A Fresh Start

A Fresh Start
by Donald Hoffman

Genesis 12:1-4a; John 3:1-17

The first thing you need to know about Abram & Sarai is that they don’t believe in life after death. In their day nobody believes in life after death. You carry out your family responsibilities, you worship your family gods, you do what you are supposed to do, and then you die and you are buried, and that is that. That’s all there was to it.

In all the Hebrew Scriptures--39 books, 890 pages, hundreds of years--there are one or two little hints, a couple of faint suggestions, that someone is beginning to suspect that there may be something more.

And those one or two hints or suggestions about life after death, they come a thousand years after Abram and Sarai are dead and gone. They never had a chance to believe in life after death.

And Sarai is never going to write a best-selling novel. Abram’s never going to win a Grammy award or a Nobel prize. He’s got no chance to become Mayor of Haran, and the book Who’s Who hasn’t been invented yet. What are they going to leave behind after they’re gone?

Children! They hope! Like most people Abram and Sarai want to have a family, to found a dynasty, to live on in the genes and memories of their children. And there is that hopeful name: not Abraham yet, but a shorter form, Abram. It means “great father.” Abram. He wants to be a father. He wants a child.

But the joke is on him. Abram and Sarai try and try. But they cannot have children. Despite that hopeful name, there is no hope for Abram. There is no hope for Sarai.

And Abram and Sarai grow old, and maybe a little bitter in their hopelessness. Because when you get up in your 80’s and 90’s, how can you possibly have children? You might as well be dead! And there is no life after death.

And then something happens. Maybe it’s like a little voice whispering in their ears: “Abram I’ve got a job for you. Abram, I’ve got a new land for you. Sarai, I’ve got a surprise for you!”

And suddenly the joke isn’t on Sarai and Abram any more. The joke is on all the experts: the scientists and the doctors and the technicians and the managers, and the editors of the Guinness Book of Records. All the people who said, “It can’t happen here. It’s never been done before. There’s no hope for you and your husband. Maybe you should consider adopting a child.” Now, the joke is on them.

And Abram gets a new name--”Abraham, Father of Nations.” And Sarai gets a new name--Sarah. A pretty name, means “princess.”

And she’s going to spend her ninety-first birthday in the maternity ward. And Medicare will have to pay for a delivery room. Old, white-haired Sarah, with her lined face and her false teeth, she’s going to have a baby!

It’s enough to make anybody laugh! In fact that’s exactly what Sarah does later on in the story. She hides inside the tent and stuffs her apron into her mouth to smother the snickers, but God hears her anyway. “What’s so funny, Sarah? What are you laughing about?” “Not me, God,” says Sarah, trying to keep a straight face in front of company, “Why would I laugh about an old, old woman having a baby?”

“Well, if you’re going to laugh about it,” says God, “why don’t you call the baby Yitzhak?” (In English we would say ‘Isaac.’ The name means something like “giggles.”)

When the world has things all figured out; when the experts and the managers say it’s always been this way, and things are never going to change; when the scientists are telling you that water doesn’t flow uphill and that toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube and that people in the nursing home can’t have babies; that’s when God steps in and says, “Surprise!” And suddenly the most hopeless people have reason to hope. Who knows? Maybe there is even life after death!

The first thing you need to know about Nicodemus is that he doesn’t believe in death before life.

By the time of Nicodemus, 1800-2000 years after Abraham and Sarah, a lot of people are beginning to believe in life after death. Jewish religious leaders are divided into two parties. One is called the Pharisees. They believe God will raise the dead. The other party is the Sadducees. They don’t believe God will raise the dead.

Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He believes in life after death. What he doesn’t  believe in is death before life.

Nicodemus is one of the movers and shakers. He’s part of the establishment. He’s a leader of the party out of power. It’s like being Senator Patty Murray. You’re a Democrat but the Republicans control the Senate. You’re still a pretty important person. Nicodemus is a Pharisee Senator when the Sadducees control the Jewish Senate. He’s still pretty important.

And he has to worry about his image. What will Peter Jennings and Brian Williams do to him if they find out he’s been talking to a socialist revolutionary nut like Jesus? So Nicodemus sneaks out of his house at night and comes to investigate. He starts by buttering Jesus up. He calls him “Professor.”

“Professor, we know you are a teacher come from God. Your miracles are impressive.”

But Jesus doesn’t butter easily: “Amen, amen,” he says, which in English means “verily, verily,” or “truly, truly,” “unless people are born from above, they’ll never be able to see the kingdom of God.”

Now a slight misunderstanding begins here. That English phrase, “from above,” is a single Greek word. It could mean “from above” or it could mean “again.” Is Jesus telling Nicodemus he needs to be born from above, a spiritual birth, or is he telling him he needs to be born again, a second birth? All the way along here, Jesus will be talking about the difference between physical birth and spiritual birth, while Nicodemus will be talking about the difference between first birth and second birth.

Still, there’s not that much  difference. Nicodemus can not go back inside his mother’s womb and be born again physically. The second birth has to be a spiritual birth, and the spiritual birth has to come second after the physical birth.

The real problem is that to be born a second time you have to die a first time. The act of starting over means there is something wrong with the first start.

Nicodemus hears Jesus tell him that he has to treat all his successes as failures. To behave as if his whole life up to now has been wasted. Give it all up and start fresh.

“No one can enter God’s kingdom without being born of water and spirit.” Water and spirit? Why that’s baptism Jesus is talking about. What is baptism if it isn’t God’s laundry--washing away the stains of the old life? What is baptism if it isn’t God’s graveyard, where our old life is dead and buried? What is baptism if it isn’t an admission that we’ve chosen the wrong fork in the highway of life, that we’ve got to go back to the crossroads and start over?

Nicodemus has by-passed John the Baptist (who is always talking about baptism and repentance and starting over) and gone straight to Jesus, … and got slapped with the very same message.

And Nicodemus does not want to die, not even the easy death of baptism. It is so hard to say, I was wrong. It is so hard to accept new life, if that newness is a judgment on the old life.

In slightly different variations, the same gospel, the same good news comes to both Sarai and Nicodemus. It comes to the hopeless person who doesn’t believe in life after death, and it comes to the proud person who doesn’t believe in death before life. To Sarai the surprising message of God is hope. To Nicodemus the surprising message of God is humility.

To Sarai God speaks a word that will untie all the knots that hold her back. To Nicodemus God speaks a word that will unravel all the plans that will get him ahead.

It is possible to have a fresh start. It is necessary to be born again. “Behold I make all things new.” Hope for the “down and out.” And grace for the “up and coming.” A challenging promise to losers, and a promising challenge to winners. There is life after death as long as there is death before life.

And deep underneath, it is the same message of endings and beginnings, death and birth, crucifixion and resurrection. Deep underneath, it is the same story of love: “For God so loved the world that God gave …”

Which are YOU--Abram & Sarai OR Nicodemus? Is God about to surprise you with hope or is God about to surprise you with humility?

(Comments to Don at donaldhoffman379@centurytel.net.)
Creston Christian Church
Creston, Washington, USA