March 12, 2017
This Sunday we had 29 people in the congregation with at least three families enjoying warmer weather in Florida. Indeed this week the weather turned cold- low 40’s or below. The tulip poplar blossoms were adversely affected by the cold. However, the daffodils were out in the memorial garden and most of the dogwoods and cherry trees have survived.
The Village Harvest is this week and we have had several donations of paper products.
Today’s readings invite us to believe and be reborn. Hearing the call of God, Abram (later renamed Abraham), leaves his country and his people, following God into a new life. Paul explains how Abraham’s faith, revealed in his willingness to believe and act on God’s promises, makes him right with God. In the gospel, Jesus invites Nicodemus, a nighttime seeker, to believe and be born again.
Lent 2 through the fifth Sundays has Jesus confronting various characters – a educated Pharisee, a Samaritan Women, a blind man and a man recently deceased. These texts from John are about revelation–the revelation of who Jesus is, the one sent by God, the begotten God, whose offer of life is in his presence and not necessarily delayed until his death.
The key is in the dialogues that the characters try to understand Jesus from their own backgrounds. Is he who he says he is ? How does he challenge Jewis teachings in the past ?
This week’s Gospel is taken from the first of John’s lengthy expositions of Jesus’ teachings. Two characteristic techniques are employed: the use of a question asked on the physical level and answered on the spiritual level, and the use of the questioner’s misunderstanding.
Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, comes to Jesus because of his interest in Jesus’ works. Jesus seeks to draw him past these outward manifestations to a recognition of their inward significance.
The meaning of being “born from above” begins their discussion. Nicodemus’s misunderstanding centers around the word translated “from above,” which has two meanings. The first is ‘anew, again’ on the physical level, which is what Nicodemus understands; the second is ‘from above’ spatially, which is what Jesus seems to intend.
Jesus contrasts the realm of the Spirit, which is eternal and heavenly, with the realm of the flesh, which is earthly, weak and mortal (but not necessarily sinful). Both flesh and spirit make up human life, but the Spirit is life itself.
The sermon looked at the readings in terms of journey. One is fictional Reuben, a young man making a journey to Jerusalem along. He gets help from a friend who explains his source of solace. "My help comes from the Lord, Reuben. The Lord made the heavens and the earth back at the beginning of time. The Lord has never stopped caring and watching over creation. Don’t worry. You are the Lord’s beloved child, and the Lord will be traveling with you and watching over you, even when you fall asleep, because the Lord never sleeps. The Lord will keep evil away." Reuben would go in faith.
The second story is about Nicodemus. It may have seemed that Nicodemus as a pharisee had everything–money, prominence, and power. However Nicodemus needed something else; he was a seeker of truth. He addresses Jesus as "Rabbi", recognizing him as a new teacher of the Law.
The problem is that Nicodemus understands only in physical terms and not the spirit – he can’t see the spirit and that’s his trouble.
"Nicodemus, here’s the deal. When you’re born anew, with the Spirit as much a part of you as your very breath, you won’t know where the Spirit came from or how the Spirit got to be part of you, and you’ll have no idea where it will take you in this life. But you will know one thing, that the destination and the place that you’ve always longed to be is in God’s kingdom.”
The kingdom of God cannot be seen, observed, or experienced simply as a human phenomenon, legitimated by miraculous signs. It is a gift to be received.Being born of the Spirit is talking not about a new mystical height of experience but about a way of living out the life of God in the world.
The sermon ends with a question for us. "And what about you? Where will you choose to travel, and who will you choose to go with you?"