February 17, 2008
| Lent 2, 2008 | Genesis 12:1-4a | |
| Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 | ||
| John 3:1-17 |
We recently traveled to Mexico for vacation. Our final destination was on an island, so the trip had several stages. A plane, an airport van, a ferry boat, a taxi. In the airplane I had the familiar thought that all passengers entrust their lives to a pilot- a person they have never met.
We got off the plane, with its unknown pilot, and got in a van, with an unknown driver. A stranger drove us through a strange city.
Night fell during the drive, and we reached a ferry dock. We bought tickets and boarded the boat. It set off into the dark waters. Again, we had no idea who was piloting the boat.
I don't speak Spanish. I know a few phrases, a few words. One of the more frustrating aspects of foreign travel is how the native speakers refuse to stick to the dialogs in the lesson books. They say things you've never heard before. They talk fast. They use vocabulary from a lesson you have not yet studied. How do you find out if you're going to the right place?
But we arrived at the island, Isla Mujeres, and once more, needed another stranger to take us where we were going- a taxi. All we could say to the driver was the name of the place. We piled luggage and ourselves into a tiny car, and drove off. The first thing the driver did was to turn in the opposite direction from what I expected.
Once again, in the dark, driven by a stranger, we went through unfamiliar streets turning at unexpected times, not knowing if the trip was too long, too short. What if the taxi driver were untrustworthy? What if we mis-communicated and ended up in the wrong place- how do we fix it when we can't have a conversation? Perhaps being tired and drained from a long day of travel fosters paranoia.
But we arrived at the right place. We had a wonderful and relaxing time. I won't say we got to KNOW the taxi drivers- there were hundreds- but we did learn that taxis were a reliable way to get around. The taxis were affordable- and safe. It was fine. But I didn't know that the first night.
It was night when we got into that taxi. It was night when Nicodemus came to see Jesus. He wanted to meet Jesus. He was not willing to meet him in broad daylight. He seems to be operating under a mix of curiosity and fear. Do you ever have both curiosity and fear?
Nicodemus began with a compliment. "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."
Notice the shape of the dialog. Nicodemus begins by saying, "We know..." His last sentence is "How can these things be?" The encounter with Jesus brought Nicodemus from "knowing" to confusion.
The same can happen to us. John 3:16 is the most widely known verse of the New Testament. It has iconic status, a super-verse. Martin Luther said it summed up the gospel, and evangelicals have held up "John 3:16" signs to the NFL cameras for years.
It is a foundation for faith, and music to the ears of people who know and love these words.
But this verse, more than most, can be treated like a formula, a map, a pat answer. If these words calcify into a kind of knowledge, then we stand right next to Nicodemus, thinking we know.
We recite this verse and we know how this works. Believe in Jesus and be saved from sin and death.
So that's all you have to do.
But we all know that believing cannot be compelled. You can't order someone to be convinced. As for being born again, born from above, it seems to me birth is something that cannot be chosen. No one plans their own birth. It is rather something that happens.
And yet what happens at birth is the beginning of a will to live. We have a physical will to live, and to be born in the spirit is to have a will to live in God, to be a soul and not just a body. The presence of Jesus is God's guarantee that salvation is for spirit AND flesh.
What is born of the flesh is flesh. What is born of the spirit is spirit. And no one plans their own birth.
So are the ones who believe just luckier than the ones who don't? Win some lose some, baptized, not baptized. Are we Born Again once forever, or born again every time we confess sin and receive absolution?
Is faith the Work of the Holy Spirit, or work of our own will?
Nicodemus decided of his own accord to seek Jesus. Didn't he? But Jesus said that the wind blows wherever it wants to. Perhaps Nicodemus came to Jesus because the Wind blew on him. The Holy Spirit called him.
Nicodemus started by saying "We know." After talking to Jesus, he said, "How can these things be?" I don't have this figured out. And every time Nicodemus tries to figure it out he hits a dead end- "How can anyone be born after having grown old?"
Here's my sermon for you today. Just get in the taxi. When it comes to trusting God, we don't really know the language and we do have our fears, but believing is less like settling an argument and more like getting in the taxi.
I'm not just being simplistic. The very language on the page calls us to a kind of trust.
Before this story, back in chapter two verses 23 and 24 we read , "When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people..."
They believed him. He would not entrust himself. They sound different in English- believe and entrust. But the Greek uses the same root, the same word.
Believing may involve some thinking, some doing, some deciding, but it also means trusting. You can get in a taxi without knowing the destination OR the route. You get in, gripping your baggage, wondering what next, in the dark, but eager for some rest.
Nicodemus was unsure. And LESS sure after meeting Jesus than before! But we also know Jesus was never far from the mind of this Pharisee. He encouraged his peers to give Jesus a fair hearing in chapter 7. In chapter 19 he comes to the cross to help believers take decent care of the lifeless body.
Something was born in Nicodemus. And it came to life because of Jesus. And my duty and privilege is to tell you here and now that your questions may not all be answered, but you can get in the taxi anyway.
The Spirit moves wherever it wants to. Now it moves in you because you have heard this word: God so loved the world that he gave Jesus to you. The wind is blowing. A new birth is here. Don't argue. Don't worry. Christ is present for you. That's why you came today. The taxi is here. Get in.