February 17, 2008 Sermon
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February 17, 2008
Second Sunday in Lent - Year A
Gary Sanford San Angelo
Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Gospel of John is the only one of the four Gospels that does not have its own liturgical year. And it is the only Gospel in which some stories appear; such as the Samaritan woman at the well, the healing of the man blind from birth, and the raising of Lazarus. The story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus is the fourth such story that appears in none of the other three books.
This story narrates the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews. Nicodemus recognizes Jesus as a great teacher and recognizes that he is a man sent from God. Yet, he questions how such things can be. He really does not understand Jesus or what Jesus is saying to him. It is almost as if they are speaking two different languages, and in some very important ways they are. In other translations verse three reads, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The Greek word used here is anõthen and can mean either "again” “anew” or "from above." Nicodemus takes it to mean "again," whereas Jesus means “from above”. Jesus tries to explain that it is a rebirth of the spirit and not of the flesh that is necessary for salvation yet, Nicodemus still does not understand.
At this point Jesus seems to dismiss Nicodemus and begins speaking directly to us. He addresses our understanding of faith. Do we really think that we could have understood Jesus any better than Nicodemus, who was a well-educated and well-versed Pharisee? Can we understand any better because we have 2000 years of Christianity to rely upon? Is our faith any greater?
The other day I received a call from a telemarketer, one of many such recent calls. An obviously recorded voice starts out, “Please stay on the line for an important message about your credit card.” I promptly did what most of you would do when you get one of these calls. I hung up! Naturally, by doing this I never find out just what the important message is. It might be an offer to save a tremendous amount of money by switching to their card, or an offer to consolidate all of my bills into one low monthly payment. I don’t know, and I will probably never listen to find out.
Anymore it seems like everyone has something important to say to us. Everyone wants to us to listen to their opinion, to tell us what they think or what they are doing. The news media, politicians, advertisers—they all want us to hear what they are saying. In most cases we just tune them out, while offering our own opinions. But, there is one person who wants to tell you something and you should really take the time to listen. In John 3:16-17 the Lord Jesus brings us an important message from God His Father. It is a message of a love that surpasses all understanding. It is a message of redemption through the Son and a promise of salvation for those who believe in Him. When we look at today’s Gospel reading the tendency is to skip to these last two verses;
“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.”
And indeed, these are very memorable and comforting words—full of the loving grace of God and the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. But to stop there is to do this chapter an injustice for Jesus does not stop speaking there. He continues;
“And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”
This is important, very important, for it discloses a major theme for the Gospel of John. Light and darkness. Light represents belief and darkness unbelief and It directly addresses our beliefs. We either recognize that Jesus is the Word made flesh, the begotten God, or not—there is no in-between. When Jesus says,
“This is the judgment, that the light has come into world and people loved darkness more than the light" (3:19),
these words send the reader back to the beginning of chapter 3—that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Jesus' words are aimed directly at Nicodemus, "will you continue in darkness or will you come to the light?" This is a moment of judgement and a moment of decision for Nicodemus, and for us, in this encounter with Jesus.
Notice that Nicodemus comes in the night, in the dark, so that others will not see to whom he is talking. Yet, Nicodemus is in search of answers to his faith in God. We, too, are often searching for a way to posses faith and it is interesting to note that the Gospel of John never refers to faith as a noun. Faith is not a possession, it is not something that we can get, or something that one has, but rather what one does. Faith is a state of being and as a state of being it is subject to all of the ambiguity, uncertainty, and indecisiveness of being human. We should ask for ourselves, “How can these things be?” more often. We need to seriously look at how faith looks when it is active, living and dynamic. We need to recognize that believing is just as complicated as being human. We need to seriously consider that having an incarnate God requires an incarnational faith.
Heavenly Father, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives…Amen.
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Revised: 02/24/08