Meanings
of the Cross: Love Stronger
Than Death
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
February 20, 2005
Scripture:
Psalm 121 and John 3:1-17
Today’s
Gospel story from John contains what is arguably the most widely known
and quoted Bible verse, John 3:16: God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life. As we explore Meanings of the Cross this Lent,
today we get right to the heart of God’s self-giving love. We
come face-to-face with a savior who loves us so much, who so yearns
for us to find wholeness and healing and salvation and truth, that
he is willing to live his life and even to give his life for us. This
is love at its most powerful, its most self-less and its most profound.
This is love that is stronger than death, love that triumphs over
the grave, love at the heart of the meaning of the cross.
But
first, Nicodemus, for this verse is given to us in a story, a story
of an unlikely encounter between Jesus and a Pharisee. This Pharisee,
a strict adherent of the law and a leader, Nicodemus, came to Jesus
at night. He sought out Jesus at night and a truly remarkable exchange
occurs.
But
why at night, let’s first ask? I’ve decided that there
are three kinds of people in this world. There are people who sleep
soundly through the night, aren’t disturbed by anything, and
wake up feeling wonderful and refreshed. Then there are the people
who wake up in the night and this group is divided into two kinds.
The first are those who are calm and peaceful. These are the people
who find that quiet night-time to be a blessed relief from the chaos
and stress of the day. They lie awake and ponder, they work out their
problems, and they get their life in order. They wake in the morning
clearer, happier, ready to go. Then there are the others. They toss
and turn. Everything seems worse in the night. Problems seem insurmountable.
A small medical problem becomes a diagnosis of looming death. Nothing
is going to work out for these folks in the night. These are the people
who as kids knew there were monsters in the dark closet and still,
seemingly grown-up, now face the monsters of their own minds, their
own fears, their own anxieties and they loom large in the night.
Which
kind of person was Nicodemus? Well, we know he didn’t sleep
through the night.
(continued...)
"Meanings
of the Cross: Love Stronger Than Death" Sermon by Rev. Patricia
Farris, Feb. 20, 2005
He was up. Was it was because he could think more clearly in the quiet
of the night and he wanted to learn? Or was it because he had been tossing
and turning and the old answers weren’t working any more and he
had heard of this other teacher, Jesus, who seemed to have some new
answers?
Did
he come to Jesus in a learning mode or in an agitated mode? Was he eager
or stressed? Was he open to new ideas or at his rope’s end? Was
he seeking or was he desperate? We don’t know. But we do know
that Jesus was awake, too. Jesus was up in the night. Was he waiting
for him? Jesus seems almost eager to be there for Nicodemus, just as
he is there for us; however we come, whenever we seek him out. He is
there. And he offers words of life. And that is love.
That
doesn’t mean that Jesus makes it real easy for Nicodemus, does
he? You might almost think he’s playing with him, with these word
games that don’t work in English the way they do in Greek. In
Greek, “you must be born again” is the same thing as saying
“you must be born from above.” It is the same word in Greek.
And that’s the word game, the double entendre. Nicodemus keeps
taking it literally but Jesus wants him to interpret it spiritually
and round and round they go.
Now,
do you think that Jesus was being a mean teacher? Do you think he was
trying to embarrass his student? After all, the Pharisees are portrayed
in the Gospels as Jesus’ opponents, his adversaries, those who
are always trying to trip him up with interpretations of the law. Is
Jesus just trying to dish the same back to Nicodemus?
I
don’t think so. Jesus was a master teacher. Some scholars even
argue that he himself had the training of a Pharisee. The Pharisees
loved the law; they loved the word of God. They studied it carefully,
just as rabbis and Torah scholars do to this day. Jesus knew that Nicodemus
loved words. He knew that he would comb them for every ounce of meaning.
And so he engaged Nicodemus that night respectfully as a peer, drawing
him in to a truth more profound and beautiful than anything he had yet
understood. Jesus wanted him to see that at the heart of the law is
the heart of God. Jesus honors Nicodemus that night with a pearl of
wisdom, the key to they mystery of the incarnation: the price and value
of God’s self-giving love. Where law condemns, love redeems. Finally,
it is not law that saves, but love.
For
through this love, we are made whole. Through this love, we find salvation.
Through this love, we enter the door to eternal life.
Where
law condemns, love redeems. There are many in our time that would elevate
law over love. Many who would use the Bible as a sledge hammer to ostracize
and condemn. But Jesus himself puts the only requirement before us.
Jesus sums it all up in a very few words: You must be born from above.
You must be born again.
(continued...)
"Meanings
of the Cross: Love Stronger Than Death" Sermon by Rev. Patricia
Farris, Feb. 20, 2005
Being
born anew can happen in many ways, but what Nicodemus learns and John
Wesley taught, and we must each learn for ourselves, is that it is
the essential door into the life of faith at the heart of God. We
must be born by water and the Spirit. We must be born into the great,
great love of God and be made new by its compelling power.
What
Nicodemus began to understand that night is that a love willing to
go this far for us and for our salvation is the love that makes us
whole. It rearranges our priorities and it focuses our commitments.
Nicodemus began to be born from above that night. Some time later,
he stood up for Jesus when the other Pharisees wanted to have him
arrested. Even later, after the crucifixion, he honored his teacher
by joining Joseph of Arimathea in taking spices to the tomb. Nicodemus
had caught a glimpse of the love that is stronger even than death
and it changed his life.
Jesus was
a master teacher. He could take on the brilliant Nicodemus on his
own terms. He could also teach his own sometimes dimwitted disciples
who could never seem to get it right. Jesus treats everyone with respect.
He welcomes them as they are. He welcomes us as we are: an A student,
a C student, PhD, kid who hated school, light sleeper, or heavy sleeper.
He welcomes us as we are. He loves us and he wants us to know about
the love of God. And on the night of his last dinner with them, in
that night, he gave them this new commandment: that we love one another
now as he loved us.
Sometimes
this love requires everything we have, as he well knew. Is there no
greater love than this, he asked, than to lay down one’s life
for one’s friends?
Just last
week an American, a Catholic nun, was murdered in Brazil, in the Amazon
region to the north of Sao Paulo. Sr. Dorothy Stang was 73. A native
of Dayton, Ohio, she had lived and worked in the region for over twenty
years, countering efforts by loggers who seek to clear large areas
of the Amazon forest for development projects, destroying the vital
forests and displacing many poor people. Last June she had been honored
by the state of Para in which she worked. In December she received
an award from the Brazilian Bar Association for her work helping the
rural workers, in this part of the country beset by growing lawlessness.
Because
there is a great deal of money at stake in these land deals, there
are those who would do anything to wipe out whoever stands in their
way. Sr. Stang received death threats.
She
knew that there was a price on her head. She knew that she was at
risk. Yet she stayed on, past the date of her official retirement.
She stayed out of commitment and conviction. She stayed out of love:
love for God’s people and love for a God who so loved
(continued...)
"Meanings
of the Cross: Love Stronger Than Death" Sermon by Rev. Patricia
Farris, Feb. 20, 2005
the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
Last
week, on her way to a meeting with local peasants, her group was attacked
by hired gunmen. Witnesses said that as the gunmen approached, Sr.
Dorothy took out her Bible and began reading from it aloud. She was
shot five times and killed. No one else in her party was injured.
She has since been buried there, as was her wish, in the land she
sought to save.
In
this week following her death, protests have spread around the country,
decrying her death and lifting up her witness. On Thursday, the president
of Brazil signed decrees creating the two vast new forest preserves
she had long advocated.
Her youngest
brother, Tom, who lives here in Los Angeles, said that she knew the
risks and that she “wanted to die with her boots on.”
“Faith was what drove her,” he said. Her niece said: “She
was awesome. A bundle of joy, the happiest person. She needed nothing.
She just loved the people there.”
Professor
Diana Eck has written that “love is the great word of the Gospel
and the one plumbline of Christian life.” Sometimes that love
requires us to give our all, as it did for Jesus and for Sr. Dorothy
Stang. And while some may in the end die for this love, all of us
are called to live for this love, to love the world the way God first
loves us.
And so
in the night, should you awaken, think on this love, this second meaning
of the cross. God’s love is there for us. God loves us into
wholeness. God loves us into salvation. God loves us into the kingdom.
God loves us into the fullness of life in every moment of our time
on this earth. And at the end, God loves us home.
Thanks
be to God.
Notes:
Diana L. Eck: Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman
to Banaras. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
© Patricia Farris, 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation
with attribution. All other rights reserved.
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