Into Him
Text: Numbers 21-4-9; John 3:14-21
By: Rev. Terry Carty
Date: 03-18-12
Place: Kingston Springs United Methodist Church
Season: Fourth Sunday in Lent
Main Point: Believing ‘into’ Christ means is more than believing the things about Jesus’ life, execution and resurrection. It means absolute trust and submission to his Way. We do this when we stop hiding ourselves and live in the light.
Read John 3:14-21.
Note that in the most familiar verse 16 and following, the translation “believes in” is not exactly accurate. More accurate would be “believes into.” This gives it a different meaning from just believing that Jesus lived, taught, died and was resurrected. That is an intellectual belief that it really happened. “Believes into” the Son of God means that one hands onself over to what Christ taught and stood for – in other words, lives as a practicing disciple – “believes into” Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I don’t think I ever reminded my dad. I have shared with my mom, but she just laughed and said she didn’t remember it.
But I remember. It goes back to prom night of my senior year in high school. I had recently broken up with my girlfriend, so I didn’t take a date to prom. I just hung out for a little while and then started going to the after parties at different homes. Honestly, I don’t really remember what I did all night – but I didn’t go home until the sun was up the next morning.
I always went in and woke up my parents to let them know I was home, but since the sun was up I just went to their door and listened in hopes that I had not alerted them. My mom quietly said, “Terry? Is that you?” So I stepped into the room.
“Where have you been? You were supposed to have been home by 1.” The interrogation didn’t last long. I had no business staying out all night and I knew it. All I could do was just face up to it. I can remember my mom’s disappointment. I stood there awaiting my dad’s determination of punishment.
But it didn’t come. Instead he said, “Well you know what you have done. What do you think your punishment should be?” I thought – then said, “I don’t know.” Wanting to go back to sleep, Dad said, “Then you take some time to think about it and we will figure out your punishment later.”
We didn’t talk about it later that day – or that night – or the next day – or that week. When would it come? Things got busy and graduation came. Summer was followed with
freshman year at college. We never talked about it again! I never decided what my punishment would be and it hung over me.
A lifetime has passed and I have never gotten my punishment of that night. Or maybe I have – after all, I still remember it and how I broke my parent’s trust. I never really faced up to it with them. It is a nagging issue that I remember from time to time.
It came to mind again as I read today’s passage from John. The passage says, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” I am aware that I never brought that episode to light again with my dad – not that he was still going to ground me – but it hid there in my memory as an unresolved sin (of sorts) that I chose to keep in the dark. Evil hates the light.
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The season of Lent presents us with an opportunity to consider some of those things that hide in the shadows of our lives – things that avoid the light. Historically this was a season of penitence. Penitence comes from the Latin word that means punishment. During Lent Christians would remember, confess, and do penance for there sins. With this being a rather long season – 40 days not counting the Sundays – by the fourth week people were getting very depressed and failing to see the redemption in their spiritual practices. Thus, the fourth Sunday in Lent became known as Laetare Sunday (pronounced Lay-tah-ray) – a Sunday of joy.
Where is the joy in penitence – punishment? The fact is that, while Lent may include penance, it is not ABOUT punishment. It is about repentance.
Repentance may sound like penance, but it is quite different. The word even has a different derivative – from the Greek word meaning ‘to change one’s whole outlook.’ The Hebrew verb often translated ‘repent’ in the Old Testament literally means ‘to turn away from’ or ‘return.’ Repentance is swerving to avoid an accident. It is retracing steps when we realize we are lost. It is going back to the last place when we knew where we were going.
An extreme example of repentance is the prodigal son. An every day example of repentance is remembering that if I had taken my punishment when I broke my prom curfew – penance – I may very well have forgotten that episode. Instead, over these many years, the occasional memory of that unpunished crime has served to make me repentant – one who has turned away from that kind of behavior.
Today we can rejoice because God uses the goodness in us to make us repent of those things that we do which we shouldn’t – and repent of those things that don’t do that we should. Sometimes we must suffer directly for these sins of commission or omission. But more often we remember them and repent – take a different direction – when the next temptation arises.
This week, let us each take some time apart to remember, to pray confessionally to God, and to repent so we can turn around, stand upright and walk in the light which is God.
Recommended prayer this week is attributed to St Patrick of Ireland from the fifth century:
Christ, be with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left. Christ when I lie, Christ when I sit, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me.
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of the Christ,
May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us. Amen.