Preacher: Nikki Devitt
Readings:
Genesis 12, 1-4
Romans 4, 1-5 &
13-17
John 3, 1-17
If you've watched the news or read the papers recently, it's
been difficult to avoid the coverage of the US Primaries. Much ink has already
been spilt in editorials debating whether Barack Obama's religious position
springs from genuine conviction, or whether it is simply a stance which will
win him votes in a nation which is still largely church-going….
It seems the religion of political leaders is public
property, and it may very well determine their future careers.
No surprise then, that
Nicodemus,in our gospel story today, came to Jesus by night. On one
level, this was because Nicodemus,
who was both a religious and secular leader of the
pharisees,
didn't want anyone to see him visiting this :-) turbulent
rabbi, who has just upset everyone by cleansing the temple…so he came under
cover of darkness.
But this is the gospel of John, the gospel of signs,
where everything is written on two levels,
describing on the one hand human activity, and
on the other hand the activity of the spirit
…so at the level of the spirit, John is perhaps suggesting
that Nicodemus visiting by night means that he was still spiritually in
darkness…that the light had not yet dawned.
Well, whichever way we look at the story, Nicodemus starts
off the conversation cosying up to Jesus, as a fellow teacher: Rabbi, we
know you are from God, otherwise you wouldn't be able to do such signs
But Jesus almost cuts him short…implying, No we don't
belong together:
Jesus tells him: Unless a person is born from above,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
(Actually the Greek word born 'from above',
ανωθεν, can also be translated born 'again', and
John is being deliberately ambiguous here, he's using both senses of the
word in the conversation that follows.)
Well, Nicodemus is puzzled by Jesus' answer. He trips up
over that 2nd meaning of ανωθεν, to be
born again, and he asks Jesus from a very literal standpoint, surely
a grown person can't enter the womb a second time and be born again?
And Jesus' reply seems paradoxical to Nicodemus
because N is still struggling with mental pictures of a
rather alarming obstetric scenario..
but Jesus is explaining not being born again, but being born
from above:
Unless a person is born from water and the spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God
Now,…
You'll remember that John's gospel is full of images
of water.
He tells us of wells and springs, and buckets and water
pots, of stagnant pools and lakes and rivers…and finally of water flowing from
the side of the crucified Jesus, mixed with his blood.
Gradually we come to see that John is using water as
the symbol of the basic material of our lives: of our human nature…which needs
to be transformed.
Just before Nicodemus visits Jesus we've had the story of
the Marriage feast at Cana, where Jesus has transformed the insipid water of
the old cleansing rites into the rich wine of the Kingdom of God.
Perhaps if Nicodemus had really understood the signs he'd
seen Jesus work, he'd have grasped Jesus' meaning sooner.
For Nicodemus, being born from above would mean
exposing the water, which represents the raw earthly material of his
human nature, to the spirit of God.
Which means letting go his dependency on the law,
so he can no longer direct other people's lives by infallible
religious rules,
nor trust in his own authority.
But if he really does open himself to the spirit, he can be
transformed…
He will no longer be trying to control
everything like a local bureaucrat with an inflated idea of his own importance.
Instead, he will joined to the spirit, that mysterious and
unpredictable partner, and goodness knows where that will take him
Jesus tells him: The spirit blows where it wills
(spirit & wind are the same word in Greek)…you do not know where it
comes from or is going to. and So is everyone born of the spirit.
So Jesus is suggesting to Nicodemus that no-one from the old
order, not even an observant and law-abiding Jewish religious teacher, can move forward smoothly and continuously
into the Kingdom. Some kind of discontinuity with the old way of doing
things is required.
Well, no wonder Nicodemus didn't get it:
We find it difficult enough to grasp the message,
even though we have been baptised through
water and the spirit.
We may feel superior to Nicodemus, but
aren't we still in constant danger of slipping back
into those old religious ways?
We act as if, (as Paul said in our reading from Romans) ,
it were adherence to
the law which saves, rather than the grace of God, freely given.
·
so, we
define the conditions under which God may be approached
·
We treat worship as dutifully-performed-rites isolated from
our real lives
·
We often behave as if God needed placating on the one hand,
and managing on the other.
We may have been freed from the Law, but we seem to spend
our lives reinventing boundaries and conditions around God.
And at this time of year, even our Lenten observance is
often the result of unthinking habit, based on old laws:
gone are the days when the Lenten fast was actually governed
by the law of the church,
but the traditional giving up of chocolate or alcohol in
lent is still a relic of those laws on fasting and abstinence.
Well, this theme of fasting and self-denial may be the
predominant one in Lent,
but actually there is another traditional Lent theme,
and I think a much more constructive one
and that theme is preparation for baptism.
In the early church Easter was the only
occasion when people were baptised and so Lent was spent preparing for it. And
baptism was a much more dramatic affair than our rather token effort these
days:
The candidate was stripped naked, to symbolise shedding the
old life and sinful ways,
and then totally submerged in the baptismal waters, to
symbolise being immersed in the spirit of Christ,
and then emerged from the waters as a new person.
Thinking of Lent in these terms seems more fruitful to me
than the usual tired
old resolutions to give things up in order to mortify the flesh, because
It's about a radical re-orientation towards God.
(Isn't that
what Jesus was trying to get through to Nicodemus?)
It's about taking time to strip ourselves naked before God,
and allowing the Spirit to inform and direct all we do.
And if we do that,
…if we really take the time out to be still before God, and
open to the Spirit,
I don't think the
result will be endless resolutions or an increase in our 'religious busy-ness'
Instead, we shall become more grounded in God,
so that we rise from prayer and go out into the world;
we shall discover God in surprising places
we shall find ourselves sensitised to the people and
concerns around us,
and be moved to respond with compassion and hope.
So lent can be a time when we rediscover a faith that
pervades the whole of our life,
and energises & transforms it into something full of
grace and promise.
So I wish every-one a prayerful, reflective and
spirit-filled Lent. END