Year A

John 3:1-17

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

God Born into Our Souls

We have only recently begun our journey toward Easter in this Lenten season.  As we well know, this is to be a time for deeper reflection, for taking stock, for getting up and getting on. As is true of any beginning, the road seems to stretch out far ahead of us, and we are perhaps tempted to speed down it, or to loiter and meander on the way, or we may even just stay put where we are, not going anywhere. Today’s readings and the people represented in them remind us that our journey toward Easter is worth all the inconvenience and trouble. This journey is a symbol of our lives: lives marked by hardship, by monotony, sometimes by pain and suffering, by changes, and by the need to move on, to move out, and to grow. Exactly what God called Abraham to do! God called him to leave home for a faraway land so the Lord could bless him and make a great nation from his faith. Then there is the journey of the very familiar character in the gospel today named Nicodemus.

If there was any character from the bible that could be regarded as representative of twenty-first-century church membership, it just might be Nicodemus. This very familiar text about a successful, self-confident, leader in his community, who is spiritually open, yet rational, curious and committed enough that he approaches Jesus directly to make an appointment to talk with him face to face. It seems he would like to have more information about who this Jesus is; to understand better his actions and social networks. However, he is not so sure he wants to be publicly seen with this Jesus, so he makes his appointment in the middle of the night. This way he can keep his interest and possibly his faith a secret and separate from the rest of his life. It does seem he is not quite ready to declare his faith in the light of day nor prepared to let it change his life.

Being a Nicodemus-like Christian is understandable because for two centuries mainline Protestantism has encouraged such behavior and attitudes. Our brand of religion promotes self-restraint, tolerance, and personal morality, and all are worthy virtues. We also support engagement in social issues and public morality and there are many of us who are out there working in the light of day but for the most part, we operate in the dark. It is not as if we have failed as individual believers. In and of itself, there is much to praise about a faith that thrives in the dark. It can be genuine, heartfelt, personal and often deep. God is found in the darkness and Jesus is not suggesting that this hidden faith of Nicodemus is somehow faulty just incomplete, maybe even a bit immature because he likens his midnight encounter with him to a child still safe in its mother’s womb.

He tells Nicodemus that he must be “born anew” or “born again from above” to see the kingdom of God. Unfortunately the phrase “to be born again” has been so overused in our culture that we can miss the depth and richness of the experience to which Jesus refers. When we think about what “birth” involves, it helps us to understand the depth and complexity of the metaphor that Jesus chooses to represent the journey of faith. Of course, Nicodemus takes Jesus’ words literally, asking how this is possible, since no one can reenter a mother’s womb and be born again. Jesus explains in his conversation that he is referring to a spiritual birth, not one of the flesh. Jesus uses the image of birth to describe a complex and lifelong process, a process that Margaret Guenther priest, author and spiritual director describes as “the birth of God in the human soul.” When Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born again by water and Spirit, he is asking him to let God work in his life; to let God be born into his soul.

For people of faith, “the birth of God in our soul is our true birth. God being born into our souls, surrendering to God’s will, transforms our lives. Therefore, spiritual birth, or rebirth, can be as profound and life-changing as physical birth. Like the process of physical birth, spiritual birth is a time of hard work and a time of letting go, of surrendering to the purpose God has in mind for us. For some people, the spiritual birthing process begins in the midst of spiritual or emotional upheaval, in times of stress or pain. Something happens and we become aware of God’s presence and grace in our lives and we wonder how we never saw it before. For some, this experience comes as an overwhelming, easily identifiable “born again” experience, much like St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. For others, it can be much slower, a more subtle process, until one day they can no longer ignore that someone is at work in their lives.

Just like some women who don’t realize they are pregnant for several months, our spiritual birth may have started in us long before we even realize it. This is the mystery of God’s grace working in us, in the birthing of our souls, and this is what Jesus was inviting Nicodemus to consider and to reconsider his relationship with God, to come into the light of day. Just as Jesus invited Nicodemus, he invites each one of us to come into the light of day and become mature believers by fully participating in the abundant life God offers. At some point, God expects us to come through that spiritual birth canal into greater maturity, into fullness of life, into a faith lived in the light of day.  And Jesus knows that neither Nicodemus nor any of us today can do this on our own. It is God who gives birth in water and Spirit. Rebirth is a gift that God is always ready to gives us.

The spiritual birthing process can happen again and again in our journey with God. Until we die, we are always becoming, always moving, always in the process of being born. Even that last earthly transition, our bodily death, is a birth into new life. The pain and suffering that often precede death are like the birth pangs, the labor that will result in new birth, to eternal life. It is time once again for us on this Lenten journey to be reborn of the Spirit, to the birth of God in our souls. God is already at work in us and invites us all along our journey to reconsider our relationship and all we have to do is say yes Lord come into my life, fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may do your work in the world, that I may be an example of your light and saving love.

In John’s gospel, being born of the Spirit and believing in Jesus are not so much about what we  do with our minds as about what we do with our hearts and our lives. For God so loved the world that he gave himself in Jesus, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God wants every one of his children to be born again that they may live forever in God’s kingdom. At the beginning of this story Nicodemus lives in the darkness and the shadows and we are not entirely sure about his journey of faith being born into his soul but at the end of Jesus’ life he emerges publicly with Joseph of Arimathea, to bury Jesus. God is prepared and ready when we are ready to come into the light of day, to the birth of God in our souls.