Lent 2 A, 2017
St. John’s Lutheran, Phoenixville
March 12, 2017
John 3: 1-17
“Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him…” John 3: 1-2
I’m curious about the back story of Nicodemus, this leader of the Jews who comes to Jesus by night. Why did he do that? Was he a guest at the wedding in Cana and drank a glass of that fine, fine wine? Did the other Pharisees send him to check out the competition? Was there something deep inside of Nicodemus, an emptiness that brought him to visit Jesus? After all he was a religious leader and leadership is challenging. Once a member of a property committee told me, “Pastor, I used to come to worship and was in awe of being in God’s presence. Now, I count how many light bulbs are out.” Had the light gone out for Nicodemus?
For just a few moments let’s put our selves in the place of Nicodemus. Now there’s you and me, Cindy, John, Susan, Mark… a leader or a follower, a teacher or student, a parent or child, someone who worships on Saturday night or Sunday morning…and we’ve come to Jesus by night. What would we say to him? What concern would we bring? What do we want to know and understand?
I suspect that many of us already go to Jesus at night. I don’t know about you but as I am falling asleep my last conscious thoughts are often prayers – God be with someone who is struggling; Jesus, save her; Holy Spirit give me an idea for the sermon. At night when we’re tired, have done the best we could all day long, but still it doesn’t seem to be enough, we go to Jesus as prayers slip through our minds asking for help, guidance, sleep.
So we’re there with Nicodemus who’s come to see Jesus because he’s recognizes God’s presence in his actions. But before Nicodemus can even get his question out, Jesus launches into a theological dissertation that completely confuses the religious leader. This befuddles me. It is common knowledge that teachers need to begin where students are – addition and subtraction comes before multiplication and division or confusion reigns. Perhaps John, the writer of this Gospel edited that part out. He’s known for this. In fact, the early church leader, Augustine chose an eagle to represent St. John because he felt the theology of the Gospel writer soared so high above the other gospels, reaching heights that can be hard to follow.[1] Maybe Jesus did carefully go from point A to point B to point C – but John skipped that and by doing so demands conceptual leaps that leave us in the dust.
Whatever the reason, we are in a biblical conversation that is filled with disconnects. Jesus speaks on one level and Nicodemus responds on another. This happens all the time in my house, usually with John up here, and me down below. He’s discussing advance math while I am trying to remember how many cups there are in a quart – it’s 4. So Jesus talks about being born from above leaving Nicodemus to ponder how he can enter his mother’s womb a second time. Then Jesus tries another tack going back to the dawn of creation, speaking of water and Spirit, of wind blowing this way and that and how we can hear it rustling through the trees, but have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. By now Nicodemus is completely befuddled and whatever the question was that he was bringing to Jesus must seem shallow and insignificant.
Or is it? Could it be that Jesus was actually taking his question very seriously, as he does all of our questions? After all Nicodemus is looking for the same reassurance that we want too. At Bible Study this past week, Margaret Walked shared a poem called God’s Invisible Breath that addresses our longing for reassurance. It begins: A man whispered, “God speak to me.” And a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled, “God speak to me.” And the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, “God let me see you.” And a star shone brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted, “God show me a miracle.” And a life was born. But the man did not know. So the man cried out in despair, “Touch me God and let me know that you are here.” Whereupon God reached down and touches the man, but the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.[2] It is easy to not recognize the connection between God and the meadowlark, the thunder, the star, the child, to brush butterflies away. So Jesus gets real specific and talks about how the Son of Man will be lifted up, making a reference to the cross and how those who believe in him may have eternal life –life good and rich and full, now and forever. Then we are given the most famous Bible verse in the world – the one Martin Luther called “the gospel in a nutshell” – 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.
There is such good news here – Gospel news. The only problem is that we barely absorb the good news before we find ourselves wondering – what about the people who don’t believe? Does that mean they don’t have eternal life? And if they don’t do they have everlasting death or hell or what? For Nicodemus perhaps it was what will happen to his Pharisee friends? For you or me, what about our Muslim and Jewish friends or our family members who don’t believe in this only Son? And what about us when we’re not sure and instead of having faith are overcome by fear so that when we need salvation the most are denied it?
This is why this verse should never be separated from the next – 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.” This is not about who’s in or who’s out, but about God’s consistent intent to love, save and bless the whole world. The Greek word for world is kosmos – and in John’s gospel it means an entity hostile to God. So we could actually translate these verses – For God so loved the God-hating world that he gave his only Son…” and “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn even this world that despises God but instead so that the world that rejects God might still be saved through him.” Really, God’s love is just that audacious and unexpected. And that audacious, unexpected, even crazy character of God’s love is probably why it saves![3]
Hang on to this expansive understanding of God’s love the next time you find yourself wondering or worrying about who is given eternal life and who isn’t. And hang on to it during these days of threats to our Jewish brothers and sisters, whose cemeteries have been desecrated and community centers threatened. Hang on to it amidst the increased hostility toward Muslim brothers and sisters. If God’s love is for all, then we who have experienced that love in Christ are called to see persons of other faiths (and no faith) through the lens of that profound and surprising love.[4]
Last Monday the Phoenixville Area Clergy Association which includes pastors and priests for a variety of churches and the rabbi from B’nai Jacob learned that a hateful anti-Semitic flyer was distributed in our town that originated with a neo-Nazi group. Hateful. As we talked about this it was Rabbi Jeff Sultar who said, “God’s love will prevail.” He was the one who comforted the Christians, helping us to see through the lens of God’s profound and surprising love. So we responded to the hate with a flyer that calls us to love our neighbor no matter who that neighbor is. It’s being distributed all over town this weekend. You can help by picking one up as you leave worship today and posting it.
Along with Nicodemus we are called to see through the lens of God’s profound and surprising love. It takes Nicodemus a while to do so. Later when there is a conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities, including Pharisees, Nicodemus summons the courage to speak up for due process of the law and temporarily rescues him. Then on that terrible Friday when all of the disciples have abandoned Jesus as he dies on the cross, Nicodemus is there. In the bright light of day he helps of Joseph of Arimathea to place Jesus’ body in a garden tomb to await resurrection.
And us with our questions? Those about suffering ones, our own grief or fear, even an idea for a sermon? Most often answer is love — God’s crazy love for us and the whole blessed world. Amen. Pastor Cynthia Krommes
[1] David Lose, http://www.davidlose.net/2017/03/lent-2-a-just-one-more-verse/, accessed 3/11/2017.
[2] Author Unknown, http://godslittleacre.net/spiritualgrowth/gods_invisible_breath.html, accessed 3/11/2017
[3] Lose, http://www.davidlose.net/2017/03/lent-2-a-just-one-more-verse/, accessed 3/11/2017.
[4] Susan Ericsson, Sermon for Lent 2 A, 2017.