March 12, 2017
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral
John 3: 1-17
The Rev. Canon Marianne Wells Borg
When Nathan invited me to preach this morning he told me that he once played in an awful children’s musical at his dad’s church called Nic at Nite. He remembered very little about it other than he wore a fake beard that he said was “wildly uncomfortable.”
“I don’t necessarily recommend that approach for you,” he was quick to add. I took his advice.
But I would have loved seeing Nathan in that awful children’s musical! Having to don a beard I presume he was either Nick or Jesus. He could have played either. Brilliantly. Now I can only imagine.
It is an honor to be here this morning. A lot has happened since I was last in this pulpit. Some of you remember me. Others of you may wonder, who’s Marianne Borg? That’s a longish story. Suffice it to say, it is good to be back. It is good to be here. In this wonderful place. And in your company.
Nick comes to Jesus at night. “No one can do what you do apart from the presence of God.” He says.
And Jesus responds with this:
No one can see the kingdom of God without being born form above.
And Nicodemus tumbles into this by asking:
What does it mean to be born from above? To be born again when you have already been born from your mother’s womb? Jesus, What are you talking about?
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”
Might being born of water describe being born, yes, from our mother’s wombs? As all of us are. And might being born of Spirit describe being born from the very womb of God? Which all of us are…..but somehow have forgotten….or are still in the dark about.
Nicodemus is puzzled. He is probably more than puzzled, he is stupefied. And Nicodemus utters with “wildly uncomfortable” amazement as Mary did when she was told she would conceive and bear a son. How can this be??
John’s gospel is full of symbolic language, and intention, and layered meanings. We have clues to help us enter this wonderful and enigmatic story and seemingly enigmatic event, being born from above.
This story is set at night. That is intentional. Some say it is because Nicodemus didn’t want to be seen.
But I suggest it indicates that Nic was “in the dark” about Jesus, and Jesus’ intimate relationship with God and what it really means to see the kingdom of God. For John, being in the dark is another way of saying you are ignorant. You can’t see the truth. Even if it is right in front of you.
And ignorance, in John’s gospel, is sin.
Sin is not being aware of the presence of God, not being aware that God has come in the flesh and dwells among us and abides in us, not being able to read the signs of the times, not being able to see the kingdom of God is at hand, is sin. It is being ignorant about what is true and real. It is being in the dark about the nature and character of life itself. And this darkness blinds us to the world, to ourselves, to others, to our intrinsic empathic connectedness. What some call our “confounding togetherness.” Sin is ignorance of our empathic connectedness, our confounding togetherness.
And then, we do things ignorant of their consequences….
By contrast, Jesus knows the presence of God, he knows that God comes in the flesh…his own…and ours. He knows that God dwells with us and among us, is in all things and in More than all things. Jesus knows we live in a “luminous web” — to borrow from Barbara Brown Taylor — of connectedness.
And Jesus discerns the signs of the times. He is pained by the sorrows and sufferings of the world that so deeply need compassion and justice and healing. But the world of sin is too afraid. Too afraid because of what it doesn’t see. Cannot see. And the darkness has overcome it.
When John says Jesus is in the world not to condemn the world but in order to save it, I think he is suggesting that in Jesus we see what it looks like to love the world, as God so loves the world. In Jesus we see the strength of relentless courage and the power of being free from fear. And if we live in life manner, we can save the world.
Another important point about John’s gospel. For John, eternal life is to know God. And we can only know God Here. Now. In this world. For the time being anyway. So the kingdom of God and eternal life is about here. Now. “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.” If we have not seen the kingdom of God here now….we can provide no witness. For those who cannot see, it does not exist.
One more thing about John’s Gospel. The first words that John puts in Jesus’ mouth, Jesus’ inaugural address, if you will, and it is short in John’s gospel are: “What are you looking for?” Followed by “Come and See.” What are you looking for? Come and see.
I love this. This is something Jesus could say to any of us, at any time. What are you looking for?
John’s gospel is about looking for the kingdom of God and seeing it. In order to see it, you need to be born from above. So, being born from above, seeing the kingdom of God, and knowing God as eternal life, here, now, are important themes in John’s gospel.
Let me describe what I think being born from above, or being born again, is like.
And it is Jesus who helps me here.
Jesus refers to the things of the everyday….things that are here, now…
Like the lilies of the field, or the birds of the air, or the mustard seed….the withered grass or the fading flower. And then he would tell a story about them…..and you would see them from a slightly different angle….and meaning would pour out of them. It’s like Jesus saw things from the inside out.
I suggest that is being born again. To see something. And then see it again. And then meaning pours from the inside out….A meaning that the heart sees. And knows.…..And ordinary things becomes full of awe and wonder…..unexpectedly, humbly….
Being born again helps us to see….
I am going to refer to the seeing of several poets who I think are as good as born again:
Seeing a heron arising from a dark summer pond, its long ungainly legs trailing beneath its heavy body, breaks gravity and is embraced by the sky. And in seeing that heron, what that heron just achieved, you realize ascension really is possible. (Mary Oliver) Ascension is possible. Because you have seen it with our own eyes. You have seen it from within.
Or watching a swan lumbering along awkwardly, and then nervously letting down into the water. You see the water receive him gaily, and then with wave after wave, the swan unmoving and marvelously calm, is pleased to be carried. (Rilke) We watch the swan, and we find ourselves thinking about our clumsy awkward living and our nervous letting down, letting go…And we think about our death…and leaving our ground…and lowering into the waters of the unknown….. And we realize….we will be carried….wave after wave…We feel a moment’s peace. Because we have seen being carried with our own eyes. And felt it from within.
Or to see radiance spread splendidly even on a beetle which struggles on its back helpless as a pup. (Kamienska)
And if we see radiance there and then…where else might we see it?
Or to see skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; finches wings; whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?) (Hopkins) and all these things are beauty…..
To see the long, perfect loveliness of the sow….and placing your hand on its head you know you bless and are blessed.(Galway) You see the perfect loveliness of the sow. A sow. What else might you see in its perfect loveliness?
Or (and I share now from Martin Buber) “When stroking the mighty mane of a horse,” he writes, “sometimes marvelously smooth-combed, at other times just as astonishingly wild, feeling the life beneath your hand as though the element of vitality itself bordered on your skin, something that was….really the Other… approached and confided itself to you and placed itself elementally in the relation of Thou and Thou with you….and you know you are approved. To feel this mutuality of acceptance in your body…..”
And then you find yourself in a kind of trance and see your small child self so afraid of something bigger than you because of something that happened a long, long time ago….….and as the horse gently and yes elementally places itself near you, you feel the mutuality of acceptance in your own body……. in this moment you feel fresh and new and free and born again…. How can this be?
These things happen. They do not last. But in those moments, Something More is present. Something more is taking place. It is like Reality itself becomes twice born for you. And with it so are we.
The world becomes a kingdom of God’s when we see with new eyes. And in those moments we wonder how the darkness could ever overcome us.
What is it to be born again? What is it to be born from above?
To find ourselves receptive to that Something More that locates us, and knows us, sustains us and carries us, wave after wave, and lights us from within. And we see everything is lit from within. And you realize, here, in this world, is truly the kingdom of God. And once you see this nothing, nothing will stop you from loving it and giving all you have to assure its everlasting life.
We are in the season of Lent. This season is a kind of compressed display of the whole of human life. There will be moments of wonder and healing and transformation. There will be times of betrayal and confusion and violence. There will be joy. And delight. Dismay. Sorrow. And death. And then there will be a day. A “third day.” When we see with new eyes. And all that has happened between God and us will burn shockingly bright.
Jesus, What does it mean to be born again?
He won’t tell you. He will show you.
