Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Sunday, January 28th, 2018click here for past entries
Loving God, you make us your own through water and the Spirit, adopting us as your children. Help us to continue to grow in faith and love, trusting in your Spirit at all times, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It is possible to focus on many different aspects of this gospel that we have heard today. However, there are two things that need to be addressed right off the top. First off, have any of you noticed yet that the gospel of John is always mentioning “the Jews”? Nicodemus is “a leader of the Jews” (Jn. 3:1). Last week’s reading began with “the Passover of the Jews” (Jn. 2:13), and back in chapter one, the Jews sent people to ask John the Baptist who he is. Then, as the gospel continues, we hear about John and his disciples having a discussion with the Jews, and Jesus and his disciples having similar discussions.
The thing is, though, all of these people are Jewish. John the Baptist is Jewish. Jesus is Jewish. Their disciples are Jewish. And so, when John talks about the Jews, he doesn’t actually mean the Jews! What he means is the Jewish leaders who oppose Jesus and do not believe in him. This is especially important to remember when we are tempted to think that it was the Jews who crucified Jesus. It wasn’t. It was the Romans, who were prodded into doing so by the Jewish religious leaders. And so, keep this in mind as we continue our journey through the gospel of John.
The second thing to be addressed is this: Have any of you ever been asked if you’ve been born again?... Were you able to answer?... The thing is that most people who ask this question have a very specific type of baptism and conversion experience in mind, and if you haven’t had the same type of baptism as them, they generally dismiss you as not really born again.
However, the gospel of John is not nearly as specific as some might think. What Jesus actually talks about here is being born from above, which is in fact a second birth. Later in the same chapter, John talks about “the one who comes from above” (Jn. 3:31) – in other words, Jesus – and the same word is used in both cases. And this being born from above involves being born of water and the Spirit. Nowhere does Jesus say how much water needs to be used, or what kind of an experience people need to have, or even how the Holy Spirit will show up. Instead, the Spirit is compared to the wind, which is the same word as spirit in both Greek and Hebrew.
This passage always makes me think of that book “Who Has Seen the Wind?” by W.O. Mitchell. “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” (Jn. 3:8). We do not, in fact, actually see the wind, but we do see the effects of it. We see the trees moving and our hair blowing around and the snow going sideways. So we know that there is a wind, even though we don’t see the wind itself.
So it is with the Holy Spirit. Most likely we will not actually see the Holy Spirit, but we can see the effects of the Spirit’s presence. In some cases, we can tell that the Holy Spirit is at work because of the fruits of the Spirit that we see – things like love, joy, peace, patience, generosity and self-control. At other times, we might recognize some of the gifts of the Spirit in other people – things like wisdom or knowledge or faith or discernment. And then there are some groups who focus almost entirely on the most visible and obvious gifts of the Spirit – things like speaking in tongues or the interpretation of tongues or healing people or miracles or prophecy.
However, the Holy Spirit shows up in many different ways. Ultimately, it is by stepping out in faith and praying for the power of the Holy Spirit that we learn that the presence of the Spirit is real. One of the first times that I prayed for the Holy Spirit to give me the words was in high school. I had written a story that I wanted to share with a friend who did not believe in Jesus. I was trying to write a note to go with it to explain why I was giving it to her. I kept starting the note and then scrapping it because I just couldn’t figure out the right thing to say. Finally, I stopped and asked the Holy Spirit to give me the right words. I sat down again to write, and the words just flowed. Since then, I have also discovered that the Holy Spirit provides the words for prayer and also the inspiration for sermons. The point is, though, that it is only through relying on the Holy Spirit that we discover that the Spirit actually is present and active.
Of course, another thing that the Spirit does is to speak to us through the Scriptures. Among other things, today’s gospel contains one of the most well-known verses in all of Scripture. Martin Luther referred to it as the gospel in miniature.
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 (Jn. 3:16).
Why did God send Jesus? Why was Jesus lifted up on the cross? Why did God continue to bother with humanity?... Because “God so loved the world.”
It is God’s love that sent Jesus to live among us, to serve and teach us, and to die for us. It is God’s love that raised Jesus from the dead. It is God’s love that gives us new birth through water and the Spirit and that promises us eternal life. It is God’s love that sent Jesus – not in order to condemn the world, “but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn. 3:17). Thanks be to God! Amen.
Epiphany 4 (NL 4) John 3:1-21
January 28, 2018
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison
© 2018 Lynne Hutchison All Rights Reserved
|