Texts:Gen 12:1-4A; Ps 121; Rom 4:1-5,
13-17; John 3:1-17
Lent may be the most
misunderstood season of the Church year. It is not meant to make us feel bad
about ourselves, nor is it intended as a more or less arbitrary burden on our
lives. Lent is instead a time that invites us to take discipleship seriously.
I have used that word much
lately, and I will continue to use it often in months to come, so perhaps it
would be helpful to offer some clarification. As I understand it, “discipleship” is a comprehensive term
for how we follow Jesus. It covers every aspect of our lives. Church tradition
and other sources provide us with tools to help us strengthen our personal
discipleship, so that we may walk more surely in Jesus’ footsteps. We call those
tools “disciplines.” Lent, then, is really a time of discipline, both
individual and corporate, a time to make an extra effort to grow in the life of
faith, and as a community of the faithful.
Discipleship—following God’s
call—is a journey of a lifetime. Our lessons today began with the beginning of the
first great discipleship journey in the Bible, as we hear how Abram set out
from his home to go where God led him. Paul takes Abraham’s response to God’s
call as the classic example of faith and trust, telling that God “reckoned it
to him as righteousness.” The story of God’s people begins here, with one man
hearing the call, and setting out into the unknown.
Last Sunday, we heard
another discipleship journey, as Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness,”
to fast and pray, and to be tempted by the devil. That story reminds us that wilderness
is the dominant symbol for this season. Wilderness is that physical or
spiritual place of both danger and opportunity, where people learn their utter
dependence on God, as Jesus did, and as the children of
Today’s Gospel is the first
part of another person’s discipleship journey, as we meet Nicodemus for the
first time. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, seeking answers to questions,
wanting to know who Jesus was, and the meaning of “the signs” that Jesus was
doing. As we go on in the Gospel of John, we encounter Nicodemus twice more,
first in chapter 7, when he defends Jesus by appealing to the law—his faith is
growing. His final appearance is in chapter 19, when he brings the spices to
anoint Jesus for burial—an act of profound honour for the one he has come to
recognize as the Messiah.
Nicodemus is identified as a
Pharisee, and a leader of “the Jews,” which we should not interpret to mean all
Jewish people, but rather the power elite of
…believed in (Jesus’)
name because they saw the signs that he was doing.
Then we hear:
Jesus
on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he … needed no one to
testify about anyone… (John 2:23b-25a)
Jesus’ response to Nicodemus
brings us to one of the “Top Ten Bible Quotes:”
Very truly, I tell
you, no one can see the
Most of us would finish that
with the word “again,” but note that our translation uses “from above.” Which
is right? The Greek word anothen can mean
either, and it is certain that what Nicodemus heard was “born again.” But what did
Jesus mean? Taking our cue from other occurrences of this word in this Gospel
suggests that “from above” is the better interpretation—emphasizing God’s
action in the event. Nicodemus hears and perceives Jesus in earthly terms.
Jesus responds with a spiritual challenge, inviting Nicodemus to enter into the
mysterious life of the Holy Spirit, which is like the wind that “blows where it chooses…”
Three times Nicodemus
questions Jesus in earthly terms, and three times Jesus responds in spiritual.
The challenge to this learned leader is to lift his eyes from the page, and to
open his heart to the movement of the Spirit of God.
All of this happens at night,
the time of darkness, secrecy, and danger. But is also very often in the Bible
the time of divine revelation. Nicodemus comes under cover of night (out of
fear?), and receives a challenge to his understanding of what it means to see
the kingdom of God—he is offered a divine revelation of who Jesus truly is, and
what Jesus has been sent to do.
Jesus’ challenge to
Nicodemus parallels God’s call to Abram: listen to the Spirit’s summons, leave
behind the safety of what you know, and step into the realm of God.
And so it is with us in
Lent. We are invited to listen for God’s word, and to hear and accept Jesus’
invitation to eternal life, to learn what it means to be born “from above.”
What does that mean?
Different Christian
traditions will give different answers. That doesn’t mean that any one particular
answer is right or wrong, but that the meaning is not to be found in words
alone.
Meaning in human life is
found in action—what we do and how we live our lives is far more important than
the words we speak about ourselves and our beliefs.
Nonetheless, I affirm with
confidence that being born from above means letting God take the lead in our
lives, seeing our daily existence as a living Gospel for others. It means not
letting ourselves be tied so much to the earthly that we can not see the
heavenly. It also means being firmly rooted in this world, so that we can be of
value to those around us.
The well-known words of
today’s psalm say it better than I can:
I
lift up my eyes to the hills;
from where is my help to come?
Let us lift our eyes and
behold our Lord, and let us resolve to follow him throughout this Lent, and
always.