John 3:13-17
Lead in: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” John 3:16 This famous line from scripture that we sometimes see hung from the second deck as a banner at nationally televised
football games is familiar to most of us. So, what is that verse really saying to us? It doesn’t mean that God went to all the trouble to send his Son to wag a finger and tell the world how bad it is.
He came to help, to put the world right again. The invitation is to trust in God’s Son and to believe that in him all can be healed and forgiven.
Prompt: Although we know it’s not true, have you ever done something where you feel God is wagging a finger at you?
Prompt: Reflect on a time when it was hard for you to trust that, in God’s Son, all is healed and forgiven.
Lead in: It’s one thing to hear that God loves us, but we humans sometimes have great difficulty in really believing that. In fact, as scripture scholar Fr. Demetrius Dumm puts it, “If we really understood it (the depth of God’s love for us) we would not fear anything that could possibly happen to us.”
Prompt: What are the fears that are hard for you to let go of?
Prompt: Knowing that God is there for you, what would it take to loosen the grip of those fears?
Lead in: Like in all the Gospels, John’s Gospel invites us to move from merely a verbal ascent of faith to a faith that is grounded in a personal experience with Christ and God’s love for each one of us.
Prompt: What are the experiences that have helped you move from merely a verbal ascent of faith to a faith that is grounded in a personal encounter with Christ and God’s love for you?
Prompt: If there are days that feel like your faith is still at a verbal ascent level, how do you handle that?
Lead in: “God gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him … might have eternal life.” John 3: 17 If those who believe in him have eternal life, what does it mean to believe? Believing in Jesus does not simply mean that we believe that he existed or that he worked miracles. Nor does it mean to believe that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. We can believe all these things without really changing our lives. To come to believe in Jesus means that we are now committing to live the same unselfish love that Jesus lived, even to the point of death on a cross.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you moved beyond mere verbal ascent in your faith and came to true belief in Jesus as the way you want to live your life.