The Wilderness of New Life

Grace to you and peace from our loving God, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The story of Nicodemus is among the best known of scripture. I generally think of it as over-used because of it's containing that summary of the gospel, John 3:16. But it is also often mis-used, especially in the interpretations of what it means to be "born again" or "born anew."

Still, it speaks to a very important part of the Christian life—that our life as Christians has a beginning that initiates a departure from the life that we knew before.

Last week, we followed Jesus into his wilderness temptations. This week we look into the wilderness of the new life that arises in Christ. When we begin our Christian life, as Nicodemus anticipates doing in the story today, we face the unknown. We don't know what to expect, and we are apt to wander a bit in the kind of searching, fearful struggle and growth that are part of wilderness experiences.

Regardless of the way some fundamentalists use the phrase, "Are you born again?" there is depth in this message.

Nicodemus expresses concern over the matter of new life. He is confused—even baffled, as we often are. And he misunderstands. He takes literally what is a metaphoric statement on the part of Jesus. It is not about being born again; it concerns being born anew from above.

It isn't so long ago that we read of Jesus' baptism-how as he came out of the waters of the Jordan a voice speaks a word of new life. "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Jesus is baptized and is named Son of God; from that moment a new life begins. Indeed, for Mark—the gospel we focus on this year—this story comes at the very beginning of his story of the good news of Jesus Christ.

Behold, the old has passed away, and the new has come.

We celebrate exactly this in our own baptisms. At its outset, the service of Holy Baptism reminds us: In Holy Baptism our gracious heavenly Father frees us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are born children of a fallen humanity; by water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God and made members of the church, the body of Christ. Living with Christ and in the communion of saints, we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God."

We are reborn by virtue of the same kind of announcement from heaven that Jesus hears—you are my child, my beloved. We are no longer simply who we thought we were. We are beginning a new life in God's family.

The introduction to the rite of baptism uses what can be perceived as some scary language. We are, it says, reborn by being joined to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That too, though, is metaphorical. We begin to die to a life that knew nothing of God's love and rise to life in grace.

Like Nicodemus, we can be fearful of the life-altering changes that come with the uncertainties of dying to sin and rising to newness of life, of living in a new way. And we may even wonder over whether God is able to do a new thing in our mundane and routine lives.

Some balk at the thought of new life. After all, the old one has elements of the comfortable, or at least the routine. Many would rather deny that a new and fuller life is possible than to risk giving up what is familiar or being open to the possibilities of new experiences of life. Some would rather continue cooking in the same old scarred and seared saucepan they've been using for years than to try the convenience of a microwave oven. Some would rather endure the pain of a physical or emotional problem than to endure the trouble of proper treatment. Some still refuse to believe that anything other than "snail mail" is a legitimate or trustworthy form of communication.

The truth is that God can do new things. In Christ, we are born anew. With God, what seems impossible becomes possible.

Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit 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?"

Nicodemus behaves just like those of us who are resistant to change and closed off to new possibilities. Nicodemus is so taken aback by the unexpected nature of Jesus' images and the possibilities of his promises that all he can do is continue to stammer stupidly, "How is this possible?...How can these things be?"

How is it possible for us to be born "from above?" How can it be that we might see and enter into the "kingdom of heaven?" How is it possible that mortal creatures might gain "eternal life?"

The answer to such questions is simple: By virtue of our living in the limitless embrace of God's love.

In Your God is Too Small, the author argues that "we can never have too big a conception of God, and the more scientific knowledge (in whatever field) advances, the greater becomes our idea of [God's] vast and complicated wisdom. Yet, unless we are to remain befogged and bewildered, and give up all hope of ever knowing God as a Person, we have to accept his own planned focusing of himself in a human being, Jesus Christ." (J.B. Phillips, Macmillan, 1961, 120-1).

Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

There is always hope of new life, for there is one who has known the greatest depths of the wilderness of grief, suffering, and death. That is the same Jesus Christ who is lifted up—in his death, in his resurrection, and in his ascension. If there was ever any doubt about the irrepressible life that flows from God, it is thoroughly overcome by the great acts of our Lord for us. It is not only new life we have—it is eternal life.

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.

On May 1, 1992, a group of postdoctoral scholars from United Theological Seminary traveled to Moscow to participate in the first truly free May Day celebrations since 1927. The group, mostly pastors from some of the largest "tall steeple" churches in American and Korea, obtained a private interview with Mikhail Gorbachev. While the focus of the conversation was on the new day, they couldn't let pass on the opportunity to ask Gorbachev the question on everyone's mind: Why, in his opinion, did communism collapse?

They had studied in advance the various explanations for the collapse of Communism—it was economically inefficient; it proved incapable of expanding the forces of production because of its obsessive geopolitical and military competition with the advanced capitalist powers; it was a cruel and offensive system to its supposed beneficiaries—human beings.

A remarkably charming and candid Gorbachev gave his explanation of why. There were two distinct reasons, he argued. First, this surprise: Gorbachev admitted that the Soviet Union under the communist regime had committed "ecocide." Ecocide involves far more than simply pollution or natural resource mismanagement. Gorbachev recognized that the root of much of communism's demise arose from its failure to respect the natural principles of life. Economics, employment, food supplies, a cohesive infrastructure—all these grow out of a natural life-sustaining base that must be kept in balance. By ignoring that base, the communist system eventually crumbled under its own unsupported weight.

But Gorbachev's second reason for communism's collapse was even more stunning. (Later it was learned that he had spoken much the same words during his meeting with Pope John Paul II; Gorbachev was the first Soviet communist party boss to set foot on Vatican soil). Communism, Gorbachev admitted, did not take seriously "the spiritual principle" of human beings.

When asked to elaborate, Gorbachev replied that communism was only adept at understanding the physical, materialist side of life. It proved utterly incapable of comprehending the spiritual side of existence! "We need spiritual values, we need a revolution of the mind" he said. "We must find a way to stimulate the spiritual principle...to emphasize the spiritual."

We might take heed in our own nation.

New life. New birth. New possibilities. Even those who profess not to believe are called to it. One of the things that I believe deeply is that God is work in the life of every human being, whoever and wherever they may be. It's something I often remind parents worried about their grown children who don't attend worship.

Indeed, there is no place or person in all of creation that is beyond the power of the new life offered by our Lord. Not even you. Not even your home, your job, your mind, your heart. The wilderness of hopelessness and meaninglessness that presses in upon a world that finds little of transcendent value is nothing in the face of the God who so loved the world that God's only Son is offered for us.

In the wilderness of this Lent, may you come to embrace anew the eternal life that is our gift each day. Amen.

May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto eternal life. Amen.