March 16, 2014
Can I Change?
- John 3:1-21
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Some time back a young man walked into the church and asked to see the pastor. I sat down with him, expecting a sad story and a request for money. Instead he told me he had met God and wanted to know what he should do next.
Turns out he was driving along the highway and a storm passed through. When the rain stopped he noticed a strange formation in the clouds. He stopped his car, got out, and took a picture with his phone. He held his phone up for me to look. I saw clouds and sky and sun beams. “See?” the young man asked. “See God?” He proceeded to tell me how seeing God had given him faith and now he wanted to change his life.
One of the disadvantages of being a Presbyterian is that I don’t get to hear a lot of dramatic conversion stories. Most folks in our tradition have intellectual awakenings, or are simply raised in the faith, or come to it gradually over a period of time. Dramatic zaps from on high, blinding Damascus Road events, life changing moments kneeling on the chancel steps or conversion while driving home from Cincinnati, are not everyday occurrences in Presbyterian pews.
We are more like Nicodemus.
Nicodemus had always been a confident man:
sure of God, sure of his faith, sure of himself,
and sure of the answers. He knew what he knew.
But now, he was confused: unsure of God,
unsure of his faith, and unsure of himself;
and he wasn’t even sure of the questions, let alone the answers.
Nicodemus had heard enough about Jesus
to make him think he ought to pay him a visit and find out more.
However, as a Pharisee with a big theological reputation to uphold,
he decided he had better go at night.
After all, Nicodemus was part of the religious establishment.
It was his job to faithfully teach the law.
He was smart, he was rich, he was well respected.
Why risk all that until he knew more about Jesus and his teachings?
So he waited until all his neighbors were asleep and then he started walking.
The sun set, the stars appeared in the sky.
Nicodemus kept walking until he came to the house where Jesus was staying.
This Pharisee was cautious, concrete, literal-minded,
thoroughly entrenched in his beliefs and practices.
Yet at the same time he knew what Jesus had done- the crowds, the miracles, the teachings.
Nicodemus is genuinely curious, perceptive and humble in light of Jesus' signs. “You are a teacher who has come from God,” he says to Jesus, and he continues by admitting that no one can do these signs “apart from the presence of God.” This is a powerful statement, even though a question mark, a “but,” is about to follow.
Jesus informs him, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
That was all very well, Nicodemus said,
but just how were you supposed to pull a thing like that off?
How especially were you supposed to pull it off if you were pushing sixty-five?
How did you get born again when it was a challenge just to get out of bed in the morning?
He even got a little sarcastic. Could one "enter a second time into the mother's womb?"
Jesus tries to get Nicodemus to stop thinking so hard.
This isn’t something you make happen.
Its like the wind.
You hear it, you feel it, you know its there.
But you can’t control it and you can’t understand it.
"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked again,
and that's when Jesus really goes off.
Holy smokes Nick, what is wrong with you?
Maybe you have six degrees and half a column in Who's Who,
but if you can't see something as plain as the nose on your his face,
I’m not sure you ever will.
“Don’t just sit there and watch us, Nicodemus,” Jesus is saying.
“Don’t think that you can just nod your head when I teach.
Don’t think you can simply wait for a ticket to paradise beyond the grave.
If you want to know what I am about,
if you want to discover the truth to which your faith and your Scriptures point,
you must be completely remade,
made new, born anew, born from above, whatever you want to call it,
you gotta let it happen.
You must change.
What you know in your head is not enough.
You need the way of “not knowing,” of being born from “above.”
becoming like a child again, a child of God,
listening to the Spirit of God and being guided by the Spirit.
Being born again is not about praying a prayer.
It is about living, living the reality of God’s Kingdom.
When we can proclaim in this world a vision of hope and justice,
of peace and healing, then we are born again.
When we give our lives to seeking, each day in our own small way,
to make the reality of God’s kingdom a little more visible,
a little more tangible in our world, then we are born again.
New birth is a breaking free of unbelief into belief.
It is a breaking free of darkness into light.
It is a breaking free of restricted, judgmental life into abundant life.
New birth is painful.
Like physical birth it involves leaving behind the past
and breaking into the present.
Like physical birth, sometimes it takes longer than we would like,
and at other times it comes upon us before we are ready.
Spiritual new birth, while set in motion by God's Grace, takes labor on our parts.
Jesus said, “God’s right in front of you! Have faith!”
Nicodemus felt overwhelmed as he listened to Jesus.
He couldn’t think of a question or an answer.
He felt like a beginner, as if he was starting all over again.
Nicodemus never says another word in the passage.
We are not told that he embraces Jesus as a disciple,
but neither are we told that he goes away sad. (as the rich young ruler, Luke 18).
But if we keep reading Nicodemus returns twice in John’s Gospel.
In chapter 7 he steps in to defend Jesus with the temple authorities. [John 7:37-53].
And in chapter 19, he appears alongside Joseph of Arimathea,
bringing with him a hundred pounds of burial ointments and spices
to prepare Jesus’ body for the tomb [John 19:38-42].
So what do you think?
Did he change?
Will you?