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<b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:medium none currentcolor;padding:0px;font-size:18px;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:normal;font-style:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Friends, maybe you've seen informal evangelists at football or baseball games holding up a sign: <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“John <span class="gmail-aBn" tabindex="0"><span class="gmail-aQJ">3:16</span></span>.”</b></span> Did you ever wonder what that means?</span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Well,
 we hear this verse from the Gospel of John in today’s reading: <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“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.”</b></span></span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">I
 think it's good that those people hold up that sign, because in many 
ways<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b> that is the whole Gospel, and even the whole Christian tradition, 
in miniature.</b></span> Every cathedral, every
church, every poem, every drama, the life of every saint—that's what 
they're all about.</span><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Christianity
 does</b></span> not announce, primarily, our virtue; it doesn't sing our praises; 
it doesn't exult in human civilization. What it primarily does is <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>
announce that message: that even in our<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> sin</span>—you might say, especially in
 our<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> sin</span>—God loved us.</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>And so what did he do? He broke open his own 
heart and he sent his own self into our humanity to heal us and offer us
 eternal life. </b></span><br></span></b></b></span></b></b></div>