July 15, 2003

John 3:1-17

There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."

Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me; Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to-to God's kingdom."

"How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'bom-from-above' talk?"

Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation-the "wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life-it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch-the Spirit-and becomes a living spirit.

"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'-out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."

Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"

Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?

"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up ­ and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

[The Message]

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1. How long has it been since you submitted to the original blessing of creation ­ the "wind" revealing the invisible? Have you not been huffing and puffing to do the defining of life? To use an autumn image, have we not tried to rake all the leaves of the past summer into neat piles only to find GOD's freedom set loose in our midst? Or, where do you find the presence of revelation in the form of a tornado, hurricane, cyclone, typhoon that rips us apart individually to bind us together communally?

2. While we are warned against being blown to and fro by every change in the weather systems of religion, there is a predictable function of the work of the Spirit of GOD ­ unpredictability. As we try to straighten out our house of cards built upon the sandstone of the past we find that house always has more cracks than had been planned and the wind of the Spirit always makes it inside to wreak havoc with our neat little plans and theories and whethers.

3. So how much does GOD love us? GOD loves us beyond automatic destruction just for being ourselves (shh, even that is in GOD's image). GOD's love does the difficult work of involving us in the experiences that lead to maturity (teaching through all the messes) rather than taking the easy way out and using the excuse of effeciency (that it is easier in the short run just to take over and do it instead of involving children as partners).

So, how much does GOD love us? S-o-o-o-o-o much!