Nicodemus, Jesus, and Pope Francis: New Life

John 3: 1-17

I had a Nicodemus moment this week.

Let me try to explain.

I really do love the process of birthing a sermon.  Reading and praying over the passage generates seeds of ideas, which brew and stew and take shape and begin to grow as the days go by.  And stories come along which connect themselves to the scripture text.  And hopefully with a good dose of Holy Spirit inspiration, when the time comes to sit down and start typing, a message will come together, a proclamation of the word.

But some weeks are harder than others. And this week, as I struggled to get my thoughts together, I realized that I was feeling a lot like Nicodemus might have felt.

Nicodemus was a teacher, a leader of the Jews. He had been watching what Jesus had been up to. And he was struggling to understand what was going on with all the signs Jesus was doing. So Nicodemus came to Jesus late one night, under cover of darkness.

He came to Jesus for some explanation, greater clarity, or knowledge. Something that would help him explain to his people how God was at work here. Perhaps he was trying to make some connection to the Law, to Torah, that would make logical sense to him, so that he could then make logical sense of it all to them.

But Jesus’ words of explanation to him were not logical at all.

To see the kingdom of God, you must be born from above. To enter the kingdom of God, you must be born of water and Spirit. Spirit, not flesh.

And the Spirit blows in and blows out and blows around, however it does it. There is no way to capture it, to understand it, to plan for it.

This was me this week, reading the passage, looking for ways to make sense of it to all of you. Searching for the logical way to connect the dots, so that all of you would have the greatest possible chance at that “a ha!” moment, the key learning, the takeaway.

And I’ve already found (from experience!) that when I get into that place, as the days go on, and the urgency gets greater, I begin to pick apart the pieces of the scripture, and the meanings, and I get frustrated when it doesn’t tie up neatly in a bow. But that is usually the sign for me that I have stopped listening for the Word of God, the living Word, which is brought to life by the power of the Holy Spirit, and not by my own efforts.  And that’s just like what Nicodemus was doing this week.

In our passage this morning, the dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus goes basically like this:

Jesus offers new life. "

Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

Nicodemus resists.

"How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" 

Nicodemus blows right past the offer about the kingdom of God, and gets fixated on the concept “born from above”. It’s the same word as “born again”, or “born anew”. And Nicodemus takes it literally. How can one be literally born again? That’s crazy, Jesus. I don’t get it.

Nicodemus resists.

Jesus offers new life:

Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 

Jesus clarifies what it means to be born from above, to be born of the spirit. Being born of water is not about baptism, but about the way we are born into the flesh – through the birth canal, complete with water and labor and all that is part of the birthing process. Being born of the Spirit is not like that. You do not know from where it comes or where it goes. The spirit will do what the spirit will do. And that is how you enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus – again – offers new life.

Nicodemus resists – again.  

"How can these things be?" 

It’s not unlike the reaction of Sarah, wife of Abraham, way past her childbearing years, and being told by God that she will conceive. “You have got to be kidding me. That’s impossible!”  Nicodemus says here, “how is this possible?”

Nicodemus resists.

And, once again, Jesus replies; Jesus offers new life.

"Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may 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.

Jesus offers new life – and has the last word. Jesus offers his life as the new life. Jesus is lifted up to be born anew. He is lifted up on the cross to be crucified….. and he is lifted up to be exalted as the Savior of the world. God so loved the world that God came to earth to be lifted up to be born anew so we could have new life, free of condemnation. New life, new identity, as child of God.  So we can step out of the dark of doubt and fear, into the light of faith and trust, to speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen.

Having explained how I have been an example of Nicodemus this week, let me offer you two examples of living out and expressing the new life Christ offers, a life grounded in faith and trust: one a person, one a congregation.

This week marks one year since Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope, and took on the name Pope Francis, after Saint Francis of Assisi. And it’s been quite a year. He has taken the world by storm – not just the Catholic church, not just Christians, but the world, with his humble manner and his straightforward focus on the poor and the marginalized. He has been on the covers of magazines from Time to Rolling Stone. 

But media attention is not what Pope Francis is after. Last week Pope Francis was quoted as saying that he is not a “ superman” and does not want to be a celebrity. He is just trying to talk and live like Jesus…”

And as Shane Claiborne wrote this month for Sojourners’ magazine,

“He didn’t don the snazzy red shoes and fancy papal attire. He chose a humble apartment rather than the posh papal palace. He washed the feet of women in prison. He touched folks that others did not want to touch, like a man with a disfigured face, making headline news around the world. He has put the margins in the spotlight. He refused to condemn sexual minorities saying, “Who am I to judge?” In response to the growing gap between the rich and poor, where 85 people now own the same wealth as half the world (3.5 billion), Pope Francis says: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses 2 points?” He has let kids steal the show, allowing one little boy to wander up on stage and stand by him as he preached.

The most remarkable thing about the Pope is that what he is doing should not be remarkable. He is simply doing what Popes and Christians should do – care for the poor, critique inequity, interrupt injustice, surprise the world with grace, include the excluded and challenge the entitled.”

Pope Francis is living his life in the way that God has called him, and models how we are all to live our lives as followers of Christ. He brings his faith and trust out into the light for all to see. He follows where the Holy Spirit blows through the world. He doesn’t hide his faith and trust in the darkness.  He doesn’t wait until he fully understands, and he doesn’t stick to what makes sense to the world, but he trusts and he operates on faith.

Another example is a Lutheran congregation of about 200 people in Denver, Colorado, called the House for all Sinners and Saints. It describes itself as a public church. By that they mean “a church that doesn’t exist just to serve its members, but to be in relationship with a community.” And so they go out to serve people who are not looking for church.

At Thanksgiving, they offer Operation Turkey Sandwich. Last year they organized 1200 volunteers to cook, wrap up and deliver turkey sandwiches, stuffing muffins and pumpkin cookies to hand out to people who have to work on Thanksgiving day – anyone from bus drivers to police officers to hospital aides, to the clerk at the adult bookstore, who asked skeptically, “Your church brought me Thanksgiving lunch here?”

On Fat Tuesday, they go to the bars to hand out doughnuts to the people there. They also provide stamped postcards, addressed to the man who runs the Post Secret website – a place where people write in anonymously to share their secrets – so those who wish can confess their transgressions before the start of Lent.

They hold an annual blessing of the bicycles for area cyclists, because outdoor sports are big in Denver, and urban cycling has many perils.

In these ways, they minister to the public, to the community, without counting the cost or calculating the return. They practice their faith in public. That is not to say that they don’t also take worship seriously – in fact, they practice the high liturgy of the Lutheran Church, in a very participative way.  In worship they are equipped, and then they are sent out to love and serve the Lord by serving others. Because they accept and believe that God so loves the world, they go out to show that love, by the power of the Holy Spirit, whichever way the Spirit leads.

Our congregation, and each one of us, is invited by Christ Jesus into new life.  Throughout this Lenten season, let us reflect on the things that cause us to resist the invitation, that keep us from fully accepting the love of God that is given to us in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. 

As we journey with Christ toward the cross, and celebrate the empty tomb and the saving grace of the risen Lord, let us let go of those things holding us back, in the darkness, and step boldly into the light, seeking ways to share the love we have received with our community and beyond. 

We have been given, as a congregation, the opportunity to worship and serve in a new way, to embrace our new life. Let’s welcome this chance to bring a new church into being, to revel in the new life we have been offered, to use our resources, our energy, imagination, intelligence and love for the work of the kingdom of God. 

May it be so for each and every one of us, and for all of us together, the body of Christ.

With appreciation to Shane Claiborne / Sojourners and Gail R. O'Day / New Birth as a New People: Spirituality and Community in the Fourth Gospel (Word & World Volume Viii, Number 1) for ideas / quote used in this sermon.