My understanding of the Church, of how a faith community lives out its witness, changed forever when I accepted my friend Matt’s invitation to live on Simcoe Street in Winnipeg in the winter of 1986. I had met in residence at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon in 1984 and we formed a quick and close friendship. I had never met a Mennonite before, growing up in Halifax, there were liberal and conservative Protestants, Roman Catholics. Other Christian expressions, like the Orthodox, were very exotic, and churches like the Anabaptists; Church of the Brethren, Mennonites, the Amish, even more exotic. Matt gave me an insight into a world I knew nothing about, but his answers to my questions were informational, facts, a set of doctrinal statements and beliefs. Living at Simcoe, with other Mennonites, offered a more intimate setting, a relational context, a way of understanding based less on words and more on the bonds of relationship.
Mennonites in this country have always been a minority experience, they came here with a promise to farmland on the Prairies, leaving behind religious intolerance and ill treatment by governments in Eastern Europe. What they hoped for here, was the freedom to be whom they believed Jesus had called them to be, a community of faith focused on Jesus alone, not the state. They were pacifists, but more than that, they believed their faith called them to live uniquely in a secular world, that expressions of faith like liberal and conservative Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, were not sufficiently focused on the Gospel. That didn’t mean condemning those majority populations, it just meant the freedom to live out their witness as followers of Jesus.
What I witnessed, living at Simcoe, were liberal Mennonites, engaged with the world, compassionate about the world’s suffering and challenges, they were member of the Mennonite Central Committee, an organization committed to social justice. But unlike a lot of liberal Protestant expressions of social justice, the MCC called on its members to witness as communities of faith to what they believed. Thus many of the young Mennonites who showed up on Friday nights were MCC members who had gone overseas to offer their agricultural skills and talents in places that asked for their assistance. They were not missionaries in our sense of the word, they had work to do, people to meet, food to be grown. But the relationships there were two-way, the witness of people they met overseas were as important to these Mennonites as anything they might offer to others. These people I met on Friday nights had learned so much from other cultures, other peoples. Afterall, they were a minority people, they understood what it felt like to be looked down on, marginalized.
On Saturday nights some of these Mennonites took me “dumpster diving”. We would arrive at a large grocery store, take turns diving into dumpsters to “rescue” good produce that had been thrown away because of small discoloration. We “harvested” what others thought “garbage” and made a feast, a community meal. I remember the bumper sticker I read on most of these VW Rabbit vehicles, “Live Simply So Others May Simply Live.” These liberal MCC Mennonites sought to change others, and themselves, by living the Gospel, witnessing to its power, and commending it to me.
When you are raised, as I was, as many of us are, being part of the majority culture, its easy to feel the way to change minds and hearts is to tell others what to do. In a majority culture, those in charge make the rules, and the rest of us follow the rules. Power is never problematic to those who grow up in a majority culture, we might argue with each other over what we ought to do or believe, but power gives us the right to tell others what is right.
If you watched the Super Bowl, you saw two things; Taylor Swift and someone holding up a sign that read, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s 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. Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” Christians in the western world have been the majority for a very long time. Our understanding of “gave God’s Son” has become a litmus test for whether you are “in” or “out”, “found” or “lost”, “eternal life” or “condemned”. You accept that God did this, set out this test, or you don’t.
But if you see the world through the eyes of those who have never held the power, like the disciples, like the early church, like Christians all over the world who are in the minority, you read this text differently. God comes in love to redeem loss, turn tragedy into victory, demonstrating true power through vulnerability and sacrifice. This is the understanding of who Jesus was and is as presented in the Gospel of John, written at a time when the radical nature of the church was its community life, lived out as “friends” and “family”, words echoed over and over by John.
We probably don’t go around wearing t-shirts that say, “might makes right,” but we live according to such logic regularly. For we live in a world that seeks security not only through power but also through wealth and consumption, and we are taught from a very early age to avoid true vulnerability – and the truly vulnerable – at all costs. So, sacrifice? Sure, when we can afford to. Vulnerability? Only if there is no other choice.
Most of us find it impossible to embrace Jesus’ example…except when we ourselves have been brought low by illness, or loss, or a broken relationship, or disappointed hopes or some other way by which the world taught us that no matter how hard we try, no matter what position we may achieve, no matter how much money we may save, yet we cannot secure our destiny or save our lives. Only God can do that. Only love can do that. And it’s frightening to be so utterly dependent on God. God’s love is tenacious. And so…God’s love will continue to chase after us, seeking to hold onto us and redeem us all the days of our lives.
In her 2013 book, Christianity after Religion, historian Diana Butler Bass points out that the English word "believe" comes from the German "belieben" — the German word for love. To believe is not to hold an opinion. To believe is to treasure. To hold something beloved. To give my heart over to it without reservation. To believe in something is to invest it with my love. This is true in the ancient languages of the Bible as well. When the writers of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament wrote of faithfulness, they were not writing about an intellectual surrender to a factual truth. They were writing about fidelity, trust, and confidence. As they saw it, to believe in God was to place their full confidence in God. To throw their whole hearts, minds, and bodies into God’s hands.
What does it mean to believe in Jesus? To hold onto him? To trust him with my life? For Nicodemus, it meant starting anew, letting go of all he thought he understood about the life of faith. It meant being “born again,” becoming a newborn, vulnerable, hungry, and ready to receive reality in a brand-new way. It meant coming out of the darkness and risking the light. The work of trusting Jesus was mind-bending, soul-altering work — it was hard, and it took time, and it involved setbacks, fears, and disappointments. No wonder Nicodemus walked away baffled that first night. Jesus was calling him to fall in love, stay in love. Why is belief important to God? Because love is. To believe is to be-love.
Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus is sent from God, but he comes in secret. Jesus chides him for his lack of understanding of vulnerability, of risk. In John, some of the sharpest criticism is directed toward those who believe, or have insight about Jesus, but keep it secret. Even some of the authorities believed in Jesus but did not confess it for fear of being put out of the synagogue (12:42-43). The division in John’s world is not so much between Jews and Christians. The gospel narrative indicates the experience of a minority group defining itself not only within the diversity of Judaism but also defining itself among followers of Jesus. The purpose is not to exclude others, rather to support those who likely make difficult choices to belong. Likely the intent was to encourage others to join them.
As a small minority, the John’s community did not have the power or influence to marginalize others or cause harm by excluding them. In the western world, Christianity has been the dominant religion for centuries, whether supported by the state or not, and it has the power to marginalize and exclude those who do not conform. In our hands, the gospel of John can do serious harm, indeed it has. So it is important that we make an effort to enter into the world of John when we interpret these texts. John begins with echoes of Genesis (1:1) and the goodness of God’s Creation, the world, all that is in it. That note is sounded again so clearly here. For the sake of this world, God gives God’s most cherished beloved son. Any parent knows that the love for one’s child is so great one might sacrifice oneself for a child. In this human experience we grasp God’s self-giving love for us, giving us the incomparable gift of salvation, life forever through God’s beloved Son.
For God so loved the world that God gave God’s 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. Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
The light God gives, offers, provides eternal life and love. But this light is offered in humble service, in agape sacrifice, in relationship. Those who shield themselves from this light of love, still need it. They are condemned, we are condemned, not because we are evil or sinners, but rather because we choose power over vulnerability. Shaming people, bullying people, controlling people, is NOT Jesus’ way. The way of the cross, is humility and sacrifice, not power and violence. God so loved the world that God sent Jesus to show a light, a light that treasures, that sees each other as beloved, as a community of broken and saintly people, capable of healing and abundant life. When we, in this community, demonstrate God’s relentless, humble, vulnerable, and tenacious love, we show the world “we are not alone, we live in God’s world.” Amen.