March 8, 2020

 March 8, 2020                    John 3:1-17         Genesis 12:1-4a                                Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

                “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him would no perish, but have eternal life.”  John 3:16  Wow!  What a mission statement!  What a clear sentence about what God is up to in Jesus.  This is a statement from God’s point of view, of how God sees things.

                Nicodemus was a religious leader, so he thought he knew where God was coming from and what God’s perspective was.  He had studied the scriptures.  He knew the laws and traditions and followed them.  He had the important job, with people looking up to him.

                But there must have been something missing for Nicodemus, to have snuck away at night, when no one would know, to go and see what Jesus was all about, and so early in Jesus’ ministry, too.  We’re only in chapter 3.  Nicodemus is curious and hopeful and he doesn’t wait very long after hearing about Jesus before he goes to see for himself what’s going on.

                Nicodemus starts with what he knows and it doesn’t hurt it’s a compliment to Jesus.  He’s going to butter him up.  “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher and you do miracles, so you must be close to God.”  What miracle would Nicodemus be seeking from Jesus?  What did he want Jesus to do for him? 

                Jesus doesn’t respond to flattery.  Instead Jesus takes Nicodemus down another path from what Nicodemus knows.  He asks Nicodemus to let go of everything he knows and be born again, because isn’t that the thing about babies, the recently born, they don’t know anything.  When Jesus asks Nicodemus to be born again, he is asking him to forget everything he’s ever known and to start over.  He’s asking him to let go of being an important religious leader and to instead take his place as a learner, and to be reliant on others to take care of him.

                The two are going back and forth in their conversation.  Nicodemus is taking it all quite literally and trying to understand what Jesus is saying.  Just then the wind picks up.  Jesus uses it as an illustration.  He says, “Nicodemus, you already deal with uncertainty, every day.  Take the wind for example, the wind is part of your everyday life.  You don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going.  Somehow you are able to let go of knowing when it comes to the wind.  When you’re born of the Spirit you let go of having to know everything and let God carry you where you’re supposed to go.”  Jesus knows that Nicodemus relies on his identity as a Pharisee and knowing what’s what.  But Jesus also knows that Nicodemus is open to not knowing and being curious and asking questions, because he comes to Jesus as a seeker, to ask.  Jesus points out that Nicodemus is a teacher of Israel.  First of all, he deals with people everyday, and if you do that, you know you don’t have all the answers.  People are worse than the wind in that they keep surprising you and throwing you off your game, or asking questions and making you think.  People are just like the wind—just try to predict and you’ll be wrong.  And Nicodemus is not just a teacher, but a teacher of Israel.  Israel means to wrestle with God.  If you already know everything, there is no wrestling match.  But Israel wrestles and Nicodemus is a teacher of one’s who wrestle, so there’s got to be room for the wind and faith and questions and forces that we can’t see.

                Nicodemus has heard the testimony, the evidence of those who have seen more clearly, but he’s not quite ready to believe.  Jesus talks about the forces that we can’t see healing people who were bitten by snakes in the Exodus story.  And he implies that this healing is long-term—it grants eternal life to Jesus’ followers. 

                Jesus then gives this mission statement, “For God so loved the world…”  He’s explaining that the healing and new life God gives is out of love for the world—that’s where God is coming from.  Jesus contrasts it in the next sentence, with condemnation, when he says God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world.  I am thinking the Pharisees did a lot of condemning—telling people they were doing wrong.  I don’t know if Nicodemus did a lot of condemning himself, or whether he saw that amongst his colleagues and struggled with it.  We all do this sometimes.  My husband witnessed someone getting yelled at in the store last week for coughing.  This person was seen as a carrier of disease and was condemned by the crowds.  We condemn other drivers for driving too fast or too slow or not signaling.  We condemn people of other political parties and write them off as lost causes.  We condemn people who are gay or lesbian because of our fears and traditions.  We condemn other people when they seem to be too indulgent with their children or spend too much time on their cell phones or wear saggy pants.  People line up outside the prison death chamber and cheer when an execution is carried out. It isn’t just the Pharisees that see the world this way.  We are very good at condemning. 

                God didn’t send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Please note here that the word “world” is “cosmos.”  “God so loved the cosmos that God send the only Son,” and “God didn’t send the Son into the cosmos to condemn the cosmos, but that the cosmos might be saved through him.”  It’s a lovely picture of all the universe, claimed, redeemed, saved through Jesus, because of God’s love.  It’s not about people in particular.  It’s the whole of creation, loved and saved and given eternal life. 

                Something else very fun here is the phrase “believes in him.”  Don’t we wonder sometimes, “Do I have the right belief?  Is my faith strong enough?  What about my friend who doesn’t believe?”  This part can also be translated this way, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that because of the belief or faith of the Son, we may not perish, but may have eternal life.”  When the statement relies on us, that’s tough because we miss the mark, we sin, we falter.  But when the statement relies on what Jesus has done for us, that’s the grace of God, and that’s what we hold on to as Lutherans.  It is not our good works, and we might be prone to twist right belief into a good work.  If God’s grace depends on us, it ain’t gonna happen.  But God’s love is a free gift of grace for all the cosmos.  That sounds more like the gracious God that made each one of us and loves each one of us and saves each one of us.

                Nicodemus doesn’t get it.  He comes in the dark.  He doesn’t want anyone to know he’s here.  He doesn’t want to take risks.  But something happens to Nicodemus over the next 2 ½ years.  We don’t know what it is.  We know something has changed, because Nicodemus shows up again at the foot of the cross.  He’s out there in broad daylight, where anyone can condemn him, or say he’s a follower of Jesus.  He’s there at the most risky point, when the wind is howling, and Jesus is condemned by the powers of this world. 

                Abraham, too, was asked to let go of everything he had ever known: His country, his kindred, his father’s house.  He was asked to be born again in a new land—to start over, vulnerable like a baby.  He has at first the option to bless or to curse, but God says to him finally that through Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  All the families.  Animal families, nonbeliever families, single parent families, adoptive families, and families with two dads or two moms.  Through Abraham ALL the families of the earth shall be blessed and that’s what God came to do, not to condemn, but to bless, love, save, and give eternal, abundant life.

Maybe there’s hope for the rest of us to be born again.  There is hope for us to let go of what we know, to let go of control, to open our minds to forces that we can’t see, to be curious, to ask questions, to not be afraid to seem stupid, to not be afraid to be out of control, to let others care for us, to live a different way, and letting go of condemnation, to embrace love of one another, this world we live in, and the entire cosmos or universe. 

We spend our lives trying to scramble to the top so we can look down on each other and have a say about who’s included and accepted and who is condemned.  God is already in that position over us, but God looks down on us and chooses to love us and give us new life.  We say we are followers of Christ.  Surely God will work through us to bless all the families of the earth.

We are at risk from a flu pandemic.  We come to Jesus in our prayers and ask how to avoid getting sick.  Jesus tells us that most of the circumstances are out of our control.  However, there are other things going on.  God is making us new every day, out of God’s grace.  Even when we’re sick or dying, we are not alone.  God is with us.  Our faith community will never abandon us.  This flu does not mean that God condemns us.  God sent the son to bless us.  God blesses us through one another.  Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  There is no reason to panic.  Take precautions.  Wash your hands.  We will do what we can to protect you.  God is among the sick.  God is with us now.  Look for God’s blessings.  Be a blessing to others.