I was in my old neighbourhood the other day. Willowdale in North York. Not much has changed except all the houses have shrunk. I drove by the park and the boards were still up for the ice. We played a lot of hockey there, afternoons, night after night, until we were so numb from cold that it took an at least an hour to get feeling back when we went home. With all of that hockey, you'd wonder why I wasn't a great hockey player, or why I was such a lousy skater (maybe they're related) I remember once, we were skating around, warming up for the big game. We always warmed up because the Maple Leafs warmed up before they played. Skating, stopping, skating backwards (some of us) shooting pucks at the boards and at the net (we only had one that day. the other net was marked by Larry's booths on the ice. Anyway, someone yelled "Heads Up!". I turned to see to whom the cry was made, I wanted to see what idiot was about to be hit by a puck. Of course, I turned around just in time to catch the puck with my throat. It hurt. I remember being amazed that the puck had hit me, because I was sure the "Heads Up" wasn't meant for me. They were words for someone else.
You know what I mean. Nowadays, when I'm driving on the 401 and the sign says, 100 kmh, I know that that sign isn't meant for me. It's meant for the guy in front of me who's going 80. Or it's meant for the guy who speeds past me when I'm going 120. It's certainly not for me. I know what I'm doing. I'm a good driver.
We have two dogs. Hercules and Gladys. Herc is a miniature dachsund. Gladys is a Jack Russell. One or both sleeps in our bedroom pretty much every night. That's fine. Apparently, we welcome them. Well, most nights about 3 or 4 am, Hercules gets up and flaps his ears. Shakes his head side to side and makes a loud flap, flap noise with his ears against his head. It sounds like frantic bat wings. It means, "I want to go outside... Now". "Hey, it's your carpet". Flap Flap Flap. That flapping. it's not meant for me. It's meant for my wife. She's a lighter sleeper than I am. I hate getting up. She's got mom ears. She hears everything and she's used to getting up. I roll over. (Sometimes, the flapping goes on so long that I have to nudge her before I roll over and go back to sleep.) The flapping isn't intended for me. Because I don't want it to be.
That's how this morning's reading used to strike me: not meant for me. Words for someone else. Not that part that we see at baseball games: John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that lie gave His only begotten son....", but the earlier part where Jesus says that we must be "born again". Well, I know what the words mean individually, and I think I understand what the combination of the two words mean. But I'm from the United Church and we don't do that "born again" thing. So the words are not meant for me. In high school there were lots of young earnest Baptists who really wanted me to "find it"; to be "born again" and I spent many years and some friends resisting it. It wasn't something that I felt I needed or wanted. So now, along comes this reading and I've worked so hard at not being "born again". I feel like this reading is not for me. But then I wonder, is it like the dog flapping, where I'm just being selfish and lazy. Is that why it's not for me? Is it like the 401 and it's my arrogance that tells me that it's not for me? Or is it like the hockey puck and I'd better pay attention, or I might be really sorry? Any way you look at it, I should probably pay attention.
So, lets look at it again. The words are spoken to Nicodemus. Do I have anything in common with Nic? Do we? Educated (we all are). Established. Again, we all are. (We may not like the place that we have established for ourselves, but most of us are established). And drawn to Jesus.
Nicodemus comes in the dark drawn to Jesus like a moth to light.... and well, we're here... .drawn to Jesus not always knowing why, but drawn. So the words that Jesus speaks to Nicodemus must be relevant . to me and to us.
It's odd - Nicodemus doesn't really open with a question. He goes to Jesus and tells him what he knows. He knows that Jesus is from God. Nicodemus knows a lot of things. We know a lot of things.
Upon hearing what Nicodemus knows, Jesus moves on.... he isn't interested in what Nicodemus knows. As the exchange continues we establish that Nicodemus must be born again.... being born once isn't enough.
Well, what is that supposed to mean? Our frustration is not unlike Nicodemus' frustration... What does it mean to be born again? Unlike Nic, we know that Jesus isn't referring to a second physical birth, but like Nic, we don't really know to what Jesus is referring... .do we?
In the exchange we are told that if we want to appreciate the Kingdom of Heaven... Stop right there. what does that mean? The Kingdom of Heaven? Is that where we go when we die. if we are good? I don't that that is what Jesus is talking about. When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he seems to be talking about something that we can experience, right here and right now. So, let me rephrase just a little: If we want to be complete, whole beings, happy and satisfied, feeling part of what goes on in the world... .the answer isn't knowledge (Nicodemus has that) ... ..the answer isn't in our physical selves (being born isn't enough)... So, what is it?
We must be spiritual beings as well. Do you really want to be whole, healthy and complete? Then you need to use not only your mind, not only your body. But also your spirit!! Born Again is to be born spiritually, to be aware of your spiritual self.
So. Good enough! Off we go to join a monastery. Or become part of a cult. Maybe buy a Ouija Board or get some crystals to wear around our necks. There is a whole New Age (or as my friend Andrew calls it newage) movement out there waiting for us to buy in (literally and figuratively).
Just how are we supposed to get spiritual? I could offer you books - I have dozens of them. By Thomas Moore, by Elaine Pagels, Meister Eickhard, and on and on. I could create, especially for you, a list of he 673 steps to becoming spiritual - a complete regimen of exercises and disciplines, and in no time flat you could be meditating and communing and just being all things spiritual! Wouldn't that be the ticket?
The problem is that I can't really teach you from experience, because I've never really been able to follow all the advice from any one of my books- even the One Minute Guide to Spiritual Awareness was tough on me......so many things to do and I'm not sure why....
I like to know why......And it all gets so complicated. But Jesus seems to make it simple. "Be born again," Jesus says.
Why can't all those books be that simple, too. Just tell me quickly and simply what to do to become spiritual and I'll do it. Is it some kind of food that I should eat? I'll buy it. Is it an exercise that I need to do everyday? I will do it. Do I need to be a vegetarian? I might try it. for a bit. (Potato skins with just cheese, no bacon. I can do that). But please, make it simple.
So let's make it simple. What does Jesus say? Jesus refers to a story involving Moses and the Israelites. Out in the desert they are being bitten by snakes. they asked Moses to intercede with God for them; to find relief from the snakes. God instructs Moses to make a bronze snake; to hold it high on a stick and for all the Israelites to look up at it and thereby find relief. In the Gospel, the author of John, clearly wants us to see a parallel between the snake on the stick and Jesus on the Cross... Salvation from on high. Jesus comments that he must be lifted up...
Well, this can get us going... A bronze snake on a stick, raised up.. the snake is a sign of evil.....the ten commandments forbid the making of idols... surely the Israelites are worshipping an idol in the Moses story. .this makes no sense.
"Stop! Wait a minute," I want to yell, "Keep it Simple" Don't complicate things... Who cares about the snake? It's the people who matter.
What to the Israelites do? They look up. What do 'we do in response to Christ on the Cross? We look up. It doesn't any simpler than that!
The first step to embracing your spiritual self is to look up. Away from yourself. You are not the center of the universe. You are not responsible for everything in the world.... You have a part to play. We all do, but it's not all on your shoulders... Look up, up and away. Consider the breadth of the horizon, the depth of the sky. I was looking out this morning, just looking up at the sky, the wonderful early morning sky. sure, it wasn't classically blue this morning, but still, the wonder and size of it all almost took my breath away. As I looked around and wondered at how it all fit together, the sun rising, the clouds floating, the far off hills climbing - I didn't think once about my mortgage... or my cold. or beloved our Canadian Olympic Hockey Team.... I was just amazed.
Look up - the first step in finding your spiritual self. Now as you look up, and see how grand the vistas are, how everything seems to move along without your pushing it -consider that there is something greater than you at work in the universe. I read the that ornithologists have figured out why eggs are oval shaped and not round. Round eggs will roll away, oval eggs roll in a circle so they don't roll away. over ledges or whatever. Now I know that it's just sentimental silliness on my part. but things like that make me believe that there is something greater than I at work in the universe. Who made eggs oval? Not birds... things like that are good for me. But others just find it silly. They don't see God in the shape of an egg. They don't perceive a "Higher Power".
In some programmes that help people with becoming comfortable with their spiritual selves, they talk about a higher power. Now for some, that's a politically correct way of saying God. so most of us here would refer to God as our higher power. God created the world, God is the one to whom we pray. God so loved the world... .etc.
But I wonder - in a practical day to day way, do we really consider God to be our higher power? Or are we pretty sure that we are the ultimate power?
I know of a fellow who was having trouble accepting the concept of a higher power in his life. He felt he was responsible; he was in charge He did the work. He cashed the pay cheques. Things fell apart when he didn't pay attention to detail or when he made the wrong choices. He was more than burdened he was almost destroyed by the fact that his children didn't do well in school, he couldn't face it when he didn't get the promotion he deserved. It almost killed him that he wasn't as successful as some of the other people in his neighbourhood.... it was all his fault. Obviously He was the highest power, because his mistakes had ruined it for everyone. He didn't push his kids hard enough. He didn't work hard enough. He didn't love his wife enough......
He was trying hard to get his life together. He wanted to sleep nights, he wanted to enjoy his life, He was told to start by accepting a higher power. He couldn't. His friend said. 'Alright, I'll prove to you the existence of a higher power: I want you to go out into the middle of the street take off all of your clothes. Fall down on the ground and begin to sing as loud as you can. Go on, try it! I guarantee that within a few minutes you will look up and see a higher power come along in a car with a flashing red light to take you away"
That he could understand. That's where his spirituality began. He understood that there was something bigger than himself. That also meant that he didn't have to shoulder all of the burden of carrying the world on his shoulders... .it meant that sometimes he could put a few of the worries down.. .it meant that he wasn't alone. This sense of a higher power began right there for him, and in time it grew to include other parts of his life.... today I believe he would call that higher power, God. But it didn't have to start there... it starts by looking up.
As Christians, as church people - we tend to start with the idea of God... .and later we learn the idea of higher power.
Do we really consider God to be our higher power or are we still, with all of our God talk and spiritual jargon, our own higher power? In our families. In our work. Do we control it all, work tirelessly to make it all work and find ourselves shattered when it doesn't? When making decisions to we really consider what God would have us do with our noisy neighbours? With the question of how fast we drive on the highway? With our family disagreements?
Sure, we pray to God for world peace and an end to racism, but do we ever speak to God about our husbands snoring? As Christians when we look up we see the cross.... we see Jesus on the cross and we can remember the words of John's Gospel "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son... .not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
The world... that's us. God is in the world through Jesus Christ for us. Not to condemn, but to make it better. When we look up, we should see that we are in a partnership with God. God is with us. So it makes sense for us to talk to God... to consider God.... in all the things that we do. It we pick and choose the right occasions, if we try to make sure that we only call on God at the appropriate times and in the appropriate circumstances, then we make it all too complicated. Keep it simple -talk to God about everything. That's what it means to be spiritual. That's what it means to be born again.
Now maybe you can hear these word and say to yourself - no big deal, I'm not particularly spiritual and my life works just fine. Fair enough. But you've probably noticed that I'm a little under the weather today ...we all know how that feels. Sometime tomorrow someone will ask me how I'm feeling - am I getting better? And I will probably say, "sure I'm coming along." But I wonder - am I feeling better, really better....or am I just getting used to being sick. Just getting used to not feeling at my best. Spirituality can be the same thing. You get on fine without it... or do you just get used to not having all of our pistons firing; all your forces working together?
Try it. Sometime today, look up. Look around at the world. See that you have a place in it. Say a quick prayer... "Thanks God for getting me through the day," or "God help me appreciate my wife." Whatever...keep it simple. Try it for a few days and then later on if you don't think it makes any difference, come and tell me I was wrong and we'll blame it on whatever cold or bug that I have. Or keep it to yourself and realize that you have begun to find your spiritual self... You are in fact, born again...and although there will be days when you can't quite clear your head and speak to God, there will be more days when you can.... When you can look up and know that you are in the presence of God.
(Comments to Norm at norman.seli@SYMPATICO.CA
)
Enniskillen & Tyrone United Churches, Ontario, Canada