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Amy and I have a favorite story we like to tell each other. In fact I imagine that some of you have already heard this or seen Amy and I acting it out. It is the story of a little girl sitting on her father’s lap. Her father asks her how much she loves him and the little girl responds that she loves her father this much. The odd thing about this is that the father recognizes that the child’s fingers are held together - as opposed to being far apart and representing a great distance. The father asks .. Don’t you mean that you love me this much meaning a lot (holding fingers apart very wide). She says, matter-of-fact-ly.. No I mean this much (holding fingers together). The father responds - well dear I am not sure that I understand you.... The daughter looks up at the father - exasperated and says - daddy I love you this much .. Meaning everything on the outside of my fingers. The father warmly smiles and relishes in the love of his daughter – who is wise beyond her years.
John 3:16 – You see it everywhere these days – if you watch closely at pro-sports games and stadium concerts you’ll see it in the end zone right underneath the goal posts – in big poster paint letters… John 3:16. When I see these large posters it always makes me think of cheerleaders making signs for the up coming game. Cheer for Jesus – Victory for Jesus. Sometimes I think that the sign is always placed in the end-zone to communicate that we should be a field goal for Jesus.. right.. as Janis Joplin used to sing.. drop kick me Jesus through the goal posts of life… It is almost scandalous what we do with the Gospel.. it is almost scandalous what we do with the cross.
But, there is something scandalous about the cross.. there is something eerie if you think about it… We often think the cross is a beautiful piece of jewelry to wear around our neck – but in its day it was a means of execution and torture for the lowest of criminals of the Roman empire.
I want to consider with new eyes this classic passage of the Bible—
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
I have a story for you …
On a relaxing Tuesday evening, around 9:00 p.m., Shirley McCloud was in the living room of her home, and was just finishing up reading the newspaper. Shirley’s house is located about one quarter mile from John D. Long Lake, in Union County South Carolina. Shirley was startled when she heard a wailing sound coming from her front porch. Shirley walked to the front door and switched on the porch light and saw a young woman sobbing hysterically. The young woman cried, "Please help me!" "He’s got my kids and he’s got my car." Shirley lead the young woman - Susan - into her home as Susan told her, "A black man has got my kids and my car." Shirley’s husband, Rick told his son Rick, Jr. to call 911.
At 9:12 p.m., the 911 dispatcher called the Union County sheriff’s office to direct them to respond to the Rick McCloud’s 911 call. Once Susan had calmed down, Shirley asked Susan to tell her what happened. Susan told her the following story: "I was stopped at the red light at Monarch Mills and a black man jumped in and told me to drive." "I asked him why was he doing this and he said shut up and drive or I’ll kill you." Susan continued and told Shirley that, at the abductor’s direction, she drove northeast of Union for about four miles until, "he made me stop right past the sign." Shirley confirmed that the sign was for the sign for John D. Long Lake, which was located several hundred yards outside of Shirley’s front door. "He told me to get out. He made me stop in the middle of the road. Nobody was coming, not a single car." Susan continued, "I asked him, 'why can’t I take my kids?'" Susan told Shirley that the man said, "I don’t have time." Susan said that the man pushed her out of her car while he was pointing a gun at her side. Susan continued by telling Shirley that "When he finally got me out he said, "Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt your kids." Susan described how she had laid on the ground as the man drove away as both of her sons cried out for their mother. After awhile, Susan wasn’t sure how long, she began to run and stopped when she reached Shirley McCloud’s porch.
Later as Sheriff Wells interviewed Susan to get the whole story he began to take notes. Wells noted that Susan was wearing a gray sweatshirt with orange lettering spelling out Auburn University. Susan’s face was red and puffy and her hands rested in her lap. Susan described the clothes that her sons were wearing. Michael was wearing a white jogging suit and Alex was wearing a red and white-stripped outfit. After Susan finished, Wells realized that the carjacking was not going to be solved quickly nor would the Union County sheriff’s office have all the resources necessary to find the Smith children.
Wells did not question the information Susan had provided to him or her story. Wells was concerned with collecting all the available information and following whatever leads developed. As time passed and more scrutiny could be applied to the information he had collected, Wells could begin to sort out fact from fiction. (story adapted from Internet Crime Library ).
This was to begin one of the most terrifying and sick scandals of South Carolina.
Many of you have caught on to the story here. This ‘story’ is actually the scandal of Susan Smith murdering her children because she had been ‘dumped’ by her boyfriend who did not feel comfortable continuing the relationship with her. In moment of desperation she allowed the car to roll into the water of a local lake with her two boys strapped into their car seats in the back of her vehicle. She then tried to cover it up by blaming it on a black attacker who had car jacked her car with her children in it.
I know that for myself - I can not understand how she could do such a thing -- to kill her children for the love of someone else. To kill her very family – flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone as the Bible says – for the love of a man is almost too much to bear. I know that once she had confessed to the crime that she was jeered at, booed and spit on. People yelled profanity at her and called her names such as baby killer, and murderer.
This is a story that is so far away from the story of our scripture. This story of a parent allowing a child to die is a tragic and difficult story that is far removed from what we know as the Gospel... or is it?
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." What does this mean to you? What does it mean that God "gave" his only Son?
Well, some scholars say that the passage is not about the amount of God’s love. Saying that God loved us this much (holding arms out wide) is not necessarily what the scripture is trying to say. But rather John is trying to say that God loved us in this particular way – he loved us so that he was willing to let his only son die on a cross so that we might all be washed of our sin and invited to the banquet feast of heaven.
On the back of your bulletins you will find a short article by Ed Schroeder that outlines this argument. (back page of bulletin text can be found in the "Further Study" section of this week.)
Think about it ... God so loved us that he killed his only son for our cause. I think we gloss over this statement too much.
Think about it... Is there any appropriate reason or cause that you could kill your children for? Or is there any cause great enough for you to sacrifice your child in that way.
I heard a public service announcement on the phone requesting people to donate their old cars for charity. I have a hard time understanding how someone could first have a spare car – and then be willing to give it away– for a cause - for free.
The scandal of the Gospel is that I cannot fathom giving away something like a car much less killing my only son for others. For others who don’t even merit the gift that his death will bring about!
The love of God is so vast and mysterious – that God can do something that we would never fathom doing – never think of doing – that we could never find the moral justification to do – that being killing our child for others.
This my friends is the scandal and the promise of the Gospel.
The Gospel is a story of the unmeasurable gift of love that God extends to us .. Think of the words we use before communion "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. This proves God’s love for us. In the name of Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Glory to God."
What if we translated that in light of our understanding of the John 3:16 text. God allowed his only son to be beaten, spit on, ridiculed and killed, while we were lost, ignorant and undeserving. This shows a shadow of the mystery of God’s love – In the name of the one beaten and executed we are released from the chains of sin. Glory to the one who died that we might live.
This is a scandal that is only differentiated from the story of Susan Smith - in that Susan killed for herself. She wanted to erase her obligations - she wanted to quietly be released from the things that made her unattractive to the man she wanted so much to be in love with. She wanted to just forget all that had been done – and thereby have a new life.
As the family of believers – we tell the story of our ancestors. We tell the story again and again to remind us of what it means to be Children of God. This for all purposes friends should not be a story that we repeat – just like the story of Susan Smith - we should never breath the story of murder and death by a mother of her children.
In the Gospel - we find that God did not kill his only son to erase his obligations - nor was it to make himself more attractive to a potential suitor. God took on flesh in Christ and in a loud and pronounced way took on the sins of the world, and painfully, loudly, was beaten, whipped and nailed to a cross he carried himself – for the sake of others – not for the sake of himself.
But do you see that this story - this scandal is a story that must be told. It is a story that demands to be told so that all might know how much God loves the world. In a world of war, famine, poverty, cancer, deception, and pain. The scandal of the Gospel reminds us that no matter how bad off we are – no matter how painful we find the bearing of this life – we know that God himself knows the pain and suffering that comes with the loss of a child. Even more so God chose that path – the path of the cross – so that you and I might have life.
Now that I think about it .. The scandal is not that God loved us in this way – rather the scandal is that we who know the story, we who have heard it year after year, we who call ourselves Christians fail to live our lives in the light of it.
Dr. David Lowes Watson said "May everything we do today be worthy of the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on the Cross." The scandal is that we who know how much God loves us – choose to tell God by our actions that the cross just isn’t enough.
May you be scandalized by this story – may your life be ever changed by the grace of God. May you walk with the weight of Susan Smith - knowing that your life is forever changed in the light of God’s Love.
But - walk not as someone condemned - but rather as a child of God whom God loved this much (fingers together) in this way (hands out stretched as if on a cross).
And may your Lenten journey be under the shadow of the cross all the days of your life......
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, AMEN.