February 20, 2005 - Second Sunday in Lent - Mother Stephanie Parker

FIRST READING: Genesis 12: 1-4a
PSALM: 121
SECOND READING: Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17
GOSPEL: John 3: 1-17

For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

Today, we stand in the company of very faithful people encountering God, and we learn what it means to be transformed by faith when we choose to receive God's mercy and grace. This transformation cannot be earned. We cannot work to accomplish it, and there is not enough money in all the world to buy God's favor. It is simply about believing - believing and understanding, without need for proof or qualification, that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that we might have freedom.

Now, in Abraham's story - and we meet him here for the first time while he was still Abram - we see God offering Abraham a journey that requires faith. Abraham is doing something brand new, something that had not been done before. He is taking a nomadic people and taking them to a place that they will, at long last, call home. And what does it say? "Abraham believed". That is all it took. Now, conversely, in the story of Nicodemus, we see God and Jesus Christ encounter a man whose faith requires a journey. Nicodemus must move from what he has known all his life into a new and deeper understanding of what it means to be in relationship with God. An integral factor to both of these journeys is a willingness to accept - and I think this is so very hard - to accept that God's love is pure gift. Now, Abraham teaches generation after generation about what it means to respond to God in faith - about what it means to journey from old securities to new gifts - and he teaches us of what it means to trust in God's unfailing mercy along the way. As we meet Nicodemus, we meet a devout member of the great nation that God promised to make of Abraham's descendants and about which Paul speaks so eloquently in his letter to the Romans. Now, the great paradox of Nicodemus's journey is that it requires him to let go of what a lifetime of living a deeply faithful life has taught him, and, entering into Nicodemus's story, what is important to know is that he does not represent failure in understanding Abraham's faith or failure in his love for God. Nicodemus is a man deeply in love with God. His entire life is devoted to doing what he thinks God has called him to do, which is to follow the Law and the Commandments, all of this. So, Nicodemus's challenge is not his faith; it is his inability to see beyond what he can know and measure. Nicodemus's encounter with Jesus brings to light that part of all of us that seeks to rely on our own power, and that is what our culture tells us we are to do, right? Pull yourself up! Dust yourself off! Get up! Nicodemus's inability to understand Jesus' teaching highlights that part of ourselves that has that deep need to control - has anyone had that need in their life? - that part of us that seeks desperately to hang on to what is familiar and what is safe, even if we are unhappy in it. The devil we know is better than the devil we don't (do they have that saying out west?), or even the devil we know is better than the paradise we don't would be more apt.

So, let's take a moment this morning, if you will indulge me, and let's travel back to that dark night when, by the thin light of the moon, this Pharisee - whom we have painted often very darkly or very woodenly or very one-dimensionally - when this learned man and respected teacher of Israel is pulled out into the damp night by his deep desire to meet this great teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, of whom he has heard so much. In a nod to Jay's wonderful class this morning, we see Nicodemus taking his first step in his journey from darkness to light, and, if you are comfortable, close your eyes and relax into the story. We are going to revisit the Gospel in a way it might have happened, as Walter Cronkite used to say, if we are there.

Imagine here, in the place of the chancel steps and pulpit, a small room lit by candlelight, the flickering flame just barely pushing away the encroaching darkness of night. Just outside the door, in a small and humble courtyard garden, stands the impressive figure of Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, the high court of the Jews, and he is pausing in a moment of indecision before entering into Jesus' presence. So, with a deep breath and once again assured of himself, he enters the room and gazes upon this Jesus of Nazareth. "So this is the man of whom I have heard so much", he thinks to himself. On seeing Nicodemus enter, Jesus rises with respect to welcome him and offers him a place at his table, and, with an even deeper respect, and in the tradition of the Rabbinical debate that is known so well to both of these men, Nicodemus opens with a very traditional greeting, "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". Nodding in response to Nicodemus's show of respect and acknowledgement, Jesus thinks how pleased He is that this Pharisee has come to see him. He peers deeply into Nicodemus's heart, and He answers the question Nicodemus has even yet to ask of Him. "Very truly I tell you", He says, "No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above". "Ah, excellent!", thinks Nicodemus, though somewhat startled by the insight of this Nazarene, but Nicodemus knows the debate is on. "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus leans closer into the table and peers intently at this crafty old teacher, knowing that Nicodemus should have understood clearly that He did not say "born again", but "born anew from above". He had chosen His words very carefully and selected the one word that would hold both meanings - born again and born anew from above. "All right, Nicodemus", thinks Jesus, and wanting very much for Nicodemus to understand, He says it another way. "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So do not be astonished when I say to you, 'You must be born from above'. Look at the wind, how it blows. You know not where it comes from or where it goes. You can't hold it; you can't grasp it, Nicodemus. So it is with the Spirit." Nicodemus sits back in astonishment. He expected this Jesus to be a worthy teacher, but he was not prepared for the complexity of this teaching and the fearful truth it seemed to hold for him. "Is it possible", thinks Nicodemus before answering, "that I have it wrong? That we all have it wrong? Could it be true that my beloved tradition rests too much on earthly things and not enough on the power of God in Heaven? Is this man, this Jesus, who sits before me, wonderful teacher that He is, is He so much more than I thought Him to be? If all that He says is, indeed, true, what does that hold for the future of my people?" And then, without even realizing he has spoken aloud, Nicodemus says, "How can these things be?" Now, seeing the stunned look on Nicodemus's face and feeling his pain and confusion, Jesus has deep compassion on Nicodemus, and, with soft humor that this old teacher could not fail to understand, Jesus chides him. "Are you a teacher of Israel, and, yet, you do not understand these things?" We can only imagine Nicodemus's relief when he understands that this troubling debate has ended, and, as his cloudy eyes gaze upon the face of Jesus in puzzlement and awe, Jesus might well have said to him very quietly, "Go home, teacher, and get some rest. You have much to think about in the morning". So, as the mingled darkness and candlelight of that small room fades, we are left here, all of us here at St. Paul in the Desert; and, standing here in our midst and teaching us what Nicodemus was finding so hard to fathom, we are told, and Jesus wants us desperately to understand, that we do not have to work or good-deed ourselves into God's favor. We already have God's favor, for God so loved the world. God loves this world that He created, and why? Because God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. So, to all the people who somewhere think that God afflicts us in horrible ways through natural disaster or pain or infirmity, to teach us a lesson, know that God did not come to condemn. This God will not punish like that. God desperately loves this world. God hears the cries of God's children, and it is simply not within our own power to save ourselves.

So, it is not my intention to paint Nicodemus as a heroic figure, but what is important to realize in hearing this familiar story, possibly in a new way, is that Nicodemus is not a bad guy from whom we have nothing to learn. Nicodemus has stepped out in faith and in courage on that journey that we are all called to make, not only once, but time and time and time again; so Nicodemus, in his struggle, is no different than any of us who, as faithful Christians, have, at some dark moment or time in our life, in a fearful misunderstanding, began to think that our eternal salvation is dependent upon something we can do or something that maybe we can avoid doing. Now, as a people, we are good Episcopalians, right? - most of us, and, if not, hopefully you soon will be - and, as good Episcopalians, we know that we are a people of reason, tradition, and Scripture, and so we know with our minds that salvation comes to us through Jesus Christ by the grace of God alone. But, down, deep down in those dark recesses of our souls, where doubt and fear sometimes have their way with us in these moments of despair, a little voice - I've heard it - whispers to us and tells us that maybe we are not so sure - that moment of doubt. So, we might think to ourselves, "Maybe if I had just gone to Church more often, this or that wouldn't have happened. Maybe if I could pray better, or maybe if I read the Bible every day, or if I was just a better person, or if my parents had done better by me, or . . . on and on and on and on we go. Our hearts and minds can taunt us with guilt and regret, and we start to listen to that voice that mocks us about the things we have done or the things we have left undone. I think one of the biggest heartbreaks we suffer as Christians in the world is that, often, we come in these doors every day, loaded down by years of guilt and regret and things we have held onto, things that we have clasped to us, so afraid that, if anyone knew, God Himself even, we could not be forgiven. We come in Sunday after Sunday and we come to this table Sunday after Sunday, where we are invited to put it down and pick it up no more, and we leave with it still on our backs - heavier sometimes than ever after standing in the light of God's love. This is not God's intention for us. God so loved the world. Lay these burdens down. We cannot earn God's favor. We already have it. I even know people who stay away from Church because they feel unworthy. Isn't that the saddest thing you have ever heard? And we know from the Gospel that there is no such person in the whole world who is unworthy of God's love. Listen to me - there is no such person. Like Nicodemus, there are times we still do not understand that it is nothing we do that makes us worthy of God's unfailing love, nothing except believe - believe that through the power of the Holy Spirit, God can transform us and make us whole and, even more importantly, make us whole and unashamed.

So, believe that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that we might have eternal life. Now, what that means for us this morning - and again, I said this morning that I didn't want Andrew to get too nervous that I was encouraging us not to go to Church or be very holy in the end, O.K? - so it is still very important to attend Church and to be fed by Word and Sacrament, and to allow prayer to be the center of our relationship with God. These elements are indeed vital to a life of faith, but what is so important for us to remember is that they are a response to God's love, not the way to earn God's merit or favor. So, like Abraham and Paul and, ultimately, Nicodemus as well, we need only to open ourselves to receive God's blessings and be that transformed new person in this world. God calls us into a joy-filled life in which we need worry no more about what it is we can do to obtain our salvation because, my friends, God in Christ has already done that for us.

AMEN