March 22, 2009
Isaiah 11
John 3: 1-16
"A Different Reality"
I read a column by James Gill in the "Times-Picayune" last Wednesday. I know nothing about Mr. Gill but I assume he knows more about this city than I do. It was about Councilwoman Stacy Head, the lawyer Stacie Washington, the email mess at City Hall and the general chaos of the Council. In his article, Mr. Gill wrote these words:
"It has been decades since the races distrusted each other this much, or had such different perceptions of reality."
I admit to being surprised, shocked and caught off guard by these words. I felt terribly naïve and new. Is Mr. Gill right? Are his words true? I don't know. You know much better than I do. But they are his words, they are in print and they are public. They stand as written.
There will be responses to Mr. Gill's editorial piece. There will be voices in agreement and in opposition. That is our way, isn't it? Some of the responses will be harsh and angry. That is also our way. We love a good public brawl.
What I would like us to do today is to consider our own response, our own perception of reality. It could be just as public and it could have long lasting beneficial impact.
Let me describe a response that is within our power to offer by considering the story of Nicodemus and his midnight meeting with Jesus.
Nicodemus was a public man, a man of power and influence. He was Pharisee, a religious man and a member of the governing council in Jerusalem. He was a thinking man, a careful man, a calculating man, a political man.
He was aware of Jesus, the itinerant preacher who was causing such a commotion in Jerusalem. Nicodemus knew about Jesus and he knew he did not want to be seen in public with Jesus or to be associated with him in the minds of his powerful colleagues on the council. But, he wanted to meet Jesus.
So Nicodemus set out under the cover of darkness to meet Jesus. He began with flattery but that did not work. Jesus, instead of being pleased, launched into talk of the Kingdom of God and the need to be reborn through the Spirit. Troubled, Nicodemus tried to side step Jesus, to fend him off. He used sarcasm and ridicule, the weapons of his trade, to blunt Jesus' message, to force the argument back onto Jesus.
But Jesus persisted. Jesus was clear. No one can come into God's Kingdom unless born anew in the Spirit. And once touched by the Spirit of God, there is no telling where one might wind up. The Spirit, just as the wind, blows where it will. Surrendering control to the Spirit is central to those who desire to enter God's Kingdom.
Nicodemus listened to Jesus, he heard about eternal life and how God so loved the world that he gave His only Son to save it. Nicodemus heard all of that and then, still under cover of darkness, he went home.
There is no indication that his time with Jesus changed Nicodemus. There is no hint that the talk of the spirit and the call to be born again impacted Nicodemus in the least. The next morning he got up, perhaps a little tired and late, but he got up and attended to his important duties in the company of his important friends. If anything changed in Nicodemus, it remained hidden, cloaked in the darkness of night.
Nicodemus had to deal with Jesus on another occasion. The ruling council sent soldiers to arrest Jesus but they returned empty handed. The Council accused the soldiers of coming under Jesus' spell. Then Nicodemus spoke up: "Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 'Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?'"
(John 7:45-52)
One of the council members turned to Nicodemus and asked, "Surely, you are not also from Galilee, are you?" Faced with this thinly veiled threat of guilt by association, Nicodemus became silent, silent and afraid.
There was to be one more encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus. This encounter was public. Nicodemus was kindly, intimate and extremely generous. Nicodemus stepped forward to help Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus. Nicodemus helped to finalize Jesus' death by lavishing a 100 pounds of myrrh and aloe oils on him and then place his body in the tomb forever.
"After these things, Joseph of Arimathea who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear … asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths according to the burial custom of the Jews." (John 19: 38-40)
Nicodemus helped put Jesus to eternal rest. In his actions there is no expectation of eternal life, no sign of hope for life beyond the grave, no hint that Nicodemus hoped that God's great love for the world meant something for him. There is nothing to show that Nicodemus opened his heart up to the Spirit to be reborn. Nicodemus was in control at the very end.
…………………………………
If we come to Jesus at night, if we cover up our beliefs and our hopes for a new life, a new reality, does anything good happen? If we listen to the Jesus' words but fight to retain control over them, if we hear the nice talk about God's love for the world and the need to be born again, but bury it come daylight, what good comes of that?
If we keep our hopes and faith secret perhaps all we are equipped to do is to lend a hand with the burial when they die. We can help bury Jesus' body. We can throw clods of earth on Isaiah's vision of a new reality. We can pronounce Isaiah's perception of a new reality as being dead on arrival fit only for burial. We can bury our hopes and the risks they entail and go peacefully into the night. We can do that.
But this church has another and extraordinary opportunity. In some mysterious way we are like Nicodemus on that first visit with Jesus. We can hear Jesus' words, we can listen to him tell us about a new life born of the Spirit. We can hear him tell us about a new and glorious way of living that is open to God, that is not dependent upon us retaining control, but upon us surrendering control to God. We can envision ourselves as a precious part of the world God so loves, as an integral part of the world Isaiah could only envision.
There is no reason this church cannot be a very public witness to the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus brought to save us all. There is no reason this church cannot be a very public witness to the reality that Isaiah saw.
To witness to a very different perception of reality than the one Mr. Gill perceives all we need do is to listen to Jesus, be willing to let the Spirit blow and move us where it will, and to refuse to be a part of the burial party for God's vision of the world, a world God loved so much that He gave His only Son to save it. Can we - with the grace of God - now do our part? |
