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February 28, l999
"BORN FROM
ABOVE" (John 3:l-l5)
"Born Again" is one of the most popular phrases of
current Christianity: As in "Are you a ‘Born
Again’ Christian?"
There are some odd, even ironic, aspects about the
current and confident bandying about of the "born again"
phrase.
….one irony is that the talk about "born again"
occurs in a context shrouded in mystery which defies the
very certainty that pushes the "born again" view;
….And also it’s odd that most people who use
this phrase believe it comes from the lips of Jesus when
in John 3:l5 we see that Nicodemus invented the term. And
a further irony Nicodemus used the phrase to obscure and
parry what Jesus was really saying to him. The use of an
off putting, frankly scandalous image of a grown adult
being rebirthed down his mother’s uterus bought time
for Nicodemus! The phrase occurs in a denial of Jesus
rather than an affirmation of him.
This conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is
reported only in John’s Gospel and the use of the
spiritual notion of "born again" is exclusively a
Johannine preoccupation, appearing again only in the two
little letters attributed to John. Although in First
Peter there is a reference to being born again through
the Word of God.
The basic idea underneath the phrase "born again" - if
by it we mean a dramatic event, a radical turnabout alike
to a regeneration of life - is scriptural. Quite a few
persons came to understand who Jesus and commit to him
because of a dramatic event, usually a healing by Jesus.
Jesus gave us the classical prototype of someone who is
vulnerable to a dramatic turnabout in his Prodigal Son.
Anyone who wakes up one morning broke and in a pigsty is
a good candidate to be "born again."
Paul’s radical conversion experience is probably
the most dramatic example of a "Wow" encounter with
Christ. It was a vision and Paul, of course, did not
refer to it as a "born again" experience because it would
be years before John invented that phrase.
But something dramatic like Paul’s conversion is
more the exception than the rule among those who
eventually came under the Lordship of Jesus. The original
twelve disciples are more representative. While they were
quickly drawn to Jesus, there is no report that it was
through a dramatic "born again" experience. They spent
three years getting better acquainted with the man and
his teachings and even after all that they were confused
about him. Their spiritual closure upon Jesus had to
await the Resurrection.
The Church has always taught that the Holy Spirit more
often uses a gradual and evolutionary way to change us
than a dramatic turnabout. And the Church has always held
that regeneration begins in our baptism; baptism is our
conversion even though we are often unaware of that
congruence.
Persons, like Saul of Tarsus, who can claim a
dramatic encounter with God, or Christ, or the Holy
Spirit, are welcomed witnesses in the Church. But they
are the exception and their dramatic experience does not
impose upon rank-and-file Christians the imperative to
record in their spiritual curriculum vitae the very
moment when the breadth of God blew upon their soul.
*******
With this background, let us turn to the main issue:
What did Jesus mean when he told Nicodemus, and by
extension everyone ever after, that we must be - not
"born again" - but "born from above"?
The text is not self-evidently clear about what Jesus
meant about being born from above. This is, after all, a
Jesus who speaks across the shadowy landscape of the
theology of the Fourth Gospel. That Gospel is one of
strong contrasts: John’s thinking conjurs up Light
conflicting with Darkness, flesh struggles with spirit,
earthly things bump into heavenly things. This is an
enigmatic landscape within which we strive to discern
what Jesus was talking about.
And Jesus himself employs symbols as signs of what
being born from above might mean. And symbols are seldom
given only to a singular meaning. Jesus says that the Son
of Man (a phrase in itself which is unclear) must be
lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness. What was he signalling us? That Jesus is a
snake! Probably not though we learned in Dr. Andress talk
about mummies that the Pharoahs drew pictures of snakes
upon the walls of their tombs because snakes signed to
them eternity and divinity.
More likely, Jesus was either referring to his coming
crucifixion when he would be physically lifted up; and/or
his Resurrection with another kind of being lifted up; or
he was signalling a prophecy that his followers, the
Church, must lift him up to the world. You note this Lent
we are doing that with our Christ mask on a pole.
Jesus uses two other symbols which are, like the
snake, potent but also ambiguous in their meaning: Water
and Wind.
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.
Part of the meaning is clear: just as we humans cannot
make the natural wind blow according to our
wishes…We do not make the clouds move or the horizon
billow like ocean waves. With the rest of creation we
submit to the wind and its caprice…So, too, we
cannot command the Holy Spirit to our will or needs.
But the Wind is not always a good metaphor nor
reality. The wind is capricious and it is often violent
and destructive. Elsewhere in the bible the Wind has the
role of spreading seeds of discontent and evil. Yes, the
wind can be a gentle breeze; and a blessing to fevered
brows; but the Wind can also wreck havoc with us.
Likewise, Water, as a symbol, is with mixed blessing.
Water is refreshing, cleansing, essential for life; but
water can also serve as the quickest conveyor of
communicable disease and too much water as in a flood or
hurricane is not a good sign to convey God’s loving
grace.
As water and wind are Jesus’ metaphors for God
moving into our lives, who is to say whether this chance
encounter, or that tumorous growth, this melody which
stirs us, or that agonizing personal defeat, that sermon
which excites us or turns us off, are merely the winds of
chance that blow through everyone’s life, or the
"signs" of the Spirit who caresses us like a mother or a
lover?
What language shall we borrow to narrate our lives?
For some it will be the language of spiritual certainty
knowing that at a specific time, place and event God
acted to turn them around. Others will tell their
spiritual story by evoking mystery.
Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus preserves a space
for mystery:
It is a conversation which allows choice and varying
human response. I hear Jesus saying that whatever happens
to Nicodemus …and don’t we wish we knew his
full spiritual biography…we know only that later in
John’s story Nicodemus defends Jesus in argument
with other rabbis and at the end he assists Joseph of
Arimathea with the details of the burial. But did the
Wind of God ever rebirth him from above? Whatever was to
happen to old Nicodemus, Jesus, I believe, is saying
experience it gratefully as a wind of encouragement on a
warm Judean night. Just as an invisible breeze something
parts our hair and kisses our face, the Spirit stirs in
us before we have words to name the stirring.
Being born from above points our expectation to God
for he is the "above’ in Jesus’ reference; God
is not a geographic "above"; the "above" is another sign
pointing us to the Divine. Being "born from above" means
we are to reflect God in ourselves. Believing in God, we
are to incline ourselves inwardly to want more of
God’s Spirit in our lives.
So let me suggest four prudent and caring steps we can
take, starting today and through Lent, to incline
ourselves to wait upon God so that His Spirit will touch
us and we shall bring the "above" into our "within".
First, let us turn away from occasions and
relationships which cannot be from God. We have seen that
both water and wind are ambiguous signs of Grace. So let
us water which is clean, clear, running and avoid
contaminated, tainted, and dirty water. So with wind,
spiritual prudence suggests we enjoy every caressing
breeze but stay clear of spiritual tornadoes. We have
enough knowledge and wisdom to avoid what is clearly
evil. If we are in bondage to destructive habits, we very
much need a re-birthing from above. And the very asking
of God to intervene to turn us around can be the
threshold across which the Spirit will come from above to
turn us about.
Second, let us pay more attention to the people around
us. Internet usage world-wide is up; but face to face
time is dropping. Part of the sociology of growing
Internet usage is that more people are staying with their
computers and thus they are reducing their real contacts
with people. Only humans can reflect God and build up the
family of God. Computers can assist us with our work, and
shopping, and pleasure and hobbies, but they do not
reflect the divine. We could be in the dilemma of a
"Peanuts" cartoon with our emerging sociology: "I love
humanity. It’s people I can’t stand."
We can’t reflect God from above unless we are
able to look other persons in the eyes and show them we
know them, like them, connect with them, and love them.
The church has a new opportunity to bring people together
to look one another in the eye. The anonymous church
can’t do that; the community church can. Last
Tuesday night we had a charming and informative lecture
in the Executive Club but the catalyst for our nice
supper fellowship was probably as much the desire to
interact with other humans as to get acquainted with the
academic top of mummies.
The Church is here to give people the chance to look
people in the eye and tell them we like them, and we love
them in Christ.
Third, Let us pay more attention to the love within us
that comes from God. As love comes from God, a powerful
way to encourage the reflection of God within us is to
nourish that natural love which God has made part of our
very being and to encourage it to flame into a love of
God. Being here in worship is a good start on nurturing
divine love within us. Putting ourselves in a challenging
study or service context is another. Just about the
nicest thing any Christian can do for himself is to take
a course like our DISCIPLE program, or get with an ALPHA
course, or get in our great Executive Club Seminar.
Because these are nurturing and self-caring
experiences which quicken the God from above into the God
with us.
Four, pay more attention to God’s leading.
God’s Spirit blows where it will, but that does not
mean we should be inattentive and indifferent about
seeking God’s Spirit.. Listen for God to speak to
you - through your heart, through another person, through
scripture, through worship, through a life experience. Be
open to the stirring within you. Notice the breezes of
the Spirit whispering in your ear. Seek the presence of
the living God. Remember your baptism. If not baptized,
prepare for baptism. Be a regular at the Lord’s
Table. Look for the heavenly right in the midst of the
earthy. And accept gratefully the biggest contrast of
all: Jesus and the Gospel writer John tell us that God is
God and we are not. That is reason to rejoice, to trust,
and to hope. Be grateful that God is God and He seeks to
move through your lives, sometimes like a gentle breeze,
sometimes like a dramatic wind..
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