The Guy in the Rainbow Wig

       How many times have I seen the guy in the rainbow wig sitting in back of the goal posts at an NFL game with the sign that says John 3:16.  He wants us all to get the saving message of that passage of scripture:  the words from John’s Gospel that says so clearly For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  There isn’t a more beautiful statement of God’s purpose in sending Jesus to live among us than that, the clown wig notwithstanding.

Oh, I sometimes have a problem with the “believe in him” part of that passage, but I’m not going to let my quibble with a couple of words diminish the infinite power of God’s love.  I believe that God’s mercy surpasses ours in every way.  When we get to the Kingdom, we will discover a number of people whom we don’t believe ought to be there.  But that is our problem, not God’s.

For the past week and a half, Rosie and I have been sitting on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean trying to relax and restore ourselves.  Looking out over that vast ocean has reminded me over and over again about the unlimited mercy of God and the vastness of our ignorance of God’s Kingdom.  All that we have are the scriptures to tell us about God’s love and we have argued about them forever.

     I have, for example, a problem with the reading from Numbers where the people cry out for food and water and God sends poisonous serpents among them to bite them and to kill them.  (Numbers 21: 4-9)  That doesn’t sound much like God to me, but that is early in the Old Testament and God is still getting used to the crabbiness of the Hebrew slaves whom he rescued from their impossible lives in Egypt.  The people complained to Moses and Moses prayed about the problem of the serpents.  God told Moses to put a serpent on a pole  so that everyone who is bitten, when they look at it will live .  That is the source of Jesus’ comment in John’s Gospel to Nicodemus about himself being lifted up so that people could look at him and be saved: 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.  There is that “believes in him” problem again, but I know that Jesus meant his crucifixion to be the salvation of humankind.

        I have seen some wonderful things happen with people at the moment of their death.  One woman said, “I never knew it could be so beautiful” almost with her last breath.  I know that Steve Jobs said “Oh, wow” when he died.  Who knows what we will find beyond this life.  I only know that God craves our presence even more than we crave his love and mercy.  That is the overwhelming evidence of Holy Scripture.

So is that good news for you?  I hope so.  We all know that we have fallen short of what God has intended for us to be, and that his forgiveness is overwhelming.  That isn’t a license to sin, but it is certainly comforting for those of us who have not lived up to what we know God has in mind for us.  Looking at the ocean has been a helpful reminder for me.  It has been a blessing for me.