RonBlog

Sunday 20th March, 2011 Second Sunday in Lent

Sentence
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. John 3: 16

Collect
Remember O Lord, what You have wrought in us and not what we deserve; and as You have called us to Your service, make us worthy of our calling, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Old Testament Lesson Genesis 12: 1 – 4

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Psalm 121

I will lift my eyes to the hills: but where shall I find help?
My help comes from the Lord: Who has made heaven and earth
He will not suffer your foot to stumble: and He Who watches over you will not sleep
Be sure He Who has charge of Israel: will neither slumber nor sleep
The Lord Himself is your keeper: the Lord is your defence upon your right hand
The sun shall not strike you by day: nor shall the moon by night
The Lord will defend you from all evil: it is He Who will guard your life
The Lord will defend your going out and your coming in: from this time forward for evermore.

Epistle Romans 4: 1 – 5, & 13 - 17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations")- -in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

GOSPEL 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 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.

© New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. All rights reserved

NOTES ON THE READINGS

Old Testament
So this is where history, cold hard history of exploration towards the Faith begins in the Hebrew Scriptures. Whilst some before Abram were real, this man is the Biblical start of it all. And it is a fascinating picture to unravel. Please realize, if you will, that here is a person from the Tigris-Euphrates Valley who started the process of Judaism and then Christianity. One must add that Islam as well sees its roots right here. It is almost certain that Abram began life as a moon-worshipper, or similar, growing up where he did. And one has a sneaky suspicion that the call of God came to this man because he was of inquisitive and exploratory mind and heart, and had lost credibility with his existing religion. It strikes me that the Lord is ever on the lookout for questioners, and sadly, the history of the Church in dealing with such folk is not the best by any means.
Two thoughts: 1. Were it not for Abraham, how long would God have had to wait for someone to respond?
Thought 2. How many other Abrahams have been ‘tapped on the shoulder’ -- and not responded?
Thanks heavens for such a person, eh!

Psalm
Perhaps it is the very familiarity with this psalm that had reduced its value for me, or maybe I am simply too cynical. Whilst I delight in having a God Who takes interest in each of us and encourages us, I have never found that He stops me dropping myself into a mess. Simply, I feel that this author has over-simplified the reality, although it is a heart-warming thing.

Epistle
Pardon me, but this strikes me as a very convoluted argument, which stems most likely from the Pharisaic background in which Paul grew up. It would seem to me that Abraham’s response to God had rather little to do either with works or law. It had rather more to do with the nature of his search. His was a sticking-out-of-the-neck sort of situation, a sort of dipping in of toes to see what was next. And that is an important part of the Hebrew genius in the continuing search. As far as I can see, there was very little, initially at least, of the dogmatic in Hebrew religion, and very much a matter of finding out from real life and experience whether the growing and developing faith was big enough to fit life, let alone to discover the nature of God.
Once again I offer you the freedom to shoot me down if you think otherwise.

GOSPEL
Here we go again, for I suspect that this is one of the most abused and misunderstood passages of Scripture by those who limit this to their version of ‘being born again.’ How many decades have I wondered why people have turned ‘being accepted by Christ’ into ‘accepting Him, and this becoming the popular pattern.
Can we look at the story openly?
First of all, when Jesus – or John! – talks about the Kingdom of God, they are not talking ‘heaven.’ The Kingdom of God is the rule, the pattern, the modus operandi of those who choose to live in Jesus’ way. And that choice involves a radically different mode of operation, very different from the normal human way.
Dear old Nicodemus. The silent and somewhat hidden disciple. And perhaps he needed to be. But he was a long way off understanding as he should, even as a Jew. Oblique questions from him resulted in direct answers from Jesus! That business of being born again (or from above or whatever) had absolutely nothing to do with some religious fervent experience, but – as Nicodemus clearly understood – a totally new beginning or outlook or attitude. It amounts to the leopard actually changing his spots. Small wonder that Nico was bemused! How in the name of fortune can that happen? A person is the present result of a lifetime of decisions and experiences, as well as a lot of baggage.
It is fascinating that our Lord pointed to pneuma, wind, spirit, breath. One of the aspects of Hebrew Scriptures that constantly recurs is precisely that business of ‘Spirit.’ The Genesis story has it right from the start; the Wisdom literature gives it another name; and Ezekiel has a glorious example of breath and renewal. So Jesus was quite taken aback to discover that a Jewish leader should not be aware or responsive to what we call the third person of the Trinity. Being open to the Spirit of God is to find the way to this newness of life, this kingdom.

NOTES FOR A SERMON

Have you ever pondered quite what is ‘faith?’ Is it something you believe in or the fact that you do? Is it some sort of quality without which you cannot claim to be Christian? One of the difficulties in this most materialistic of ages is that the intangible things are less recognisable by Generations X and Y, and that is sad. This is not because there is something wrong with intangibles; the problem lies with us humans, I am sure.

We have a couple of rather interesting examples of faith in today’s readings, and whilst the source of them may be somewhat old, if not old-fashioned, I suspect we moderns need to be reminded or reassured that everything old is new again, or certainly can be. Faith then. For me, dear old Abraham is the example par excellence, of a faithful person. By that I do not mean ‘religious,’ but rather, real. Honest. Searching and looking for answers that stand up to the test of life and time. Just take a look for a while.

As I have written in the notes above, Abraham would have started off life as someone you may well regard as pagan, which is not all that fair to say in this politically correct (and often stupid!) climate. A moon worshipper almost certainly was he, and well involved in that cultus. As subsequent reports would suggest, he may well have been involved in child sacrifice, or at least tolerated it. However, the real point to notice as we watch proceedings is that he was not satisfied with it as a religion, as an explanation of the meaning and purpose of life. So he was on the look-out for something better, something more in tune with reality. He was inquisitive. He was an asker of questions. (I remember as a young teenage raising questions of the Faith with my then Rector, and being told to ‘shut up and believe.’ That was supposed to be faith? I think not!!!!!)

Thank God that Abraham began that pilgrimage not only for himself but also for the rest of humanity – for make no mistake, the Biblical record makes it quite clear that this bloke was to become progenitor not only for his family, not only for the Jews, but for the entire population of this planet. He was to become a blessing to all people.

And how did all this unfold? That itself is interesting, and in spite of Paul trying to make it somewhat convoluted, it unfolded through the very ordinary business of this person’s life. Mistakes were made, and great discoveries uncovered. Good things and less than good. Even some lousy things, shameful things, became stepping stones in that family’s pilgrimage. And the further they went, the more they understood of the nature of the God Who was calling them. And that process has continued right through all the generations, except when rather short-sighted humans (many of them clergy!) tried to put a stop to the development.

That is faith; a questioning, growing, exploring, pilgrimage. And when pilgrimage stops and being settled takes over, things become quite flat. Do not be concerned at the present, apparently threatening time when life seems to be hard for Christians. This is what happens when ‘settled’ stops and pilgrimage restarts, and that can only be great.

Then there is the greater focus on faith as illustrated in the Gospel today. If you have read the notes above, it can avoid some repetition. Faith, in the broader sense of the word, can be a fairly vague sort of thing. It can run from a strained hope that something will occur, even a nonsensical matter, to a profound conviction based on sound evidence. That does not need to be proof, but occasionally it can be quite close to that. However, it must have reality behind it. Otherwise it is little more than superstition, is it not. Deal or No Deal talks a lot about faith – but that is a groundless thing, based only on chance!

In Nicodemus’ case, it was a matter of heading out way beyond that man’s comfort zone, and apparently beyond where he had even thought prior to his encounter with Jesus. He had obviously been a religious man, and also had thought a lot about life and its realities. He was profoundly aware of the very low likelihood of a person changing their characteristics and actions: he had seen too much – perhaps even in himself.

But he had operated from outside what has always been quite something of the Jewish Faith. Sadly, ‘religion’ can be the very stumbling-block for progress, because religionists tend to be very conservative. On the other hand, from quite early in the peace, Biblical thinkers had moved past the traditional to the remarkable progressive. Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones is a stunning presentation of the view that people’s lives can be changed when they are open to the Spirit, open to movement, open to change. (Now I would be conservative enough to add that – in my experience – this Spirit-driven change is not some sort of psychological or emotional outburst, but a very much deeper change of direction, change of heart, mind and will. I have long been suspicious of so-called ‘spiritual experiences’ that become sources of great embarrassment to the person as time goes by.
Nicodemus was painfully aware of our human unwillingness, if not outright incapacity to change – and yet the possibility is there, thankfully. And it may take time to work through.

In spite of atheists and other sceptics, faith at this level is not superstitious or destructive. It is remarkably productive and beneficial, and that will show in quite easily establishable and valued ways. However, it does need to show itself as permanent, rather than flash-in-pan. That latter does far more harm than good.