5/03/23 Holy Communion. St Peter’s
Gen. 12:1-4a. John 3:1-17
There are at least two self indulgences in this sermon - the first is the subject - Nicodemus I’ve often thought there are not enough Nicks in literature generally -glossing over old Nick obviously - so this morning I’ll try and redress the balance:-
Who was Nicodemus - he turns up three times in the gospel, and I don’t think it’s too fanciful to see him going further out on a limb each time we meet him.
In our first encounter we are told he is a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council - is a member of the religious establishment - The picture we get from the New Testament of Pharisees is of a group whose faith - often genuinely and passionately held - had a very narrow focus, zeroing in on the law and the traditions of the fathers and for many that was where their faith stopped, but that was not enough for Nicodemus.
He recognised a wonder and a glory and a mystery in the world that the Pharisee approach did not do justice to. It’s narrow focus didn’t take him any closer to God. In the words of the Beatitudes he is hungering and thirsting for righteousness and he is intrigued by Jesus, so after dark he comes to talk to him. ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.’ And so they talk.
The second time Nicodemus is mentioned, he has moved on from a simple interest in Jesus.
When the Pharisees heard the crowd whispering about Jesus the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
The guards fail and go back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
Nicodemus has gone beyond casual interest. We are familiar with regimes that sent out their police to arrest dissidents and what happens to people who don’t toe the party line. Nicodemus is taking a risk here. One can imagine the whispers beginning about how he was going soft, cranky.
The final mention he gets is when he and Joseph of Arimathea recover Jesus body after the crucifixion so he can be given a proper burial. He didn’t know what happened next - he is saying though this terrible, shameful thing has happened to Jesus, though the authorities have won - I will stand with him.
What happened in that conversation with Jesus to give Nicodemus this trajectory.
Nicodemus came to Jesus as a dissatisfied Pharisee. His colleagues approach to God had contracted him so he would fit into their laws and traditions. They worked with what God had done and had said - Nicodemus knew that God is too big to stop there - he is still doing and is still speaking - Nicodemus doesn’t want a shrunken knowledge of God, he wants to know more of him, he wants a bigger understanding.
Who is Nicodemus? He is a pharisee, but a Pharisee with his eyes open so he begins his conversation with Jesus by saying He doesn’t know who Jesus is, but he does recognise God in Him
What did Jesus want him to know, how does he want his faith to develop?
Nicodemus has recognised that God is working through Jesus and Jesus tells him you wouldn’t recognise the kingdom unless God was already at work in you.
“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” And he goes on to talk of a world that is blown through by God’s Spirit.
He says we live in a world penetrated/shot through with God’s presence. ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.’
God is always active in the world but because we are creatures with all kinds of baggage we don’t always see it.
Two witnesses to God at work…
And this is where the other self indulgence comes in - about ten days ago we had another granddaughter - there are occasions that we don’t have proper words for, where we are joyfully aware that our understanding falls short of what is going on - and birth is one of them - where we encounter wonder, mystery, glory, and we know this world is insufficiently explained by pure materialism - it’s a time of grace, a touch of the eternal that hallows what could be commonplace.
That’s an example of God at work on a good day but there can be moments in terrible days that suddenly catch us. The other witness is the writer Christian Wiman talking of a time when he had a life threatening illness and is rather tentatively exploring his local church. He’s just had very bad news and a very bad night’s sleep and is reluctantly walking to the train station with the church pastor who he hardly knows and on the way they have a rather stumbling conversation but ‘I remember when we parted there was an awkward moment when the severity of my situation and our unfamiliarity with each other left us with no words, and in a gesture that I'm sure was completely unconscious, he placed his hand over his heart for just a second as a flicker of empathetic anguish crossed his face. It sliced right through me. It cut through the cloud I was living in and let the plain day pour its balm upon me. It was, I am sure, one of those moments when we enact and reflect a mercy and mystery that are greater than we are.’
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.
Nicodemus could have been forgiven for thinking that Jesus had given him enough to think about but the conversation continues
One of the promises that God made to Abraham was that all the peoples on earth would be blessed through him. Jesus in the last part of our reading fills that out
He says three things that give ample space for wonder, glory and mystery and since we can’t exhaust any one of them I’ll just give the headline
The first of them is the promise of eternal life - the kind of life we already get occasional hints of - the Son of man is lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life - this is not about keeping all the laws, or by being born in the right family, or even being a lovely person - this is about recognising that Jesus is the one to follow, however inadequately
The second is the answer to the question the pharisees might have asked - why does God set the bar so low?
And the answer is He loves us - and love is perhaps above anything else that we know beyond our powers of explanation ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
The third thing is a reminder we are not God’s gatekeepers. The Pharisees sometimes seemed keener on a purity that barred people from God’s presence than a love that welcomed them v.17 makes clear this is the opposite of what God wants. ‘For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’
Perhaps as a Lenten disciplines we could try and notice God - ‘not in the fire but in the still small voice’ the voice that slightly disrupts your normal internal narrative - it could be ‘this is something that needs to be done and I could be a part of doing it , but it could be the unexpected richness of a moment ‘this is a beautiful sky’, ‘this is my friend with whom I feel at home’
Typically those parts of life which mean most to us have at their core something inexplicable and yet holy - not religious holy, but everyday holy, something we recognise as good news those places where we get a glimpse of wonder, mystery, glory - the place where we are most likely to meet God, or at least recognise his finger prints.
