My first call was with my husband to a 1,000-member church in Kingsport, TN. My husband was the
Associate Pastor, and I was the Associate Pastor for Counseling and Pastoral Care. It was my dream job;
I got to help people with direct counseling as I was getting licensed as a Clinical Social Worker and do all
the fun stuff of being a pastor. We had friends, Dan and Lori, who really took us in as a young couple
new to town. We both had labradors and soon went through our first pregnancies together. Lori
introduced me to the idea of this one being a keeper. I think it is a southern idea; meaning the good ones
are the ones you want to keep.
“He’s a keeper” is a common, positive idiom used to describe a person—usually a romantic partner—who
has exceptional qualities, making them highly valuable, trustworthy, and worthy of a long-term
commitment. You certainly wanted to be a keeper, and you wanted to find a keeper. I know this seems
odd seeing how we were both already married, but she used the term frequently. So years later, shortly
after I moved here, I really liked this gentleman and I saw a T-shirt that said, “You’re a Keeper” and I
made the mistake of giving it to him. And it was probably too soon. Yet keepers are who we want in our
life!
Our Psalm lesson today is about God being a keeper. God is the one you want in your life when things
get tough. This psalm was used when people were journeying to Jerusalem, facing the trials of travel.
Sort of like we are traveling through Lent right now. The opening lines are a traveler’s question and
confession. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come?” Let’s remember, hills can
hide dangers and yet hills also reflect the God who created them. Yet the psalmist answered their own
question, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Think of a time when you looked up to God needing help. Help for an illness, help with a relationship,
help with mental illness, help with finances. I pray after some soul searching you respond, “My help
comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” It affirms your faith and your God, the Creator.
The rest of the psalm is a blessing, a benediction, a promise of who God is. God is a keeper. In six
verses, we are told six times God is a keeper. “The Lord is your keeper.” “The Lord will keep you from
all evil; God will keep your life” (5,7). God is a keeper. God is trustworthy, valuable, and there for you in
a pinch. “God is a keeper. God’s identity is to protect, shield, watch over, guard, keep. God does this like
a watchman keeping guard over a city (130:8) or a bird shielding its young in the shelter of his wings
(91:4)” (Working Preacher, Rolf, Jacobson). God is a keeper.
Turning now to our gospel lesson, we hear probably the most famous passage of scripture. Listen for
God’s word to you as you listen to the context of God’s profound love for the world. Read John 3:1-17.
God so loved the world. John 3:16. Famous, true, profound. Yet what does Nicodemus have to do with
God’s love? What does “being born from above” have to do with God loving the world? I want to
explore this as we look at being born of love and the three kinds of love we see this morning in scriptures.
The first is the love of God we know and experience from God keeping us. God caring for us and
protecting us. God is our keeper and that is an expression of God’s love.
Now let’s unpack this story with Nicodemus. A story that introduces a person who grows in his love and
devotion to Jesus. Here Nicodemus comes under the cover of darkness, implying he might be hearing
Jesus’ teaching and is curious, but he is also Pharisee and needs to toe the line. He affirms that Jesus
must be from God because of the signs, the miracles he does. But Jesus turns the conversation into being
born from above, born of the Spirit. Nicodemus takes this literally, but Jesus is calling him, and us, to be
transformed, to see the world anew. To allow the Spriit to transform us. Nicodemus does not get it in this
passage. But remarkably John tells us of two other moments from Nicodemus’ life. One where he
defends Jesus and his right to be heard among other Pharisees, a risk to be sure (7:45-52). Then this same
Nicodemus works with Joseph of Arimathea to secure Jesus’ body and prepare him for burial (19:38-42).
Somehow throughout Nicodemus’ life, the Spirit moved, he found a way to be born from above and grow in love for Jesus. His belief and the working of the Spirit, blowing as it will, changed this Pharisee, changed Nicodemus, into a person who could see the kingdom of God. See Jesus as the one who would save the world.
We experience God’s love when God keeps us. We can also grow in love for Jesus throughout our lives,
as Nicodemus did, as the Spirit moves. Now let’s look at God loving the world. First, we must note it
does not say, God loves the Son or God loves Jesus’ followers. But rather “God so loved the world.”
There is a totality of all creation with this word, “world.” The Greek word “kosmos” occurs 57 times and
is the all-encompassing object of God’s concern in the Gospel of John. In the opening Prologue, the true
light was coming into the world, and the world came into being through the Word, through Jesus (1:9-10).
So, there is a global concern when God loves the world. God’s love is made manifest when God gave his
only Son to save the world. Yes, we are talking about God’s love, but we are also being shown the cost
of that love for God. God allowed for his only Son to be crucified and to die in order that you and I might
come to know that love. Come to know God’s abundant, sacrificial, life-giving love. Love that Jesus
modeled, showed, taught, and personified each and every day of his life. A love so powerful it scared the
powers that be, threatening the Pharisees. That is why the Son of Man will be lifted up, will be crucified,
then resurrected, so that you and I can live in God’s love. We can live in eternal life.
But this is not simply our personal salvation we are talking about. It is the salvation of the world, of
God’s creation. A creation entrusted to us as good stewards. So being born of the Spirit means we care
for the creation, care for God’s world, out of love and respect for God’s love and care for us. Moreover,
the three persons of the Trinity are in this passage- a rare occurrence indeed- showing complete love from
the fullness of God. Now we start to understand why God so loved the world is connected to this story of
Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Jesus, seeing something but hesitant and trapped in his old way of
being. Then Jesus speaks of the Spirit of God, that blows where it will, creating a newness of life, being
born of the Spirit. But Nicodemus only knows one language, the language of earth. And to be honest so
do we most of the time. That is why we come to church, read scripture, pray, to be reminded God’s Spirit
is moving in the world, Jesus’ compassion we are to model, and of God’s love that is total and complete.
Coming to Christ’s table we get to taste the heavenly banquet, sip on God’s precious forgiveness, feel the
powerful and loving Spirit move. Most of our life is about earthly things, just like Nicodemus. Yet Jesus
is calling us to be born of the spirit, to see the world through the eyes of God and to taste love.
What I found fascinating is this long and sometimes confusing conversation between Jesus and
Nicodemus about birth ends with a promise of eternal life and divine love. But only if we can see it.
One Commentator writes, “Read against the backdrop of Nicodemus’ nighttime visit, John 3:16 becomes
the culmination of the response to him and people like him, and perhaps like us, who believe they know
Jesus and who come to him not to be turned upside down by his holy newness but to have their
understanding affirmed and settled. Read in its entirety the passage becomes about realizing that rather
than our faith resting on our knowledge and love, it is, in the first place, we who are known and loved by
God, drawn into a mystery that is beyond our understanding and our wisdom” (Working Preacher, Meda
Stamper).
As I think about this amazing declaration of God’s love for the world and our being transformed by the
Spirit I want to leave you with this story.
Dr. James B. Lemler was preaching once about the Trinity. He told about a couple of parents who had
gone home from his church and during Sunday lunch were talking about his sermon. In the midst of their
conversation, their second-grade daughter sitting at the table chimed in. “Oh, Father Lemler’s sermons,
they’re always the same” she said, “You know . . . blah, blah, blah, . . . love . . . blah, blah, blah . . . love.”
Dr. Lemler said he was amused and thought to himself, “Hey, this little girl really got it . . . the message,
the repetition, the core, the redundancy.”
“And so it is with the Holy Trinity,” says Dr. Lemler, "Over and over again . . . blah, blah, blah, love . .
blah, blah, blah, love . . .”;
“God the Creator . . . I love you . . . blah, blah, blah . . . and give you life.
“God the Redeemer . . . I love you and . . . blah, blah, blah . . . embrace you in that love forever.
“God the Spirit . . . I love you . . . blah, blah, blah . . . and warm your heart and your soul with my love.
“Blah, blah, blah love . . .” (Sermons.com King Duncan). Amen.
