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February 17, 2008

Beth Foote - Feb 17, 2008

Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17; John 3: 1-17; Psalm 121

Tomorrow is the Feast Day of Martin Luther on the Episcopal calendar of Saints. I mention this because The Letter of Paul to the Romans made such a dramatic impression on Martin Luther. In what was known as the “Tower Experience,” Luther, already a monk, had a moment of conversion when he read from Romans 1:17 about being justified by faith. He went on to say that Romans was “the purest Gospel,” and should be read everyday. In today’s reading we heard the famous passage that affirms righteousness or being accepted by God “depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace.”

Luther was forever changed by this epiphany that grace is a free gift from God, and many historians say that the Reformation really began with Luther’s “Tower Experience.”

The other juicy, beautiful text we have today is the story of Nicodemus from the Gospel of John, which includes the classic verse John 3:16.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and member of the powerful Sanhedrin council who condemned Jesus. Scholars believe that Nicodemus can be traced to Nicodemus ben Gurion a wealthy Jew who lived in Jerusalem in the first century C.E.

Nicodemus visits Jesus secretly at night, and the darkness is a significant piece of the story. African American slaves felt a kinship with the Nicodemus story because in the ante-bellum South slaves could only worship at night. Perhaps Nicodemus was sneaking out at night so no one would know he was talking to Jesus. Perhaps you could say that Nicodemus was enslaved in a way by the powerful system he was a part of; at that time, the Sanhedrin had become a puppet of the Roman occupation. What did Nicodemus see in Jesus that caused him to seek him out secretly, under cover of darkness?

I confess, I feel a kinship with Nicodemus. He is one of us, one of the well-heeled city dwellers, one of the respected ones, who is comfortable in their home at night, who has enough to eat, who has the weight of religious tradition behind them. And then he meets Jesus. The challenger, the truth-bearer.

In their conversation, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Of course, Nicodemus takes this literally and gets stuck on the metaphor of birth. He says, “How can this be?” Like Mary at the Annunciation, he wonders at the miraculous. “How can this be?”

This passage is the original context of the term “born again.” To be a “born again” Christian has become an American cultural phenomenon. In “born again” Christianity, one knows exactly when you were born again, or accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. And it’s only after that moment of personal conversion that one is baptized.

How do we do we see conversion in the Episcopal Church? I’d like to point out that in our baptism service we ask, “Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior? Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love? Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord? (BCP 302-303) That’s pretty darn direct. It sounds like the process of being “born again,” to me. But in our tradition, we often say those words as parents for our infant children, and our parents might have said them for us. We ourselves may not have a decisive “conversion moment.”

I suggest that if you’re looking for something special to do in Lent, meditating on that one question in the service for Baptism could be your discipline. Like many vows we take in life--marriage comes to mind--the questions answered at baptism take years to live into and understand. That is one of the reasons why we usually have baptisms during a Sunday morning service: to pledge our support as a community, and to have the opportunity to repeat our baptismal vows. and say those words over and over again.

In the Episcopal Church I would say the process of conversion is usually a slower process of “inwardly digesting” Scripture, participating in the Sacraments, and learning from each other as we serve as members of a faith community. One way is not necessarily better than the other, but I think it’s important to understand that conversion not just about “being saved” myself as in “I’ve got mine” vs. “you don’t.” Rather, it means a lifelong process of accepting God’s grace and responding to Christ through service.

Lent is a good time to do this kind of work, to examine where we are on our faith journey, or using another vocabulary, in the conversion process. Like Nicodemus, we often approach Jesus when we are in the dark or searching for deeper meaning. Jesus meets us in the dark. He listens but he also challenges. He speaks, but we often hear the message and respond with “How can this be?”

Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” One commentary I read this week said that the water Jesus refers to here is not baptism as we assume; as a Jew, Nicodemus had no knowledge of baptism. When Jesus talks about being “born again,” Nicodemus naturally thought of the watery fluid released during the birthing process. As women know, birthing takes time, and is mysterious. For me, that mystery included a deep sense of the physical and spiritual being intertwined. Like Water and the Spirit are intertwined. I think it’s important here that Jesus underscores the reality of physical birth and spiritual birth; they are inseparable in our lifelong process of spiritual formation. Jesus challenges Nicodemus and us to widen our vision, go beyond the literal.

Working hard is part of our culture. We tend to believe that if we work harder, we will succeed. The early bird gets the worm. My daughter the college student uses that term, “pull an all nighter.” Just be more focused. Use best practices. That’s part of the American work ethic, the Silicon Valley work ethic. We unconsciously also apply that ethos to our relationship with God

But Jesus says, “Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above. The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”

I love it when we hear the humorous edge to Jesus’ voice. In addition to being mysterious, the birth process is capricious. If we go with nature, babies are born on their own timetables. It’s the same way with our spiritual formation. There IS capriciousness to life in the Spirit. Some people DO have conversion experiences. Some people don’t. God doesn’t schedule conference calls. Holy epiphanies come while we’re in the shower, or on the freeway, or cooking dinner, or exercising. God’s time is Kairos, outside of our everyday 24/7 structures. God’s spirit blows where it will.

Ultimately, the initiative comes from God. Martin Luther’s revelation about the passage from Romans was correct, we are justified by faith, and grace is a gift. But I believe that we have to keep our ears and eyes open to hear it, understand it, and feel that deep acceptance of God’s love. As we hear in the classic verse this morning, “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,” God reaches out to us through the Incarnation of Jesus, the mystery of the Cross, and Resurrection. Grace is always a free gift. And like Nicodemus and Martin Luther, we may need to be in a searching mode to be ready to notice the gift, accept it, and sense God’s deep freely given love for us.

And I must add, that once having accepted God’s grace, Christ asks us to act in His name in compassion and justice, to take the risks for our faith that Nicodemus took. For the encounter with Jesus was the first installment in the Nicodemus story. Later in John’s Gospel we see Nicodemus stand up for Jesus at the trial, and later, after the Crucifixion, risk an enormous amount by joining with Joseph of Arimathea in anointing Jesus’ body. In the Eastern Church Nicodemus is known as “the myrrh-bearer” because he brought 100 pounds of myrrh to the tomb. Handling dead bodies was something that would have made him very unclean under the temple purity system. Martin Luther accepted God’s grace and then went on to nail the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg cathedral door.

Grace is free and it changes us forever.

May we continue to grow in our response to that grace, with acts of compassion and justice. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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