"How Can We Know?"
Sermon Presented June 11, 2006
Trinity Sunday
John 3:1-17
We know a lot, or at least we think that we know. Yet when the living God confronts us as Jesus Christ, we are often mystified and full of questions. We don't know, and our questions bother us! But if we are patient, we will find the path to a more complete understanding of the God who meets us as Father or "Parent", Son, and Holy Spirit. By this, I don't mean that we will receive answers to all of our questions. I just mean that our faith will be bolstered with greater assurance of God's presence in our lives.
In the third chapter of John's gospel, we read the memorable encounter of Jesus and Nicodemus, the story that is our gospel reading for this Trinity Sunday. In Jesus' nocturnal encounter with Nicodemus, we see Nicodemus as an educated and prominent leader of Israel. He begins his dialogue with Jesus by speaking of what he knows. Mature, experienced, educated adults like Nicodemus often begin from this position - grounding the dialogue in what they know, and moving from there. Nicodemus soon moves from what he knows to a series of questions. "How can this be?" is his repeated refrain.
Nicodemus is literally and figuratively "in the dark." He comes to Jesus at nighttime and his questions show that he wants to understand, but he doesn't, leaving him in another kind of darkness. Hear the exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus, found in John 3:1-17. (Read text.)
Nicodemus, addressing Jesus as rabbi or teacher, acknowledges that Jesus must come from God because the signs he does are indicative of God's presence. The reason he believes Jesus is from God is because of what he witnesses in Jesus' life.
When Jesus speaks to him, it's like light entering a darkened bedroom as the first rays of sunlight come through the windows. Nicodemus receives a glimpse of light in the familiar experiences of birth and wind. But the light he is given isn't comprehensible at the time he receives it.
Jesus introduces this high achieving, knowledgeable, informed and insightful seeker to a new understanding of the gracious, gifted quality of salvation. Salvation, the healing and restoration given by God through God's son, isn't our achievement, it's God's gift. We aren't required to know anything, but we must be willing to be known. God so loved the world that God gave the Son.
The Trinity, God in relationship as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is a great mystery - as mysterious for us as it was for those first followers of Jesus. On this Trinity Sunday, preachers have a tough time helping to shed light on the mystery. Allow me to try through telling a story.
Once there was a woman who wanted more than anything to discover the meaning of life. First, she read history, religion, philosophy and psychology, but even though she acquired great knowledge, she couldn't find the answer to her question. Next she visited the most intelligent people in the world and asked them the meaning of life, but none of them agreed, so she still had no answer.
Finally she stored her belongings and set off in search of life's meaning. But no one could help her. One day she heard that there was a wise man who knew the answer, so she tracked him deep in the Himalayas to his tiny hut perched on the side of a mountain. After climbing for days, she reached his home, weak and exhausted. She knocked, and when he opened the door, she was elated.
"I've come halfway around the world to ask you one question," she said. "What is the meaning of life?"
"Please come in and have some tea," he said.
"No, I mean, no thank you. I didn't come all this way for tea. I came for an answer. Please tell me the meaning of life."
"We shall have tea," the old man said, so she gave up and went inside. While he was brewing the tea, she caught her breath and began telling him about all of the books she had read, the people she had met, and the places she had been. The old man listened, and as she talked he placed a fragile teacup in her hand and began to pour.
She was so busy talking that she didn't notice that the cup was full until the tea began burning her hand and spilling onto the floor.
"What are you doing?! It's full, can't you see? Stop! There's no more room!"
"Exactly," the old man said. "You came here wanting something from me, but what am I to do? There's no more room in your cup. Come back when it is empty and then we'll talk."
Nicodemus was much like this woman. Jesus didn't pour tea, but the outcome was the same. When Nicodemus came to Jesus looking for answers, he couldn't comprehend that he really needed an experience - a moment of new birth. When he protested that he didn't know what Jesus was talking about, Jesus said, "If I've told you about earthly things and you don't believe, how can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" They were both using the same word "believe" but each had a different understanding.
On one level, to believe a person means to accept what that person says as true, usually on the basis of some evidence. Let's say you are talking to a surgeon and she tells you that she has successfully completed 450 by-pass surgeries. She even introduces you to someone in the office who is living proof of her skills. You are convinced that she is good and knows what she's doing. However, if she tells you that you need by-pass surgery, you need a deeper level of belief to believe that she can successfully operate on you and correct your problem.
Nicodemus takes a major step on his spiritual journey when he comes to Jesus and interviews him. But because his fellow Pharisees don't accept the witness of Jesus, Nicodemus has to overcome this barrier. He knows that Jesus is good and that he performs miracles, and he believes there is more to Jesus than meets the eye. But Jesus doesn't cooperate. He just pours tea all over his hand and invites him to come back when he is ready for a deep trust - daring him to turn his cup upside down and turn his mind inside out. He invites him to be born from above.
It's this idea of being born again, of being born from above, that can't penetrate his understanding. He knows about physical birth and he knows that people don't have any choice about that. We don't choose our parents, our social status, our gender, our intellect, our physical characteristics, or our talents. But this spiritual birth Jesus is describing, this birth from above, is beyond his comprehension. It sounds as if Jesus is saying that we have a choice as to whether or not it will take place. It sounds like we must assent to allow God to birth us again, and that doesn't make sense to the rational mind.
Many of us are rational thinkers like Nicodemus and base our decisions on the senses - what we see, hear, taste, touch and smell. Jesus asks Nicodemus to accept the gift of being touched by a fresh wind of God and by so doing, to become a new creation in God. That's not rational. Jesus tells him that he can't live in God's kingdom unless he has a spiritual birth. He tells him that the way to live in God's kingdom is to put his trust in Jesus completely as the way to God and that means trusting him enough to follow him. He tells Nicodemus to go home and come back when his cup is empty.
Scripture indicates that Nicodemus did just that. The seed Jesus planted bore fruit. In the 7th chapter of John's Gospel, verses 50-52, we see Nicodemus standing up for Jesus before the Pharisees, and after Jesus' crucifixion he comes with Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus' body. Nicodemus is a perfect example of how the wind of God, the Holy Spirit, blows over a person to give them new life. His head knowledge that Jesus is a good man sent from God moves to a trust that Jesus is the way to enter God's kingdom. He now trusts Jesus with his life. However, his understanding and ensuing commitment took time.
Nicodemus was searching for the meaning of life and Jesus took him seriously, even though he appeared to play word games with him. Because he took Nicodemus seriously, Nicodemus continued to ponder the words Jesus spoke. I believe that the Church needs to follow Jesus' example in ministering to those who question what they hear in the church and what they are asked to believe.
Jesus' words are filled with mystery because the process of new birth is mysterious. Jesus compares the movement of the Spirit to the blowing wind. We can't see the wind, but we can hear and feel the results of it blowing. I remember my amazement the first time I entered the woods at Shantivanum, a retreat center in Easton, KS, and heard the rustle of the leaves on the trees begin at the opposite end of the woods and gather momentum as it gusted toward me. It was truly an awesome experience. I couldn't see the wind, but I could clearly hear and see the results of its movement.
Jesus says that's the way the Spirit of God works in the process of rebirth. We can't see the Spirit or prove that God is working, but we begin to experience the movement of the Spirit changing our lives so that we will never be the same again. We are being born anew.
And just as we have to learn to eat, walk and talk after our physical birth, a spiritual birth is also a beginning. God doesn't birth us as mature Christians but starts us on a life-long journey. We gradually grow in our relationship with God just as we gradually grow physically and intellectually. As the Spirit stirs within us, we follow God's leading and begin to understand spiritual truths even though we never have perfect understanding.
We don't enter Christ's kingdom by a faith that we can prove rationally. We begin to love in the kingdom when we choose to follow Jesus - when we choose to be born from above.
When Jesus asks: "Will you please stay for tea?" how will you respond? Your spiritual journey will depend on your answer, no matter where you are on your journey. This morning you are invited to meet God anew - to experience a fuller life - in the presence of Christ Jesus. How about a cup of tea? The teapot is full, and hopefully your cup is empty.
