In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Have
you ever had to start over? Maybe it was after being laid off from a job and having
to start from scratch. Maybe it was after getting divorced and realizing that
life isn’t playing out the way you thought it would. Maybe it was after not
getting into the school that you hoped to attend and you had to go back to the
drawing board. Maybe an idea you had just didn’t go as planned and was a total
flop. Starting over is scary, full of uncertainty, and even if it leads to a
good, or better, end result, the process of disorientation is not often a
pleasant one.
With
this in mind, we can better understand the consternation experienced by Nicodemus
when he hears Jesus tell him that he has to be born again. Nicodemus comes to
Jesus by night, meaning that he doesn’t want people to know that he’s interested
in learning from Jesus. He comes and calls Jesus “rabbi,” so he’s expecting
Jesus to teach him something. Nicodemus has heard about what Jesus has been up
to – his Baptism in the Jordan, the transformation of water into wine at Cana,
and the cleansing of the Temple – and he knows that no one can do such things
apart from God. So he comes by night to learn more about this power of God that
is on display.
Obviously,
I don’t know what was going on in Nicodemus’ head that night. But I know what’s
in my mind. I think, “You know, I’ve built a rather good life: I’ve got some
impressive credentials, a wonderful family, a great job, no fatal character
flaws. I wonder if Jesus could make me even better?” Or even if your life is
down in the dumps, we often turn to God to make things better. Nicodemus,
perhaps, was expecting Jesus to give him a few tips on how to improve his life
and his relationship with God. But a few pieces of advice is not at all what
Jesus gives Nicodemus.
Jesus
says “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” There’s
an interesting linguistic trick going on here – the word for “from above” can
also be translated as “again.” So Nicodemus understands Jesus to be saying that
you must be born again, which is why he starts asking about climbing back into
his mother’s womb. It’s a rather ridiculous question that Nicodemus asks, which
reminds us that when it comes to faith, there’s no such thing as a bad question
or a question you shouldn’t ask. After all, Nicodemus was considering climbing
back into his mother’s birth canal, so whatever question you have, I doubt you
can top that one. Never be ashamed of your questions.
But
Nicodemus wasn’t understanding what Jesus was saying. He had no frame of
reference for such a proclamation. When we come to Jesus expecting incremental
growth or quick solutions to our problems, his responses back us to might seem
rather confusing. And so Nicodemus asks “How can anyone be born after having
grown old?” In addition to being tripped up on the logistics of how one can be
born a second time, Nicodemus is likely wondering why anyone would want to
start over and be born a second time.
Growing
up is hard to do. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, meaning that he’s a religious leader
of his community. He’s built his reputation, he’s graduated from the school of
hard knocks, he’s paid his dues, he’s grown in maturity, and established his
life. Why would anyone choose to undo all of that? If things are going well,
why would you want to walk away from success and start over? We wouldn’t. What
Jesus tells us is ridiculous, which is why Nicodemus follows up with a
ridiculous question about entering back into the womb. That makes a much sense
as throwing away everything he’s built up to this point.
But
being born anew is exactly what Jesus is telling Nicodemus, and us, to do. And
so Jesus clarifies by saying “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the
kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” In chapter 6 of Romans,
St. Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with
him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with
him in a resurrection like his.” That is how radical Jesus is – we’re talking
in terms of dying to self and being reborn to Christ. That’s what Baptism is
all about.
Too
often though, we want to skip over the Death part and go right to the Resurrection.
As Jesus says, “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the
Spirit is spirit.” But we cling onto the flesh – to all of those things that we
build up for ourselves. The call to follow Jesus though is the call to take up
our cross and follow him; or, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, “When calls a person,
he bids them come and die.” The life of faith really is that radical, not at
all a few small changes, but it is completely starting over with a new identity
as God’s beloved child and the new priorities of living in the kingdom of God.
Consider
the call of Abram that we heard about in Genesis. Now, at this point in the
story, he hasn’t been renamed Abraham, but it’s the same person. God says to
Abram, “Go from your country and your family to the land I will show you.” That’s
dying to self. Abram lived in a very different world, one where land and family
meant a lot more than it does to us today. In his culture, land was your
identity and family was the only alliance that you had. You didn’t have an
employer, or civic organizations, or other social networks. You had your
extended family and that was all, and without a family you had nothing. We don’t
know it directly from the Bible, but Jewish tradition tells us that Abram’s
father, Terah, was a very powerful man. Terah was the Chief General of the
Babylonian army, meaning that Abram was asked to leave not only his family, but
a very influential and affluent family. He was to leave all of this to go to an
unknown land and to an unknown people. He was asked to die to himself.
And
he went. St. Paul in today’s reading from Romans tells us though that Abram’s
going wasn’t about him earning his own salvation, as he wasn’t justified by
works. Rather, St. Paul uses the language of a gift and that word “gift” is the
same word as Grace. What’s going on here is not that God is giving Abram a test
to see whether or not he’ll get a chance to earn his salvation. No, God says that
Abram will go and will be blessed so that all the families of the earth will be
blessed. He’s blessed in order to be a blessing. God intends to bless this world
with love. God opens the reality of abundant grace to all the world. The gift
of grace is there for us all to claim, there’s nothing we have to do to earn it
or deserve it. Rather, God lays before us paths so we can find this gift. Just
as birth is passive and not something we have to do for ourselves, our
salvation is the gift of new life.
For
Abram, the path was to go off and make a fresh start so that God could create a
nation that would become a symbol of God’s grace to the world. It started with
Abram, and it continued through Moses, Ruth, and David and is culminated when
God comes among us in Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus is all about – showing us
the new and abundant life that God intends for us. If John 3:16 is the most
well-known verse of Scripture, then John 3:17 might be most overlooked – “Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him.” God is a God not of condemnation, not of
telling you that you don’t measure up, not of telling you that you could do
better. Instead, God is a God of salvation, of liberation, of giving us fresh
starts in grace. And Jesus shows us this path of salvation.
Jesus
says “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.” And
before we miss the point, remember that “believe” doesn’t mean that you arrange
your religious thoughts in a particular way, belief is about where you put your
trust, your heart, your obedience. Here, Jesus is referring back to a story in
Numbers 21. Moses and the people were living in a camp and poisonous snakes
came out and starting biting and killing the people. So God tells Moses to make
a bronze serpent and put it on a stick. When the people look upon the serpent,
they will be healed. This is why you’ll see that symbol on ambulances and
doctor’s offices. The idea is that to be healed, you have to look reality in
the face and see the problem.
Jesus
sees his impending Crucifixion in this same way – people will look upon him
when he is lifted up and be healed. We look at Sin and Death in Jesus on the
Cross and we find eternal life. Jesus is showing us that a love that willing to
die for others is what saves us. Grace that is unearned is where we have our
hope. Mercy that is not required is what makes all things new. This loving grace
is the grain of the universe, it is the path of salvation, it is the way to
find abundant life, it is the womb that will lead us to being born anew into
the kingdom of God. But we don’t get to Resurrection without Crucifixion, so as
we gaze upon the horrors of the Cross, we see the salvation that God has
already enacted for us as a mother giving new life to her child.
This
is what enables our fresh start, our being born anew. It is scary to think
about giving up the things that we’ve built up for ourselves. It is unsettling
to be told that the priorities that we’ve lived our lives by are not always in
alignment with the kingdom of God. I don’t know what this will mean in your
life – I can’t tell you what ideas, habits, or priorities you need to die to. I
can’t tell you what needs to be left behind for you to encounter more fully the
abundant grace of God in your life. But I can tell you that you won’t be alone
when you make a fresh start because the Holy Spirit is with you on every step
of that journey. And I can tell you that even if you struggle to make a new
start, God still loves you, God will continue to meet you where you are, and
God will continue to lead you into the reality of grace.
As challenging as
this message of the Gospel of being born from above is, there is also great
comfort and hope in knowing that God desires for us to flourish in love, that
no matter how dead the end is, there is always the possibility of new life.
Because of the Cross of Christ, we can trust that God will always be with us,
no matter how difficult the situation. In his boldness, we can take the risk of
starting over, of loving, of dying to self, of seeking first the Kingdom of
God. And that is what salvation is all about – being freed to live in love and
grace. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Thanks be to
God.
