Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a • Psalm 121 • Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 • John 3:1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “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.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The 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.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 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. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16For 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. 17Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Genesis 12:1-4a • Psalm 121 • Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 • John 3:1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “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.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The 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.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 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. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16For 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. 17Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
Parents, I have a question for you: do you have trouble getting your child to bed at bedtime? The challenge of making children go to bed at their bedtime is a story that every parent is probably familiar with, and it’s one that I read a particular example of this week. There was a child who was adamant about not going to bed when his dad told him he had to. He kept pleading but his dad would not give in. Finally he became so frustrated that he said, “Daddy, I hate you!” The Dad, whose graciousness was greater than most of us could claim, said, “I’m sorry you feel that way, son, but I love you.” Startled, the child replied, “Hey! Don’t say that!” To which the Dad repeated, “But I love you, son.” As the child kept asking him to stop, the Dad said, “Listen to me, son. I love you…like it or not!” (Lose)
That is the kind of gracious love that God loves the world with: love that looks out for us, love that wants us to give our best, love that will come to us whether we like it or not. That is the love that God proclaims in one of the most famous of all the verses in the Bible, John 3:16. Notice that verse is not, “For God so loves us…only if we do what God tells us to do.” It doesn’t say, “For God so loved…those privileged enough to be at the top of society.” It says, “For God so loved the world”—the whole world, everyone!—“that God gave God’s only Son.” God didn’t wait for our permission, or deliberate about it with us first, God just goes out and loves us by sending God’s only Son, “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (3:16)
We are in the second week of Lent, with our Lenten theme of “40 Days of Purpose” where we are being encouraged to discuss the questions, “Who are we as the church?” and “Why are we here?” As an ELCA Lutheran congregation, we cannot speak of ourselves as being Lutheran apart from God’s love that is so gracious it comes to us whether we like it or not. Where do we say that we see that happening most clearly as Lutherans? In baptism. In baptism God’s grace is poured out upon us as lavishly as Jesus promises in John 3:16. For many of us who were baptized as infants, we had no say in the matter, that is except for those like me who screamed at the top of my lungs throughout my whole baptism—and look where I ended up! The saving, healing love of God in Jesus comes to us through our baptism so lavishly that it does not require our permission first.
Lutheran Christians do, however, draw a line in the sand when it comes to what we believe about what God does in baptism. When we answer the question “Who are we as the church?”, we would not say that we believe baptism must be preceded by a personal, conscious decision for Christ—although that in itself is an entirely good thing! However we believe that the decision about who we are and whose we are has already been made, and it’s not by us, it’s by God, for us. Our identity is not rooted in a “decision theology” or a “believer’s baptism”, but in a theology of God’s love, that is so gracious that it comes, whether we like it or not, to drown our sins and evil desires and raise us to a new birth as forgiven and cleansed children of God. Whether we are adults, or children, we identify ourselves by our faith in God, not in ourselves, but in God, as the primary actor at work in bringing us to the waters of God’s gracious, saving deliverance in our baptism.
So what, then? Does God’s grace mean we are off the hook, that there’s nothing for us to do? No! Baptism doesn’t just leave us where we are. Baptism draws us into a lifelong relationship with God’s grace, and that is why we are here: to live in relationship with god and with one another—to respond to God’s great gift of grace that invites us to step out and testify to what amazing love God has loved us with in our baptism. Now for some of us, this journey of being able to share our faith takes no time at all. Look at Abraham, who in today’s first reading follows’g God’s call to step out in faith immediately. God says, “Go from your house to the land that I will show you, for I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.” And all Genesis 12 says Abraham does in response is: “Abraham went.” For some, going to where God calls us to be witnesses to our faith in the world is that clear. But for others, sharing our faith is more of a lengthy process, which isn’t something that’s always appreciated because it is so much more ambiguous.
Today we lift up Nicodemus, from today’s gospel reading, as a model of what the process of becoming a servant and a witnesses to Christ can look like as we see him appear three times in John’s Gospel.We first see the religious expert Nicodemus, a Pharisee, coming to Jesus at night, perhaps because he is ashamed, perhaps because he doesn’t want the other Pharisees to know about his curiosity in who this Jesus person is. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t get it when Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (3:3) “How can we be born a second time?” he questions Jesus. After Jesus’ long testimony to the crowd that gathers around Nicodemus, we don’t see Nicodemus again until his second appearance in John 7, when he now advocates on Jesus’ behalf, questioning the religious leaders’ desire to want to persecute Jesus for claiming he is the Messiah without a public hearing. Finally, Nicodemus shows up at the tomb of Jesus, in John 19. Having gone from asking Jesus questions at night, to asking questions in public that seem to defend Jesus, Nicodemus now comes to Jesus’ tomb, the birthplace of God’s defeat of the power of death. He comes with aloe and myrrh to anoint Jesus’ dead body. For Nicodemus, faith in Jesus came because God stirred in him, and called him into an ongoing relationship with Jesus that followed the way of the cross. We could say that Nicodemus’ faith journey was like taking a long, slow, painful, but freeing trip down a birth canal—a trip that led to his accompanying Jesus through Jesus’ darkest hour.
We can look to Nicodemus for our inspiration as we s struggle, as we ask questions, and as we try not to be ashamed to name and claim our public identity as Lutheran Christians, as followers of Jesus, and as people who have been given a new birth in his death and resurrection. This is not a journey that the wider culture of today will support us with. The world today will not support our identity as people filled with the loving grace of Jesus in the way it may have—if it ever did—twenty-five or fifty years ago.
But this is an intentional journey of claiming and naming our faith in public that we can take, and that it is our joy to get to take. God equips us to be witnesses to the grace of God in Jesus today, in our day and age, in 2011! So as a way to support our identity as people blessed in the grace-filled waters of baptism, I invite us to take a moment to be what the church can be: a place where we bless one another wherever it is that we find ourselves in response to the grace of God in Jesus—whether we’re questioning Jesus in the cover of night, or whether we can come out to sit in devotion with him at the grave where our sins are buried forever.
I invite you to turn to your neighbor, look at them, and repeat this blessing to each other after me:
Child of God,
May you find delight
In the process
of bearing witness
to the gracious love of Jesus
in the world.
In everything that you do,
think, feel and say,
may you allow
the grace of God
that shines on the world
to shine through you
and carry you home,
whether you like it or not!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
That is the kind of gracious love that God loves the world with: love that looks out for us, love that wants us to give our best, love that will come to us whether we like it or not. That is the love that God proclaims in one of the most famous of all the verses in the Bible, John 3:16. Notice that verse is not, “For God so loves us…only if we do what God tells us to do.” It doesn’t say, “For God so loved…those privileged enough to be at the top of society.” It says, “For God so loved the world”—the whole world, everyone!—“that God gave God’s only Son.” God didn’t wait for our permission, or deliberate about it with us first, God just goes out and loves us by sending God’s only Son, “so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (3:16)
We are in the second week of Lent, with our Lenten theme of “40 Days of Purpose” where we are being encouraged to discuss the questions, “Who are we as the church?” and “Why are we here?” As an ELCA Lutheran congregation, we cannot speak of ourselves as being Lutheran apart from God’s love that is so gracious it comes to us whether we like it or not. Where do we say that we see that happening most clearly as Lutherans? In baptism. In baptism God’s grace is poured out upon us as lavishly as Jesus promises in John 3:16. For many of us who were baptized as infants, we had no say in the matter, that is except for those like me who screamed at the top of my lungs throughout my whole baptism—and look where I ended up! The saving, healing love of God in Jesus comes to us through our baptism so lavishly that it does not require our permission first.
Lutheran Christians do, however, draw a line in the sand when it comes to what we believe about what God does in baptism. When we answer the question “Who are we as the church?”, we would not say that we believe baptism must be preceded by a personal, conscious decision for Christ—although that in itself is an entirely good thing! However we believe that the decision about who we are and whose we are has already been made, and it’s not by us, it’s by God, for us. Our identity is not rooted in a “decision theology” or a “believer’s baptism”, but in a theology of God’s love, that is so gracious that it comes, whether we like it or not, to drown our sins and evil desires and raise us to a new birth as forgiven and cleansed children of God. Whether we are adults, or children, we identify ourselves by our faith in God, not in ourselves, but in God, as the primary actor at work in bringing us to the waters of God’s gracious, saving deliverance in our baptism.
So what, then? Does God’s grace mean we are off the hook, that there’s nothing for us to do? No! Baptism doesn’t just leave us where we are. Baptism draws us into a lifelong relationship with God’s grace, and that is why we are here: to live in relationship with god and with one another—to respond to God’s great gift of grace that invites us to step out and testify to what amazing love God has loved us with in our baptism. Now for some of us, this journey of being able to share our faith takes no time at all. Look at Abraham, who in today’s first reading follows’g God’s call to step out in faith immediately. God says, “Go from your house to the land that I will show you, for I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you.” And all Genesis 12 says Abraham does in response is: “Abraham went.” For some, going to where God calls us to be witnesses to our faith in the world is that clear. But for others, sharing our faith is more of a lengthy process, which isn’t something that’s always appreciated because it is so much more ambiguous.
Today we lift up Nicodemus, from today’s gospel reading, as a model of what the process of becoming a servant and a witnesses to Christ can look like as we see him appear three times in John’s Gospel.We first see the religious expert Nicodemus, a Pharisee, coming to Jesus at night, perhaps because he is ashamed, perhaps because he doesn’t want the other Pharisees to know about his curiosity in who this Jesus person is. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t get it when Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (3:3) “How can we be born a second time?” he questions Jesus. After Jesus’ long testimony to the crowd that gathers around Nicodemus, we don’t see Nicodemus again until his second appearance in John 7, when he now advocates on Jesus’ behalf, questioning the religious leaders’ desire to want to persecute Jesus for claiming he is the Messiah without a public hearing. Finally, Nicodemus shows up at the tomb of Jesus, in John 19. Having gone from asking Jesus questions at night, to asking questions in public that seem to defend Jesus, Nicodemus now comes to Jesus’ tomb, the birthplace of God’s defeat of the power of death. He comes with aloe and myrrh to anoint Jesus’ dead body. For Nicodemus, faith in Jesus came because God stirred in him, and called him into an ongoing relationship with Jesus that followed the way of the cross. We could say that Nicodemus’ faith journey was like taking a long, slow, painful, but freeing trip down a birth canal—a trip that led to his accompanying Jesus through Jesus’ darkest hour.
We can look to Nicodemus for our inspiration as we s struggle, as we ask questions, and as we try not to be ashamed to name and claim our public identity as Lutheran Christians, as followers of Jesus, and as people who have been given a new birth in his death and resurrection. This is not a journey that the wider culture of today will support us with. The world today will not support our identity as people filled with the loving grace of Jesus in the way it may have—if it ever did—twenty-five or fifty years ago.
But this is an intentional journey of claiming and naming our faith in public that we can take, and that it is our joy to get to take. God equips us to be witnesses to the grace of God in Jesus today, in our day and age, in 2011! So as a way to support our identity as people blessed in the grace-filled waters of baptism, I invite us to take a moment to be what the church can be: a place where we bless one another wherever it is that we find ourselves in response to the grace of God in Jesus—whether we’re questioning Jesus in the cover of night, or whether we can come out to sit in devotion with him at the grave where our sins are buried forever.
I invite you to turn to your neighbor, look at them, and repeat this blessing to each other after me:
Child of God,
May you find delight
In the process
of bearing witness
to the gracious love of Jesus
in the world.
In everything that you do,
think, feel and say,
may you allow
the grace of God
that shines on the world
to shine through you
and carry you home,
whether you like it or not!
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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