Who Does God Love? [Sermon]

When I was young, I once told a leader in my church that I wish that we could have an island where all of us Christians could go to be away from people who were not Christian.

We were the good people, and non-Christians were not good people. Clearly, God loved us and not them.

I’ve also heard that the United States is a Christian country, set aside by God for Christians.

Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

Here is some news from the past week:

Nurul Amin Shah Alam was a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, formerly Burma. Rohingya people are predominately Muslim, and have been persecuted for over five decades by Buddhists in Myanmar.

Starting in 2016, there was a government crackdown on Rohingya people, leading over a million people to flee.

Some came to the United States.

Shah Alam was in police custody for a year on weapons and assault charges. After a plea deal, he was released on bail. Immigration authorities issued a detainer on him. He was released to Federal authorities on February 19.

His lawyer reported him missing last Sunday, February 22.

After Federal authorities realized his refugee status meant he could not be deported, they released him at a closed coffeeshop after 7:00 PM.

There is surveillance video.

None of his relatives were notified.

Five days later, Nurul Amin Shah Alam – who was nearly blind – was found nearly 6 miles from the coffeeshop,

He was frozen to death.

Who does God love?

In Kansas, a bill was passed to require birth certificates and drivers’ licenses to show sex assigned at birth. Prior to this, transgender people could have their gender marker changed.

The bill was vetoed by the governor, but the legislature overrode it.

The Kansas Department of Revenue sent letters to 300 people who had changed the gender marker changed, promising more letters on the way. The letters read

“Please note that the Legislature did not include a grace period for updating credentials. This means that once the law is officially enacted, your current credential will be invalid immediately, and you may be subject to additional penalties if you are operating a vehicle without a valid credential.”

It will cost $8 and a trip to the Department of Revenue Drivers’ services to get a “corrected” license or ID. They will need to get a ride.

Birth certificates will cost $20.

Who does God love?

The US and Israel have attacked Iran, killing supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and according to Iran over 100 girls in an elementary school near a military base.

Iran has responded. Six people have died near Jerusalem. Three people in the United Arab Emirates have died. Three US servicemembers have been killed.

Who does God love?

We white Christians don’t often think about it, but what we call Christianity was based on a Jewish teacher. This was originally a Jewish sect.

Non-Jewish Christians were let into the faith. We did not originate it.

So when we see the sign

JOHN 3:16

in the stands at the world series or Superbowl, it’s referring to a verse that says

“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.”

John 3:16, NRSVUe

Not just the Jews, but the world. That’s how we got included.

We don’t get to exclude Rohingya people without excluding white people.

We don’t get to exclude transgender people without excluding cisgender people.

We don’t get to exclude people in Iran without excluding people in the United States.

As we sit in churches where everyone has nearly the same skin color, it’s easy to think that God loves people who look like us.

And while that is true, it’s not because we’re God’s default choice. It’s because God’s inclusive love brings us into relationship with God, even though we’re not unhoused Jewish teachers from Galilee.

We can’t keep the teeming masses out of Christianity because we ourselves are the teeming masses. We don’t get to shut the gate because we had to enter through that open gate.

And while Christians are condemning immigrants, transgender people, other nations, unhoused people, and any sort of people that are not white, straight, cisgender male US citizens, John 3:17 says

“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.”

John 3:17, NRSVue

If we are really followers of Jesus, we should be loving who God loves: We should be loving the world.

And I get it. It’s hard.

There are people who are really difficult to like.

• Some are needy.
• Some are aloof.
• Some are demanding.
• Some are cruel.
• Some are dishonest.

Most people are all of these things, at one time or another.

I’m not going to say “hate the sin, love the sinner.” That’s been used to hate who someone is, and love who we wish they were.

But maybe we can love the person, even if we don’t like the behavior.

Maybe we can look at the world and, even if we can’t bring ourselves to love it, recognize that God does love this world. All of it.

• The protesters and the police.
• The immigrants and the members of the Department of Homeland Security.
• The transgender people and the Kansas legislature.
• Iran and Israel and the United States of America.

And if we’re seeing every person as God’s beloved child, maybe it will give us a chance to pause before we take an action that will actually harm that person. Maybe we will even be moved to do something that will help that person.

My challenge for this week, and I hope we will all really do it, is to be vigilant for times when we feel negative feelings toward a person, or a group of people, and to take a new look at them as someone that God loves just as much as God loves us.

Perhaps it will change our perspectives.

Amen.

Let’s sing NCH 485 O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue

* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.

#John316 #love