This is a special musical performance of O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir with a solo on Clarinet by Michael Fox at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

As a hospital chaplain, when family members tell me that they’re “praying for a miracle”, this is usually the miracle they’re referring to

 

This miracle occurs at the pinnacle of Jesus’ ministry

 

demonstrating his close connection to, and unity with God

 

Jesus has been going around performing various miracles

 

From the wedding at Cana, turning water into wine

 

To healing many who were sick

 

To feeding five thousand people with a few loaves of bread and fish

 

To walking on water and calming the sea

 

To the miracle we heard just last week of restoring a man’s sight

 

Today we hear about Jesus performing the ultimate miracle

 

When Jesus brings Lazarus out of his grave,

 

Wrapped in cloth

 

After being dead for four days…

 

It is truly an incredible story

 

So incredible, it really messes with the logic and reason side of our brain

 

We don’t know where to put this story, as we wonder

 

“Did this really happen?!”       /         /         /

 

“Did this really happen?” is a fair question

 

Doubt is not the opposite of faith

 

Indifference is

 

Doubt is an indication of a true, and curious relationship

 

And we learn, week after week, about how relationship is the thing that God most desires from us

 

So, fresh from seminary studies, learning both Hebrew and Greek, delving into the historical, cultural and theological meanings of scripture, I’ll tell you…

 

Did this really happen?

 

I don’t know.

 

But… what I DO know, is that to focus on the logic and reason of this

 

And really ANY scripture story

 

Misses the depth, breadth, and beauty that scripture stories offer us

 

Instead of “Did this really happen?”

 

I prefer to focus on questions like

 

“What does this say about Jesus?”

 

“What do we learn about Jesus’ relationship with God…

 

and with others through this story?”

 

“What do we learn about the nature of God here?”

 

We read excerpts of the gospel each week, and it’s crucial to consider today’s passage in the midst of the arc of what’s happening in John’s gospel

 

Last week Jesus restored the blind man’s sight

 

On the holy day of the Sabbath

 

Which really got the attention of the religious leaders, the Pharisees, in the community

 

They really began to wonder how Jesus might be threatening their community as he challenged the rules of the Sabbath

 

Then Jesus goes and raises Lazarus

 

Which is THE public act that tips the religious leaders toward putting him to death

 

Today is the day

 

That religious leaders decide Jesus has gone too far,

 

He becomes a threat    

 

To understand this threat, let’s consider a bit about how first century Jews thought about God and holiness

 

Jews maintained a strict purity system that protected God’s holiness

 

And this system was enforced by the religious leaders like the priests and  Pharisees

 

Impurities like blood, some illnesses, and death

 

Were controlled, and there were regulations around handling these impurities appropriately

 

There were very clear boundaries in this Jewish culture

 

Between where God could be (places and times deemed holy)

 

And where God could not be (places and times deemed impure)

 

These boundaries served two purposes

 

One to ensure God’s continued presence in the Jewish temple

 

The other was to ensure the people’s access to God, or

 

To continue to be in relationship with God and one another

 

Basically, they didn’t want to get kicked out or force God to leave because of impurities

 

The book of Leviticus is filled with details about this

 

So throughout Jesus’ ministry, and especially today, Jesus has been threatening what the Jews believed about these boundaries and God

 

He’s been threatening what it means to be in relationship with God

 

Today, as Jesus faces the greatest impurity within the force of death

 

He challenges Jewish religious understanding on a new level

 

Focusing just on the raising of Lazarus is to miss an essential part of the story,

 

which is Jesus’ identity and how God is revealed through him

 

Jesus proclaims:  “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (Jn 11:25)

 

This “I am” is a primary focus, and thread, of Jesus, throughout the gospel of John

 

Jesus’ declaration of “I am” is a statement of his connectedness to God

 

sharing fully in the power of God

 

And God revealing Godself through Jesus

 

As Christians, this might not sound as revolutionary is it did to Jewish believers in the first century

 

Because we believe in the Trinity

 

But for ancient Jews, God was in the temple, in the holy of holies,

 

with very limited access, with strict boundaries

 

But Jesus’ declaration “I am” shifts the Jewish perspective of God

 

From God as a static being

 

Toward God’s presence here, now, then, and there… everywhere and always

 

From God as separate from the impurities of life

 

Toward God reigning in the midst of those impurities…

 

Moving and flowing and changing lives

 

This moving and flowing is not controlled or contained

 

God cannot be threatened, even by the most impure and powerful force of death

 

But the power of God, through the person of Jesus, is breaking all of the “rules”

 

This threatened to shatter how the region of Judea, the communities of Bethany, and Jerusalem, understood how the world worked

 

We are not so unlike the Pharisees and people of Judea

 

We prefer logic and reason over the supernatural

 

We prefer boundaries, control and predictability

 

We think we all ready know and understand how the world – and God -- work

 

So today Jesus challenges us as much as he challenges the people two thousand years ago

 

What if you don’t know?

 

What if God is so powerful that God remains connected to us always and through all things

 

Through hunger, thirst and injustice

 

Through sickness, pain and hurt

 

Through immobilizing fear and anxiety

 

Through rejection, isolation, and losing our way

 

Even through death

 

Jesus demonstrates today, and throughout his ministry, that NOTHING separates us from God

 

“I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (Jn 11:25)

 

God’s power is always flowing, transforming, resurrecting US from the depths of our selves

 

And we are connected to this divine, supernatural power of God

 

If we allow it

 

If we are open to it

 

If we accept it

 

/         /         /

 

“Did this really happen?”

 

I don’t know

 

But the next time I pray for a miracle

 

Maybe I’ll think…

 

It’s all ready happened

 

Maybe I’ll realize…

 

God is with me still, even now

 

Maybe I’ll wonder…

 

What will God do with me next

 

Maybe I’ll believe

 

The divine can crash through what I think I know is possible

 

Maybe I’ll realize

 

What living really means

 

Amen.

This is a special musical performance of Lonesome Valley by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

“I once was lost, but now am found, ‘twas blind, but now I see.” “’Twas blind, but now I see.” These are the words that come from the lips of the blind man who was healed in today’s gospel reading. However, most of you know them best as part of the hymn, “Amazing Grace,” written by John Newton. In his first career John Newton was a sea captain, and a slave trader. During a violent storm he cried out for Christ’s mercy. He was “saved” from the violent storm and his life was transformed. He eventually became a minister of the gospel, and he played an important role in the abolitionist movement in England. It was after that transformational experience that he wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

“’Twas blind, but now I see.” All of today’s readings connect in some way to blindness and sight.  In the First Reading we have the prophet Samuel who is able to see what David’s father, Jesse, cannot see – that this youngest son of less lofty stature, forgotten and out in the fields, is the chosen one. Jesse’s youngest son, David, is the one God has chosen to be king of Israel. And Samuel essentially communicates this message, “Humans see only appearances, but God sees the heart.”

“’Twas blind, but now I see.” In today’s Second Reading from Ephesians, we hear words encouraging us to do our own “shadow work” as Richard Rohr would say, our own work on self.  That is where we look to discover our blind spots.  We are encouraged to bring our self-deceptions into the light. At the time when Ephesians was written, those who were preparing to be baptized were being encouraged to do what was called a  moral inventory and look at their own self. Psychologists will tell you that we must bring our shames and our denials into the light, or they kill us from within. In essence, this is what repentance is about, and it brings not only newness of life, but also a new way of seeing.

“’Twas blind, but now I see.” Finally, we come to today’s gospel reading. This passage from John’s gospel is one of the most profound and rich in the whole New Testament.  Today we are given this great theater-piece of a Gospel reading about a man born blind. In fact, because this story has so many clear roles, interacting characters, and dramatic lines, some scholars think this story was enacted in sanctuaries in the early church.  While there are layers and layers of meaning in this passage, we can only touch upon the surface here this morning.  However, I want to share with you some of the major themes so you cannot miss them. And I invite you to take your bulletin home and think about them throughout the week. Here is the way Richard Rohr lists the major themes:

• The “man born blind” is the archetype for all of us at the beginning of life’s journey.
• The moral blame game as to why or who caused human suffering is a waste of time.
• The man does not even ask to be healed. It is just offered and given.
• Religious authorities are often more concerned about control and correct theology than actually healing people. They are presented as narrow and unloving people throughout the story.
• Many people have made their spiritual conclusions before the facts are in front of them. The man is a predefined “sinner” and has no credibility for them.
• Belief in and love of Jesus come after the fact, subsequent to the healing. Perfect faith or motivation is not always a prerequisite for God’s action. Sometimes God does things for God’s own purposes.
• Spirituality is about seeing. Sin is about blindness, or as Gregory of Nyssa once said, “Sin is always a refusal to grow.”
• Finally, the one who knows little, learns much and those who have all their answers already, learn nothing.

“Twas blind, but now I see.” Today’s gospel reading is one in which Jesus invites us into the story, a reading that is truly our story, and it speaks to multiple forms of blindness. This reading not only addresses one man’s literal blindness. It also addresses a simplistic understanding of sin that was a common view of the day, yet another form of blindness. When the disciples voice this simplistic understanding of sin by referencing disability or hardship as somehow the result of sin, Jesus adamantly disagrees. Also, when the Pharisees assume that knowledge of the law automatically grants righteousness, Jesus counters this thinking by saying that precisely because they deny their sin and claim to “see,” they are in fact sinning and they are the blind ones. Jesus says this because “sin” at its most basic level is not recognizing Jesus as God’s messiah, the person through whom God is at work to save the world.

Blindness is not about the quality of our vision or the condition of our eyes. It is not about the darkness around us but, rather the darkness within us.  How we se others, what we see in the world, the way we see life, is always less about the objects of our seeing and more about ourselves.  Too often, we do not see God, people, things, or circumstances as they are but as WE are.  Until our eyes are opened by Christ, our seeing is really just a projection of ourselves onto the world. What we see and how we see manifest and make known our inner world.  They describe and point to the fears, attachments, and beliefs within us.

If we wish to see God, life, and others as they really are then we must attend to what is going on within us. True seeing begins in the heart, not the eyes. We must begin to acknowledge the fears, attachments, and beliefs that live within us and how they have impaired our vision.

To follow Jesus is to see differently. Sometimes, to follow Jesus is to be brought into a messy situation, maybe even a crisis. But, in the mess, God is doing a new thing. And, to have a conversation with Jesus and follow him is to be opened to newness. Sometimes, this newness means discovering we are blinded when we think we see perfectly. Sometimes, this newness means to be given new insight, a new way of thinking and being. This blind man was made new, and he was given new sight, a new life, and a new chance.

Theologian, Nadia Bolz Weber, writes, “New is often messy. New looks like recovering alcoholics. New looks like reconciliation between family members who don’t actually deserve it. New looks like every time I manage to admit I was wrong and every time I manage to not mention when I’m right. New looks like a very fresh start and every act of forgiveness. New is the thing we never saw coming – never even hoped for – like our blind guy in this story. But new ends up being what I needed all along.” And, by the way, such newness is also what we call grace, it is what we call love. Bolz-Weber continues by saying, “God simply keeps reaching down…reaching down into the dirt of your humanity and resurrecting you from the graves you dig for yourself through your violence, your lies, your selfishness, your arrogance, and your addictions. And God keeps loving you back to life over and over….There are times when faith feels like a friendship with God. But there are other times when it feels….I don’t know….more vacant. Yet none of that matters in the end. How you feel about Jesus or how close you feel to God is meaningless next to how God acts upon you. How God indeed enters into your messy life and loves you through it, maybe whether you want God’s help or not.”

Yes, maybe whether you want God’s help or not. In today’s story, one of the most remarkable things is the fact that the blind man didn’t seek out Jesus or ask for his help. Yet, he was healed and made whole in the end. And the powerful, life-giving truth of the gospel is that our suffering, our grief, and even our sin, will not have the last word.

This story is truly our story. The inner darkness of our fears, our attachments, and beliefs is what keeps us from seeing. They cover our eyes like the mud on the eyes of the man born blind. In placing mud on the blind man’s eyes, Jesus is holding before him the reality of his blindness. He wears thick black lenses of fear, attachments, and beliefs. We all do. Those who know this are sent to wash in the pool, to be re-created, to be made new in the waters of our baptism, and to see with new eyes. And, as the cool and refreshing waters of life wash over us – those baptismal waters in which we daily live – our eyes and our hearts are opened to behold the living Christ, standing before us as the chains of death and hell lay broken at his feet. There is then no other response than to raise our voice and cry out at last, “’Twas blind, but now I see! Lord! I believe!”

This is a special musical performance of Living Water by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Have you ever been so passionate and intent about something that you forgot to eat?

 

Maybe you were so into a project, or having so much fun, time flew right past lunch?

 

Sometimes when we get into something really great it seems time loses its meaning

 

Time can stand still or fly by

 

Without us being conscious of it

 

Losing our sense of time can be a sign that we’re into something incredible,

 

Tapping into something both within and outside of ourselves

 

Perhaps on the threshold of transformation

 

Some call these liminal spaces

Richard Rohr describes this space as, “where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin.”

Newness… creativity… passion… transformation

These are also words we use to describe encounters with the divine

/         /         /

I invited you to identify with one of the characters in the gospel story today

For me the character I identify most with…

Love, and admire… is the woman

The woman in today’s gospel story seems to find herself in a liminal space as she encounters Jesus

We hear several labels for parts of her identity throughout this story

Samaritan

Woman

Unwed

Divorced

And there are other aspects of her identity that are demonstrated throughout the story

Courageous and curious

Believer in Christ

Witness and disciple

But perhaps most importantly for her

And for each one of us

Is her identity as a beloved child of God

/         /         /

This story is fascinating because it’s so unpredictable

Jesus was a Jew, and Jews didn’t go to Samaria

Jews and Samaritans had been strong enemies for about the last 700 years

But Jesus discerned that they must go there    /         /

Jewish men, particularly teachers, did not talk to unknown women

But Jesus, a Jewish teacher, engaged this woman at the well     /          /

Jesus didn’t need water -- the disciples just left to get snacks

And women didn’t usually go to the well for water during midday

It’s hot, and they preferred to draw water in the mornings and evenings

Culturally, women also did this together

It was like a social event where they would catch up a bit and support one another.

But this woman goes to the well alone at noon /         /         /

So just within the first three verses of this story we enter a place of curiosity, wonder and awe as we are transported outside of what is considered common, to a place of newness

Then Jesus asks her for a drink      /         /         /

He exacerbates her confusion of his violation of social norms by then telling her that HE has living water… flowing, fresh everlasting water

But there he sits beside the well

Jesus doesn’t even have a bucket, and he just told her that he needed a drink AND he has living water

Anyone in their right mind would smile, step back, and get water later because something strange is happening here

But this is the thing about liminal spaces /         /         /

They befuddle us, shift our conscious awareness,

Change our ability to perceive reality, and take us to someplace deeper

Liminal spaces seem to shift our consciousness away from what’s happening on the surface

toward a deeper place where transformation can occur

/         /         /

So in spite of common custom and her best judgement,

The woman stays

She remains curious

She engages Jesus

/         /         /

Within the conversation Jesus brings up her marital status,

Not in judgement of her,

but in a way of revealing more of himself

He shows himself as seeing and knowing all things

Deepening the mystery and drawing the woman into relationship with him further

The woman recognizes Jesus as a prophet

And gets to the heart of the conflict between Jews and Samaritans

And perhaps the heart of the conflict we experience within our relationships today

Where is God?

Where can I access God?

Where can I experience God?

If I encounter God here or this way…

then can you encounter God there or that way?

/         /         /

Jesus shatters both the Jewish and Samaritan answers to these questions

The hour is coming

The time is near

When worshiping God won’t depend on where you are

Or if you do it properly

Worshiping God will depend on spirit and truth

And relationship  /         /

Jesus’ words “God is spirit” changes everything

Because God is unbound to any people or place

Jesus’ presence is changing and shifting people’s perception of God’s presence

God is inbreaking, here, and now

In this liminal space

Through Jesus the Christ

/         /         /

As per usual, the disciples return and bring us back to reality

They disrupt the liminal space where Jesus and the woman lost track of culture and regulations and what “should” be happening

But it’s too late

The divine disruptive work has been done

the woman has been transformed by this experience

Everything has changed

          /         /         /

Forgetting the water and her bucket

Forgetting her status as an outcast in her town

Forgetting the social norms she’s lived by all of her life

The woman raced back to the city and became a witness

She proclaimed, as the newest disciple of Jesus

“Come and see”

/         /         /

Liminal spaces seem increasingly rare within our culture,

We have become proficient in holding expectations and social normative behaviors

As we focus on time

Schedule

The plan and

Productivity

Can you imagine being delayed by two whole days as Jesus and the disciples did in Samaria?

/         /         /

Our way of living leaves little room for God to interrupt us

For God to disrupt our busy days

And for us to be transformed

/         /         /

Several years ago I started paying more attention to disruptions

I’m a recovering type-A person who had much rigor around schedule and plans

My children have assisted me greatly in breaking this habit J

I hated disruption /        /         /

until I changed my perspective

I began to see disruption as opportunity

I began to be curious and more open in the midst of disruption

Some people call this “flow” or “mindfulness”

But I realized something incredible within the disruptions in my life

They opened me to a new and transformative space

Beautiful things happened there

These disruptions created space for God to enter my life

          /         /         /

As you go about your week and continue to reflect upon this gospel and whatever character you resonate with this time

Consider how they experienced disruption

Consider how they remained curious

Consider how they opened themself to something new

And witness how they experienced the presence of God

/         /         /

We, like the woman, have many competing identities

May we prioritize our identity as a beloved child of God above all

May we engage our passions in a way that causes us to lose track of time

May we allow disruptions into our lives with curiosity and openness

May we embrace newness and creativity

May this way of being open a liminal space within our lives

May we experience divine transformation in unexpected places and times…and

May we have the courage to witness and proclaim

“Come and see!”                              

Amen.

Mother Teresa once said, “The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”  I believe Mother Teresa’s words are very insightful.  I, too, believe there is a deep yearning and spiritual hunger for God in our country and in our world, a hunger that simply seems to increase with the passing of time.

Today’s gospel reading tells the story of a man who has such a deep hunger for God.  In this story, Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, and he is hungry.  He comes to Jesus during the night, and he has a spiritual hunger that is gnawing away at his very soul.  He has a hunger deep within, a hunger he cannot fully identify. Now, Nicodemus is a Pharisee, so he comes during the night when he will not be seen.  Yet, he comes wanting to find out more about Jesus and what Jesus is teaching. 

Spiritually hungry Nicodemus does not understand the things Jesus has been telling him, so Jesus references a strange Old Testament story to make his point.  This old story by the way would have been very familiar to Nicodemus, good Pharisee that he was.  Jesus reminds him of the Israelites who, during their forty-year wilderness wanderings, had sinned.  They had grumbled about Moses and had grumbled about God, and they faced punishment.  In part, the punishment was being bitten by snakes.  The Israelites then cried out to God for deliverance and God used the strangest thing to save them.  Moses formed a bronze serpent, mounted it on a pole, and hoisted it upward.  When the Israelites looked at it, they were healed, they were saved from death from poisonous snakebites.  Strange as it seems to us, the Israelites were instructed to look upon this bizarre symbol of redemption to be relieved of the suffering they had brought upon themselves by their rebellion against God. 

Anyway, Jesus then connects this bizarre story to himself as he continues to teach Nicodemus.  He draws an analogy between the “lifting up” of the Son of Man and Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness.  Jesus says that, in like manner, the Son of Man must be “lifted up” so that “whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”  And, as he attempts to feed the gnawing hunger within the heart of Nicodemus, Jesus speaks words that have become some of the best-known, best-loved verses in all of scripture – John 3:16. “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.” 

“For God so loved the world….”   For God so loved the world?  Just think about that.  When I think of the world, I see a small planet in the vastness of space.  And this miniscule dot of an insignificant planet that is barely even a speck in the vastness of space is our world, and it is so deeply, tragically broken.  On this planet, people are daily being shot on our streets. Mass shootings abound as guns have become idols. There is war in Ukraine and unrest in so many parts of this world. The United Nations estimates that 795 million people in the world literally go hungry and suffer from chronic undernourishment.  Economic injustice just continues to grow. There is no longer a day that goes by when we do not see some new manifestation of climate change, something we have brought upon ourselves. Hate and division seem prevalent in so many places within our culture. Dysfunction seems to rule in government, in our own communities, in our own families, and within our very selves!  The world is so very, very broken!  Yet, God so loved the world?

Yes.  God so loves this world!  And, in the gospel of John the Greek word for “world” refers to the cosmos – to everything!  God so loves everything – the entire cosmos, the entire creation, this little, miniscule planet that is hardly a speck in the vastness of space, all the people, the land, the animals, the bugs, the world’s goodness, and the world’s deep brokenness.  David Lose, when blogging about this verse writes, the Greek word kosmos “designates throughout the rest of John’s Gospel an entity that is hostile to God.  This means that we might actually translate these verses this way, ‘For God so loved the God-hating world, that God gave God’s only Son…’ and ‘God did not send the Son into the world to condemn even this world that despises God but instead so that the world that rejects God might still be saved through him.’ Really – God’s love is just that audacious and unexpected. Which is why, according to Paul, it probably seems both scandalous and a little crazy.  And that audacious, unexpected, even crazy character of God’s love is probably why it saves!”

When Jesus appears on the scene, Jesus brings us a whole new understanding of the world God loves. God loves broken people. You see, God sent the Son to show us just how much, and to what lengths, God would go to tell us the world is loved with an audacious, transforming love.  Yes, the gospel of John tells us God so loves the entire God-hating world so much that the entire creation can find its home in God.  God loves this broken world with an immense, immeasurable, redeeming love. This is a love that disturbs us, gnaws at our hearts, creates a hunger for God, unsettles us, grasps us, and draws us into the very arms of God’s love where we become forever changed and transformed.  And, once we have been grasped by this love, we find it is a love that will never ever let us go.  We then discover that our true home, the home of all creation, is in God.  Yes, God so loves the world, and it is in turning one’s face toward Jesus and looking to the cross where we finally find the love that fills the gnawing hunger in our hearts.  There we discover the beloved one whom God gave to the world out of love for the cosmos.   There we begin to know the breadth and depth of God’s redeeming love for God’s people.  That is the way of Jesus and that is the message of the cross. And it is God’s redeeming love that changes us and causes us to respond to the needs of the world. We, too, then see the world in a different light. When God’s redeeming love fills our hungry souls, we are then compelled to work for peace and justice in this broken world. 

As we hear Jesus’ words today, we so often get stuck on verse 16. However, we really need to hear the words of verse 17 when Jesus 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.”  Here Jesus affirms and repeats that the Son was not sent to condemn this God-hating world. Jesus’ message is not about who’s in and who’s out, as far too many want to claim when quoting these verses. Rather, it is about God’s consistent intent to love, save, and bless this whole world…..If God’s love is for all, then we who have experienced that love in Christ are called to see persons of other faiths and persons of no faith through the lens of that profound, surprising, unsettling, audacious love. That means embracing not just those who are like us, but also embracing all those we consider other!

In the early days of Jesus’ ministry, Nicodemus came by night and had a gnawing hunger within himself.  He came to Jesus, seeking to fill a hunger he did not really understand.  Nicodemus was invited into the way of Jesus, invited into the love God has for the whole world, the cosmos, and he did not initially get or understand what Jesus was saying.  And, quite frankly, far too often we don’t get what Jesus is saying.  However, it is likely Nicodemus grew in understanding and was transformed because when we get to the end of John’s gospel, we find out Nicodemus did not abandon Jesus.  It was Nicodemus along with Joseph of Arimathea, who cared for Jesus’ body after the crucifixion.  He was ultimately captured by the love God has for this world because this is a love he could not escape. 

I agree with Mother Teresa, there is a deep, gnawing hunger for love and there is a hunger for God in our culture and in the world.  And the good news is that, in the person of Jesus, we discover a God who loves this broken, God-hating world and our very broken selves so deeply that no one, absolutely no one, can escape God’s all-encompassing, unconditional love.