Sermon Sunday, March 16, 2014

THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

Year A

March 16, 2014

Genesis 12:1-4a

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

John 3:1-17

Pastor David Tryggestad

Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church

Duluth, Minnesota

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

A gravel road runs along a fast-flowing river. Between the road and the river there is a swath of trees and thick undergrowth. If it were high summer, you would not be able to see the river through the dense foliage of leaves. But it is not high summer. Rather, the trees and shrubs are barren. It is cold and the sky is grey. Wisps of vapor swirl up from the running water, as the river reluctantly gives up its heat to the chill of the air.

A man has collapsed at the edge of the road, lying on his back. He is unconscious. He appears rugged and weary. A black stocking cap is pulled down over his ears; his jacket is heavy, his jeans crumpled, and his hiking boots scuffed and worn. No one else is around. One wonders how long he has been walking, or where he has come from or where he is going. Did he have a heart attack? Was he hit by a passing car? How long has he been lying there, alone?

Suddenly a woman comes toward him. She is soaking wet, water dripping from her dress and her long hair. She has come up out of the river. She kneels down beside the man and begins to breathe into him. She breathes her life into him.

Who is the man? Is it me? Is it you? Is it Concordia?

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

In our First Lesson from Genesis, God calls Abram (later known as Abraham). In Creation, God calls into being that which is not—that which does not exist. From what does not exist, God calls into being that which exists. Just as God calls Creation into being in the first chapter of Genesis, so, too, God calls a nation into being. Through this call to Abram, God will raise up a people, and through this people God will bless all humanity. God calls an old man from all that he knows and loves to a strange new land. God’s call is constitutive—God’s call constitutes a new reality. God’s call brings about that which God purposes. God’s call is irrevocable. That which God calls will come into being. Though all the forces of hell rise up against God’s call, God’s call cannot and will not be thwarted.

The Apostle Paul knows something about God’s call. He knows in his own body and mind and soul that God’s call is authoritative. God’s call transforms that which is against God into that which is of God. Paul knows in his own body and mind and soul that God’s call creates within us the capacity to embrace that call in faith that God will accomplish that to which God calls. The embrace of the call in faith is not something we accomplish; rather that faith is a gift from God, through no merit of our own.

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night: “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’ response confounds Nicodemus, and it has confounded the Church ever since: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born anothen—“from above” or “again.”

We can see Nicodemus throwing himself on the floor, totally bewildered: “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

Nicodemus takes Jesus literally, understanding him to mean he must be born again, a second time. Certain sectors of the Church continues to take Jesus literally, not literally to go back into the mother’s womb, but to make being “born again” into a kind of project with certain, specific characteristics of authenticity. Being “born again” can become something that we somehow certify and validate to be authentic, whether in our own life or in someone else’s.

Jesus himself clarifies his meaning by rephrasing his statement: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

A dirt and gravel road runs along a fast-flowing river. Between the road and the river there is a swath of trees and thick undergrowth. If it were high summer, you would not be able to see the river through the dense foliage of leaves. But it is not high summer. Rather, the trees and shrubs are barren. It is cold and the sky is grey. Wisps of vapor swirl up from the running water, as the river reluctantly gives up its heat to the chill of the air.

A gravel road runs along a fast-flowing river. Between the road and the river there is a swath of trees and thick undergrowth. If it were high summer, you would not be able to see the river through the dense foliage of leaves. But it is not high summer. Rather, the trees and shrubs are barren. It is cold and the sky is grey. Wisps of vapor swirl up from the running water, as the river reluctantly gives up its heat to the chill of the air.

A man has collapsed at the edge of the road, lying on his back. He is unconscious. He appears rugged and weary. A black stocking cap is pulled down over his ears; his jacket is heavy, his jeans crumpled, and his hiking boots scuffed and worn. No one else is around. One wonders how long he has been walking, or where he has come from or where he is going. Did he have a heart attack? Was he hit by a passing car? How long has he been lying there, alone?

Suddenly a woman comes toward him. She is soaking wet, water dripping from her dress and her long hair. She has come up out of the river. She kneels down beside the man and begins to breathe into him. She breathes her life into him.

Who is the man? Is it Abram? Is it Paul? Is it Nicodemus? Is it me? Is it you? Is it Concordia?

We all like to play the hero in a story. Our story has only two characters. It is God the Holy Spirit who comes up out of the water breathing the breath of life to the man.

We are the man.

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

 Thanks be to God!