide us and change us, we might find ourselves in all kinds of trouble, as He did. It’s only when we really believe in Him, that we can get it right about sin.
Next, the world is wrong about righteousness, Righteousness is a difficult concept to define, but it has to do with how we are seen by ourselves, by others and ultimately by God. The world measures righteousness by respectability, success, status, power, wealth, and rewards it with esteem, deference, honours and awards, celebrity. Jesus could have gone that way. He had already made quite a name for himself as a popular preacher and healer. He was on the brink of commanding a mass following that even the Romans would have to take seriously. But he turned his back on all that. He was going to His Father, and his disciples would see Him no more – He was turning away from popularity and success to choose the path that led to crucifixion and death. That’s why his disciples would see Him no more.
But only then would Jesus physical presence be replaced with that of the Advocate, the Spirit who would empower the disciples as never before, and not only them, but every succeeding generation, from that little gathering around him in the Upper Room to this little gathering here in Walney. So the world is wrong about righteousness too. The way of righteousness is not the path to fortune and celebrity as the world sees it, but the Way of the Cross, the way that leads to his Kingdom.
And then finally, the world is wrong about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.The gospels are clear about this too. One day there will be an accounting. Everything we do has consequences, and no-one can avoid a day of reckoning. Evil will be overcome.
The challenge for all of us is that we too often allow ourselves to be subtly seduced by the culture all around us, which is so utterly at variance with the way of life which Jesus himself exemplified. The world is wrong about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment. And all too often the world is us. We have embraced the world’s standards rather than following his Way. Yet still His love reaches out to us as He invites us to follow Him.
So we can’t be complacent. If we are to be faithful to our calling as Jesus disciples then life won’t be a bed of roses, and sometimes the world will hate us too. But his grace is sufficient, his love inexhaustible, and his spirit lives in us. One day this world will be restored to how it was meant to be, and the darkness and deception which has a hold on so many human lives will be swept away, and thr truth will be plain to see. Amen.