John 3:1-9 from The Message
Confirmation Sunday 2011
My interpretive words from this pulpit today are very much directed to each of you in the confirmation class. I trust everyone else gathered here this morning for Lenten worship will receive a good word from God as well, a word about living in the Light instead of the Dark. It’s just that when the Holy Spirit nudged me one night last week to preach about Nicodemus and Jesus, I sensed a special significance for this important day in your faith journeys.
The Gospel of John tells us Nicodemus was a “prominent leader” among his Jewish congregation. For today, let’s consider him to have basically been like a church elder. He was responsible for helping to uphold all the teachings and rules of the Scripture and tradition that had been taught to him. He took his religious obligations very seriously, meaning he honored the ways of God that his faithful heart, mind and soul had come to understand. In this regard, like Nicodemus, I hope each of you feels ready and responsible to uphold and share the biblical values and disciplines that you have learned so far, and that in the days and years to come you will find yourselves active as faithful leaders in church and everywhere across this beautiful but in need of blessings world.
One of the responsibilities of a prominent leader in any field is to stay on top of current events and trends, and the people considered movers and shakers. Nothing was moving and shaking the Jewish community of Elder Nico’s day quite as much as Jesus. Every prominent Jewish leader had to carefully consider what Jesus was all about, and whether or not he was an offensive fraud of some sort and thus a danger to the faithful fabric of their community. We don’t know what the overall consensus about Jesus was amongst all of the Pharisees (this was his proper title), but Elder Nico and at least several close to him had come to the conclusion that Jesus was, as our reading from The Message translation puts it, a teacher “straight from God.” He believed Jesus was genuine, the real deal. He believed it was God’s holy authority at work in, and being revealed through, the amazing words and actions of Jesus.
So you’d think Jesus had successfully netted another follower for his new fishing crew. And not just another follower, but a prominent leader! What a good person to have when starting up a new religious movement! It seems, however, Jesus did not trust that Nicodemus had really grasped the enormous change that was taking place. Why?
For one thing, Nicodemus had chosen to talk to Jesus under the cloak of night, rather than out in the open daylight. This signaled to Jesus that Elder Nico was only partially aware of what was going on. He was, literally and symbolically, still in the dark.
Jesus knew, however, that conversation and decision making made in the dark, doubts and all, can lead to a new dawn full of clear, broad daylight and confirmation. So Nicodemus must have been pleased to learn that he had indeed gotten it correct when he said Jesus was straight from God. But then Jesus added a clarifying condition to what it fully means to consider him in this way.
He said that a person had to be “born from above” in order to truly see Jesus as the one pointing to God’s kingdom.
When he hears this condition to his conclusion about Jesus, Nicodemus got terribly and a bit amusingly confused. You see, he was a person accustomed to following very set, institutional and authoritative rules. Having a standard playbook to study and to coach others with gave him comfort and a means of control. The suggestion that a new process, a whole new way of obeying God was suddenly in play disoriented him so much he actually and amusingly seemed to think Jesus was suggesting that people had to be somehow physically re-born.
I would have turned to Elder Nico and said, “Duh!” before pointing out how impossible and silly it is to think such a thing even for a second.
Jesus, being the Son of God and all, was more patient and polite. He chose to further explain rather than to shame Nicodemus. What a great teacher! He met this guy right where he was stuck in his understanding. He explained that just as humans are born with and grow into a physical shape, the person they are is also the result of being shaped by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said this to teach that following him was going to mean more than just physically following along with the disciplines and rituals and studies of Scripture and tradition. It was going to be about more than relying on what had been taught. Elder Nico had to understand and accept that the Spirit was going to move him and other faithful people in new and unpredictable, uncontrollable directions. This was an invitation to new growth, new openness, a new birth of understanding and of walking with and following and serving God. Jesus did not want Nicodemus to see him and his ministry as just neatly fitting into preconceived mental boxes meant to manage God Almighty.
So being a faithful follower and growing into a prominent leader in the ministry of Jesus meant Elder Nico was going to have to do more than follow his own well trained understanding of how to go about loving and obeying God. He was going to have to be really embrace living in God’s kingdom as a weathervane moved by holy wind. Not an easy position to be in for someone used to trusting just one play book and to believing he had certain control over knowing and teaching what God was all about. Not an easy position to be in for someone interested in Jesus but still in the dark about whether or not to have a more radical trust in God. The Bible doesn’t tell us if Nicodemus ever accepted this, whether or not he ever really embraced Jesus as the Messiah that had come to inaugurate a new world order. No sense in speculating about it. It makes more sense to give you three bullet points about why, symbolically, I consider his story so important as you formally join the universal church and this congregation today.
First, don’t get stuck in the dark by settling for only one level of thinking. The process we are wrapping up today provided you with a significant, trustworthy framework for understanding God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It also gave you a firm guide for understanding what church is all about and why it’s so important to worship and actively stay connected. The purpose of having you write a statement of faith was to fuse these two things together. Your statements were, as I truly did expect them to be, absolutely well thought out and written. You’ve demonstrated biblical knowledge and that you can think in line with our reformed Presbyterian teachings. Don’t just settle at this level, though. Now move on and build more and more levels of faithful thought and holy experience upon it. Remember that it was to his credit, even though under the cloak of some doubts and insecurities, that Nicodemus leveled up from his basic foundation when he finally decided to meet up with Jesus.
Second, understand and fully accept that nobody on the face of the earth discovers greater levels of thinking about God and the church on their own. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit, a gift you receive constantly as you commit to an ongoing and relevant and real relationship with Jesus Christ. It comes through more Bible reading, more worship and fellowship, and through all kinds of modern multimedia online avenues. Just ask me sometime how I study theology through my Twitter network!
After you leave this sanctuary, you’ll be able to identify yourself as someone who has been confirmed, as someone who is a full member of Fairmount Presbyterian Church. On one level of thinking, being “confirmed” and being a “member” are identifying labels. On this labeling level, you can identify yourself one way while representing yourself in many other ways. The identity you need to keep closest to your heart -- the one the Holy Spirit is always working on shaping you into -- is that of a unique, fully loved child of God blessed with the forgiving grace of Christ Jesus. What this means for you right now, the rest of this year, and for all your years to come will shift according to your choices and circumstances. There is never a need to doubt, though, that the Spirit stands with and within you to help you know what God wants done in the depths of your life.
My final bullet point (and I know you all can imagine how I would present this to you in Power Point!), is this – abide by the exemplary love of Jesus. Make it your priority, the daily lens on life for all that is going on. His Holy Spirit interprets what is written about His perfect example when he walked directly among us. The more you read and study his words and actions, the more you talk to Him in prayer and to others in community, the more you’ll depart the dark of doubt and dance in the light.
As Nicodemus knew and most likely feared, this can mean some risky business. It may mean certain realities come to the light – realities of what sin does to us and to this beautiful world – that you’d rather keep, for the sake of worldly comfort, shaded from view. Things you might be tempted to try and ignore with the hope that someone else will deal with it. It’s easier to avoid scary dark alleys rather than choose to enter them while saying to yourself and others that Jesus is calling you there to represent His Light. I personally think that Nicodemus lived with regret that he didn’t do more, didn’t risk more, in order to get to know and abide in Jesus while our Lord was right there standing with him. We know from John’s Gospel that he once tried to defend Jesus, unsuccessfully at that. But then, all we are told is that he showed up at Jesus’ grave with some burial spices. Perhaps he was trying to bury the regret of not stepping more fully into the Light? I certainly pray he did step up and out after the resurrection, but none of us should be waiting until our resurrected life to shine Jesus’ light in the world!
This confirmation process has been a privilege for me to share with you. You are each smart, spiritual, and greatly gifted. God loves you. We love you in the Lord. We have all pledged to support you on your faith journeys. We will not treat you as junior church members but as individuals with voice and vocation in the church. We know there will be times when talking to and being involved with Jesus will feel most comfortable to you when it’s under cover of night, where you can hide out a bit. No problem, we’ve all been and may still be there. Other times, we know you’ll boldly and brightly shine your faith in an ever changing church. I’m eager to share more faithful moments with each of you. So commence! So sing! Then let’s confirm what you are especially here for this morning to the glory of God! Amen!
