Kids, this is one of the most famous readings in the Bible – John 3:16. It’s famous because it tells us exactly how much God loves us and what he did because of that love.

You see, God loves us so much that he sent his Son to us – and who is that Son? Jesus! He sent Jesus to us so that he could teach us how to love God and get to heaven.

Just as God loves us, Jesus teaches us that we must love those around us. So, it’s easy to love our parents, grandparents, and hopefully your brothers and sisters! But he also says we must love our friends and those people who need our help.

So, if there are people in your class at school who are lonely, be a friend to them. If someone is sad, cheer them up. If someone doesn’t have enough to eat, or enough clothes or they are cold, be a friend to them too.

God loves us so much he sent his Son Jesus to us. We love him back by how we treat and love those around us. Can you do that?

OK, parents. There is a message here for us too. 

We’ve all been around people that are not very nice to us, or maybe it is someone who trash talks about everyone else and you know that when you’re not with them, they start trash talking about you. Or maybe it is someone who just doesn’t have the time for you, so they blow you off. 

How does that make us feel? Sad, angry, hurt, rejected…. We’ve seemingly done nothing wrong, we’ve tried to be nice… and we are ignored, refused or rejected. You know, it used to be that this just happened face to face but now we have the added opportunity for this to happen online! That is a place none of us wants to be in.

Well, let’s put ourselves in God’s shoes and see what he sees when he looks at the world. How often has he been ignored, refused or rejected over the centuries? And are we ever one of the ones doing the ignoring, refusing or rejecting? This has been happening for a long time, in fact, we see this happening in the first reading this morning.  

Moses is trudging back up Mount Sinai after having smashed the tablets with the ten commandments on them. You remember that Moses had come down the mountain with the ten commandments only to find all the people in the throes of pagan idol worship having rejected God whom Moses had worked so hard to bring to them. Moses tells God that they, “are a stiff-necked people.” In that reading, God says to Moses, “The Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” 

Despite the actions of the people, he has not stopped loving them and has not rejected them when he could have. I wish I was that slow to anger!

Fast forward to the Gospel and we get a glimpse of the depth of that love that God has for us… even when we mess up, ignore him or, gulp, refuse his love… he does not ignore us. The first five words of the Gospel say it all. “God so loved the world….” After centuries of ignoring, refusing and rejecting God from the time of Moses to today, those five words had withstood the test of time. “God so loved the world… that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” 

The list of what humanity has done contrary to God is long, very long. It was very long at the time of Jesus’ birth, and still God sent his Son. And the amazing thing is that he didn’t send him to condemn the world, “but that the world might be saved through him.” How did we ever earn that? After all the ignoring of God we do, he still loves us and wanted to send his Son so that we find our way to him for all of eternity. He could have let us wallow in our ignoring, fighting, trash talking… but instead he made the effort to show his incredible love for us despite all that we do. 

So why? Why would he send his son to us still stiff-necked people? He doesn’t ignore us, he doesn’t refuse us, instead he loves us despite what we do. He wants Jesus to teach us how to get through this life with his formula and he wants us to be in eternity with him. 

So, I am not sure how we earned this incredible gift, but we still need to accept it and act upon it if we want to cash in on it. If we choose to accept it, we then have a responsibility to ask ourselves a few questions. 

Do we need to be a little less stiff-necked in our lives? Do we ignore, refuse and reject those around us who, when we really reflect on it, are carrying the same Holy Spirit in themselves that we do? God so loved the world, but do we so love those around us? Do we ever worship or covet an earthly idol like wealth, power or prestige more than God? 

Or do we, like in the second reading from Saint Paul, mend our ways, do we encourage one another, do we live in peace and greet one another with a holy kiss? 

That’s what Jesus taught us to do.

That’s why he was sent.

God so loved the world…

Something for us to contemplate this week…