Scripture: John 3:1-17
Given on 02/17/2019
I remember the first time I saw him. It was the 1985 Super Bowl between the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots. This was a kinder a time, a gentler time, a time before the Patriots won Super Bowls almost out of habit. I was, at the time, a Bears fan, as much as an 8 year old is a fan of any team. But the Bears had William “Refrigerator” Perry, a D-lineman known as much for his weights as for his football skills, who had played for Clemson before being drafted by the Bears and so we liked them. Chicago also had the quarterback, Jim McMahon, a brash player who in later years would display the dangers of taking a few too many shots to the head, but who, at the time, at least, I liked a lot. The game itself was pretty good at least as I remember it, with the Bears trouncing the Patriots 46-10 and the Fridge going in on a goal line play and scoring on offense. But, more than the game, it was seeing him as they showed one of the teams kick a field goal that sticks in my memory. The man’s name was Rollen Stewart and what I later discovered was that he wore colorful wigs and outfits and always placed himself behind one of the goal posts at NFL games so that his sign, his visage, his message to the world might be captured each week for the millions of football fans around the country and the world. And after each score, there he was standing up with a sign written in sparse yet bold letters with the word “John” and the numbers 3:!6. This messenger of God to the people of the world carrying the singular message from above, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believed in him might not perish but have ever last life.” I haven’t seen that guy in a while, though I confess I haven’t watched much NFL ball in quite a few years, but his message continues to be spread in the same sparse word and numbers on commercial billboards and homemade signs, along country roads and commercial highways, in the major cities and the rural hollers and everywhere in between, the whole of the Christian message boiled down into a singular phrase. John 3:16. And because it has been such an integral piece of the Christian message to the world, I want to take a few moments today to try and place it in the context of the whole of the passage.
The scripture tells us, “Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Nicodemus, a man of great stature, comes to Jesus in the dark of night. It is not difficult to see what John is seeking to imply. Nicodemus, for all his worldliness, for all his stature, for all his religious learning, still approaches Jesus in the dark. He still comes to Jesus unaware of the greater truths of creation, still unable to see the light of God, for all the darkness that surrounds himself and the whole of the Jewish nation. But we, at the readers are also given a glimpse, we, too, can see that in Jesus, in that singular spark for which Nicodemus has been searching. In Jesus, the darkness that has surrounded him for so long is beginning to be opened up, beginning to be enlightened by the person of Jesus. He has seen Jesus perform many signs and he is convinced that because Jesus is able to accomplish so much that seems out of the ordinary, he must have a special connection with God. Nicodemus sees Jesus shining in a world of darkness, and he wants to shine too, he want even a piece of what Jesus is living into, and so he approaches the great teacher in the darkness of night, in hopes of being enlightened.
But, next we are told that Jesus responds to Nicodemus, Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above,” to which Nicodemus responds, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Nicodemus is a wise and learned man, and so he states the obvious when he suggests that what Jesus means is that he must again be in his mother’s womb is untenable. It seems clear that the author of the book of John wants to make a distinction between the earthly and the spiritual, between the ways of a broken creation and the holiness of God. One is not born again in a physical sense, but instead, a spiritual one, in which one is able to perceive a new way of being – a way of being in which the Roman authorities, in which the religious authorities, in which the old order does not possess power over the world. In Jesus, Nicodemus, as well as us, is able to see the power of God, the love of God at work within the world, bringing about a new peace, justice, and hope.
The passage continues, “Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Here the author, implies two things about this new life. First, we must be born of water. That is we must be cleansed. We must be offered an opportunity to break out of the cycles of violence and hatred, the cycles of brokenness that are constantly at work within the world. We must be able to hear the call of God clearly, and then be convicted, and then be cleansed, and then move out into the world a changed person, a more holy person, a more whole person, seeking to live a life of service to the call of God wherever that call might lead us. And, for Jesus, for us, this new life must be like the Spirit, like the wind, moving where it will with no one able to predict where that will be. Jesus draws an important distinction between Nicodemus, the learned religious leader, the powerful man within Jewish society, and the experience of second birth to which Jesus is calling the whole of the world. Nicodemus represents the old order, the broken order, the sinful order, even as he tries to be religiously pure. Jesus offers a glimpse into a new kingdom of God, in which we all move towards reconciliation and redemption, to resurrection and new life.
It is clear, at this point that Nicodemus’ head is spinning, and so we are told that he seeks even more clarification. The passage continues, Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”” Nicodemus, the wise teacher, cannot comprehend the words Jesus is offering him. He cannot wrap his mind around the call to let go of all the things of this life that prevent us from seeing God. He cannot wrap his mind around a new kingdom in which the prevailing religious order of the day and the prevailing political authorities have no ultimate authority. And we can hear echoes from throughout the history of humankind. In this new Kingdom of God, the Israelite slaves are saying we will no longer be slaves, the early Christian martyrs are saying the lions and the flames can have my body but they cannot touch my soul, Christian reformers from Luther to Calvin to Wesley are saying that no one needs an intermediary between themselves and God. Radicals in the 60’s from Daniel Berrigan to James Cone standing up against war and racism, injustice and inequality because they believed that they were right and that God stood with them. Jesus offers a clue to the way one must get to God as he draws parallels between himself and Moses, just as Moses lifted up the serpent over the Israelite people to cure them from their disease, so too must Jesus. And all who follow him be lifted up, in order that this broken world be redeemed. As Jesus trusted in God, even to his own death, so too must we.
Just as Nicodemus came to Jesus desperately seeking meaning in a life and a world that had left him bereft of meaning, so too do many today seek meaning and hope in a world that seems bereft of both. All people still possess a deep yearning to touch something that is greater than themselves. All people desire to work towards a foundational and sustainable peace and justice for the world. All people struggle. And one has to ask, where is the church in the midst of that struggle and how do we reach out to those who are trapped within it lacking any ability to navigate through the same darkness in which Nicodemus found himself. Folks are asking questions, we have done that since the beginning of time. Folks are still seeking to find places where those questions can be considered in real and profound ways. Places that feel like safe spaces to ponder mystery and doubt and meaninglessness. And the church still gets to be that place for folks who are on the outside desperately wanting to come in. The church gets to be the home of those who seek to honestly and authentically be in relationship with those who seek relief from times of struggle and questioning.
Moreover, we get to lead in the quest for a greater peace, a greater justice, a greater wholeness for all people, just as Jesus sought to do, so, too, might we take up the mantle, pick up the baton, and continue the race that begun in the deepest darkest part of the night in which a learned man came to have his darkness chased away as he was bathed in the light that the darkness can never overcome. In that faith, we might boldly move forward as well. For, the problems of the world, the struggles of people for personhood and survival testify to the need for a shift in the manner in which we are in relationship to one another. While small changes may place a bandage on the wounds of humanity and creation, it will take seismic shifts in the manner in which we view the world to truly heal it and one another from the wounds that each of us bear from different points in our lives in which our brokenness and the brokenness of the world has brought us pain. What is required is a renewed awe in the power of God to move through creation and a reverence for being in the presence of God, all the time, a cleansing of one’s soul in an effort to be made whole again, but then an inspired return to creation, prepared to dream not in small measures but in wild and untamed expressions of love for the world and our place within it. And the truth is that it doesn’t start with massive movements of whole communities or societies. It doesn’t start with huge marches or demonstrations, it doesn’t start with legislative endeavors or ecclesial proclamations. It starts with the simple act of each person decided to be just an inch kinder, an inch more generous, an inch more loving. It starts with each person’s ability to cast a vision into the future in which the seeds of hope and change that we plant today might not reach full bloom for 500 years and yet we plant them anyway, fully believing that they will be given clean water, abundant lights, and good soil by the spirit of God who bends the long moral arc of the universe back to justice and to holiness until that blessed day in which all God’s children are called back home.
Sisters and brothers, we can never become young again, we can never turn back the clock on the ages of brokenness and redemption that we all leave in our wake, we can never reemerge from the wombs of our mothers and begin life again armed with the knowledge of our age and our experiences of God, but we can be born anew. We can be born from above. We can be swept up in the spirit of the most high and be servants of the most high in this world so in need of children of God to be the hands and feet of the Christ. And we can dream dreams as big as the sky and a grandiose as the whole of creation. We can see a world that is fundamentally different from the one in which we inhabit and then, when we courageously move with the holy spirit, we can begin the work to bring such a world into reality, to become co-creators with God, co-redeemers with Jesus, sharers of the love of the Holy Spirit with all people, with all creation. Moment-by-moment, inch-by-inch, seed-by-seed. Friends, let us joyously and with awe and wonder approach the throne of God, touch the hem of Christ, be moved with the holy spirit, to be the children of God and tell others that they are also the children of God. And glory be to God in the highest and on earth peace amongst all God’s peoples. Amen.
Image-Visit of Nicodemus to Christ by John LaFarge, 1909