Wind

Second Sunday of Lent

Sunday, March 16, 2014

John 3:1-17

Nicodemus believed Religion was enough.

            Nicodemus believed religion, a life dedicated to right living, was enough.

            It’s now wonder then, in John 3, Jesus arrives to his night time rendezvous with Nicodemus with a bit of skepticism. 

His skepticism was valid.  Jesus came into contact with many people who believed religion was enough every day.  At the end of John 2, Jesus is in the middle of one of the great Jewish religious festivals – Passover in Jerusalem.  During this festival many Jews from around the world witnessed Jesus perform signs (as John calls them), miracles.  When these religious folks saw these signs – “Many believed in his name,” John tells us.  For a leader who is trying to change the world, this should be a good thing.

            Except - Jesus looks past our words and into our heart.  “Jesus knew what was in everyone,” John says.  While their words proclaimed one thing – their actions and their belief in religion was another.  Jesus cannot trust himself who only want more signs.  There is no change in their lives.

            When Jesus meets Nicodemus, he finds a religious leader cut from the same cloth as those he has just left in Jerusalem.  If the folks in chapter 2 are church folk, Nicodemus is the Old Testament professor at the standard bearer denominational seminary. 

            John paints us a picture of the Nicodemus who met Jesus that night.  First, Nicodemus was a Pharisee.  The Pharisees as a religious party developed as a grassroots movement a couple of hundred years before Jesus.  They formed to renew and restore Judaism and Israel to its national glory.   

As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was the most religious of a very religious community.  He sought purity and holiness in all the ways of his life.  He spent his life learning the laws of Judaism and submitting his life to these laws.  The Pharisees prided themselves as being the best of the best Jews.  Nicodemus spent his life making sure his behavior matched the boundaries of his religion. 

            Nicodemus was not just a Pharisee, though.  John tells us he was a leader of the Pharisees.  Nicodemus ruled Israel along with 69 others on the Sanhedrin Council.  The Romans established the Sanhedrin Council in order to squash the undercurrent of rebellion rising in the conquered country of Israel.  While Rome’s leaders were ultimately in charge, the Sanhedrin provided a semblance of home rule in the country. 

            If being religious was enough, Nicodemus was just the kind of person Jesus needed in his corner.  Jesus could have simply acknowledged the piety and religiosity of Nicodemus and commissioned him as a leader of the new movement. 

Instead, when Nicodemus opens his mouth, we realize he is no different from the religious folks in Jerusalem.  “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

            Nicodemus believed religion was enough and wanted to fit this new rabbi’s teaching into his way of life.  Jesus had other ideas – you can’t put new wine into old wine skins. 

We believe Religion is enough

We are not that far removed from the folks in John 2 and Nicodemus.  Most of us have also grown up in very religious communities where right religious living defined a good and bad citizen.  Coming to church, supporting charities, saying the right words were enough to be an upright citizen and church member.  We equated right religious living with following Jesus.  Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus challenges our belief in religion to save us. 

2 weeks ago, Danny Almond shared his faith story at our Lenten Luncheon.  He story revolves moving from religious living to following Jesus and I wanted you all to hear it.  I’ve asked him to give a brief version of his story today.  Danny – please, come share. 

[When this sermon gets uploaded, I'll place the link here.  Danny's testimony is powerful]

Jesus shows Nicodemus a better way

            Thank you Danny. 

When Jesus meets Nicodemus in the deep of the night – away from the prying eyes of the other religious and political leaders, Jesus shows him a better way.

After Nicodemus awkwardly acknowledges Jesus’ role as teacher and performer of miracles – Jesus expertly confronts Nicodemus’ belief in religion. 

“You’re absolutely right about who I am,” Jesus says in v. 3 of the Message.  “Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.”

The Greek word here that we often translate as “again,” has two meanings rolled up in one word.  Jesus invites Nicodemus to be born both again … and from above.  Living a life of religion does not equal a life of the Spirit – God wants our whole lives.  And giving our whole lives to God requires us to point our lives above. 

Nicodemus misses this completely.  Jesus speaks in metaphorical terms about being born into God’s kingdom and Nicodemus focuses on the literal meaning – ““How can anyone,” said Nicodemus, “be born who has already been born and grown up?”

This is not unusual for a religious person.  When we judge our lives by what we do and don’t do – and Pharisees were the best at this – it is difficult to see life in God’s kingdom as anything else.  Rules and the status quo make seeing new things difficult.

Jesus shakes his head at Nicodemus.  Maybe he was expecting something more from someone so distinguished and learned. 

“Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again (maybe more slowly this time). Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.” 

Jesus invites Nicodemus to get in touch with the Spirit behind the religion he has so faithfully followed.  God’s kingdom is more than just laws and rules and right living – it is the living spirit that consumes and leads this. 

This life Jesus offers is best represented by the wind.  ” So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

Who controls the wind?  No one.  Submitting our lives to Jesus means moving from control boundaries of what we know to chasing after the Wind to see where God will take us next.  This is the better way Jesus shows Nicodemus – chase the wind of God’s Spirit. 

This is a Kingdom life.  This is life that is born from above and again. 

Jesus offers us a better way

            Today, Danny confessed to us the fact that he went through much of his life being religious while not submitting his life to Jesus.  He knew the right words.  He did the right actions, but he had never submitted himself fully to a life with Jesus – he missed the better way Jesus offers us.  He missed being born again and from above by just religious enough. 

            I wanted Danny to have a chance to give this testimony because I think that one of the great challenges of living our community being conformable with religion while missing God’s invitation to the Kingdom of God.  Many of us know the right words to say – we can spout them light dogma.  We have equated being a good citizen being a good Christian.

            Jesus offers us a better way:  A life submitted to the Spirit of God – chawsing the wind - rather than controlling our lives for ourselves; A life following after Jesus rather than doing what we want and finding a biblical passage to support it; a life of listening for the movement of God’s spirit blowing in the world and seeking to hoist our sails to see where the Spirit takes us. 

            Today – I want all of us to consider the ramifications of Jesus’ word to Nicodemus and the faith story of Danny. 

• Have we settled for being a good churchman rather than the wild, uncontrollable life of following after the spirit.
• Have we allowed doing things for the church to distract us from listening to God’s calling in our life?
• Have we closed off our lives to the Wind – living in the old world and forget that the wind still blows offering us new opportunities for life?
• Even more direct – have we settled for being a church member and failed to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior!  

 Mary Etta Perry was over 80 when she began to get her poems published.  Living in Western North Carolina she challenges all of us to chase after the wind wherever we are in life: 

For the songs I’ve never heard,

 I shall listen more and again.

For the poems I’ve yet to write,

I shall pick up my pen.

 But…how shall I dance

How now, shall I dance?

I have not danced enough, and so

 I must find new ways, more gentle,

 body friendly ways for dancing!

…Now that splitting firewood

 is definitely out…

as is hammer and chisel,

 shovel and hoe…how now,

 shall I learn to dance?

No more with needle

 and pretty threads….

That dance is too precisely fine

 For fingers

As stiffened as mine!

No longer with tent camping

 Sleeping out on cold rocky

 Forest knoll…that one is

too

 demanding

for my unmalleable body

But

 I have not danced nearly enough

 And so…I must find new ways

 For dancing!

Today – I want to issue an invitation to all of us to dance with the wind.  To look at your life to see where the better way of Jesus can be invited in.  If God is tugging at your heart, I hope respond.  Maybe – like Danny – you need to get beyond the delusion that you have it all together. 

• Maybe you need to truly submit to Jesus in your life – accept his love and grace and follow him. 
• Maybe you need to be baptized.  You have been holding out.  Following Jesus, but never fully commitment to him – waiting to see if there’s a better offer. 
• Maybe you need to be more direct with members of your family about it means to follow Jesus – talking to them about faith and love.
• Maybe you identify with Nicodemus – you are proud of your religious duty, but you have failed to chase the wind - you need to confess and offer your life in a new way.
• Maybe you are feeling God leading you to this church and you are ready to make a commitment to follow and participate in the full life of the church. 
• Maybe you just need to offer your life to God and say – teach me to dance. 

I want us to invite the instrumentalist to play through the hymn for one verse as we reflect and pray on our commitment and life.  Then, Bobby will come lead.  If you need to make a decision today.  Confess to God today.  Lay your life bare to God today – I want you to be able to come to these steps and allow the spirit of God to blow.

            As we become a church whose lives point others to Jesus – we will experience a miraculous ordaining by the Spirit of God.

            Let’s pray …