On a New Basis

Read: John 3:1-17

 

Ash Wednesday - February 13, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

The Christian faith is in profound tension with the world around us.

The world says: Go, make something of yourselves.

Jesus says: Let me make something of you.

 

It is no less a problem for us than it was for Nicodemus.

Hidden deep inside of us is still the conviction that it what we do which allows us into the kingdom of God.

We have heard the Gospel message which claims something quite different, but the old way persists in us, the “accomplishment syndrome.”

 

Our world is one which measures by accomplishment.

From the earliest years, we gain standing through hard work.

Gradually we accumulate honors and credits.

Some of us are workaholics; we develop ulcers, great stresses and tensions, nervous breakdowns, and exhaustion.

The rat-race we call it, and we're in the middle of it.

Therefore, we protest when Jesus speaks against Nicodemus, because we can sense that his criticism is aimed at us as well.

Unless one is born anew, the kingdom of heaven may not be entered, says Jesus.

Now if Jesus had been speaking to a lazy person, or to one living in notorious sin, we could understand why he would be speaking so strongly.

But Nicodemus is not that.

He is probably well-to-do, certainly powerful and influential, and a very devoted keeper of the faith of his ancestors.

He is a successful person by several standards.

 

And yet, he, and we, are asked to surrender our commitment to an accomplishment-oriented life.

Jesus measures “success” quite differently, it seems.

To be successful is to allow something to be done for us, a process of birth “anew” or “from above.”

 

Nicodemus could not get a handle of the second meaning, so he asks about the first.

“Born anew” Does that mean I get back inside my mother?

Even in the way in which he phrases the question is a giveaway that he does not want to give up control of the process.

“What do I do?” he asks.

 

Jesus confounds us when his reply indicates that all of our prayers,

       deeds of love, finely crafted liturgies, and scholarly discipline do not accomplish the birth from above.

 

We are very much uncomfortable with something that turns out to be an unearned gift, uncontrolled, freely given.

To be a new creation is the gift of the Spirit that blows where he wills.

The Spirit (or breath, or wind) is not subject to our control even as the wind is not.

There remains something mysterious about wind which makes it an apt way of talking about the Holy Spirit.

 

All of our cleverness does not make the wind blow nor the Spirit act.

They remain gifts.

 

One writer observes:

       “The reason this rebirth must be a gift of God and not the work of humans is simple: the rebirth is actually a re-creation.

It is not a mere re-alignment of the human person, not a tampering with the human disposition which can be done with human efforts.

The dropping of a few bad habits is not enough,

nor is giving up doughnuts for a season,

not the remodeling of the old person with a new coat of paint and a fresh facade.

No, this is a new creation; and we confess that God is in charge of creating.

 

One of our great hymns phrases it:

Rise, shine, you people!

Christ the Lord

       has entered our human story;

See how he sends the powers of evil reeling.

All men and women, who by guilt are driven, Now are forgiven.

Tell how the Spirit calls from every nation His new creation.   [LBW#393]

 

We are sneaking up on the word repentance.

We usually think of the word as meaning to feel sorry for the wrongs we have done.

But from scripture we know that it means to be facing a new direction.

There is an element of regret involved, but it is oriented much more toward a positive change.

Repentance is a forward-looking word, which points us toward what we are to become, not so much toward what we have done in the past.

 

In the Gospel passage we read today, John doesn't use the word repent,

but in the way in which he uses the word rebirth he provides the same sort of meaning:

a new view of life which comes as a free gift of God.

 

We don't know much else about Nicodemus.

We do hear him mentioned as helping Joseph of Arimathea at the burial of Jesus.

So perhaps he came to faith but tried to stay in the shadows much of the time.

But we do know that the challenge which Jesus gave to him passes also to us.

Maybe we think that it is too much for us, the proud, achievement-oriented people that we are.

If so, perhaps we haven't been paying attention to the signs of the Holy Spirit busy among us.

 

One day we were at work on one of our congregational projects and a person asked me only half-jokingly, “How much credit do I get for doing this?”

“Not a bit,” I replied, “God doesn't keep score like that.

The people whom we are serving need and appreciate our efforts,

 but don't think for one second that this improves your chances for salvation.

Jesus already took care of that.”

 

This is forgiven life on a new basis.

This is forgiven life on the other side of the drowning waters of baptism.

We are engaged in this forgiven life because Jesus loves us so much.

 

The Christian faith is in profound tension with the world around us.

The world says: Go, make something of yourselves.

Jesus says: Let me make something of you.   Amen.