Rebirth: A Sermon Preached on Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2009

Today is Trinity Sunday, and the scripture lessons are chosen to illustrate the nature of the Trinity. But our Gospel lesson is really sort of just a cracking good story. Since I'm not a theologian, at least not a professional one, I think we'll just sit out discussions of the Trinity today and focus on the story of Nicodemus. Oh, and we'll also have to think about what it means to be born again.

On of the privileges I have in preparing to preach is the opportunity to look at some of greatest authorities who have written about the scriptures over the years. John Wesley wrote two entire sermons based on just two verses from today's Gospel. In his sermon on John 3:7, which reads "Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born from above.", Wesley says "If any doctrines within the whole compass of Christianity maybe properly termed fundamental, they are doubtless these two—the doctrine of justification, and that of the new birth: The former relating to that great work which God does for us, in forgiving our sins; the latter, to the great work which God does in us, in renewing our fallen nature."

This is what the story of Nicodemus is about: justification and new birth. Rebirth. To be born again.

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, trying to cover his Pharisitical status with darkness. In invoking of the name of a popular place to watch the Andy Griffith show, one source calls Nicodemus the original "Nick at Night". His arrival at night was not just a cover, though. Nicodemus was 'in the dark', both literally and figuratively. Nicodemus came to Jesus as a true seeker. A common saying we might use in English is that he came "hat in hand", to seek to understand what Jesus was teaching. He begins the conversation with an expression of his belief that Jesus is a teacher sent by God. He knew what Jesus was teaching was powerful, he knew it was important, but he didn't know WHAT IT MEANT.

Scripture talks in symbols. Nicodemus, as a Pharisee and a "leader of the Jews" was a student of scripture and should have understood the evident use of symbolic language but instead, he chose to be obtuse. He responded like a literalist, like a small child. Someone pointed out to me this week that children can't really comprehend symbolism. When kids sit down for the children's sermon and someone asks them what are "the fruits of the spirit", like as not they're going to say "apples?" Kids see the world in very literal terms, and this indeed was just what Nicodemus did. "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" What, let's just scrunch up and climb back in?

In his answer, Jesus intentionally unsettles Nicodemus. He has a habit of doing that. Pastor Rick Marshall points out to us that both Jesus and Buddha use methods that challenge our basic assumptions about life, that are intended to disorient and confuse. Nicodemus was certainly unsettled and confused! "God is like the wind?" "What is flesh is flesh and what is spirit is spirit?" And again "You must be born from above". Nicodemus just doesn't get it: "How can these things be?" Finally we see Jesus call him to task, to use his knowledge of the Torah, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?"

Methodist Bishop William Henry Willimon tells us that "Nicodemus came to Jesus with what he knew ('I know that...'). He ended with questions about what he did not know. He arrived fairly confident that he had a good grasp on who Jesus was; he left being encountered by the mysterious God in the flesh."

What did Wesley have to say about this rebirth? I had to really hold myself in check here. Wesley's sermon on John 3:8 is so chock-full of good words wonderfully phrased that the temptation is to just read the whole thing. Wesley's prose tends to be a bit turgid by modern standards, but this sermon is a jewel in any era. But instead, we'll just look at some highlights...

First Wesley describes for us the state of man before rebirth: "This implies, that a man first renounce himself; that, in order to be 'found in Christ,' to be accepted through him, he totally rejects all 'confidence in the flesh;' that, 'having nothing to pay,' having no trust in his own works or righteousness of any kind, he comes to God as a lost, miserable, self- destroyed, self-condemned, undone, helpless sinner; as one whose mouth is utterly stopped, and who is altogether 'guilty before God.'".

Then he describes what the rebirth feels like: "Before a child is born into the world he has eyes, but sees not; he has ears, but does not hear... The 'eyes of his understanding are opened;' (such is the language of the great Apostle;) and, He who of old 'commanded light to shine out of darkness shining on his heart, he sees the light of the glory of God,' his glorious love, 'in the face of Jesus Christ.' His ears being opened, he is now capable of hearing the inward voice of God, saying, 'Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee;' 'go and sin no more.'"

But finally Wesley makes it clear that this rebirth is a process and is not an instantaneous event: "Grace is descending into his heart; and prayer and praise ascending to heaven: And by this intercourse between God and man, this fellowship with the Father and the Son, as by a kind of spiritual respiration, the life of God in the soul is sustained; and the child of God grows up, till he comes to the 'full measure of the stature of Christ.'... From hence it manifestly appears, what is the nature of the new birth. It is that great change which God works in the soul when he brings it into life." Rebirth in the light of Christ is not like being zapped with a lightning bolt. It is a process; for some it is quick, for others it may take the better part of a lifetime. It is, as John Wesley tells us, "a rebirth of our fallen nature".

Nicodemus just disappears at this point in the story. The first man in history to hear John 3:16, and we don't even know what he thinks about it! This is the same John 3:16 that became sort of a magic talisman for many evangelical Christians in the late 20th century, that could be invoked by just a bumper-sticker with the reference, but not even the words, or on a bedsheet or the teeshirt of a bizarre character in a multi-colored wig at basketball games.

John Shearman reminds us that "In the theological struggles of the 20th and 21st centuries, 'born again' has become the rallying cry of conservatively minded Christians, the magical open sesame to salvation. In many respects it has the same force as the synoptic gospel proclamation, 'repent and believe the gospel.'" But in reality, "The phrase is not a magic ticket to enter 'that better life in the great beyond.' It is a metaphor for a new moral and spiritual beginning which comes about for those who have faith that Jesus is the one to whom the early Christian community witnessed: the Messiah/Christ, Son of God. As Messiah, Jesus came to show us the way of life God requires of us all. Was it not out of such a context that Jesus chided the doubting Nicodemus, 'Are you a teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?'"

So what happened to Nicodemus? Well now I get to do my Paul Harvey impression and tell you about... "The rest . . . of the story".

Nicodemus appears twice more in the book of John. They are such minor mentions that in many cases we go right by them in our scripture reading without actually connecting back to the original story, but they show the slow growth of faith, the rebirth of Nicodemus.

When Jesus is preaching in Jerusalem, the temple police are sent to arrest him, but they come back empty-handed. When asked why by the Pharisees, they answer "Have you heard what he says? Never has anyone spoken like this!" The response of the Pharisees is that no one of any consequence believes this Jesus, and those who listen to him are ignorant of the law, and accursed. Now Nicodemus, in a classic career-killing move, steps up and says "Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?" The rest of the Pharisees scoff at him and tell him, "Gee, are you from Galilee to? Search your scriptures: no prophet can arise out of Galilee!" We next see Nicodemus at the end of Jesus' life, where he is actually sort of a key player; when Joseph of Aramithea comes with Pilate's permission to claim Jesus' body, he is accompanied by none other that Nicodemus, "who had at first come to Jesus by night"..."bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews." From a questioner and seeker of knowledge, to a defender, to the man who buries the crucified Christ; what we have in Nicodemus is a person whose life was spent in coming to faith. In our own lives, the same Spirit may also take its time, gradually bringing us from fear to faith and from timid acceptance to bold witness.

One of my favorite lines from "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" has always been "Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth." That's rebirth. And while John 3:16 is undoubtedly important, I have always believed that using it without verse 17 only tells half the story. "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." Jesus did not come to condemn the world. He came that the world might be saved.

Not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved. Amen.

Posted by trygstad | Category: Personal | 01:29 PM