Text: John 3:1-17
I know this section of Scripture from the Gospel of John that we just read has been heard many times. Jesus speaks about being “born again” or “born from above” and many of us know the familiar words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the word…” We may even think of those John 3:16 placards people hold at football games, and so the text, in its’ familiarity, can fall flat. We’ve heard it so many times, like other popular stories from the Bible, and so it loses its’ power. I’d like us to try and revive this amazing passage a little today, because it’s almost as if the text itself needs to be reborn so that we can again hear its’ full impact again. Remember that this is heavy stuff: the deep mysteries of our faith.
First, let’s set the scene. This event occurs at night between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a well respected Pharisee and leader of his people. Nicodemus comes in the cover of darkness however, which gives us reason to believe that he is doing so in secret, so as not to be seen and then disgraced for consulting Jesus (of all people). He didn’t want to risk being found out, but he believes that Jesus must be from God and that God is present with him, as he states. Perhaps Nicodemus does not yet have faith in Jesus, but he has a faithful curiosity and he is willing to get the answers he seeks, even if he has to do it in secret. I wish we were all that curious!
So this is an important first step for Nicodemus. In response, Jesus reveals to Nicodemus a great and mysterious truth: that in order to see God, we must be born “again” or born “from above,” because it can be translated either way. In Greek, the word “born,” can actually have a metaphorical meaning, as in Jewish tradition when it refers to the idea of one’s life being changed into a new of way of living, like conversion. It can also just mean physical birth.
Nicodemus assumes the latter and gets very confused, taking Jesus too literally, asking him how one can actually re-enter their mother and be born again. Jesus clarifies and responds that we must be born of water and the Spirit. Here Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, and is alluding to the water of baptism.
In baptism we are reborn, and that rebirth occurs on two planes simultaneously. As Anglicans, we do not see the sacraments, or the sacrament of baptism as merely symbolic, as if the material reality meant nothing, but instead, we see it as making real and evident on the outside, the inward grace and gift from God that is going on spiritually, on the inside. The two work hand in hand. In other words, we understand, as Jesus explains here, that God brings to us grace and even the gift of salvation by working on two planes: the human/earthly/material plane and the Divine/heavenly/spiritual plane. God works in both realms simultaneously. To be human is to be both matter and spirit. God achieves salvation in both realms. This is most obviously demonstrated in the Incarnation: Jesus is both human/of the earth and divine/of heaven…the God-man.
This understanding extends to the sacrament of the Eucharist as well, where, in Holy Communion, we believe that we are not only receiving bread and wine (from the material earthly plane) but also the grace of Jesus’ presence in that bread and wine. After we consecrate the elements, that bread and wine has been changed forever and permanently and we no longer treat that bread and wine the same way: we store them in a tabernacle or an aumbrey, and we either ingest them or dispose of them respectfully into the earth, we don’t dump them into the sewer.
Another example of the incarnational nature of God’s presence is clear when we examine our theology surrounding ordination to the priesthood: we believe that once someone has been made a priest by the one, holy, apostolic Church, their priesthood can ever be erased: their very essence is in some way changed and made new, an indelible mark has been made, and so they do not merely function as priests, they ARE priests, and no Bishop or church can take that away. A Bishop can certainly tell them not to serve as a priest and prohibit them from offering the sacraments or ministering, but priestly ordination in the Anglican tradition can never be reversed or removed. The same is true of all the baptized: baptism is not something anyone can ever take away from you, you have been indelibly marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit as Christ’s own forever. So we have these two planes, always working together.
Now notice: God does not ask us if we want to be loved, God just loves us. Much the way a parent loves a child, whether they want that love or not. And sometimes we don’t desire that benevolent love, especially when that love leads us down a path we may not want, but that we desperately need. What a blessing to be loved that much, even if we are kicking and screaming.
Actions speak louder than words and in Christ, God acted. In Jesus’ death on the cross, God exposed both our sinfulness because we put God there, and simultaneously exposed God’s love for us in spite of it. In the cross we see humanity at its’ very worst: here we are crucifying God. While simultaneously we see God’s love as its’ deepest: God suffers and dies willingly to conquer sin and death, and to demonstrate that God’s love knows no bounds. God so loved the entire world, the whole kosmos, that all falls within God’s loving embrace. There is nothing you can do to get outside the kosmos, and there is nothing you can do to get yourself beyond God’s love. Jesus came, not to condemn, but to save. And God invites our faith filled response in return: just as the Israelites, who were bitten by poisonous snakes, but were healed the moment they looked upon the bronze serpent on the staff that Moses held, so all of us who look up to the cross of Christ in the hope of redemption are healed. God has done all the hard work and desires us to simply look up in faith. And each time we do that, we are healed and transformed…we are born from above, again and again.
The Lent I invite you to look at the cross frequently, to meditate on it, and see in it God’s love for you, the healing love which saves us time and time again. If we do that, then I know at Easter we will feel like brand new people, reborn: because we are. Thanks be to God.
I know this section of Scripture from the Gospel of John that we just read has been heard many times. Jesus speaks about being “born again” or “born from above” and many of us know the familiar words of John 3:16, “For God so loved the word…” We may even think of those John 3:16 placards people hold at football games, and so the text, in its’ familiarity, can fall flat. We’ve heard it so many times, like other popular stories from the Bible, and so it loses its’ power. I’d like us to try and revive this amazing passage a little today, because it’s almost as if the text itself needs to be reborn so that we can again hear its’ full impact again. Remember that this is heavy stuff: the deep mysteries of our faith.
First, let’s set the scene. This event occurs at night between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a well respected Pharisee and leader of his people. Nicodemus comes in the cover of darkness however, which gives us reason to believe that he is doing so in secret, so as not to be seen and then disgraced for consulting Jesus (of all people). He didn’t want to risk being found out, but he believes that Jesus must be from God and that God is present with him, as he states. Perhaps Nicodemus does not yet have faith in Jesus, but he has a faithful curiosity and he is willing to get the answers he seeks, even if he has to do it in secret. I wish we were all that curious!
So this is an important first step for Nicodemus. In response, Jesus reveals to Nicodemus a great and mysterious truth: that in order to see God, we must be born “again” or born “from above,” because it can be translated either way. In Greek, the word “born,” can actually have a metaphorical meaning, as in Jewish tradition when it refers to the idea of one’s life being changed into a new of way of living, like conversion. It can also just mean physical birth.
Nicodemus assumes the latter and gets very confused, taking Jesus too literally, asking him how one can actually re-enter their mother and be born again. Jesus clarifies and responds that we must be born of water and the Spirit. Here Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, and is alluding to the water of baptism.
In baptism we are reborn, and that rebirth occurs on two planes simultaneously. As Anglicans, we do not see the sacraments, or the sacrament of baptism as merely symbolic, as if the material reality meant nothing, but instead, we see it as making real and evident on the outside, the inward grace and gift from God that is going on spiritually, on the inside. The two work hand in hand. In other words, we understand, as Jesus explains here, that God brings to us grace and even the gift of salvation by working on two planes: the human/earthly/material plane and the Divine/heavenly/spiritual plane. God works in both realms simultaneously. To be human is to be both matter and spirit. God achieves salvation in both realms. This is most obviously demonstrated in the Incarnation: Jesus is both human/of the earth and divine/of heaven…the God-man.
This understanding extends to the sacrament of the Eucharist as well, where, in Holy Communion, we believe that we are not only receiving bread and wine (from the material earthly plane) but also the grace of Jesus’ presence in that bread and wine. After we consecrate the elements, that bread and wine has been changed forever and permanently and we no longer treat that bread and wine the same way: we store them in a tabernacle or an aumbrey, and we either ingest them or dispose of them respectfully into the earth, we don’t dump them into the sewer.
Another example of the incarnational nature of God’s presence is clear when we examine our theology surrounding ordination to the priesthood: we believe that once someone has been made a priest by the one, holy, apostolic Church, their priesthood can ever be erased: their very essence is in some way changed and made new, an indelible mark has been made, and so they do not merely function as priests, they ARE priests, and no Bishop or church can take that away. A Bishop can certainly tell them not to serve as a priest and prohibit them from offering the sacraments or ministering, but priestly ordination in the Anglican tradition can never be reversed or removed. The same is true of all the baptized: baptism is not something anyone can ever take away from you, you have been indelibly marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit as Christ’s own forever. So we have these two planes, always working together.
Now notice: God does not ask us if we want to be loved, God just loves us. Much the way a parent loves a child, whether they want that love or not. And sometimes we don’t desire that benevolent love, especially when that love leads us down a path we may not want, but that we desperately need. What a blessing to be loved that much, even if we are kicking and screaming.
Actions speak louder than words and in Christ, God acted. In Jesus’ death on the cross, God exposed both our sinfulness because we put God there, and simultaneously exposed God’s love for us in spite of it. In the cross we see humanity at its’ very worst: here we are crucifying God. While simultaneously we see God’s love as its’ deepest: God suffers and dies willingly to conquer sin and death, and to demonstrate that God’s love knows no bounds. God so loved the entire world, the whole kosmos, that all falls within God’s loving embrace. There is nothing you can do to get outside the kosmos, and there is nothing you can do to get yourself beyond God’s love. Jesus came, not to condemn, but to save. And God invites our faith filled response in return: just as the Israelites, who were bitten by poisonous snakes, but were healed the moment they looked upon the bronze serpent on the staff that Moses held, so all of us who look up to the cross of Christ in the hope of redemption are healed. God has done all the hard work and desires us to simply look up in faith. And each time we do that, we are healed and transformed…we are born from above, again and again.
The Lent I invite you to look at the cross frequently, to meditate on it, and see in it God’s love for you, the healing love which saves us time and time again. If we do that, then I know at Easter we will feel like brand new people, reborn: because we are. Thanks be to God.
0 comments:
Post a Comment