"Wind and Wonder"
John 3:1-17
February 17, 2008

John 3:1-17 (The Message)

 1-2  There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."

 3 Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."

 4 "How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?"

 5-6 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind-hovering-over-the-water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

 7-8 "So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."

 9 Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"

 10-12 Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?

 13-15 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

 16-17 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

(Christian Century,  Feb 21, 1996  by Barbara Brown Taylor)

ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a woman who set out to discover the meaning of life. First she read everything she could get her hands on—history, philosophy, psychology, religion. While she became a very smart person, nothing she read gave her the answer she was looking for. She found other smart people and asked them about the meaning of life, but while their discussions were long and lively, no two of them agreed on the same thing and still she had no answer.

Finally she put all her belongings in storage and set off in search of the meaning of life. She went to South America. She went to India. Everywhere she went, people told her they did not know the meaning of life, but they had heard of a man who did, only they were not sure where he lived. She asked about him in every country on earth until finally, deep in the Himalayas, someone told her how to reach his house—a tiny little hut perched on the side of a mountain.

She climbed and climbed to reach his front door. When she finally got there, with knuckles so cold they hardly worked, she knocked.

“Yes?” said the kind-looking old man who opened it. She thought she would die of happiness.

“I have come halfway around the world to ask you one question,” she said, gasping for breath. “What is the meaning of life?”

“Please come in and have some tea,” the old man said.

“No,” she said. “I mean, no thank you. I didn’t come all this way for tea. I came for an answer. Won’t you tell me, please, what is the meaning of life?”

“We shall have tea,” the old man said, so she gave up and came inside. While he was brewing the tea she caught her breath and began telling him about all the books she had read, all the people she had met, all the places she had been. The old man listened (which was just as well, since his visitor did not leave any room for him to reply), and as she talked he placed a fragile tea cup in her hand. Then he began to pour the tea.

She was so busy talking that she did not notice when the tea cup was full, so the old man just kept pouring until the tea ran over the sides of the cup and spilled to the floor in a steaming waterfall.

“What are you doing?!” she yelled when the tea burned her hand. “It’s full, can’t you see that? Stop! There’s no more room!”

“Just so,” the old man said to her. “You come here wanting something from me, but what am I to do? There is no more room in your cup. Come back when it is empty and then we will talk.”

One evening in Jerusalem, many years ago, a man came to Jesus searching for the meaning of life. He had studied Holy Scripture his whole life. He had practiced his faith daily. He had committed himself to help his people in understanding and practicing the faith. He was considered a valuable leader in his society. As a member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, one of the council which, in most domestic matters, the Romans allowed to operate as both a civil and religious governing body. Its seventy members were presided over by the High Priest. Nicodemus was not only a member of this council; he was also a Pharisee - a member of one of the stricter sects in Judaism. In many ways the Pharisees were the best people in the whole country. They took their faith very seriously. Yet Nicodemus was tempted to think that he didn’t have all the answers. This hillbilly preacher had caused him to wonder, “Is there more? Is there more I should know about God, more I should be doing for God? What is the meaning of life?”

And so he came to Jesus with his heart full and his mind confused. He wasn’t sure what questions to ask. Jesus’ metaphors about re-birth and the spirit confused him even further. “But, how is this possible? What are you really saying? Can’t you spell it out for me?”

Go with the wind, go with the breath of God, go with the flow. It is a very Taoist answer.

John 3:16 has become a talisman of Christian faith. You see it flashed everywhere, even at professional football games. Most of us memorized this Bible verse before any others. It’s as if even the verse description—John 3:16—is enough to get you to heaven. But what does John 3:16 really say? What does it mean? Evangelical Christians have often used it in a negative way—unless you believe this verse you are eternally lost. Is that what it says? “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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Ahh, there it is again—love—divine love—God so loved…a love that saves and does not condemn.

God so loves, God so loves the world… But it’s so difficult to see this divine love. How do you know this, Jesus? You must be born from above. What does that mean? The word used in the Gospel of John is “anothen.” It has several meanings in Greek—from above, or again, or anew. Jesus did not refer to a specific time or place, not a specific salvation moment. Jesus was talking about the gift of the Spirit. The word for spirit in Greek is “pneuma.” It also has several meanings—wind, breath, spirit. We cannot see the spirit, but we can see where the spirit has been, just as we cannot see the wind, but we can sure see the snow drifts!

But how can this be? What is this spirit? We intellectual modern Christians too often disregard the Spirit, and focus only on what we can see and touch. "This is a shame," says theologian Elizabeth Johnson, "for what is being neglected is nothing less than the mystery of God's personal engagement with the world...the mystery of God closer to us than we are to ourselves."

Jesus says, “Unless you are born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom.” It’s about completely submitting yourself to something you cannot understand nor control. That’s faith, Nicodemus. Submitting yourself to your Creator, to the Divine energy which blows like the wind, to the Holy Spirit which you cannot see, but which you can feel fill up your soul if you let it. You may not understand it. You certainly cannot contain it in a box or a book. But rest assured; it is all love. For God so loved the world…

In his book The Heart of Christianity, Professor Marcus Borg emphasizes the importance of Jesus’ metaphor of being re-born from above. It is essential to recognize our need to die to the old self-centered way of living and be born into the new God-centered way of living.  He says, “This process is at the heart not only of Christianity, but of the other enduring religions of the world. The image of following "the way" is common in Judaism, and "the way" involves a new heart, a new self centered in God. One of the meanings of the word "Islam" is "surrender": to surrender one's life to God by radically centering in God. … At the heart of the Buddhist path is "letting go"--the same internal path as dying to an old way of being and being born into a new. According to the Tao te Ching, a foundational text for both Taoism and Zen Buddhism, Lao Tzu said: "If you want to become full, let yourself be empty; if you want to be reborn, let yourself die."

Nicodemus, there is no more room in your cup. Come back when it is empty and then we will talk. Happily, it appears that Nicodemus did not give up on Jesus. Later he rises in the council to defend this man. Then he arrives to help Joseph bury the body of the crucified Jesus.

“Oh, Nicodemus, even for a well educated, self-assured, confident intellect like you, the wind blows where it will. Even for you, there is possibility not of answers, but of enlightenment, light.”

Too often we come to God with our cups already spilling over with our own notions of what is necessary, with our own questions, our own needs at self-justification. How can we make room in our cup for the Spirit to fill us? What should we let go of?

·       Worries

•     Fears

·       Depression

·       Anger

·       Revenge

·       Hate

·       Racism

·       Sexism

·       Nationalism

·       The need to be right

·       The need to control

·       The need to know

Perhaps then we can return to Jesus in the middle of the night and say nothing, ask nothing; only receive what the spirit has to offer us—new life, love-filled, God–centered; and leave with our cups overflowing with God’s Spirit.