During this Lent we will dive into John’s Gospel…There are not that many “stories” in John – fewer than in the three other Gospels, but each time the story is well developed and an occasion for an extended teaching.
Today we have heard of Jesus meeting at night with Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. We may not know the whole story but there are two points we would recognize quickly even if we have very little knowledge of the Christian faith:
– The invitation to be “born again”
– John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son [so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life]”
We often connect the two. If we want to be “born again” we have to believe that God gave God’s only Son.
I – First of all, I would like to say something about being “born again” b/c it is something we hear so often we don’t think about it so much.
To be “born again” is translated more accurately as being born “from above” – and it does not mean to start again (from scratch, leaving everything behind), it mainly means to be born spiritually, to be awakened to a spiritual way of living.
What is worth noticing is that birth does not happen all at once / suddenly. To a lot of people, being born again means that suddenly you accept Jesus into your life and your life is completely transformed. Well, this experience happens, but generally spiritual birth takes time. It is interesting to have women starting to comment the Scriptures more systematically b/c they understand that birthing does not happen all at once, when the baby is here, rather birthing is a process (biological) but also an emotional and spiritual journey – You become a mother, a parent. It is not simple. There are fears, doubts, hopes, discouragements, pain, meltdowns and inexplicable joys. It is also the case when we need to be born spiritually.
This is helpful to think of all our lives as birth, we are led by God to become spiritual beings. As the unborn child or the parent to be, it is a process to which we are blind most of the time, that is hidden from us, does not depend on us. The only thing the child can do is to let the mother birth him and the mother also expects the child to let her know his needs.
In the same way, when Jesus says that No one can see the KOG without being born from above, maybe he notices that Nicodemus already sees the KOG. N says to Jesus he sees God’s presence in him. Nicodemus is in the process of being born and so are we. Faith as a journey: There are back and forth, long pauses (Abraham). It is not always a yes or no kind of thing.
The Spirit blows where it chooses. You cannot control it / have guarantees. Our spirituality needs emphasis on detachment, letting go and most of all trust. Instead of thinking what you want from life, ask yourself what it is that life wants from you.Let the Spirit blows through our lives, inspire us and lead us even if we don’t know the way yet.
Nicodemus is an example to whom we can relate. He hasn’t it all figured it out – but he is on his way to awakening…He is looking for more than just some kind of religious teaching from Jesus that would keep his life ordered/secure. He can feel God’s presence in Jesus and he wants more of it! As Nicodemus, we may feel attracted / try to come closer to God’s presence. Nicodemus was restless, at night, scared or questioning, wanted to know if God was for real. Desire / longing. Not contented with “exterior religious rites” or even a good teaching.
What about us? Are we curious for God, a little restless, growing in the desire to be in God’s presence? How would it change our spirituality?
I read a great story this week. A woman was telling how she discovered how God’s presence was really what she needed. It happened when she was found w/ a lump. She started to feel very anxious. Supposed to have the results of her biopsy in 48 hours and it took 8 days. She kept praying that everything would be all right, she felt she was going crazy with anxiety. After 7 days though she said she had suddenly a clear sense that God was there and that it would be all right, in a way or another. She said the 8th day she woke up at peace – although she still didn’t have her results (They turned out fine). She discovered that what she needed the most was to realize that God was for real.
What Lent is about: Come closer to God. Do we feel in us this longing to be in God’s presence and to feel that God is “for real”? Is it something we pray about – to experience this spiritual birthing?
II – Second thing we may want to think about is v16: “For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son [so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life”
It is worth noticing is that we often translate or understand that God loved the world “so much” that God gave God’s only Son. Yet, if you read John’s Gospel thoroughly, you will quickly notice that the world is not especially God’s realm, rather the opposite. The disciples “are not from the world” and are invited to part from the “world’s ways.”
The “world” is not a physical place – what’s outside the church, for example. It is more of a dimension: a way of living that do not have spiritual roots, that is not connected to God. So God does not love the world “so much” but God loves the world “so” in the translation of the Greek outos: in this way. God loves the world in this way that God gave God’s only Son.
The verse does not teach us so much about how much God loves, rather than the way in which God chooses to love. And I think it is important for us to think about that, because most of the time, whether in our families, romantic relationships, even with our pets and of course as Christians, we think that what we need to do is to love “very much” without always giving a lot of thoughts about the way we are supposed to love.
But today the Gospel tells us the way God loves and the way we are supposed to imitate: By giving, so that others might have life. By giving so that others might have life.
It’s not the first time the Bible teaches that though. We think the Bible talks a lot about love, and it does, but do you know that it mentions love 300 times, when giving is mentioned 1000 times?
The way to love is by giving, and not only, not mainly by giving your money, but by giving life. Literally sometimes, but mainly spiritually.
It could be something we want to reflect on during Lent: How is our love life giving or not? Because so often the problem with the way we are is not so much that we don’t love enough, it is often that we don’t know how to love. I heard once a pastor saying that we often “love to death” instead of “loving to life” and I find it a very good way of putting things. We love for ourselves, for our own needs, we want to “keep” people or we project our needs on others w/o really seeing them. Or we try very hard to be very nice, when maybe what would be life giving would be to have a difficult conversation. Or maybe it is willing to open up about yourself and your own struggles to help somebody feel better about what they’re going through.
To me, this is the way God loves us and calls us to love from the beginning: By giving life.
If we turn back to the Book of Genesis this morning, I think we have a good sense of what in means in Abraham and Sarah’s call. They are called to be blessed and then to be a blessing. A blessing not only to their own families, but to all the families of the earth.
Well, this call is quite extraordinary. And in the same time very accessible. We may think that this call was for Sarah and Abraham only because they were to be mother and father of all believers. Rather, it is a call we need all to imitate. So this is why it is extraordinary and ordinary in the same time. To be a blessing: This is at the root of the birth of faith and in the same time, we need to do it everyday, every time we meet somebody, or even when we “act in secret” as Jesus asked us to do during Lent – maybe when we write a check to a non-profit, or recycle our trash, give up eating meat…
It is not always easy to know if we have been nice or loving or kind, but to me if I look back at my day, at my week, it is rather easy to know when I have been a blessing and when I haven’t been one. The question is: When is it that we have raised people into new, bigger, better life or limited them in their world as they know it?
If God keeps on birthing us from this world into new life, so we have are invited to do the same for those surrounding us.
Conclusion: Asked this question: Is God for real in our spirituality? God becomes real for us as we make God become real for others, by being a blessing. Yes, we are blessed and the become a blessing but also by being a blessing, we are blessed too. The more we make God real to others, the more God becomes real to us.