Beyond the Patio

A FRESH START
John 3:1-17

I was sitting in Starbuck’s having a cup of coffee the other day.  The coffee shop happened to be in Chapter’s Book Store and I was surrounded by shelves of books.  I was sitting at a table  near the “self-help” section of the bookstore.  It was simply amazing  how many “self-help” books there were. Shelves and shelves of books with new one coming out every week were there in all their glory all aimed at changing your behavior and  making your life better.  The reason that hundreds of thousands of these books are sold each year and many appear on the best sellers lists is that there is a great dissatisfaction in life the way it is and there is a desperate desire to change.  If there wasn’t not a single copy of those books would be sold.  We all seem to desire a new perspective on life. We all desire some form of renewal. We all look for a new beginning.

I believe that was that motivation – a dissatisfaction the way he was and a deep desire to change was behind Nicodemus coming to Jesus in today’s Gospel.  The Gospel writer points out that Nicodemus came to Jesus “by night”.

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Nicodemus represents a lot of people both inside and outside the church, and even those who would be considered leaders in the church

First of all, we are told that he was a Pharisee.  Now they were the religious people of the time and probably more than any others close adherents to the law.  Living a good life and keeping the commandments were extremely important to Nicodemus.

That’s true of a lot of people today.  Many see religion as “living a good life”.  When asked “Who is a Christian?” They would probably answer, “The one of lives a good life”.  So others would go on to say, “You don’t need the church to be a Christian because you can live just as good a life without any connection with the church.

So Nicodemus probably lived a good life. He was a good man but he was still dissatisfied in himself and desired a change.  Why? Maybe it was because he knew that no one could keep all the commandments perfectly.  Down deep within his soul, no matter how “good” he was, he knew and felt separated from God.  So is was in a sense a “dark night of the soul”, with the feeling that something was lacking in his life, and thinking that Jesus might just have what he was looking for, that brought him to Jesus.  John adds that Nicodemus came to Jesus “by night”.

Secondly, Nicodemus was not only a religious man but was one of the rulers of the Jews. Jesus refers to him as a “teacher of Israel” .  So you could say that as a ruler and teacher he must have had a great deal of knowledge about God.  But then, many people can have a great deal of knowledge about God but not know God.

Keirkegaard, the Danish philosopher and theologian said in one of his books that many people coming to a crossroads in which there was one sign point to “heaven” and another sign pointing to a “lecture on heaven” would choose the “lecture on heaven” every time, because “heaven” may mean a intimate and demanding  involvement with God.

There are many people today who have knowledge about God and about Faith.  They are avid students of the Bible, theology, and church history.  They can tell you all about the theories of the incarnation and the atonement.  They can quote biblical texts by heart.  Some can even make their conversations out of chapter and verses from the Bible.  They can have an immense knowledge of Christ but do not have the spirit of Christ.  With their vast knowledge about God and Christ, they can actually turn off more people from Christ than they turn on to Christ.  It is not just in the Church that we find this.  There are a lot of people outside the church that talk a lot about love but they do not love.  They have a lot of knowledge about what a good and meaningful relationship is but they never have good and meaningful relationships.  They talk about and understand a whole lot of things that they never experience.

So here was Nicodemus, representing a lot of us, having knowledge about faith, about the Bible as it was known then, but did not have Salvation including fulfillment and wholeness.  He was still on the fringe, on the outside looking in.  He was still in the dark. So he came to Jesus “by night”.

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What does Jesus tell Nicodemus?  “You have to be born anew,” This is an interesting word Jesus uses .  It can mean “born anew”, “”born again”, and “born from above.” No matter how you put it sounds like a traumatic experience.  It is “letting go and letting God”.  It is letting God take hold of your life setting you on your feet again in a new direction.  It is letting the Spirit take hold of you.  It is centering your life in an all consuming relationship with God.

Eugene Peterson in The Message has an interesting paraphrase of this dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus

  “How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’  talk?”

Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind hovering over the water  creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

“So don t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above —out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above  by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

Eugene Peterson The Message, The New Testament In Contemporary Language  Navpress Colorado Springs 1993

It is as if Jesus is saying “Stop looking at things from the outside.  You can’t see the Kingdom of God until you become part of it. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to the Spirit.  This birth that I am talking about has to come from God . Open yourself to the Spirit and become part of the work of the Spirit in the world.”

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How does it happen for us?   We have to realize, first of all, that it is a birth from above and we can’t engineer it.  We can’t make it happen. The only real prerequisite is that we want it, we are open to it and we are willing to be changed.  Repent means to turn around so we must be willing to turn our lives around in the direction where God wants us to go.  I saw a bumper sticker the other day: “God Allows U-Turns.”  We have to be willing to make a U-turn in our life.

So you have to be willing and then you have to listen. We have to realize that God’s Word has our name on it. That’s what happened to Isaiah in today’s passage from the Hebrew Scriptures.  Isaiah is in the temple and he hears, “Who will we send?  Who will go for us?”  He knew that this was addressed to him.   All he could say when he realized that these questions had his name on them was “Here I am, send me”.  The disciples knew that Jesus, the Word of God had their name attached.  Paul heard his name on the road to Damascus.  Jesus, God’s Word,  first convicted him and then embraced him . All that was left for him to do was to ask, “What will you have me do?” Then God’s Word through the Spirit instructed him.

Unamuno, The Spanish philosopher who was somewhat of a mystic, said: “If you ask me how I believe in God, how God creates himself in me, and reveals himself to me….I believe in God as I believe in my friends, because I feel the breath of his affection, feel his invisible and intangible hand drawing me, leading me, grasping me.

As long as you hear God’s word addressed to others, with someone else’s name on it, we never really hear it. But when we hear the Word addressed to us, it is like a new beginning, a new birth, a fresh start.   They say that a person walking in their sleep will awaken when they hear their name called.  When we hear God’s Word with our name on it, it is like waking from a deep sleep.

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Then what happens?  How is our life changed? We are overcome by the Love of God and the need to express a self giving love to the world.

It is important to realize that our rebirth is not a private escape but a movement toward a public responsibility.  We are not reborn of the spirit to tune out the needs of the world.  The purpose of biblical rebirth is always for the sake of the world – our neighbor, the other person, the prisoner, the hungry, the sick, the care and protection of children, “the least of these”.  Because of this we have a fervent enthusiasm for the cause of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.  So we never give up.  We do not rest when there is any public iniquity, corruption,  misuse of resources, inhumanity to the less fortunate, oppression of the poor.  We cannot remain indifferent.  If we can be apathetic when gigantic wrongs and injustices in the world stare us in the eye, our rebirth and baptism are pathetic fiction.

Then the course of our rebirth may lead us to suffering for Christ’s sake and Christ’s work of compassion and benevolence in the world.  It may lead us to the Cross.  Jesus doesn’t promise us that everything will be rosy from here on in.  He does not promise us success in all things.  He did promise us in the end, victory, the coming of the Kingdom.

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Have you come here to Jesus at this time with Nicodemus by night, somewhat in the darkness: knowing about God but not knowing God; living a good life but not necessarily a God-life; under the influence of other people but not under the influence of God, a spectator but not a participant.  Are your trying to continue in something that you never really started? This Gospel is for you.  It has your name on it.  God wants to speak to you as God has wanted to speak to you for a long time.  Listen! God believes in you more than you believe in yourself.  God wants to make you into a new being: follower of Christ’s way, and led by the Spirit. All you have to do is make a resolve to let God do that.  It could be a silent prayer.  It could be when you come up for communion.  If you can make this resolve, this part of the sermon is not the end but a beginning.  It is a fresh start.

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