...But Jesus Told Me to Be Childish.

Brad Sullivan

2^nd Sunday of Lent, Year A

Sunday, March 16, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17

           

Nicodemus came a long way in John’s gospel, from the man we heard about today, questioning Jesus at night, ashamed and fearful even to be seen talking to Jesus, to presumably being a follower of Jesus, bringing myrrh and aloes to help bury Jesus.  It seems at some point along the way, Nicodemus stopped questioning Jesus and began following him.  It seems at some point along the way, Nicodemus was born again from above. 

Nicodemus was Pharisee, a Jewish sect known for their strict adherence to the Law of Moses, all 613 of the laws.  The Pharisaic life was a life of ritual and religious practice.  As Episcopalians, we kinda get that. 

We are a people of ritual and religious practice.  We wear white robes, symbolizing resurrection garments, and we light candles in rooms full of light, as symbols of the light of Christ.  We’re in the middle of a self-imposed 40 season of fasting and penitence to prepare us for Easter.  We intentionally remind ourselves of our sin and our mortal nature so that we might amend our ways, seek reconciliation, and rejoice in the resurrection.  As Episcopalians, we definitely get ritual and religious practice.  There is nothing wrong with ritual and religious practice, and yet, Jesus was constantly butting head with the Pharisees over their religious practice.

Where the Pharisees (and sometimes even Episcopalians) go wrong in the practice of religion is in believing or acting as though the ritual and religious practice are absolutely necessary for our lives with God, rather than potentially helpful.  Sometimes ritual and practice can take over one’s life, and any meaning or aid in the practice is gone.  We tend not to force or demand ritual and practice.  Where is it helpful, use it.  The practices of our faith have often proven helpful in our journeys with God, helping us to grow into disciples of Jesus.

None of this is possible or even helpful, however, without being born from above.  We often find ourselves in all kinds of messes.  There are all sorts of things from which we need saving, and we often find ourselves trying to claw our way out of the darkness, sometimes even through religious practice and ritual.  While we will have some success, we’re not going to climb out of the darkness on our own.  We tend to go in the wrong direction, be overcome by the darkness, or being grown and knowing so well our capabilities, we tend to rely too much on ourselves.  We need to be born from above to rely not only on ourselves, but on Jesus as well.

Last Wednesday, the Rev. John Newton, Cannon for Lifelong Formation at the Diocese, came and spoke with us for our Lenten soup supper, and he has just written a book called “New Clothes:  Putting On Christ and Finding Ourselves.”  In his book, he wrote the following:

…growth in the spiritual life is not about us doing something but about our hearts being converted to the reality of what God in Christ has already done.  The garment of salvation is already ours through Christ.  The shoe is already yours.  The meaning of life is to grow into that show and to walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4)…remember:  we don’t need to climb out of the darkness.  We have a Rescuer who has climbed down and set us on solid ground and turned us around.  Jesus our Rescuer longs to give direction to our lives.  We need not make a name for ourselves.  Our Rescuer has already named us and spiritual growth is about learning from Him who we already are.  

To me that sounds an awful lot like John 3:16-17:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  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.

God so loved the world that he sent Jesus down into the darkness of our lives so that we don’t need frantically to climb out, but to believe in him and to go in the direction he gives us.  God has saved us already, and transferred us into his kingdom.  We needn’t fight or strive for or achieve God’s kingdom; we must grow into who we are as God’s beloved children and inheritors of His Kingdom. 

You must be born from above, Jesus told Nicodemus.  Become God’s children; become who we truly are.  The only action we take in being born from above is the waters of baptism.  I suppose there is some ritual there, but what is important in baptism is that God partners with us in baptism, using those waters to be waters of rebirth, turning us once again into children, giving us the garment of salvation, and transferring us from the darkness in which we find ourselves into the light of His Kingdom.  Also realize that God is not prohibited by baptism.  We can be born again whenever we trust in Jesus that he is here with us and that he will guide us.  We can be born again whenever we allow God’s Spirit to enter into us to heal us and to lead us.

When we are born from above, we become a child again.  Jesus said in Mark 10:15, “truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”  In being born from above, we reclaim some of our childlike wonder and delight in the world.  In being born from above, we reclaim some of our insatiable curiosity.  No longer content with our knowledge of how things work and the way things are, being born from above, we wonder again, constantly asking how and why, no longer bored by and immune to the beauty all around us. 

Being born from above, we are children again, and children don’t do everything on their own.  Children trust in and rely on their parents.  We trust in and rely on God.  As children, we’re ok with being naked, with being spiritually and emotionally vulnerable and intimate.    

Being born from above, we put aside our need to achieve greatness, to make a name for ourselves.  As children, we have no need to prove our worth.  Children are given immeasurable worth simply because they are beloved of their parents.  We are given immeasurable worth not by what we achieve or accomplish, but simply because we are beloved of God.     

I said earlier that as Episcopalians, we understand ritual and religious practice, and so we do.  We understand that ritual and religious practice do not make us beloved of God.  We are beloved of God.  Ritual and religious practice can help remind us of the fact that we are beloved of God and remind us to put our trust in Jesus and to follow him as even Nicodemus eventually did. 

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  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.

God so loved the world that he sent Jesus down into the darkness of our lives so that we don’t need frantically to climb out, but to believe in him and to go in the direction he gives us.  God has saved us already, and transferred us into his kingdom.  We needn’t fight or strive for or achieve God’s kingdom; we must grow into who we are as God’s beloved children and inheritors of His Kingdom.  Amen.