Scripture Reading: John 3:1-17
The gifted humorist Will Rogers once stated: “About the time one learns to make the most of life, the time is gone.”
There’s tremendous truth in this. We spend a great deal of time 
trying to clarify our lives, to put it into a coherent pattern, to make sense of our place in the whole scheme of things, to find meaning for our very existence, to control situations and people.
Many turn to the Bible expecting to find a pat formula, a strategy giving exact instructions as to what we need to do and how we need to do it. But the Scriptures do not offer a strategy. The SCRIPTURES offer a VISION.
And this vision of who we are, why we’re here, what life is all about begins to appear when something unique happens in our lives. This vision begins to appear as we are born into a new spiritual life, a new way of looking at life, looking through the lens that Jesus places before us. Jesus offers “An Invitation to Transformation.”
In our reading from the gospel writer John, we hear about a man who came to Jesus at night looking for something more, looking for something that was missing from his life. His name was Nicodemus and he was a distinguished pharisee, a Jewish religious leader with credentials up one arm and down the other.
“Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s Kingdom.”
But no sooner had Jesus gotten his words out then there was a misunderstanding of what he meant. Nicodemus was confused and disoriented, and, perhaps, you are as well. So, let’s look more closely at this conversation in the context of the rest of John’s Gospel.
John follows a certain pattern when he relates conversations Jesus had with those who questioned him and it goes like this. The inquirer says something and Jesus responds with a saying that is hard to understand. Then what Jesus says is misunderstood by the inquirer and Jesus answers with a saying that is even more difficult to understand. Then what follows is a conversation and an explanation.
So, what’s the purpose of this process? It’s to get people to think things out for themselves. And as we read the Scriptures today, it’s exactly what we are to do as well.
At first it doesn’t come easy. We’re used to looking at life from an earthly, human perspective, in a physical concrete sense. Look at Nicodemus. When he came to Jesus, he said that no one could help being impressed by the signs and wonders, the concrete and visible things that Jesus did.
But Jesus’ answer tells Nicodemus that is it not the signs and wonders that were important. Jesus is telling Nicodemus and us that WHAT MATTERS IS TRANSFORMATION, such a complete change in a person’s inner life that it could only be described as a new birth, a new beginning that can only come from God. In Jesus Christ we have been given an invitation to transformation.
Now we are getting to the heart of the Christian faith!
To be born anew is to undergo such a radical change in our lives that it is like a new birth. It is to have something happen to the spirit in each of us, the part of us that connects us intimately to God.
AND —- that whole process is not a human achievement. The late Dr. Ben Campbell Johnson says it so well in his book Calming the Restless Spirit.
“The divine Presence constantly moves toward us. Initiative for our relationship always comes from God. . . . Every prayer you pray, every thought you think of God – even the deepest yearnings of your being for fulfillment and final satisfaction – are but response to the Spirit of God who has initiated your hunger for the relationship.”
When we read this story, it appears that Nicodemus took what Jesus said in a strictly literal sense. “How can anyone enter their mother’s womb a second time?” BUT — maybe, just maybe, there is more to Nicodemus’s question.
In his heart there was an unsatisfied longing. It is as if he said with a wistful yearning
“You talk about being born anew; you talk about this radical, fundamental change that goes to the core of who I am, which is so needed. I know it’s needed, but in my experience it is impossible. There is nothing I would l like more. But you might as well tell me, an adult, to go back into my mother’s womb and be born all over again.”
It is not the desirability of this change that Nicodemus questioned. It is the possibility – can he do it? And the answer is –
NO, HE CAN’T DO IT –AT LEAST NOT ON HIS OWN!
Jesus tells him: “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
All of us by ourselves are limited to what the flesh can do. But when we open ourselves to Jesus’ invitation to transformation, we release ourselves into the power of God’s Spirit, which is already in our lives.
I can’t help but wonder if Nicodemus really wanted to understand. As a pharisee, he shouldn’t have had trouble understanding what Jesus said. A new birth from God was an integral part of the Jewish faith. “A convert who embraces Judaism,” said the rabbis, “is like a new-born child.”
I wonder if it doesn’t boil down to this. If a person doesn’t want to give up their perceived expertise, their tight control on the Divine, their power and their marks of worldly status, their own ego needs, they will deliberately shut their hearts and minds to God’s Spirit already present in them, the Spirit that brings transformation. This quote by Steven Pressman hit home with me: “Most of us have two lives, the live we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands resistance.”
This is what happens to many of us. It happens to congregations! When God delivers an invitation to transformation that can breathe new life into us and into our church, we ignore God’s invitation because we really don’t want God to change us! And that’s a tragedy, plain and simple!
When we push our egos aside, when we peel off the masks of the False self that has taken shape over the years, and allow God to release us from ingrained habits and lifestyles, ways of being the church that aren’t working any longer, we can live supported by the loving arms of God. We can experience lives of inner peace and joy because we get out of our own way and experience God’s love freely given in Jesus Christ.
And the most amazing thing happens. Our love for others grows deeper. Our awareness of the needs of those who live on the margins of society and who are treated unjustly will be heightened and we will love all people as God loves them – without reservation and always seeking their well-being.
Our AWARENESS of the NEEDS of those WHO LIVE on the MARGINS of SOCIETY and who are TREATED UNJUSTLY will be HEIGHTENED and we WILL LOVE ALL PEOPLE AS GOD LOVES THEM
Nicodemus sought out Jesus and we need to do the same. We have this challenge, as well as this invitation from God – to start over again, to be born anew, to open ourselves to God inviting us into a new life with God’s love and grace at the heart of all that we are and all that we do. Amen.