“There is perhaps no greater example of how we have weaponized the teachings of Jesus to create our own Apartheids of separation and domination than what has been done to John 3:16. We’ve all heard it. Beautiful people of many faiths and questioning journeys have been condemned by it. Many of us in this very room have been wounded by it. The using of John 3:16 to proclaim the ultimate Apartheid: Choose Jesus and live. Chose anything else and die. Or, more specifically … pledge yourself to a Jesus carefully curated by the church to support its social, political and, above all, economic agenda and go to heaven … or choose anything else and go to hell. There’s only one problem with this translation of John 3:16. It’s complete and total crap.”

Sermon by Mike Kinman at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Sunday, March 8, 2020. Readings: Genesis 12:1-4a and John 3:1-17.

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And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea

We are the ones we have been waiting for
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In 1956, 20,000 women across the spectrum of race and ethnicity from all over South Africa converged on the Prime Minister’s office in Pretoria.

Apartheid as government policy was officially only eight years old, but separation, discrimination, the violence of othering … was far older than that.

You see, we are experts at Apartheid.
We are expert at dividing ourselves from each other.
We are expert at sowing seeds of distrust and doubt that prevent us from coming together.
We are expert at convincing ourselves that the world that is … is the only world that can be.

And the National Party of South Africa, which had learned Apartheid at the feet of the West and our own genocide and partition of the indigenous peoples of these lands, was a fast learner. They knew that by restricting and dividing the people, they could maintain power in the hands of a few. That separation led to “othering” and fragmenting and fearing and demonizing of those you did not know and never had a chance to understand.

The problem with Apartheid is, unchallenged, it works. Separation, segregation cuts us off from the most powerful agent of social transformation … each other.

And so, in the mid-1950s, the National Party sought to expand this policy by including women – all women — in the pass laws that restricted movement throughout the country.

But the women were wise. They knew they could not allow the government to keep them from coming together. They knew their greatest strength was in each other.

So, they organized. One person at a time. Going door to door all over South Africa and listening. And the women of South Africa shared their stories with one another. Stories of high rent or no money for food. Stories of living in fear of their husbands dying, because when a woman’s husband died, she would be chased out of the house or told to get another husband because only married women could have houses.

The women crossed boundaries to sit with one another, listen to one another, weep and laugh with one another. And together they found beauty and joy and power. Together they built a movement. And they knew they could not allow themselves to be separated from each other. They knew that together they had the power to birth a new South Africa, even if few or none of them would ever live to see it

And so, in August 1956, 20,000 of those women converged on Pretoria carrying petitions with signatures of hundreds of thousands more demanding to see the Prime Minister and voice their opposition. One of the movement’s leaders, Frances Baard, tells the story:

“The secretary told us that we were not allowed in …because we were black and white together…

“Then we walked outside again and joined the other women who were waiting in the amphitheatre. All the women were quiet. 20,000 women standing there, some with their babies on their backs, and so quiet, no noise at all, just waiting.

“What a sight, so quiet, and so much colour, many women in green, gold and black [ANC colors], and the Indian women in their bright saris! …

“Then we stood in silence for half an hour.

“Everyone stood with their hands raised in the salute, silent, and even the babies hardly cried. For half an hour we stood there in the sun.

“And not a sound.

“Just the clock striking.

“Then we began to sing.

“I’ll never forget the song we sang then.
It was a song especially written for that occasion. It was written by a woman from the Free State. It went:

“‘ wathint’ abafazi, wathinti’ imbokodo,’ That means:

“‘You strike the women; you strike the rock.’”

Twenty-two years later, with Apartheid still thriving in South Africa and around the world, Jamaican poet June Jordan stood at the United Nations and commemorated the anniversary of that 30 minutes of deafening, defiant silence with this poem that concludes:

And the babies cease alarm as mothers
raising arms
and heart high as the stars so far unseen
nevertheless hurl into the universe
a moving force
irreversible as light years
traveling to the open
eye

And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea

we are the ones we have been waiting for

“‘ wathint’ abafazi, wathinti’ imbokodo,’
“‘You strike the women; you strike the rock.’”

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

We are experts at Apartheid. And we in the church are no exception. In fact, we as the church have been in the Apartheid business for nearly 2,000 years. And this morning’s Gospel reading is Exhibit A.

“God so loved the world as to give the Only Begotten, that whoever believes may not die, but have eternal life.”

There is perhaps no greater example of how we have weaponized the teachings of Jesus to create our own Apartheids of separation and domination than what has been done to John 3:16.

We’ve all heard it.
Beautiful people of many faiths and questioning journeys have been condemned by it.
Many of us in this very room have been wounded by it.
The using of John 3:16 to proclaim the ultimate Apartheid:

Choose Jesus and live. Chose anything else and die.

Or, more specifically … pledge yourself to a Jesus carefully curated by the church to support its social, political and, above all, economic agenda and go to heaven … or choose anything else and go to hell.

There’s only one problem with this translation of John 3:16.

It’s complete and total crap.

First of all, it’s not about belief, it’s about trust. The Greek word there is πιστεύω (pisteuo). Not an intellectual assent to a dogmatic statement but deep and total commitment to relationship. Bonds of love that are stronger than fear — that’s what Jesus is about … deep trust in relationship. With God. With each other.

Second, it’s not about heaven and hell. About life forever or an endless void. The word translated here as “eternal” is αἰώνιος (aionios) It doesn’t mean going on and on for ever and ever. Going on and on for ever and ever is rarely a good thing … as listeners of sermons will surely attest. Aionios means “unbound.” A quality of life beyond space and time. A way of being unbounded in abundance and richness.

Imagine a peach just at the peak of its ripeness. Now hold it to your nose and breathe in the aroma until your mouth starts to water in anticipation. Now open your mouth as wide as it will go and take an enormous bite … and feel the flavor explode into your mouth. The juice dripping down your chin. The sweetness and just a hint of tartness at the corners of your mouth filling you with the most extraordinary sensations.

Are you with me?

Now imagine life like that! That’s the life Jesus is talking about. That’s what God is offering us. Life unbounded. Life of infinite breadth and depth, of healing and joy. Not somewhere, someday, but right here, right now.

Now look at the next line. “God sent the Chosen One into the world not to condemn the world, but that through the Only Begotten the world might be saved.”

You think we might have taken a look at that line as Christians were using this passage to condemn most of the world’s population to hell?

“God sent the Chosen One into the world not to condemn the world, but that through the Only Begotten the world might be saved.”

If you were in the forum a couple weeks ago, you heard Pauline scholar Mark Nanos talk about that word, saved. For nearly 2,000 years, the church has used this word to divide and condemn. But the word does not mean “saved” as the opposite of “lost.” The Greek word here is σώζω sozo, which means to heal, to keep safe, to make whole.

Healing the world.
Keeping everyone safe.
Dismantling Apartheids and making the human family whole.

That’s the gospel. That’s the good news of Christ.

And yet, the Jesus movement that began as a movement of unbounded life, healing and revolutionary love for all, through the church has become just one more Apartheid government, using scripture and the teachings of Jesus to divide and control.

And it began early. The community that wrote this Gospel was itself an Apartheid community, which had begun to draw lines of “who’s in” and “who’s out” with fellow members of the Jewish community. And as the Gospel was edited, the language of separation and judgment became cemented in the text.

And empires of every stripe have been more than happy to partner with us in an unholy exchange of principle for privilege. To feed and feed on our fears to separate us from one another.

One final thing. John’s Gospel was written to respond to a very specific crisis. The Temple had been destroyed and the Jewish people were thrown into chaos. You see, the Temple was where God’s presence rested, the people’s assurance that God was with them. Even under foreign occupation and oppression, they knew they had not been abandoned because the Temple was there. Only now it was gone, and they were left to wonder in despair:

“Where is God now?
Where is God if the Temple is gone?
Where is God as we are being threated from every side?”

The entire purpose of the Gospel of John is to answer that question.
And what is the answer? Where does God reside without a Temple?
John’s answer is: Right here. In the gathered community.

The Word became flesh and dwelt AMONG us.

Jesus looked down from the cross and said “woman behold your son” then to his friend, “behold your mother.”

Mutuality. Trust. Love. Healing.

The resurrected Christ stood on the shore with Peter and said, “Do you love me?” “Well then, Feed my sheep.”

Where does God reside? Right here. In the gathered community.

We are each other’s greatest strength.
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
God dwells in us.
God.
Dwells.
In.
You.

And how big is that community? How big is that “we?” It is as unbounded as the life, love and healing the revolutionary Jesus longs for us to embrace. Unbounded by fear. Unbounded by prejudice. Unbounded by all the ways the powers of the world attempt to divide and distance and turn us against one another.

The dream of God is unbounded life, love and healing in unbounded community. It’s why the one sign Jesus offered was not the cross or the empty tomb but the open table. The place where all come together. Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself. Not just in here but out there.

It has perhaps never been more important both to extinguish the Apartheid Gospel that has dominated Christianity in this nation and around the world … and also to proclaim the ancient new narrative of unbounded life, love and healing in unbounded community.

Over the past 40 years, we have become more and more segregated as a nation. At every level we are driven by fear of each other fueled by lack of connection with each other. We are all a part of it.

We have seen it this week. A virus. An election. An economic crisis. Any of these things and more threaten to be our undoing if we approach them with the false Gospel of Apartheid. And if you haven’t noticed, that’s exactly what we are being tempted to do. To separate ourselves from one another. Defend ourselves against one another. Hoard at the expense of one another. I mean have you tried to find Purell this week?

And yet there is another way. A way where these challenges can be our salvation if we refuse to be divided anymore. If we remember our greatest strength is in each other. If we trust that we are the ones we have been waiting for.

And we begin as those women did more than 60 years ago and half a world away. Crossing borders to sit with one another, listen to one another, weep and laugh with one another. And together we will find beauty and joy and power. Together God will be revealed in our midst. Together, a movement will emerge, and the Apartheids of church and nation will fall.

Together, with friends we have not yet met, with strangers who will become our teachers, we will learn and proclaim the ancient new narrative of Christ’s love. One that does not mimic the Apartheids of the world but walks with a revolutionary Jesus loving without judgment, doing justice courageously, embracing life joyfully, reverently inviting all faiths and people into relationship for the healing and transformation of ourselves, our community and the world.

Because it’s not about right belief, it’s about deep trust.
It’s not about heaven or hell, it’s about unbounded life.
It’s not about some saved and some lost, it’s about healing and safety and wholeness for all.

And as we proclaim that Gospel we will hurl into the universe
a moving force
irreversible as light years
traveling to the open
eye

20,000 women stood in silence; arms raised with babies on their backs in the sweltering South African sun. And together they sang

“‘ wathint’ abafazi, wathinti’ imbokodo,’
“‘You strike the women; you strike the rock.’”

As always, the women are our leaders and our teachers. And they stand longing for us to join them.

And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea

we are the ones we have been waiting for