Remove the Fig Leaves

4 Lent - Year B
March 15, 2015
Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX
John 3:14-21

Jesus said he came to bring light, to save the world. There seem to be a lot of "no"s with Jesus, e.g. the 10 Commandments. There are several things we are not supposed to do. Those "no"s, however, are really a way of saying "yes" to something else.

We say no to harming people (adultery, theft, murder, lies against someone) so that we might say yes to loving other people. We say no to putting things in front of or in place of God so that we can say yes to God, yes to life, love, beauty, and relationship. We say no to hiding in the darkness, to keeping ourselves covered with fig leaves.

In the Garden of Eden, the first thing Adam and Eve did after disobeying God was to cover themselves up with fig leaves. They were ashamed and they hid. That way they no longer had to connect to God or each other. They tried to stay safely hidden and invulnerable to each other.

 There are all kinds of fig leaves with which we try to cover ourselves. Sometimes rules and law become those fig leaves that we hide behind. Jesus was talking with Nicodemus about the need that we have to be born from above, and Nicodemus totally didn't get it. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and as such, he had all the rules down pat, but those rules seem to have become fig leaves with which they covered themselves so they didn't have to be vulnerable with God.


 Jesus said that instead we need to born from above; we need to be guided by the Holy Spirit, which is a lot riskier way to live. We don't know where the Spirit will lead us. Following all the rules may be difficult, but it is secure, it keeps us covered like a fig leaf.

The rules, however, don't cover every situation.

 Our relationships are much trickier than that. Our marriages, raising kids, being with people is much trickier than saying, "here is the rule, and I will follow it no matter what." We must be vulnerable enough to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Without being guided by the Holy Spirit, even saying we believe in Jesus can become a fig leaf with which we cover ourselves.

 I've heard of folks who say that because they are Christian, because they believe in Jesus, they can kinda do whatever they want because Jesus will forgive them. It doesn't work that way. Saying you can do what you want and Jesus will forgive you is to put Jesus up as a fig leaf so you don't actually have to be vulnerable with others, so you don't actually have to be in healthy, loving, and life-giving relationships with others. If we live lives in which we're breaking all the rules and commandments, then we're probably masking something else, so need or hurt or hunger which we're trying to fill through destructiveness.

Jesus didn't come to be our fig leaf. He came to be our light, to expose the darkness, to remove the fig leaves and return us to Eden. Jesus came that we might again be naked and unashamed with God and with each other. Jesus came that we might be born from and guided by the Holy Spirit in a risky and vulnerable life, saying "yes" to loving God and loving each other.
Amen.