Again and Again

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These observations about the text in John 3:1-17 have informed Elsa’s preaching.  This is not a manuscript of the sermon though you’re more than welcome to obtain a recording of her sermon by contacting the Church Office at 799-3361. 

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He comes at night – when everyone else is asleep, when he won’t be seen, when he can asks the questions he really wants to ask. Darkness and night “symbolize the realm of evil, untruth and ignorance.”[1]  And so, Nicodemus should be in bed.  Not talking to strangers.  No matter what he has heard.  That’s what my parent’s said.  Nothing good happens after midnight.  Right.  Ok Mom and Dad.  But, they were wrong.  Everything good happened after midnight. The ancients knew this for they believed that the night “was the proper time to learn about the sky as opposed to the earth.”[2] 

Of course, Nicodemus doesn’t say that this is purpose.  When he finds Jesus that dark night, he praises him.  He calls Jesus “Teacher” despite the fact that he’s a Pharisee.  Nicodemus recognizes that there is something different about this man “who has come from God.”[3]  And yet, there is no question asked before Jesus replies.  Again, Jesus says as if this conversation has happened before.  Again, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born” again.  The NRSV translates “again” in the end of that verse as “from above,” but it is the same English word that the NRSV interrupts in as “Very truly I tell you.”  In Greek, the phrases are the same. [4] 

This particular gospel uses language differently than the other gospels.  He’s reclaiming language so that it has a particular meaning to this community of disciples.  Nicodemus doesn’t know that language.  Not yet.  He’s a Pharisee.  And yet, Nicodemus is alert to the fact that these words that he thinks he knows are being used differently.  And so, he asks again and again, “How can these things be?”[5]  Jesus says that these things can’t be understood as “earthly things.” The language in this gospel forces us to redefine the things that we think we know.  Jesus does this by repetition.  He says the same things again and again.  It’s slightly different each time, but it’s the same message so that “[b]eing born “from above” and being born “of God” are two ways of saying the same thing.  Being born “from below” and being born “of the flesh” are likewise the same thing.”[6]  It’s directional because the “ancients believed that like begets like.” [7]

That direction is important to this community, as pointed out by the renowned scholar Raymond Brown.  Eternal life is both vertical and horizontal.  Not one or the other.  It is both.  It is vertical in that “the Son of Man came down from heaven, the Word has become flesh, with the purpose of offering salvation.”  This vertical salvation requires that same Word made flesh to “be lifted up toward heaven in death and resurrection.”[8] It is horizontal in that the order of events from Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness to the moment that the Son of Man will be lifted up narrate the salvation of God’s people. These things happened in just this way so that everyone could be born from above.[9]  It is not just the duration of this life.  It’s not where it goes beyond death.  It is how you find the quality of life on this earth. [10]  It is not one or the other.  It is both horizontal and vertical.  You can’t exist on just one axis.  No matter how linear you may be, this gospel calls you to look at it from every direction.  When you’re up, look at it from the left.  When you’re down, look at it from the right.  Again and again, the message is the same.  No matter what direction you look, to be born from above, to be born from God, to have eternal life is to recognize that you are a child of God.[11] 

This is not an earthly thing. Not just it’s not flesh and spirit.  For most of us humans, it’s too hard to understand.  After all, we are only human. We can only fully understand those things that we can see, hear, touch and smell.  We don’t even know what we’re asking, but like Nicodemus, we want to understand how anything can be done “apart from the presence of God.”  It’s hard to understand matters of the spirit.  We are flesh.  As flesh, at this moment in time, if you are to say that this is the gospel truth, you will be labeled a heretic.  It happened just last week when the news broke about Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.  The book was released on Tuesday, but before you could find a copy in your local bookstore, Rob Bell was labeled a heretic in every other possible medium because this book expresses a universalist faith, meaning simply that all people are saved.[12]  You don’t have to do anything special.  You are a child of God.  You are saved.

You can make the choice to see this.  You can make the choice to accept this new honor status,[13] but you will make that decision in each moment that you ask Nicodemus’ question.  Again and again.  It won’t happen just once.  It won’t just happen horizontally so that you can order the events.  Again and again.  It will happen.  You will make the choice of how you are going to choose to live out your call to be a child of God.  It will happen again and again in each moment that you realize, as Rob Bell has published, love wins.