John 3: 1-17 (Briarwood, March 2014)
Good morning.
Let us pray.
Dear God, out of the relentless noisiness of life we come here to put ourselves in hearing distance of your word. We come because in many ways over the years you have come to us; in the beauty of the world, in the gifts of music and art, in those who love us. So now startle us once again, speak the word you have for us today and give us the courage to hear and respond and follow, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In May of 1987 – does it seem so long ago? – In 1987 the Irish rock band U2 released an album called The Joshua Tree. It went on to sell over 25 million copies. Its second track became the band’s second number-one single in the US. The second track was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1988. It topped the charts in over 20 countries. In the same year the band joined with Greater Calvary Baptist Church in Harlem to practice for a concert at Madison Square Gardens.
The only instrument they brought for the rehearsal – which was taped – was an electric guitar. They used the church’s conga drums. The footage of the choir and band singing this second track on Joshua Tree became a classic. The band included it as part of their next and equally famous album. It showed up in movies and TV shows, and still does today, in a 2014 episode of Glee. Bands from garages all over the world have covered it. The Rolling Stone magazine lists this track as among the top 100 best singles of all time.
There was something about that second track on The Joshua Tree that touched a chord in people all around the world.
That track is called,
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking for”.
And It goes like this:
I have climbed the highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
I’m still running
I’m still running
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
—
It is a song that echoed
through a few generations.
That touched people
in a way that sometimes only music can.
So much of the song
spoke to something
deep down
in a lot of people
around the world.
I have climbed the highest mountain
I have run through the fields
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
But I still
haven’t found
what I’m looking for
—
This Sunday is the second Sunday in Lent.
The Sundays leading up to Easter.
And on these Sundays
we are going to journey
with people from the Scriptures
who seem to be looking for something
or someone.
And who encounter Jesus
in their life journey.
There will be a woman at a well.
A blind man and his family.
Two sisters who lose a brother.
And today a man
called Nicodemus.
—
Nicodemus is a teacher, a leader, a Pharisee,
with a seat at only table that mattered
for the Jews,
the Sanhedrin.
He is respected.
He is successful.
He is confident.
He is a scholar.
He is a decision-maker.
He is in a position of some power and security.
And yet,
he comes to Jesus
by night.
When the city of Jerusalem
is not like ours,
bright with light.
but darkened.
Walking around
at night in Jerusalem,
with the customary robes
and by staying in the shadows,
it was entirely possible
to get somewhere
without being noticed.
Which is what Nicodemus wants.
Not to be noticed.
For no one to see
that he is meeting Jesus.
He is searching.
Looking.
But he doesn’t want anyone to know.
—
Nicodemus, according to Deborah Kapp,
“is not ready to go public with his interest in Jesus,
so he makes an appointment in the middle of the night,
when he can keep his faith secret,
separated from the rest of his life…..
Nicodemus is not yet ready to declare
his faith in the light of day,
not prepared to let it change his life.”
Nicodemus is searching
for a faith
that can be kept separate.
From everything else.
Like every second
school child
this year,
carrying around
their rainbow looms.
They come with these little
coloured rubber bands,
and so as not to
mix up one colour from the other
one type of clasp from the next,
they carry them around
in those little plastic boxes,
divided into compartments,
little lids on the top, like for pills or fishing lures
so that there is separation.
That’s Nicodemus.
What is he looking for?
He’s looking for a way
to follow Jesus
without it going public
without it affecting anything else.
A way to understand Jesus
that is safe, contained, controlled.
Private.
—
And like it or not,
being a Nicodemus-like Christian
is all too possible
in our time.
The old theology professor
at Knox College
Toronto
in the 1930s
Walter Bryden
saw a movement
in the mainline church
that some have traced
from now to then:
it is something like this,
when following cultural norms
push following Jesus in the private sphere only.
When it is not OK,
to witness to the living Christ in the world,
out of fear of how we might sound or look.
When faith in Jesus is appropriate
for family and personal morality
but inappropriate for public issues. (Kapp)
It’s then that we become Nicodemus-like Christians.
Our belief
is disconnected,
separated,
compartmentalized from the world.
—
And to Nicodemus
Jesus doesn’t judge
turn him back,
or send him packing
off into the night.
Jesus rewards his intention
his search
he meets Nicodemus
and invites him
welcomes him
to try to understand
something about faith in Jesus
to try to help him find
what he’s really looking for.
—
Jesus teaches Nicodemus
about the nature
of having faith
in him.
The one come from God.
It’s something touches
every inch of who we are,
and more;
like a rebirth
like being born from above
being born of the Spirit,
where we acknowledge and welcome
the Spirit of God to touch everything we are and do;
being born of the Spirit,
means,
like the wind
that blows where it pleases
to new and unimagined places
beyond the boundaries we might enforce.
We read this morning about Abraham and Sarah.
They “are the righteous and faithful mother and father of us all because one day they hear God’s call and listen and obey and take a monumental risk and open their hands and let go of everything they had earned and accumulated and upon which they were totally dependent for their self-image and their future security, and place their future, however much or little there was left of it, in God’s hands.”
That, the Bible says, is what faith is. That is what the new life in Jesus Christ looks like, what being “born again,” to use a troubled-but-important phrase, looks like.” (John Buchanan)
Jesus comes right out
and says it:
Nicodemus
Church
I am talking here
about being born from above
born again
I am talking about heavenly things;
things that come from heaven;
things that are eternal
things that transcend
and inform
and shape
all of us,
and all of what we’re looking for.
The heavenly, heavenly,
earth shattering thing
that Jesus is talking about
the substance of a faith
that reaches everywhere
matters everywhere
that Martin Luther calls the gospel
in miniature
is that
God
the living God
so loved the world.
Jesus testifies
that the living God
doesn’t just so love
you or me.
Or some small part of our globe,
God’s love is not a compartmentalized love
the whole
world.
God’s passion
ends at the world.
Following Jesus means
seeing the love of this God
and living life
by the Spirit from above.
As if re-born.
A
private,
separate,
solely inner
life
it eventually perishes.
Shrivels.
But Jesus makes the promise
the gracious invitation
to us
to listen
to hear
to let go
to be born again
to have life
that is eternal.
“It may be God’s summons to put the place up for sale, open your hands, let go of everything and walk into the wilderness with nothing much by way of certainty but God’s love.
It may be God’s summons to do something outrageous, like visiting Jesus at night, like joining the church, giving your love to a child, your money to a cause, giving your life away. . . .
And it may mean simply saying “yes” to the voice that has been calling you, prodding your conscience, compelling your love; saying “yes” to God’s great love for you in Jesus Christ.’
“Born again. It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.” (John Buchanan).
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son,
that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.
Thanks to be God. Amen.
rev. dr. greg davidson 