Second Sunday in Lent - Year A

Second Sunday in Lent - Year A
February 17, 2008
John 3:1-17, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Being Born Again

One of the things I miss about living in Salisbury, NC, is the Saturday listing of sermon titles. The newspaper would publish, free of charge, your congregation’s Sunday worship times so long as your announcement included a title for the pastor’s sermon. (I am sure I have talked about this before. Mentioning that I often didn’t have a title in time for the Thursday 1 pm deadline, so my secretary would make one up for me. It was interesting to preach a sermon which someone else had titled.) That’s not the part I miss. What I miss was reading the titles and trying to figure out where my Lutheran colleagues were going with the appointed lessons. We were all preaching from the same texts – but often you wouldn’t know it, based on those titles.

I wonder what the offerings would be like for today. Second Sunday in Lent, and the appointed Gospel text is Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus. John Chapter 3, the half-chapter with what might arguably be the most quoted of all Bible verses – at least the most quoted here in the south. I wonder where my colleagues are going, in the sermons they are preaching, as I am trying to make my way into this one.

Our position on the liturgical calendar might influence some. It is the Second Sunday in Lent. With this in mind, some may look upon Jesus’ words as a call to action. Will they hear his “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’, as a warning to be headed? Does verse 16’s clause, ‘whosoever believeth in him’ become a pre-condition to the assurance of verse 17 – 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?

I wonder.
I wonder.

Somewhere, I am sure, there is a long explanation for why John, chapter 3 was selected as the appointed lesson for the Second Sunday in Lent, of Year A. Somewhere. And I am sure it makes perfect sense to ….. someone. However, I would have to say that its placement here has the potential to cause more than a little bit of confusion.

Lent is all about making things right. Lent is a time to examine our commitments and our dedication. It is a period of time when we pay particular attention to our expressions of piety – to our acts of sacrifice and service. It is a time to take a good, hard look at the outward signs of our inward thoughts and consider whether they are in accord with one another. This is what Lent is about – and I am a big fan of Lent. I think we need to devote, at least 40 days each year, to such self-examination.

But just don’t give me John, Chapter 3. At least don’t give it to me without explaining why you are giving it to me. Because the all-too-popular interpretation of John 3 makes it way too easy to fall into predictable (and potentially disastrous) ways of thinking.

It goes back to that reading of John 3:3 – the one I chose to share from the King James translation. It goes back to a misinterpretation of these words in which they become a warning (almost a threat) that UNLESS we be BORN AGAIN we will not even be allowed to see the kingdom of God. It is that fixation with any verb which might seem to be in the imperative sense, as opposed to reading them as declarative. “Unless you be born again,” as opposed to the invitation of the New Revised Standard Version, “no one can see … with being born from above.”

The primary purpose of Lent is to get us ready for Easter. And the clear message of Easter is God’s eagerness to do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. Nicodemus is right, we can’t enter a second time into our mother’s womb. How then are we to be born again? But, our Father in Heaven, our Father from above, may pour out upon us a spirit of renewal, a spirit of hope, a spirit of re-birth. Jesus, who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, makes it possible for us to be re-born. It is made possible by the God who so loves the world that he will give his only Son. All this he does so that everyone may not perish, but have eternal life. It is that simple. It is that wonderful.

And yes, news this wonderful can be hard to believe. So hard that some will find it difficult (maybe even impossible) to believe. And that is a real pity. This is what really breaks God’s heart. Because God did not send the Son into the world to bring condemnation on anyone. God sent the Son, in order that the world might be saved through him.

I think the reason John, Chapter 3 is read on this Second Sunday of Lent is so we will be reminded of how easy it is to get it almost right but not right. Nicodemus is a leader of the Council. He is a well-respected man among the religious folks of his day. He obviously has a great interest in Jesus, because he comes to Jesus in order to ask questions. He displays a deep respect for Jesus, but he isn’t quite ready to accept Jesus’ words. He gets it partially right, but in the end he doesn’t get it all.

I think we have this reading at this time of the year so that we might be encouraged to avoid this same pitfall. So that we might not get close, then miss the mark. And we do miss the mark, when we allow those few misinterpreted words to dictate how it is that we understand the whole of Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus.

I was re-listening to a lecture this past week on the conflict between Martin Luther and the Anabaptist. The Anabaptist were a group who split off, more technically form the Reformed wing of the Reformation. They believed and taught that baptism is an outward sign of an inward conviction and therefore one can only rightly be baptized after a confession of faith. Luther would have none of this. He insisted that Baptism is itself the regenerative event through which it is possible for us to have faith. Luther’s insistence (always) was that if we have to do anything, even if we claim it is only to believe there will forever be this doubt in our lives that we have not truly been saved. Our only hope out of the endless circle of self-examination and self-doubt is to throw ourselves on God’s mercy and depend upon God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Which is exactly what the scriptures tell God has done.

Read with me the 16^th verse from Romans 4: For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace. It is on God’s grace that we depend; not on our own effort or merit.

No doubt, many will be reading John 3 today and warning frightened congregants that unless they believe, they are going to hell. What a mistake. The words Jesus speaks to Nicodemus are not a threat, they are an invitation. An invitation to live in the assurance that all the transgressions we so carefully identify during these forty days of Lent will not separate us from the love of God, nor from the salvation of our Christ. An invitation to receive the birth from above, the birth which comes from our Father above, the birth which occurred on the day we were baptized.

Amen.