Lent 2
by Paul Larsen

John 3: 1-17

Have you ever had one of those nights when you just couldn't sleep? First
you are too hot. Then you are too cold. You pound the pillow, you move
around on the mattress, you get up and go to the bathroom for the fourth or
fifth time, but regardless of what you do you can't get comfortable. Mostly
what is keeping you awake is your mind. It is chasing around about 90 miles
an hour and your body, which really doesn't want to go anywhere, is
rebelling. There you are thinking about stupid stuff:

wondering what you could do to solve some petty problem;

worrying about how someone took something you said;

wishing you had made a smart answer to some clod's crude comment;

and for that you are losing a good night's sleep.

You get angry at yourself because you know you are going to be miserable in
the morning and still you can't stop it. Eventually, you may move into
headier questions like:

"Why am I living at this hectic pace?"

"Why aren't I happier?"

"What is the meaning of my existence?"

Maybe that is the kind of night Nicodemus was having when he came to see
Jesus. Or maybe, like a good Rabbi, he was studying the scriptures late into
the night and he came up with a question. If that was the case, however, it
seems strange that Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jewish people, would ever come
to Jesus for an answer. The Pharisees called Jesus, "The Nazarene." That
would be like calling someone a "hick".

Perhaps he came in the dead of the night because he was afraid of what his
fellow Pharisees would think of him conversing with this carpenter. Peer
pressure is a powerful force. Psychologists tell us that peer pressure is
more powerful than parental pressure in dealing with teenagers. And we know
ourselves that no matter what we say to deny it, we really do care what
others think of us. Nicodemus might have been embarrassed if he had been
seen talking to Jesus - just as you or I might feel flushed if someone saw
us paused in prayer. Kind of sad, but true.

We don't really know why Nicodemus came to Jesus that night. Maybe he didn't
even know himself, because he doesn't really ask a question, not at first
anyway. He says: "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." It is almost as if Nicodemus wants Jesus to affirm that this is true
and sell himself - convincing Nicodemus to follow him. But instead, Jesus
makes a strange statement saying, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see
the kingdom of God without being born from above."

If Nicodemus came looking for answers he left confused. Jesus doesn't give
him any answers. Instead, he confronts him with the mysteries of God saying,
"The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do
not know where it comes from or where it goes."

That really wasn't what Nicodemus was looking for. Nor is it what we would
prefer. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was used to answers. A Pharisee was a man
who had pledged to spend all his life observing every detail of the scribal
law. To a Jew, the Law was the most sacred thing in all the world. The Law
was the first five books of the Bible and they believed it to be the perfect
word of God. They believed that the law contained either explicitly or
implicitly everything a person needed to know to live the good life. There
were no mysteries, only rules and regulations.

While we aren't into rules and regulations, we also aren't much into mystery
- at least not mystery that isn't solved. If it can't be solved in two hours
of television or 300 pages of a book, we grow uncomfortable with it. We like
to know the Who, What, When, Where and Why of things. So Jesus' answer isn't
really the one we are looking for either.

We don't think much about the wind except if it blows too much. We don't
know where it comes from despite all the meteorological maps of high and low
pressure areas. But when it blows I wish it would go away. It messes up my
hair - what little I have left! It

also messes up my golf shots, which is even more disturbing.

But then, that is what the Spirit means to do.

The Holy Spirit means to mess up our lives.

The Spirit means to make us uncomfortable with our self-centeredness and
materialism and the injustice in the world.

The Spirit means to blow our minds with questions that confront us with who
our God is and what that means to us.

The Holy Spirit hopes to move us toward rebirth.

Nicodemus didn't like Jesus' answer because it told him that keeping a bunch
of rules and regulations wouldn't get him into the kingdom of heaven. And we
don't like his answer because it tells us we can't just sort of tune up our
lives, but we need a complete overhaul. We can't just tinker around with
religion, but we must be reborn.

In Flannery O'Conner's short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", an escaped
murderer called the Misfit is about to kill this whole family because they
have recognized him. The grandmother tries to convince him not to kill them,
telling him that Jesus can help straighten him out. The Misfit replies
saying, "Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead and he shouldn't
have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If he did what he said, then
its nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow him. And if
he didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got
left the best way you can."

For the most part I wonder if we don't live as if Jesus didn't do what he
said. We pursue our pleasures and live for ourselves. Like Nicodemus we have
our religion and hope it is good enough to get us into the Kingdom, but we
shy away from any real change in our life. We wrestle with our questions in
the night and come to Jesus when no one will see us and think us the fool.
But seldom do we claim him in the brightness of day or live a life that is
radically different. Jesus may have set the world on its head, but we want
to be known as a person with both feet on the ground.

We want to be people with answers to questions and logical proofs to back up
our perspective. But that just isn't the way life is. Some questions just
don't have good answers and we have to live and survive in the midst of
their mystery.

A few weeks ago I got in a conversation with some people I didn't know. When
they found out that I was a pastor they told me about an acquaintance of
theirs. He is a junior in high school, a good student, an excellent athlete,
a state champion wrestler in fact. He went out drinking with his friends a
couple of weeks ago. His girlfriend said he was too drunk to drive so she
drove. But she was drunk also. She rolled the car and now this young man is
laying in the hospital paralyzed from the neck down. Without a miracle he
will never walk again. What a tragic waste. What a terrible way to have to
go through life all because of a dumb mistake.

In our conversation they mused about the injustice of it all. They mentioned
another young man, a known drug dealer. He is a high school drop out whose
only job seems to be selling death to other youth. He drives a fancy new
truck, has plenty of money to spend and nothing bad ever seems to happen to
him, despite his evil ways.

Who can answer why one young person is paralyzed because of a single
mistake, while another lives a life of crime and seemingly has everything
going for him?

Who has an explanation for why vital and valuable men and women get cut down
by cancer, while people who have lost all sense of purpose for their life
and long to die, linger on for years in a nursing home?

Who can say why floods and hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes can
devastate one town destroying it and its people in an instant, while another
community goes unscathed?

If we can't understand the things of this world, which we can see, how can
we expect to understand about God and heavenly things?

We can never completely know or comprehend God.

We can never fathom His ways.

We can never properly serve and obey God, and yet he loves us.

Like the wind we can not see Him, we can only see the effects of his
actions.

In looking at the universe we see the creative hand of God the Father.

In hearing the message of Jesus' death and resurrection, we learn of our
salvation through God the Son.

In experiencing the word, the sacraments and the church we discover the gift
of faith given by the Holy Spirit.

The Triune God - three persons united in one Godhead - another mystery.
While we will never have answers for all the questions about the Trinity, we
do have one answer which gives us insight into that and all other mysteries.
That answer is given to us in I John 4:8 where it says, "God is love."

God doesn't just love, but God IS LOVE. By God's very nature He loves us. We
were created to be God's people. We were redeemed for a relationship with
God. And even now the Holy Spirit pursues us, seeking to give us faith. God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in their nature because they are all
love. And because God is love and sent His son to save the world rather than
condemn it, we can face the ambiguities, mysteries and questions of life
with confidence. We can look to the sacrament of our baptism and know that
we have been reborn of water and the Spirit. We have been drowned to sin and
raised to new life. We have been made God's people and as God's people we
are loved.

The Holy Spirit will continue to blow in our lives until we know for certain
that God makes a difference.

Sometimes the Spirit blows as a hot wind which makes us uncomfortable and
gets us moving on the path of serving others.

Other times the Spirit comes as a cool breeze offering us comfort for our
sorrows and peace in the midst of our problems.

On occasion the Holy Spirit may even howl like a hurricane making it
impossible for us to keep both feet on the ground and reminding us that we
weren't made just for earth anyway.

But always the Spirit blows around our life reminding us of God's presence
even in the midst of mystery.

Amen.

(Comments to Paul at paullarsen@COMCAST.NET.)
Christ the King Lutheran Church

New Brighton, MN