1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
"HOW CAN THESE THINGS BE?"
Nicodemus wanted to believe Jesus,
but his head got in the way of his heart.
His heart said, “Go for it!”
“Follow Him!”
“This is the One!”
but his head asked, “How can these things be?”
He tried his best but he couldn't figure Jesus out.
Not yet anyway. He did become a secret believer and he was with Joseph of Arimathea when Jesus body was buried. But today he is wondering what it is all about, and asking “How can these things be?”
How can it be that we have to be born again...and again...and again...and again, again, again? Born from above; of the Spirit; of the one God sent?
It can be because we do not make it be. God does!
And because we never get it all at the first time, or the second, or third.
We have to be born many times, over and over again as it slowly sinks in that God’s “love never ends and dazzling grace always is’. And it is for all! All!
An insight I have gained over the years as a Pastor.
In religion, Issues of the heart are deeper and more powerful then of the head. We don’t think our way into faith; we are captured by that which penetrates into the depths of our souls and there creates peace, joy, love,
and hope, and enables us to say, “Lord I believe; help mine unbelief.”
It was with the heart more then the head that the unknown person spoke when it was written on the wall of a cellar in Calogne Germany during World War II -
“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I feel it not.
I believe in God, even when He is silent.”
But how can these things be, we ask?
How can it be that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son ...in order that the world (and that includes me and you) might be saved.
It can be because God makes it be. For God not only created the world. God also became entangled with life on this planet when He chose to send his Son to ”pitch his tent with us.” To dwell among us as one of us! Who “for our sake was crucified” as we confess in the Nicene Creed.
A second insight which has been reinforced and impressed upon me over the years: At our best we are still imperfect. we are still , as Luther says."lost and condemned creatures" At our best, we still need forgiveness.
At our best we fall far short, and need to confess our sins and be forgiven.
BE forgiven.
We often talk about being forgiving. Maybe we need to talk more about being forgiven. For we are never without the need of forgiveness. We never outlive our need for forgiveness. We are never holy enough, righteous enough, faithful enough, good enough to not need forgiveness - daily.
As one person put it in a novel I reread recently, “We have to forgive. We have to forgive because in the end we all need forgiveness.”
Absolute Truths, p.525
But how can these things be we ask? How can it be that “it is by grace (we are) saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Eph.. 2:8,9
It can be because God makes it be.
As we heard in our 2nd Lesson - “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God”. All who have been touched by the gift of God’s grace walk this earth as children of God. And with the gift of grace comes the call to be a servant, the call to make our “faith active in love. “
For as James says, “faith without works is dead.” James 3:17
A true gift is also a responsibility. As Patricia Hampl so clearly reminds us when she reflects on receiving a $275,000 genius grant from the MacArther Foundation. Not knowing who nominated her; not knowing who choose her; she said the only thing she could do to show how thankful she was was to“give the gift.”
This is our challenge too. To give the gift we have been given. The gift of faith and hope and love. The gift of compassion as a way of life.
A third insight which has come over the years, as I’ve struggled with my mind to grasp the mysteries of God’s grace and love.
As Christians, we are not to judge and condemn;
nor are we to parade around as those who think God loves us best or maybe even most, if not only. That is not the purpose of John 3:16 - an egotistical, arrogant, condemning attitude towards all who hold different views of God.
We are to be compassionate as our God is compassionate and let God sort them out; let God handle judgment.
If there is any word which has come into focus for me in the 35 years of parish ministry it is the word compassion.
Compassion - mercy - pity - sympathetic - tender - responsive - inclusive - steadfast love - all words used to try capture what it is.
It is, in the raw greek - “to be moved in one’s bowels” - to be moved deep within to act on behalf of others. To make the world ‘gentle’ for others so they have a chance too.
Whatever else it means - to be compassionate is to err on the side of mercy not judgment; it is to, in the words of P. T. Forsythe, allow our faith to become “a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life.”
“He Came By Night”
He came by night to ask the question we all ask - only he didn’t know what he was asking and we often don’t either. It is the question which arises our of our need for a Savior as Dr. Thielicke puts it:
“At root very primitive things play the decisive role in our lives. Our stomach with its need of nourishment, our conscience with its lack of peace and our death towards which we irresistibly move...these are the forces which decisively constitute life. The one who can master these, taking away anxiety, consoling the conscience and supporting us in dying is the one for whom we truly look Nicodemus had an obscure feeling that Jesus might be that person.” Out Of the Depths, p. 63
How does this happen? Being born anew?
It happens like falling in love. It happens not because we figure lit out but because we let the wind of God’s forgiving love and grace blow over us. God does it. We just let God do it by surrendering ourselves to God and feeling the power of his grace at work in our lives.
The wind blows - the sun shines- God’s love is real. Let it happen to you.
“God Is Predictably Unpredictable”
The wind is predictably unpredictable. So is the Spirit of God. It blows where it will. We do not control it nor can we always predict it. God loves whom God will - and that includes those I would exclude. It is the world God desires to save, not just us. For as Paul says, “(God) will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and compassion on whom He will have compassion.” Rom 9:15
John 3:16 is a statement of grace, not judgment; love not condemnation. It is a statement of divine generosity.
God sent Jesus into the world not so we could gloat over being children of God but so we could say, God is for you too, whether you know it or not. To be born again is to face the truth that God loves all people and it is to face this truth over and over and over again, until it finally sinks in.
As those who believe in Christ we are to live as those who are led by the Spirit of God,
which means others will be glad we were given the gift of life, and of faith!
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