John 3:1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone who believes in God 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.
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I recently had a conversation with my grandfather about the fact that, he says, “no one says you’re welcome anymore!” Of course he was talking about the exchange between two people when someone says, “thank you” and the habit of younger people to say “no problem” instead of “you’re welcome.”
But it got me thinking about that phrase in another context. “You are welcome.” That can be a powerful invitation. In a time when we can find almost anything to divide ourselves up, we seem to insist that we are even more unique than the next person, and we aren’t as good about gathering socially as we once were… “You are welcome” can be some of the most life giving words we can hear today.
You see, we long to be in community. Despite what people might say about social media, it really is all about belonging. We want to be even more connected in a world that seems so distant and disconnected all the time. We crave a community that understands us and invites us into the real “stuff” of life. We long for people who say, “hey, I’m struggling with that too.” Or “I totally understand what it feels like to have a teenage daughter leaving for college this fall.” We need that. It’s a part of what makes us human beings. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s right there in the middle— we need love and belonging in order to feel as if our lives have meaning and purpose.
I substitute teach in the middle schools around Jacksonville when I’m not working with college students in campus ministry. And although middle schoolers are not always my favorite age group to be around, they have certainly taught me a lot about the need and innate desire for belonging.
Just this week I watched as a group of students debated whether they would play basketball or volleyball. It all revolved around what everyone else wanted to do. “Well what is Erica doing?” “Well, I’m going to do whatever Daniel is doing.” No one wanted to be the one to make the decision because no one wanted to be the odd one out— to make the wrong choice.
This doesn’t stop in middle school. I’m the campus minister for Jacksonville Campus Ministry at UNF and JU. The college students I work with are constantly weighing different opportunities on campus with who is attending, how they might be perceived, or if they will be welcomed.
That’s what makes the truth that we proclaim in this place so different. That’s what makes the gospel so different. When we choose to proclaim this truth, it can be life changing. That’s what campus ministry does for college students and that’s what this congregation does for the community surrounding it. We open our doors and say, “you are welcome” because that’s what the gospel says.
Paul tells us in this passage in his letter to the Romans that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (v 14). There is no reason to fear anymore, because we have been adopted into God’s family by the spirit. Every single one of us can address God as “papa, daddy, father’ without fear that we may be left out. There is no question of whether or not we belong in this community, there is no question about whether someone is in or someone is out. Paul tells us that we are all children of God because, as we heard just last week on Pentecost Sunday, the Spirit was poured out on everyone. Everyone— children, women, men, widows, young, old— there was no discrimination of the Spirit. She poured her power out on to everyone who was gathered, regardless of who they loved, what they looked like, or where they came from.
That’s what makes this community, or family, different than anything else in this world. And we don’t quite understand it, do we? It’s almost impossible to wrap our heads around the promise that we are God’s children and there is truly and simply nothing we can do to change that. We don’t believe that.
I think we see glimpses of that in the gospel text this morning. Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of night— obviously to ashamed or afraid to come to him during the day or while he is teaching publicly— not understanding what it means to be a part of God’s family.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus wondering about who Jesus is and how to understand God. And Jesus responds with something impossible. He tells Nicodemus that in order to understand God and be in the presence of God, you have to be born from above, born of the Spirit. Now, there is really no way for Nicodemus to comprehend this. He thinks that Jesus is telling him that a fully grown person has to re-enter their mother’s womb and be literally born again. It’s incomprehensible.
Of course, we think we are very clever, because we Christians, on the other side of Pentecost, understand that Jesus was talking about being born of the Spirit, not literally being born again. But do we really understand what that means? Do we really comprehend what it means to invoke the Spirit and ask that the Spirit may be poured out on us?
When we say, come Holy Spirit, whether in baptism or in prayers or before communion, we are asking that all of our other identities be washed away. We are asking to be adopted into God’s family. We are asking for a new reality, a new creation to overtake this one. That is even more incomprehensible than being literally born again. As we invite the Spirit into our lives, into this community, into our colleges and universities, the Spirit is inviting us into the work of God— the work that turns the whole world inside out and upside down. The work that heals the sick, and comforts the crying, lifts up the poor, and casts down the rich.
And the really amazing, incomprehensible part of this is that the Spirit does not discriminate. The Spirit does not pick and choose who gets to be a part of this work. Everyone is invited into this amazing work in God’s Kin-dom. God is did not “so love” one particular community, or America, or race, or gender. God so loved the WORLD that we might be invited into this world-changing work, where no one is excluded, there are no borders, not a single child is lost or forsaken, where we are all children of God.
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This sermon was preached at Ft. Caroline Presbyterian Church on May 27, 2018.
