Thinking about 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

I am reading Ann Morisy's book "Bothered and Bewildered" and every few pages I stop and make notes. Today I was challenged by her comments on John 3 16-17 which was at one time my favourite bible text..

"No matter how many times we reassemble this precious offer of salvation, it ends up as one of those unconvincing self referential cliches that are convincing to fewer and fewer people....  In postmodern times this is easily dismissed as fairy-tale nonsense because of the absence of anything that anchors it in earthy day-to-day life. This growing resistance to the authority of sacred text cannot just be willed away.... It is deeply distressing to have to face up to the reality that the formulas for our faith have become threadbare and that precious summaries of our faith have become mantras for a fragment of the population. However, the good news is that this lack of respect for the conceptual aspects of the faith can be countered by the demonstration of the truth of Jesus in the way he lived his life."  (pp 55-56)

Jesus brings salvation by both his life and death. It is necessary to lessen our emphasis on Jesus bearing our sins on the cross. The idea of a man dying on a cross taking away sin is nonsense to most people and most people have no sense of sin. If only a few believe this then they can be in danger of falling into the trap of "I'm all right" gnosticism. Morisy does not say that this doctrine is not true and relevant but is pointing out that it is inaccessible and and implausible.

There has been an avoidance of taking seriously the radical life and teaching of Jesus because it challenges so much that our society and the powerful take for granted. Vested interest, status and power have corrupted the church's outlook. As a result Christians have concentrated on Jesus' death and resurrection at the expense of reflecting on practising the distinctive ways in which Jesus lived his life.

Healthy and Unhealthy religion

"What people believe can uplift their lives and make them strong, or it can steal life, clouding it with guilt and all kinds of distortions.  It can divide communities, one from another and religion,  too often in history, has been the rationale for war."  -  Ron Sebring

Sebring said this in a sermon reflecting on what had happened in Jonestown, Guyana when, under the leadership of Jim Jones, 914 people committed mass suicide.  He lists some characteristics of healthy religion as a result of reflecting on what had gone wrong in Guyana.

-    Healthy religion does not indoctrinate, but teaches people to think for themselves

-    Healthy religion invites us to be humble about what we believe and what we know

-    Healthy religion does not invest in negativity; it does not major on what it is against but rather on what it is for.

-    Healthy beliefs stay in tune with reality, never filling in gaps for what we do not know.

The Church of England report "Faithful Cities" added four other characteristics -

Healthy religion will:

-    enlarge the imagination

-    teach and encourage the practice of wisdom and holiness

-    open us to the new

-    deepen our sympathies

By contrast Sebring suggests unhealthy religion:

-    tends to draw its strength from having an enemy

-    coaxes and encourages people to make a stand against this evil

-    even mild forms of  negativity such as finger pointing, backbiting and self righteous indignation are associated with unhealthy religion.


Based on my notes on "Bothered and Bewildered" by Ann Morisy p 48-49

Asserted Hope and Enacted Hope

We can make a distinction between asserted hope and enacted hope. Asserted hope is a hangover from the power ridden days of Christendom. Asserted hope relies on traditional authority or fluent rhetoric. It involves one party asserting or declaiming "In God we Trust" or "In Jesus there is salvation" or "Jesus is Lord." Asserted hope is not wrong or misleading. 

The problem is that for more and more people it is unconvincing. Asserted hope in difficult times also carries a risk because it is the tool of fascist leaders; it is the resource drawn on in totalitarian environments. In worrisome times Homo-sapiens is prone to be gullible and prone to wish fulfilment, desirous of protection from those who use their capacity for asserting hope as a route to power. 


The story of Apollo 13 is a story of enacted hope. Had mission control asserted hope, rather than worked with the crew to identify a series of actions, the spacecraft and the lives of the crew would have been lost. 

Enacted hope is hope that is accompanied by action. Enacted hope is tangible because it involves micro-actions which might on the first view seem insignificant. Enacted hope is at work in the story of the woman at the well, Her encounter with Jesus shows how micro actions contribute to enacted hope.




From "Bothered and Bewildered" by Ann Morisy p 34