United Lutheran

A Message From Pastor Beth

For God So Loved the World. John 3:16

How many times have you heard these words, thought about them? Many of you may have memorized them in Sunday School. They are probably, aside from Psalm 23, the most recognized passage in scripture.

Yet what does it mean that God loves the WORLD? Yes, God loves you. God loves me, but God also loves the world, the world God created with all the beauty of creation: trees, rivers, plains, plants, animals, the sea and all its creatures. God loves creation as God loves us. Thinking about it that way should maybe make us look at creation a little differently than we do, to appreciate its beauty and to treat all nature with respect and care.

But as I read those words, I also think of people in other nations whom God loves also, because it is the WORLD that God loves. Recently our Bishop, Bishop Tessa Moon Leiseth, went with some colleagues from the ELCA to visit the Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, traveling to the territory of Botswana. Her pictures showed a breathtakingly beautiful landscape that, while different from our landscape, still had some familiar features to it including the many cattle that they raise there. But what really impressed me were the people. The pictures revealed not only a people faith, but also a people who have joy in their faith and a strong trust in God. As fellow Christians, they have much to teach us, not only of joy in their faith, but also of the strength of their trust in God and the resiliency of their faith. Exchanges like these show us that there is no reason to fear those who are different from us and that we are only enriched by our connection to them. (Side note: our hymn, We are walking in the Light of God is an African hymn).

It reminded me of some of the exchange students we had in seminary. Some were from Tanzania, Uganda, even Madagascar. They came to learn but they also taught us much. Most were already clergy who came for further study. The family from Madagascar (who lived next to us) came because the father, who was a pediatric surgeon, wanted to further his religious studies so he could incorporate it into his medical practice as he was a medical missionary. These are just glimpses of the world, the people of the world that God loves, a world that is diverse; but even in our diversity, we still share so much and can learn so much from each other.

Maybe, the next time we hear these words, we can think of them differently, reminding us that as God loves the world, so should we. And, when we love the world, people and creation alike, it loves us back.