Sunday Musings

Seeing the world in radically new ways.

If you missed the post I sent out yesterday morning upon hearing of the war in Iran, you can read “Blessed are those who make peace” here.

---

TODAY IS THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

Once every third year, the Lenten lectionary lands on a very familiar text: John 3:16. This is a challenging passage to read or preach — mostly for the myriad of ways it has been misinterpreted, especially among evangelical Christians. I suspect that more than a few Cottage readers don’t really like this passage as it has often been used as a “text of terror” against many.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m going through some medical challenges right now. Since I had a number of appointments in recent days, I asked my friend Brian McLaren to step in today. I’ve heard him teach on John 3:16 many times — and I knew he’d have something important to share about this reading.

And, in fine preacher style, he tackled linking together all the lectionary passages into a fresh interpretation!

To check out Brian’s blog and many books, visit his website. (If you didn’t know he can do anything, he’s currently writing a new science fiction series!)

*****

Some of you may appreciate my reflection on this same passage from March 2023 written through the lens of feminist theology.

If you are reading A Beautiful Year for Lent, the essay, “Repentance,” would be a good one this week.

---

The daily Lenten audio moments continue for the paid subscriber community at the Cottage. This week, upcoming reflections will revolve around images of new birth and birthing.

There are some wonderful surprises coming up!

You can still upgrade to a paid subscription to join in. We’d love to have you. And you can listen to the entire series with an upgraded subscription.

Paid subscribers: You can go to the Cottage main webpage anytime to catch up or listen again!

---

Genesis 12:1-4a

The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“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.”

---

---

---

A guest post by Brian McLaren

I grew up in an Evangelical background, I memorized many Bible verses as a child. Probably the first, and the most frequently recited, was from this passage, John 3:16. You may have memorized it to, or noticed it on T-shirts or signs at NFL games. “For God so loved the world,” the verse says, “that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

The words “the world” and “everyone” have a universal reach. But when I learned the verse and heard it preached by Billy Graham and others, its universal reach was quickly and severely narrowed by the words “who believes in him.” God may love everyone, but only those who believe in him will escape punishment for their sins, which in our tradition, meant hell.

Believing in him (theological nerd alert) came to mean (for millions of us) believing in a doctrine called “penal substitutionary atonement theory.”*

That doctrine, I suspect, is what the organizers of the Revised Common Lectionary had in mind when they paired the steak of John 3 with the red wine of Romans 4 and the side salad of Genesis 12.

I still love John 3:16 and Romans 4, but penal substitutionary atonement theory stopped making sense to me decades ago. And part of my way out of the theory was the Genesis 12 passage in today’s readings, especially these words:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,
and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.

The brilliant British missiologist Lesslie Newbegin said these words addressed the greatest heresy (or dangerous idea) in the history of monotheism. Many people understand being blessed by God as an exclusive matter, Newbegin said, as if God blesses some to the exclusion of others.

But no, Newbegin says. From the very beginning in the creation story in Genesis 1, when God blesses all creation – both day and night, both land and sea, both plant and animal, both animal and human – God’s blessings have been universal, because that is who God is and how God lives, an overflowing
fountain of blessing. When God calls Abraham (then known as Abram), God doesn’t bless Abram and his descendants to the exclusion of others, but for the
benefit of others.

God’s blessings are not exclusive, but rather instrumental.

I often recall an experience I had way way back in elementary school in the early 1960’s. Every day, we young students were assisted by older students in 5th or 6th grade. They were safety patrols, and they stood at intersections and held us back until they checked that there were no cars coming. Then they motioned for us to cross the road. I didn’t realize that what they did required hard work and sacrifice. They had to leave home earlier and come home later than the rest of us. They had to stand at their post in rain and snow and sleet and hail and hot sun and cold wind.

When at the end of fourth grade, our teacher asked for volunteers to be safety patrols next year, I wasn’t thinking of any of their hard work, sacrifice of comfort and time, or big responsibility. I wasn’t thinking of the special safety patrol training meetings I would have to attend.

I was thinking of four things. First, I was thinking I would get to wear a special white belt with an actual silver badge. Wow! Second, I was thinking about how I could boss other kids around! Double wow! Third, I was thinking of the fact that they could arrive at school late and leave early. Triple Wow! And fourth, I was thinking of the fact that safety patrols all went to an amusement park on a school day at the end of the year as a reward for their service, and they didn’t have to make up the schoolwork they missed. That was a home run of wows!

So I raised my hand high and sat up straight to volunteer, adding an “Oooo, oooo, pick me!” for emphasis. And to my great joy, a few days later I found my name on the list of next year’s safety patrols. Hallelujah!

Simply put, immature Brian was interested in being a patrol so I could gain status, even superiority over my fellow students, and for the reward of a day at the park at the end of the year.

That is the way many people taught John 3:16. All you have to do is raise your hand, say yes to the privileges promised to those who are chosen, and you will be pronounced as a “born again Christian,” which meant you would have a free ticket to safety, security, and enjoyment in heaven for yourself and yourself alone, forever.

But that is not what Genesis 12 or John 3:16 are actually about, contrary to a very popular belief. God chooses Abram, not for elite and exclusive privilege for his descendants alone, but for deep responsibility and service for all the nations of world. God chooses Abram not to the exclusion of others, but to the benefit and blessing of others. As Lesslie Newbegin said, you can’t claim God’s blessings for yourself, your race, your culture, or your religion, and leave out and “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Similarly, the profound image of being born again is not about getting a free “get out of hell” card and a free trip to the eternal amusement park above, to ride its roller coasters forever.

In John 3, Nicodemus, like many people today, is focused on the superiority of his in-group. “Teacher, we know,” he begins. Now as a lifelong teacher, I can tell you that whenever a student begins a conversation with “Teacher, we know,” things are not likely to go well. Students who want every answer to fit in with what they already know are operating within what psychologists and rhetoricians call confirmation bias: they only want to hear what conforms to and confirms their current thinking.

So Jesus goes to the heart of the issue: “I’m here to teach people about the kingdom of God, and the only way to see it is to be born from above.” To be born from above means to start life over again with a new identity, not as someone who is trying to be a carrier of elite privilege, but to be someone (like Abram, and like Jesus) who wanted to be blessed for the sake of others … who wanted to live, we might say, for the common good, or who wanted to join God in loving and healing the world.

Nicodemus is operating on what we might call a conventional and literalistic level, unaware of his biases and the limitations of his current perspective, so he asks questions that demonstrate his cluelessness. Jesus keeps challenging him to break out of his fourth-grade thinking, and join him as a safety patrol, so to speak, who isn’t working for himself alone, or even for his own little group or clique, but who is concerned for everyone’s welfare, everywhere, no exceptions. God’s desire, Jesus says, is not to condemn everyone or anyone, but to save everyone.

One final thought: If Lesslie Newbegin was right when he said that the widespread religious idea of exclusive blessing was a heresy, then we might say that many if not most Christians today, like Nicodemus, need to rethink their understanding of the words save, perish, eternal life, and kingdom of God.

Most people think “save” means “get to heaven.”

Most people think “perish” means “go to hell.”

And most people think “eternal life” means “life in heaven.”

And they think “kingdom of God” means heaven, the perfect place where souls go after death.

If we take John’s gospel seriously enough to challenge our own conventional and literalistic thinking, I believe we will come to see differently, that:

“Save” means liberate or set free from the current, corrupt “kingdoms of this world.”

“Perish” means “die or be exterminated through war and oppression.”

“Eternal life” means “life of the ages,” in contrast to “life in this present age or regime.” In other words, it means life “from above,” life on a higher level than life in the current economic, political, and social systems of our current human civilization. We will see it as a synonym for what Jesus later calls “abundant life.”

And “kingdom of God” means “what the world would be like if God were sitting on the throne instead of Caesar and Herod” and [insert names of other powerful, corrupt, misguided leaders here].

For many Cottage readers, everything I’ve said here sounds pretty familiar and unsurprising. But many of us might feel like Nicodemus when he was walking home from his nighttime conversation with Jesus.

Based on what we learn about Nicodemus later in the Fourth Gospel (John 7:50- 51, and John 19:39-42), he probably left with his mind racing with thoughts like these: “Maybe I don’t actually already have everything figured out. Maybe I need to rethink a lot of what I think I know.”

That is not a bad place to be, not a bad place at all. In fact, it sounds like being born from above … discovering a new identity … seeing the world in radically new ways.

****

*(If you don’t know what “penal substitutionary atonement” means, no worries. If you’re curious, you can find lots of resources for and against the doctrine online. Here’s a nerdy sample of a pro-argument and a con-argument.)

---

---

INSPIRATION

Born Again

Let’s be clear about this:
It isn’t the same as being sick
and getting better. It isn’t
changing your mind at the last minute
or pushing away from the brink.
The only way to be born again
is to die. The Phoenix doesn’t just
go up in a blaze of glory. It
feels the fire lick up and sizzle
every feather, until each quill becomes
a column of flame carried straight to the core.
Whatever the legend of re-birth, there is always
time in the fire, under the ground,
hanging on the cross or the tree.
Don’t skip over that part of the story.
If you would be reborn, you have to die.
But what then? After the dying
how are we to rise again into new life?
The earth, the hero, the god, you and I—
how does any of us find our way back
from the Valley of the Shadow?
The same way we die:
Walk into the light.
— Lynn Ungar

Lynn Ungar is a Unitarian Universalist minister and poet. Please check out her website and books, HERE.

---

A personal note:

My medical procedure journey continues. I greatly appreciate the kind notes you’ve sent — and the prayers I sense daily. I hope to have some greater clarity soon. It is impossible to say how grateful I am for you all and the care, generosity, faith, and support you so freely share.

Also, it is more than a little ironic to have written A Beautiful Year in a year with so many challenges — both public and personal.

I didn’t know that I’d be needing to so completely practice what I’ve preached. ❤️

---

---

---

---

A Beautiful Year makes a Beautiful Easter gift!

Don’t forget to share A Beautiful Year with your friends! You can dive in any time, not just at the start of the year. There are a number of powerful readings for Holy Week — and the upcoming Easter chapter is one of my favorite sections!

---