Born of the Spirit
Lent 2 - March 16, 2014
Watch & listen to this sermon here.
Once upon a time, twins were conceived in the same womb.
Weeks passed, and the twins developed. As their awareness grew, they laughed for joy, "Isn't it great that we were conceived? Isn't it great to be alive?”
Together the twins explored their world. When they found their mother's cord that gave them life they sang for joy, "How great is our mother's love that she shares her own life with us."
As the weeks stretched into months the twins noticed how much each was changing. They began to feel gentle squeezes from the womb around them.
"What does this mean?" asked the one.
"It means that our stay in this world is drawing to an end," said the other one.
"But I don't want to go," said the first twin. "I want to stay here always."
"We have no choice," said the other, "but maybe there is life after birth!"
"But how can it be?" responded the one. "We will shed our life cord, and how is life possible without it? Besides, we have seen evidence that others were here before us and none of them has returned to tell us that there is life after birth."
And so the one fell into deep despair saying, "If conception ends with birth, what is the purpose of life in the womb? It's meaningless! Maybe there is no mother at all."
"But there has to be," protested the other. "How else did we get here? How do we remain alive?"
"Have you ever seen our mother?" said the one. "Maybe she lives in our minds. Maybe we made her up because the idea made us feel good."
And so the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear and finally the moment of birth arrived. When the twins had passed from their world, they opened their eyes and cried, for what they saw exceeded their fondest dreams.
Birth is an awesome, exciting, but sometimes frightening thing. For as much as we know about it in our day and age, as far as medical science and technology have come, the process of bringing a new life into being in this world is mysterious. Even though we can find out the gender months before a baby is born, so we can pick names and buy clothes and decorate the nursery; and even though we can schedule a day to induce labor when baby overstays their welcome; and even though we can plan a C-section birth when there is the concern over complications, there is still so much that we don’t know, so much that remains outside of our control. Babies don’t always come when we expect or plan for them; they don’t always cooperate with ultrasounds and medications and procedures designed to give us the illusion that we are in control here. And don’t even get me started on what happens with our carefully planned schedules and our misconceptions about how life will be after they are here…
But the story I just read of twins talking in the womb helps us imagine how much more out of control it feels for the one being born. They have no experience of the world that waits for them outside the womb. In their mother’s body, they are bathed in amniotic fluid, they constantly hear the rhythmic swooshing of their mother’s heartbeat, they are fed continually through the umbilical cord. And though this story describes the twins’ wonder at a world that exceeds their fondest dreams, we can also imagine that it is terrifying to suddenly burst into a world filled with light and sound and cold air on their skin. What a shock to their system! Well might they long to be back where they came from!
This morning, we hear a familiar story from the Gospel of John. Nicodemus, a prominent religious leader, comes to Jesus by night, seeking to learn more about him and what he is about, to see how God is at work in Jesus’ life, to get some answers to the burning questions that are keeping him awake. And Jesus answers these unspoken questions bluntly. He gets right to the point. “No one can see God’s kingdom unless they are born from above, born again, first."
Nicodemus is stymied, confused. He takes Jesus literally. “How can someone be born again? You can’t go back into your mother’s womb and re-enter the world!” Hard to imagine – but there’s something powerfully appealing about that, isn't there? Who wouldn't like the chance to start over, to begin again?
But “No,” Jesus says. He’s not talking about a physical birth. He’s talking about a spiritual rebirth. “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” And much like physical birth, there is so much beyond our control here. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it,” Jesus says, “but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (v. 8) Try as we may to manufacture it or harness it, the Spirit who bears us into new life is not something or someone we can command. And this kingdom of God, the place where God’s will rules – it’s a whole new world, unlike anything we've ever known. Much like the twins in the womb, it is a world beyond our imagination, and we have a hard time sometimes even believing that it could exist. We may prefer to stay in the world we know, rather than take a chance on the unknown. We hesitate to let go and let God, as the saying goes, to surrender to God bringing to birth a new thing in our lives, because giving up control can be terrifying. We see this in our individual lives; we see it in congregations. Some of us may be experiencing that now as we stand here on the cusp of Ascension Arise – hearing God call us to a huge task, one that will set Ascension free to multiply God’s mission and ministry in and through this place and you, this people – and we may wonder if it’s too much, too soon, if it wouldn't perhaps be better to wait and move forward another day.
And yet the Holy Spirit is at work, even now, laboring to bring new life to birth – in you, in me, in all of us. She is bringing the new life that comes from above, from the depth of God’s love for us – light bursting into our darkness, belief breaking through our unbelief. It is the sheltered but confined life of certainty in the womb suddenly shattered by the wide open spaces and possibilities of eternal life – which, let me remind you, isn't just about what happens when we die, but about who we are and how we live in the here and now! It’s about abundant life lived in hope and faith and trust centered in the One who gives us this life.
This is the quest – and the promise – of the Holy Spirit: to bring the things of God, the will of God, the love of God to birth in each of us and in the life of the church, that we may learn to see with the eyes of God, to hear with the ears of God, to work with the hands of God, to love with the heart of God, who loved the world so much that God sent Jesus, the only Son, to save the world – not to condemn it, but in order that the world might be saved through him and be born into this eternal life. It is a mystery that is beyond our control, but one that we are blessed to be part of. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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