May 30, 2021
/Trinity Sunday
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
Isaiah 6: 1-8; Psalm 29, Romans 8: 12-17; John 3:1-17
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN
It is hard for me to imagine even saying this, but today – May 30, I am now the father of a sixteen-year-old son. Sixteen years ago today, our son James was born in Alexandria, Virginia, a few days after my graduation from seminary, and a few days before my ordination here in Texas.
I am thinking of birth today for two reasons – (1) it is my son’s birthday, and (2) birth is an obvious theme in today’s Gospel reading for us.
The story is a familiar one to us, that of Nicodemus, who seeks Jesus out to have a conversation with him. There are several things that are important to note about Nicodemus seeking Jesus: (1) John tells us that Nicodemus went to meet Jesus “at night” which suggests that Nicodemus wished not to be seen speaking with Jesus, and (2) Nicodemus was a pharisee which literally means “separated one.”
In the Gospels, the pharisees are often presented as some of Jesus’ main opponents, so the point is – it was unusual for Nicodemus to seek Jesus out. They occupied very different positions in society at that time, and it seems that Nicodemus wanted to seek out Jesus very privately to potentially avoid shame or embarrassment. Think about someone in your life whom you know, but you do not want other people to know you know, and that might be kind of like what is going on between Nicodemus and Jesus.
And Jesus says to Nicodemus, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus does not fully understand what Jesus is saying, and he responds, “how can anyone be born again after growing old?” This is not Jesus’ point, of course. He is not talking about physical rebirth, but wants Nicodemus to go deeper.
Jesus says that to be people of God, we need to be born of the Spirit, to be born from above. What does that even mean? Jesus tried to explain it to Nicodemus, but Nicodemus could not understand it. And neither do I, fully.
Although I do not understand what exactly “being born from above” means, I know what it feels like. It feels like true freedom. I am drawn to what I recently read in James Hollis’ book Living an Examined Life, in which he wrote that “the first half of life, for most of us is a giant, unavoidable, mistake.” Think about that!
For me, being born from above means stepping into a second half of life that has nothing to do with age, but rather has to do with awareness and becoming truly free. As St. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians, when we become adults, it is time to put away childish things. This comes close to what I believe Jesus is saying to Nicodemus that we must be born from above.
Elsewhere in the same book James Hollis says this: “the two greatest threats to ourselves are inside of us and they are (1) fear and (2) lethargy. Hollis writes: “every morning we rise to find two gremlins at the foot of the bed. The one named fear says, “The world is too big for you, too much. You are not up to it. Find a way to procrastinate again today.” And the other gremlin, the named Lethargy says “Hey, chill out, you’ve had a hard day, watch TV, zone out, numb yourself.. Tomorrow’s another day.”
If you are born of the earth, then Fear and Lethargy are ultimately your masters, and you are the slave. Many people live this way. To be born from above, means to chose love instead of fear, it means to choose action instead of lethargy.
There is a lot of action going on at this church over the next month and a half. We are renovating parts of our shared space because they need our attention, and action is necessary. This will be, I hope, the beginning of a new face of St. Andrew’s that it will share with the community. There will be people who oppose this – who speak in the guise of fear, who say “we don’t have enough money to do this, we don’t deserve to do this.” And I am sure I will hear lethargy speak up: “why are we doing this now? Let’s not move into action, let’s appoint a committee to talk about doing something next year.”
Once you are born, there is no going back to being physically born again. The same is true with being born from above – once you move into the second half of life, the life of the spirit, the life where you leave fear and lethargy behind, there is no going back. Once you have experienced freedom, why would you want to return to your prison cell? AMEN.