Lent 2A - March 16, 2014
I best understand what I can see, touch and sense. As such, I really understand Nicodemus, and think he does too, given today’s dialogue. If I were in his shoes, I’d be saying the same thing.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. He acknowledges that Jesus is from God, because of the things Nicodemus can SEE of what Jesus does; those things must be from God.
Jesus answers in a cryptic way. He says that no one can SEE the kingdom of God if they aren’t born from above. The original word Jesus uses after the word born has two meanings, and had two meanings at the time he uttered the words. The word he used could have meant “born again”, or it could mean “born from above”. Nicodemus jumps to the tangible, sensing, seeing, touching meaning, and asks how it is possible to be born again. Can someone really reenter the womb? As someone who is thick when it comes to metaphors and poetry, I totally understand his question. How is that possible? But that’s not the meaning Jesus was going for. He meant born from above or as he clarifies later, born of the spirit.
To try to explain, Jesus goes on to talk about the wind. He tells Nicodemus that you cannot see the wind, don’t know where it’s coming from, or where it’s going, but you can sense the impact - you can hear the sound of it.
With this explanation, I can imagine Nicodemus understanding a little more, or at least understanding the wind analogy. I needed that analogy, because I understand wind. A few weeks ago, we had a wind storm. You could absolutely hear the wind through the trees, and after the storm blew over, you could see the fallen branches resulting from that invisible wind. Talking about invisible wind, and the visible effects of the wind I can comprehend.
Like wind, the Holy Spirit is not visible. You can’t see where it’s coming from or where it’s going. Being born from above, or being born of the spirit means that invisible unknowable force blows to their core. You don’t know where it’s coming from, or where it’s going. But with people born of the spirit, people who let that wind blow freely and respond willingly, you can hear the result of that force. You can see the wonderful impact of a life lived, guided by the spirit. You can hear the leaves rustle like a gentle summer breeze, and you can see the impact that force has on their life and the lives of everyone around them.
If we let ourselves be blown, blown to the core, people can see that in us, can see its effect. I think that’s what Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus about what being born of the spirit looks like.
With the wind analogy, Christ is telling Nicodemus, and all of us, that there is more to the world than what we can see, and touch and taste and sense. We have to acknowledge the unseeable, untouchable, unsensable presence in order to let it blow to our core. If we acknowledge it, and let ourselves be guided by it, our resulting actions and love can be seen and sensed. And we are born from above and can see the kingdom.
We get a little about the things we can see and the things we cannot in the psalm. I lift my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come.
Hills or mountains are one of those places where there is very little space between the visible concrete world, and the invisible spirit-filled world. I look to the hills, and I see rock-solid granite. Easy to sense and see. But there’s something else present. An immensity and grandness that is holy. Even for the most solid of sensing types, there is something invisibly holy and present in the hills. I look to the hills. From where does my help come?
Back with Nicodemus, Jesus then continues with more stories about the seen and unseen. He references Moses who lifted up the snake.
A little background is order. Moses has led the people of Israel out into the wilderness, where they wander for 40 years. They spend much of their time complaining about and to Moses. Why did you take us out, just to die in the wilderness? But in this instance referenced today, the people of Israel complain about both Moses and God. And for their complaints against God, God sends poisonous snakes, which bite and kill many of the Israelites.
Now the people run to Moses and repent, and want the snakes to go away. Once again, Moses appeals to God on their behalf. And God tells Moses to take a snake and put it up on a stick, and tell the people they need to look at the snake hoisted up on the stick. Moses fashions one out of bronze and hoists it up. When people are bitten, they look at the hoisted poisonous snake and are healed.
Why all the drama? Why not just get rid of the snakes? I think God is helping the people see and sense another unseeable force - the forces of evil. They couldn’t see evil. They didn’t know where it was coming from or where it was going. But they could see the impact of that force unleashed. They were asked to look at the visible result of the invisible force that resulted in their blasphemous complaints against God. Look at the visible result, the snake on a stick, of the invisible force, your doubt and mistrust in God. Look and understand the impact. And then be healed.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that just like Moses had to lift up the snake for people to see, the Son of Man must be lifted up.
As for the Israelites, Evil is a force in our lives. It separates us from God, and causes us to do things that are the opposite of love. We cannot see evil. We cannot see where it comes from or where it goes. But we can see the result of its force unleashed.
On the cross.
Jesus was ridiculed, taunted, lied to and lied about, tortured and ultimately killed. That is the visible result of evil. And while you and I have not crucified anyone, we have ridiculed, taunted, lied. We have acted in a way that separates us from God, and separates us from each other.
And like the Israelites, we need to consider the visible effects of that invisible force. To me, that’s what Lent is about. Acknowledging the unseeable, and the path of destruction it leaves in our lives and those around us. And seeing it. Really seeing it. Gazing on it. Not because we are to wallow in our badness. But because without seeing it, without acknowledging its impact on our lives, without gazing at Christ on the Cross, we cannot fully understand today’s Gospel reading, or Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension.
You see, despite the invisible force of evil, and the trail it leaves, our constant role in giving evil a home, God so loved the world, that he gave his only son that we will not perish, that we might be saved.
Despite the evil that we do, that is done on our behalf, God gave his only son that we might be saved.
God knows that evil exists, that we behave in ways to separate us from God. That evil results in lies, and corruption, and violence and oppression, and torture and death. That evil results in the cross.
And yet, we use the cross, that sign of execution, as a sign of solidarity and hope and promise. Not wallowing in the badness. But we know the rest of the story. We know what happens after the crucifixion. Yes, evil happens, but because God so loved the world, sin, evil and death are destroyed. Not forever. But with God, we can be saved from all of that, time and time again. Through Christ, we are transformed, renewed and forgiven. The cross is a sign that those dark forces do not have the last word. God does.
Lent is a time for us to see the visible effect of sin and evil in our life and the lives of those around us. And to think about God sending us his son to save us from all of that. The cross is the gruesome, glorious visible sign, like the rustling leaves, of the bad and good invisible forces that blow us.
As we will sing in a little while,
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim.
Till all the world adore his sacred name.
Amen.
