Love

Salvation isn’t a prize for saying the right creed. Salvation is a life we live when we choose to love like Jesus, no matter the cost.

Peter Mohrbacher. Hesed, Emanation of Empathy, 2019.

One of the things that brings me great joy from this spiritual journey I’ve been on is looking back to see just how far I’ve come.

Of course, I am not purposefully doing  this to simply measure my progress like some kind of spiritual Fitbit. It's not that grand. To be honest, I just like seeing where the Holy Spirit has guided me. And taking inventory on how grace has encouraged me to keep going. (Or maybe more like not to give up.)

While so much in me has grown, stretched, deepened—my understanding of God hasn’t really changed all that much.

For most of life, God has always been, and still is, nothing less than love.

The kind of love that never stops pursuing me.

Some 30 years ago, I found myself in a dark place, praying that I would experience real love. Back then I didn’t know what I know now that God was already there, offering my heart what it had been longing for.

It would take years of seeking and searching to realize God’s love isn’t some distant goal to strive for—it’s the very current that carries us throughout life.
 
Lent is an invitation to stop chasing after what’s already chasing us. It’s a time to be still long enough to notice that God is sitting right here, within reach —waiting to be noticed, to be welcomed.

I once had trouble seeing that, even though our reading today— one of the most well-known passages in the entire Bible —has been revealing this to me all along.

“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. . . . 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.”   John 3:16-21

St. Augustine said, “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” Imagine for a moment, being the single most important object in God’s eyes. Waking up every day to be the recipient of God’s dotting and affection.
 
The Hebrew word for this is hesed (חֶסֶד), which is often translated as the steadfast love of God. But it’s a bit bigger than just that. Hesed is the cornerstone of God’s character -rooted in loyalty, grace, and faithfulness.

Jesus says this is the way God operates - out of great love and faithfulness - simply because God can’t not love what God has made. Or like Richard Rohr says, “God loves things by becoming them.” That’s Incarnation. That’s Christ. The Son, which has been sent and given to us.

In an interview Billy Graham confessed that every sermon he ever gave boiled down to a single verse—John 3:16. And within that verse, a single word: Love.
 
“For God so loved…”

And who’s the recipient of God’s affection? Not just the church. Not just good people or those who get their theology right. Jesus says, “God so loves the world." Everyone. Everything. Full stop!
 
I think we’re given this particular passage during Lent as a way to help us realize that God is here, recalibrating the compass in our hearts so we can move through the world like Jesus—with his divine light and love filling the dark spaces we sometimes find ourselves in.
 
That’s the job. That’s the calling of any and every Christian church. Just be like Jesus, the perfect embodiment of God’s hesed.

Jesus doesn’t just talk about love from some safe distance.  He walks it straight into the chaos of people’s lives—right into their pain, shame, and hunger for belonging. He meets folks where they are and invites them into something deeper: true spiritual enlightenment and transformation.
 
While this popular passage is so well known, it does help us to see Jesus for who he is, and helps us remember who we are in God’s eyes when we get lost in the messiness of life. It keeps our eyes and focus on what is important, and who we can count on. It reminds us, also, that God loves us with both passion and a purpose.

Jesus says, “God didn’t send the Son to condemn the world, but to save it.” How unfortunate that somewhere along the way religion has abused verses like this one to draw a line in the sand. But it's not a scorecard. It's not about who’s in and who’s out. 

According to Jesus, the Son wasn’t sent to divide us or shut the door on anyone. He came to redeem the world, to light our way back to God. It’s not believers vs. doubters because God’s grace and love has nothing to do with what we’ve done. It’s about what God has chosen to do through Christ. And continues to do through us. That’s what makes this gospel - good news.
 
If we make faith about belief—real belief—then it’s got to be more than just something we confess. It must be something we embody! Real belief, true faith, is about stepping into the world the way Jesus did—with his heart on his sleeve, hands wide open.

Salvation isn’t a prize for saying the right creed. Salvation is a life we live when we choose to love like Jesus, no matter the cost.
 
If “God so loved the world,” then so must we. That’s the invitation. That's what it's all about. One doesn't find salvation from reciting a formula or getting all your theology straight. You find it by becoming. Becoming like Christ in the way we live and love and shine.

​It’s in the doing—not just the believing—that we remember who God made us to be: The beloved.
 
If the Church is going to bear any kind of good fruit, it has to embrace and embody the spirit of God’s hesed, loving each other the way God does. Wildly. Liberally. Faithfully. This includes everyone. The good, the bad, and everything in between.
 
St. Teresa of Ávila said it best, “It is love alone that gives worth to all things.” This is what God has done. Soaking the world in Christ - Gods love incarnate.

No matter how many cracks or callouses are on our hearts, through Christ God has already forgiven, already saved, already made peace with us. But even Jesus knows not everybody’s ready to embrace what God has to offer.
 
Imagine someone coming into your bedroom in the early morning and flipping on the lights. You groan and quickly hide your head under a pillow.  Sometimes that’s what grace feels like. Too bright. Too soon. We hide from it knowing it exposes our messiness. And that’s scary. But Jesus shows us there’s another way to wake up. With a Christ soaked heart.
 
He offers us his light — to guide us, not blind us. To inspire us into action, not annoy us or shame us into something else. God wants more than just to hear you say you believe.

God wants us to show the world why you believe all this to be true. Jesus says, “you are the light of the world.” He sends us out there to shine for others to see that God is right there, right next to you, waiting to be welcomed in. Jesus sends us into the messiness and darkness to be the visible presence of God’s love - in the flesh.
 
We're not just being saved from something but for something. ​For healing. For shepherding. For being the presence of God in the flesh. For building a community of love that embodies and mirrors Christ. This isn’t done with lofty words or creeds. But with tenderness, and mercy - in the many ways we love God, love others, and serve both.
 
Greg Boyle writes, “There’s nothing more essential or vital than love—and its carrier, tenderness—practiced in the present moment.”

We profess our faith by being tender in a world that isn’t. Being patient and kind in a world that rushes and wounds. By becoming the rich soil for the fruit of God’s love to grow.
 
While Lent is a time to look deep within yourself it’s a time to look at those around us and ask, “Who needs God’s gentleness today?” Or “Whose darkness aches for Christ’s light?” And “How can I be the one who carries it into the space between?”
 
This doesn’t necessarily take grand gestures. Sometimes the holiest acts are the smallest things we offer someone. A kind word. A shared meal. A moment of listening when the world won’t stop talking. Every act of love, no matter how big or small, is a steppingstone that leads others to God’s heart.
 
If God so loved the world, let us go and love one another like that. If God doesn’t condemn but saves, shouldn’t we do the same?
 
Let’s leave here today committed to live like we believe what scripture declares:" that God’s love erases all deficits. All boundaries. All nationalities, political preferences, and religious differences.

Let’s take up our cross— with relentless love and unshakable light— to build a community together that looks like heaven breaking into earth.
 
Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

Let us go and live that reality knowing the way we love is the only statement of faith we need to make to bring God’s holy kingdom come to life.