2nd Sunday in Lent!
Prayer
John
3:1-17
First Movement:
During my first
full time pastorate in another faith tradition, I had two deacons. Deacons in that tradition were kind of like
lay leaders in ours. They were both very
faithful leaders in the church, but upon visiting them, I found that there was
always a point of contention between the two.
The one was a very deep thinker who was always asking questions; in any
discussion, he seemed to always play the devils advocate so to speak. He always had a question to ponder. He didn’t take anything at face value. He taught a Sunday School class and was a big
worker in the church.
The
other found his ministry in the evangelistical part of the church. When I first went there, he said he would
take me around to meet the shut-ins and to visit prospective members in the
area. He was an important resource in
that way. He helped me meet many people
who used to be active in the church who were not. He helped me meet many people in the
community who were not churched. He had
all the scriptures in mind to lead someone to Christ, and he sought
opportunities to use them. One of his
favorite scriptures was, “I write these things to you who believe in the name
of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (I John
15:13) To him, this scripture meant that
you could “know” that you were saved, and if you did not know, maybe something
was wrong.
When
I first visited my deep-thinker deacon, I hadn’t been visiting long when he
asked me, “Do you think you can know by any shadow of a doubt that you are
saved?” I said something like, “I think
we can have an assurance that we are saved, but I think there will always be
times we’ll have our doubts; Satan will see to that.” He proceeded to tell me about a discussion he
had had with the other deacon in which, the other deacon had told him he wasn’t
saved if he didn’t “Know” it. The other
deacon felt he was missing something! As
a result, this deacon always struggled with that knowing piece, and as you can
imagine, there was always a point of contention between the two. I think he was a little jealous of the one
who seemed to have it all figured out, and he acted out sometimes as a
result. We’ll come back to this later!
Second Movement:
Our scripture
today from John’s gospel, is about a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who comes to
talk to Jesus by night. The closest
comparison in the synoptic gospels is the story of the Rich Young Man or Ruler
who asks what he must do to be saved, but in John’s gospel, he is given a name,
is a Pharisee, and he doesn’t ask what he needs to do to be saved, but he just
comes, and Jesus tells him, “You must be born again.”
Remember
I told you: “John’s gospel is
different. John seems to march to a
different beat. His gospel has been
called the maverick gospel. Robert Kysar wrote a book about John’s gospel
called “The Maverick Gospel” because John’s gospel seems to stand alone. When you look at something in John’s gospel,
you do well to look at what is different from the other gospels and ask
yourself why John felt the need to record it differently.” I also said, “It seems to me that John is
more into interpreting what has happened than just recording for us what has
happened.”
John has this
discussion about being born again. It is from John’s gospel that we get this
theology of the new birth in Christ. He
says, if Jesus is lifted up, he will
draw all people to himself. He says,
that Jesus came so that whosoever believes can have eternal life! He is interpreting for us what Jesus
did. Also, I think John wants us to
follow Nicodemus’s story a little closer for a reason.
Here Nicodemus
comes by night. He is a Pharisee, and
following Jesus would not be a popular thing in his circles, but he comes to
have this discussion with Jesus. He
seeks him out; he has questions.
Nicodemus opens with “I know you are a teacher from God; you couldn’t do
these things otherwise.” This is somewhat of a faith statement! Then Jesus offers to him, “No one can see
the
I think John wants
us to follow Nicodemus a little closer because our journey isn’t always one
with no questions or doubts, but nevertheless, it is a journey of faith. Today, just like in Nicodemus’ journey of
faith, Jesus is not afraid of our
questions! It is okay to ask
questions! John also wants us to see
that sometimes that one who is asking all the questions is the one still
standing when all others have fled! They
are the ones who are really growing in faith!
Third Movement:
John
knew that we would have questions; that is why in I John 15:13 he writes, “I
write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that
you may know that you have eternal life.”
John is trying to give us some assurance in spite of our questions. He is trying to answer some of the
questions. He is not trying to say that
we will know beyond the shadow of a doubt, and if we do not know beyond the
shadow of a doubt or if we question, we aren’t saved! That is really making this verse say
something it isn’t saying.
I said I’d come
back to my two deacons. I think they
both had faith. They were both great
workers in the church. None of us are
perfect, and neither of these were perfect.
They both had their strong points.
The one was good at allowing people to ask the questions and grow in
their faith. The other was good at
reaching out to those on the outside and trying to bring them in. The latter and his wife were great friends to
us and offered to be substitute grandparents for our children while we were
there, for which I will always be grateful!
I wish they could have understood each other’s journey more. I wish they could have valued each other’s
part a little more and not felt intimidated by the other.
Nicodemus’
story reminds us that there is a place for both types in the
Or
maybe faith comes pretty easy for you, and you don’t understand why some people
have all the questions. Maybe you see
that as a lack of faith on their part?
Maybe you sometimes doubt their salvation? Maybe you need to come and as Christ for
patience and to help you to be more accepting of others who are also on the
faith journey as you continue your journey this lent?
You
can do both of these as you encounter Christ at the table this morning! I invite you, as you walk away from the
table, to look at the cross and be reminded of the price Christ paid for you so
that you can live for God today! It is
not anything that we have done. It is Christ
who makes us worthy!
Prayer
of Confession
Service
of Communion
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