by Michael Phillips
Gen. 12:1-4a; John 3:1-17
The LORD
said to Abram, the 12th chapter of Genesis begins, Go, and we are
told, So Abram went. Abram had been
taken from
After the death of Terach or we could say, after the death of delay, The LORD said to Abram, Go and Abram went. Yet, does our text give us any clues as to what brought about the delay something we can learn from and apply in our own lives that we might be blessed, and be a blessing? The LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will show you. In other words, Abram, leave everything familiar, in order to find a land that is unfamiliar; leave what you have, in order to find what you dont yet have.
Delay, says Webster is an unexpected lapse of time or lateness; to delay is to cause to be late, to hinder the progress of, to postpone, or to fail to make haste. Aeschylus, the Greek poet and dramatist, from the 6th century, B.C.E., once said, When a mans willing and eager, God joins in.[1] Delay, then, it may be said, results from a lack of willingness and eagerness.
In every human institution, there are dynamics that lend themselves to a kind of delay that results from a lack of willingness and eagerness. The first is the prospect of change institutions tend to forget what business theyre in and how they got there, and start thinking about how to stay wherever it is and however it is they are. The second is the prospect of risk we know what we have now, but we cant know what we might have then. Abram was asked of God both to embrace change and to accept risk and to Abram, God promised: I will bless you so that you will be a blessing.
Johns gospel is the favorite of many people. It is represented by the face of the eagle, because it soars in spirituality almost devoid of earthiness. Matthew is represented by an angel yet, angels who talk with shepherds, and visit stables (theres none of that in John). Mark, the Lion, the power of God invested in the man, Jesus, and Luke, the ox the suffering servant.
Johns great theme is light and darkness. Only in John would you hear the words, youre either with me, or against me. Only in John are we told that the Jews who resist Jesus are children of the devil. Isnt it strange that the gospel we most often relate to the divine nature of Gods Spirit and Christs divinity should be the meanest of the four? The same gospel in which we hear For God so loved the world, God sent Gods only Son we hear a scathing assault against those who have chosen to hold on to their traditions and stories and to reject the change and risk associated with believing in Jesus Christ.
There is only light, and darkness, without gray, in the Gospel of John. In some ways, its like beholding the power of the atom and realizing nothing could exist without its tiny bonds, while at the same time noting everything is at risk should the center fail to hold and be split. John is both gracious and dangerous belying our tendency to think of Gods Spirit as only soft, gentle, caressing, loving John is a hammer of love that we likely would reject if we ever got the inkling he was speaking about us.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus in Johns gospel at night. Coincidence? No. Nicodemus is a teacher who is in the dark. Jesus says, no one can see the Realm of God without being born from above of water and spirit, (Greek) spirit, pneuma the movement of the wind.
Its no accident that water and wind would be utilized to speak of Gods entrance into the lives of humanity. In geography, what are the two greatest change agents on the face of the planet? They are water, and wind they transform entire continents, the face of the oceans they can be gentle as a zephyr or as raging as a tsunami. They accept no delay they move where they will. We erect walls against them, and roofs we insulate our lives against the force of their power. And yet, Jesus says (according to John), unless we are born of them, we cannot see or enter Gods Realm.
Would you
describe your life as being born of water and wind would you describe your
life as being an agent of change? Would
you describe your life, as being a force in the hand of God that moves where
God wills? Or, would
you describe your life as settled in