But, lest I get charged with false advertising, let me begin with a story.
{Tiger story}
I love this story because it takes the sentimentality and certainty out of the conversion experience. When I read the Bible, it is so easy for my to tsk, tsk those whom Jesus chides. Poor, foolish Nicodemus. Here you are in the presence of Christ, he tells you that you need to be born athenos, which in Greek can mean either from above or again, and you silly man are thinking that it means again and that you need to crawl into your Mother's womb. Poor foolish Nicodemus.
When I read the Bible, and I read the text from Genesis that Deb read for us where God says, 'pick up your things and go' and Abram picks up his things and he goes. When I read this, I like to think that is what I would do.
Well those who saw Pastor Cole preach in Lee Center last week know that the most powerful tool in Satan's arsenal is pride. Pride makes us see ourselves through a rose colored haze- making us reinterpret our sins as virtues and the piety of others as foolishness.
When I read the story of the three men and the tiger, I think to myself- What an idiot that third man was! I think that most of you would agree with me. This is why I love the story. It allows us a refreshingly honest glimpse of ourselves as we truly are. On our best days, we are like Nicodemus. But rarely, if ever, are we like Abraham. By our own will, we will always trust in ourselves. We will always go by our own judgment, our own presuppositions, our own volition. Yes we will always trust ourselves, even over God.
But,
“Ye must be born again.”
Our founding father, John Wesley, tells us
If any doctrines within the whole compass of Christianity may be properly termed fundamental, they are doubtless these two, -- the doctrine of justification, and that of the new birth: The former relating to that great work which God does for us, in forgiving our sins; the latter, to the great work which God does in us, in renewing our fallen nature.
http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/serm-045.stm
Yes, in renewing our fallen nature. In reassessing who we are at the fundamental core of our being. Yes of fully dying and being reborn. In the earliest records of baptism that we have, the candidate for baptism would have never seen one before. So imagine his or her surprise when the priest would literally trip them into a pool, and hold them down until they started to drown. Until they really got the sense that they were about to die.
This is dangerous stuff we are talking about here! Once you go down that road, you may never come back.
But we must go down that road, because there are but two roads, the one that leads to life and the one that leads to death, and we had better choose wisely. We were born to seek life. We receive this life when we are reborn. When we are reborn, we find out who we really are.
“Nicodemus came to Jesus because Nicodemus knew that Jesus knew the answers. However, Nicodemus did not know the questions.” http://www.day1.net/transcript.php?id=225
Nicodemus' questions are all along the lines of 'how could this be?' Jesus knew that the questions that he really wanted answered were, "Who am I? Why was I born? Where do I belong? How can I be at peace with who I am?" These are the kinds of questions which keep one up at night. That make us get out of bed and seek solace somewhere, hopefully in the tent with Jesus. These are the questions that Jesus answers.
Who am I? I am no longer a descendant of Adam, I am no longer fully bound by his sin. Rather, I are given the pure gift of new life through Jesus Christ. I am born from above, born of the wind, born of the spirit. I can't see it, but I can see its effects in our own lives and the lives that we touch. I see the world as it truly, as loved, as so loved by God that God would give God's only begotten son that I should not perish but receive eternal life.
This love is available to all and when we accept this love, an amazing thing happens. We get a piece of that love. We too so love the world that we are willing to give our all. We lose our condemnation of the world, as Jesus did not come to condemn. Where we saw hopeless pain, we now see transformation. Where we saw only our limitations, we now see that we participate in the infinitude of God.
Nikos Kazantzakis preaches that there are three kinds of souls, each with their own prayers.
I am a bow in your hands, Lord, draw me, lest I rot.
Do not overdraw me, Lord. I shall break.
Overdraw me, Lord, and who cares if I break.
(Report to Greco. New York, Touchstone 1975)
This latter is the kind of reckless faith of Father Abraham, the kind of reckless obedience to God's will that our spiritual heir had. This is how people wake up one morning and find themselves in a Leper colony in India, a warehouse in Louisiana, or at the house of a friend who hasn't yet found Jesus.
This latter type of faith is nothing less than the recognition that when we participate in God's plan, we become love itself.
Similar to Nicodemus, we may ask, “How can these things be?” (v. 9). The answer is simple. God loves. Jesus saves. Amen. So be it.
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