Sermon

February 16-17, 2008

Genesis 12:1-8; John 3:1-17

Newness of Life

Hillary T. West

 

 

The poet, William Stafford, in his poem, “Ask Me,” boldly suggests the following:  “Ask me whether what I have done is my life.”  In other words, is the life that I’m living the life that is intended to “live in me” (Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak)?  Have I listened to what my life intends to do with me?  Does our life speak our deepest truths and values? 

 

We are fully immersed in the season of Lent.  In observing Lent, we’re invited to spend the 40 days before Easter in self-examination.  In so doing, we, with great intention, turn to the Lord, through prayer, fasting, self-denial and the study and meditation of scripture.   So, some of us take on disciplines.  Others of us choose to abstain from certain habits, pieces of our life that may well keep us from living the life that is intended to be within us through Jesus Christ.  The word, Lent comes from the Old English word, “spring”.  We know spring to be a time for renewal; a time when we give thanks for how we are born into a newness of life. 

 

It is this newness of life that our knowledgeable friend, Nicodemus questions today as he searches for answers from Jesus.  Now, we know a bit about Nicodemus.  Nicodemus is a Pharisee.  Pharisees exhibit a certain way of living in the Jewish tradition that exemplifies total dedication and observance of the Judaic Law.  They serve as the most perfect model for how God calls the faithful to live.  Nicodemus is a member of the Sanhedrin, an authoritative group who have jurisdiction over every Jew.   It is the job of the Sandhedrin to make certain that Jews adhere to the law.  Honoring false prophets is against the Judaic Law.  Nicodemus may well be investigating Jesus; wondering if Jesus is violating the Law.  Nicodemus knows some things about Jesus.  Remember, he calls Jesus, Rabbi, teacher.  But, Jesus is more than just a great teacher.  He’s the Word made flesh, the very revelation of God; performing signs to prove his authority.    

 

Challenged by Jesus, recognizing that the way of Jesus is often contrary to Judaic Law, Nicodemus confronts Jesus.  They enter into a dialogue. He wants to know who this man of God is; this teacher who is so much more than a teacher. He comes at night and challenges Jesus, and Jesus, in a rather lengthy response, where Nicodemus hardly gets a word in, says:  “you must be born anew, again, from above, with water and the Holy Spirit,…you must believe in me…for this is how you will know God’s love…through me…through me you will be saved…through me…you will know eternal life with God; through me, the kingdom comes!” 

 

Most likely, this is not the response Nicodemus anticipates.  We remember that Nicodemus is a man who is on top of his game.  He’s an expert in his field.  And, he’s a highly respected leader in his community.  He’s learned, educated, and yields some influence because of his authority and devotion to Judaic tradition. He’s a person of wisdom, and he knows all the answers.  He lives with confidence and success.  Then, Jesus throws this at him.  He catches him up short.  So, Nicodemus is left, pondering, “Maybe there’s more to this life; maybe I don’t have all the answers”.   “Maybe Jesus can bring for me a newness to life,” he may well be wondering.  Clearly, Nicodemus is searching, looking for more.      

 

A newness of life.  Some of us may well be a bit like Nicodemus.  Life is good; comfortable; and often more than satisfying.  But, for some reason, there’s a hollowness, a yearning; even a melancholy.    We look for answers to fill an unexplainable emptiness.  William James calls this a “self-divided…inner storm”.  

But, for others of us, for whatever reason, a newness of life is being propelled upon us. The relationship we trust has suffered a huge chasm and now we’re stumbling along trying to figure out how it will become new.   We’re thrown off our feet by a doctor’s unexpected diagnosis forcing us to reexamine our priorities. 

A career we thought to be secure now is cascading and collapsing all around us, challenging us in every direction. Or, there is the addiction that is finally rearing its ugly head compelling us to strive for wellness. So, we search and seek; looking for how our life’s journey will turn.  We look for a newness of life. 

 

Some call this newness of life regeneration, immerging, even conversion.  This Lent, you’ve heard this newness of life referred to as, coming home.  Jesus calls it being born again.  And for our friend Nicodemus, that is exactly what happens.  

And it is the same truth for us as well.  We’re given a directive from Jesus in today’s lesson, we must go through a radical new birth to know the kingdom of God.  Now, we don’t know if that conversation instantly brings Nicodemus to new life.  But, we do know that he is converted, he turns to a relationship with God, in Jesus Christ; a life of freedom that he has never known before.  We learn further along in John that Nicodemus’ boldly defends Jesus when Jesus’ authority is questioned.  And later, at the crucifixion, it’s Nicodemus, now a faithful disciple, who comes to anoint Jesus with costly herbs; who along with Joseph of Arimathea, gives Jesus a kingly burial.  It seems to me that Nicodemus is a person of deep faith and discipline, and it certainly appears from scripture that, he has been transformed into a newness of life in Jesus Christ.

 

I believe his journey may have taken at least three steps; three steps that we too can take, listen, turn and trust: First, listen carefully, because it’s Jesus calling us.  Jesus initiates the change.  He reaches out and extends the invitation.  He says, come and “be born from above…born again, to this newness of life”.  Jesus even goes on to say we must be born of water and the Spirit, born into eternal life with God through our baptism.  Come, he says, be marked as Christ’s own forever; receive the gift of God’s grace, given freely, unearned, because God loves us so.  

 

Second, our newness of life calls us to respond and purposely turn to God.  We repent.  We come home.  Deciding, with great intention, that we’re turning away from those parts of us that take us away from God.  That we are  turning to God’s undying love for us.  We’re deliberately deciding, that with God’s help, we’re changing our life.  That we are absolutely lost and helpless without God as the center of our lives.  That in approaching God, with love, with awe, and a boldness to accept how he can change our ways; through him we will mend what is ripped and torn; discard what hinders; and be free to be just God’s.  So, we turn. 

 

Third, is trust.  Have confidence in how Jesus is working in our lives.  Trust in God’s love for us.  Believe in his love and that we are deserving of it; worthy of it, now.     

 

Find protection and safety in Jesus.  He gives us courage and strength.  He fills us with hope.  Not because he has to, but because he has chosen to.  It is his will to love us so much that he has given his life for us, so that we will know the joy of eternal life.  That, when we have done all that we can do, we have to just turn the matter over to God and know God’s peace.   “Trust,” Jesus says.  “Believe!”  (We remember that in the Greek, these words translate to mean the same).   “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  

 

Scholar and author, Marcus Borg tells us that a conversion can be “sudden and dramatic” just like the encounter Saul experienced on the road to Damascus.  And there are many such conversion stories.  Many of us have read Don Piper’s book, 90 Minutes in Heaven where Piper, proclaimed dead at the scene of an accident comes back to life, but not before experiencing 90 minutes in heaven where he came to know a love like he has never known.  Piper, a pastor in the Baptist Church, and certainly a man of faith, found his life transformed, changed forever, converted, born again.  Thank God, for those who share with us these unique stories of instant, dramatic conversion. 

 

Because, for a lot of us, conversion of the heart, soul and mind doesn’t suddenly blow us out of the water.  The newness of life may well take some time.  Even if we’ve been knocked over and blinded by the Holy Spirit, in one felt swoop, learning to live in this newness of life is a process, a journey.  It is a deliberate, daily willingness of what Borg terms as “dying to an old identity and being born into a new identity.”  Martin Luther speaks of daily dying and rising with Christ; knowing full well that we can do none of this without the work of the Holy Spirit. 

 

C.S. Lewis, and his brother grow up knowing a life; a safe, secure within a loving home.  Eventually, though, there is sadness.  Lewis’ father suffers from mood swings.  And at an early age, Lewis’ mother dies, where “all that is tranquil and reliable” disappears from his life.  He goes on to boarding school, to university and to the war.  In that time, his father dutifully leads Lewis through Christian instruction, where he is confirmed and comes to receive, for the first time, the Lord’s Supper; where he remembers that it has absolutely no meaning for him. 

In time, Lewis intellectualizes his way right out of his faith and declares his atheism. 

 

It’s that same intellectualism that carries him right on the road to true faith as well.  Over time Lewis, in his search for understanding the glory of God and his desire to recapture a joy he can only vaguely remember from his childhood.  He moves along his conversion journey.  He encounters nature, literature, and those intellectuals who help him in his transformation.  Lewis continues to resist.  But, in the end, God wins out.  Isn’t that always the way?  If we will just let go and let God enter.  Lewis, is converted, demanded to give his “all.”  Lewis reflects on night after night of his resistance and the “unrelenting approach of” God, who never fails to “come upon” him.  He tells of kicking and struggling, coming to God, and then falling to his knees in deepest humility that God would accept so reluctant a convert.  Lewis, feels the words of God, “compelling him to come in”.  With joy he beholds God’s compulsion to have him, to shower him with love.  Lewis is liberated. 

 

He pictures his conversion as a road traveled along the way with sign posts.  He stops at each sign to give thanks for those markers and for how they lead him away from what is less important to what is truth, what is his true destination, home, to Jesus. His life transformed, he continues the journey, now living the life that is intended to live in him. 

 

God so loves us that he gives us his only Son, so that we can come to him, turn to him and trust in him.  God comes so that we can know a love like no other, a love that saves and brings us always into the newness of life; a love that has the power to eliminate all our fears, and crush our worries.   He calls us to accept this invitation to be born again in his Spirit.  We are his, blessed, called to be a blessing.  Please, let’s say we will and trust in how his love will transform us forever.  Welcome a newness of life.