Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
February 17, 2008 – 2nd Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-40
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17

The Undiscovered Image of God

Sue Monk Kidd was pregnant with her second child. Her three-year-old son, Bob, was afraid of the dark. Sue tried everything. She tried leaving a light on in the hall and a night-light on in Bob's room. Nothing she did helped; he was still scared of the dark and would cry out in the middle of the night. One night as she held him against her to comfort him, he touched her round abdomen. Little Bob asked, "Mama, is it dark inside there where my little brother is?" He was convinced that his yet unborn sister would be a boy. 

"Yes," his loving mother replied, "it's dark in there."

As Bob thought further he asked, "He doesn't even have a night-light, does he?"

"No," Sue responded, "not even a night-light."

Then Bob hugged his mother as she patted his head. Bob had one more question for his mother that night, "Do you think my brother is scared all by himself in there?"

"I don't think so," Sue explained, "because he's not really alone. He's inside of me," It was a very special moment between mother and son. Suddenly Sue had an inspiration. "And it's the same way with you." Sue explained to her son. "When it's dark and you think you're all by yourself, you really aren't. I carry you inside me too. Right here in my heart."

Sue remembers looking into her son's eyes, wondering if he understood what she meant. Having nothing else to say, Bob went back to bed and was soon asleep. That was the last time he woke up during the night scared. (1)

I think God’s most difficult challenge has always been to find a way to demonstrate the extent of God’s love – for the world … for the cosmos … for every aspect of creation … for me!

Today’s key verse is just one of the ways that God addresses this challenge:  "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.” (John 3:16)

Writer Anne Lamott tells of an experience that helped her grasp the extent of God’s love.  She lives on the West Coast, and one day several years ago.  She was walking the beach with her young son, and not far off, they saw a man severely abusing his dog.

Anne’s son immediately wanted his mother to intervene, but she was afraid of the man’s viciousness.  Eventually another woman on the beach yelled for the man to stop, but he just laughed at her.  He finally led the brutalized dog away.

After he was gone, Anne felt ashamed of herself and what she saw as her own cowardice.  As she and her son continued to walk down the beach, she found herself praying, “Please.”  She wasn’t even sure what she was asking for, but she began to think about an incident in church the week before.  One of the members of the congregation had told the story of how they had come to adopt their little son.   They had gone through an agency called A.S.K., which stands for “Adopt Special Kids.”  When they applied, they had to first fill out a questionnaire with questions like, “Could you adopt an addicted baby?”  “Could you adopt a child with terminal illness?”  “Could you adopt a child with mild retardation?”  “Could you adopt a child with moderate retardation?”  “Could you adopt a child with tendencies toward violence against others?”

As the woman read the list, her pastor came and stood beside her, putting his arm around her shoulder and said, “God is an adoptive parent too.  And God chose us all.  God says, ‘Sure, I’ll take the kids who are addicted or terminal … I’ll take the kids who are retarded, and the sadists … the selfish ones and the liars…’”

Recalling this now on the beach, it suddenly came to Anne that “The mystery of God’s love is that God loves the man who was being mean to his dog just as much as God loves babies.  So, of course, God loves ordinary old me … even – or especially at my most scared and petty and mean and obsessive.  Loves me!  Chooses me!”

God loves us even when we are a mess, when we are guilty of disorderly conduct, when we are in emotional or spiritual disarray.God gave his son to save us from all that.

So, I’d like to have us end the sermon by saying together John 3:16 … except when we come to “the world”, I want us to substitute our own names. (2)

John 3:16   "For God so loved [Bary] that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Amen and amen!

(1)  Taken from a sermon entitled Help Me Make It through the Night by King Duncan, found on www.Esermons.com. 

(2)  Taken from Homiletics, January - February 2008 / Vol. 20, No. 1., pp. 63-67.

SERMON IN A SACK:  A poster-sized piece of paper and a marker.  “God’s love is ….”

Thanks for the enormity of God’s love … bigger than anything we can imagine!