By the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
Text: John 3:1-17, Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, Genesis 12:1-4a
Once upon a time there was a woman who taught special needs teenagers. She and they loved to do creative things. One spring, they decided to stage a production of “My Fair Lady.” The 16-yr-old girl she cast as the lead, Eliza Doolittle, was a person we might categorize as “confined to a wheel chair.” The girl loved the part. It was perfect for her! It didn’t occur to the teacher or the students that the audience was so conditioned to life’s “categories” and “boundaries,” what’s possible and impossible, that the audience would weep when the girl rolled herself across the stage, spinning and turning and joyfully belting out “I could have danced all night.”
No doubt there were many reasons for the tears. Maybe some had known her for years, since she’d entered the school just after the crippling accident. Or maybe others had known her even before the accident. Maybe they were joyful because of her strong spirit and progress. But, I’d venture to say, some had wet eyes because they’d been confined to their categories of what’s possible and impossible…people with impoverished imaginations. People, perhaps, not unlike Nicodemus, the Pharisee in today’s story from the Gospel of John.
Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews, but he, like many other leaders, was stuck in the externals of life. In the First Century, there was a Pharisaic Mindset that valued things like sitting at the head table, wearing long robes, being spoken to with respect in the marketplace, having the right answers at hand. These are things we hear a lot about from Jesus, especially in some of the other Gospels. It’s a tangible, concrete mindset, and it led Nicodemus to hear and interpret Jesus in a concrete way. No wonder what Jesus said to Nicodemus about being “Born from Above”
was understood by him to mean literally, physically, “Born Again”. He asks,
“Can (an old man) enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
I can imagine Jesus was pretty frustrated with this concrete thinking. He wanted Nicodemus to “get it”. Not to “come by night” and “stay in the dark”. Jesus wants Nicodemus, and us, to realize there’s an inner way of understanding. It’s a way that’s about God’s Kingdom. It’s a Way that breaks us out of the confines of our minds and physical categories. It’s a way that helps us let go of the need to think of things as physically impossible, and instead to be open to the incredible possibilities God offers us. . .
We see this in today’s other readings as well. Just imagine the God Paul describes
in the Letter to the Romans, “Who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist!” We’ve just got to let go of our categories of possibilities
to begin to open our minds to this amazing kind of God.
Like Abram did when God asked him to go forth from his father’s house, leave all he’d known, go to a place God would show him, and to be patient until God revealed the place. Then God would bless him, give him many children, and through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed…What a promise!
Now I’d say those of us from Sts. George and James know something about God’s call to “go forth”, leave all we’ve known, and enter a future God will reveal to us. It’s a future we cannot yet see. God calls us to trust in God’s promise to bless us, so we are a blessing to all God’s people.
Now, for whatever reason, when Abram received God’s call, he didn’t question
what was possible and impossible, he just embraced it. He was faithful to the incredible possibilities God was opening up for him. Abram’s faith enabled him to be open. I know there are times when we too are faithful and open to the possibilities God offers. In fact, our being here at Crissey Farm is a sign of that faithful openness!
But sometimes we’re more like Nicodemus, and we’re resistant to being open.
We may have a lot invested in living our lives with an external mindset…Valuing the concrete, outward things... things we live in the illusion that we control. Thinking of opening to a different, unknown dimension may give us a sense of
being out of control, like being in a free fall. Jesus basically affirms this…We are out of control!
He says being “Born from Above,” is being “Born by water and Spirit.” Then he talks about the Spirit as Wind. He explains, “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. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” When we let go of the things that confine our minds and open to categories of what might be possible with God, we are out of control. The Wind indeed “Blows where it will”. That’s really what’s behind that great 12-step slogan, “Let go and Let God.” This must have really threatened Nicodemus. If we’re attached to our neat and tidy concrete categories, it threatens us as well.
Perhaps some in the “My Fair Lady” audience had tears in their eyes because that young lady playing Eliza had danced right up to their boundaries and challenged them to dream, think beyond what’s physically possible, and to let go of their neat and tidy worlds. This is where we are today at St. James and St. George. God has called us to GO FORTH, and like Abram, to be patient as God reveals to us where God wants us to go. It is at once inviting and frightening! But letting go and going forth is what it takes to get out of the dark and to come into the light of morning.
To glimpse the Kingdom of God we’ve got to be open to the way the Spirit moves, and we’ve got to accept we don’t control it. We’ve got to be humble enough to admit we can’t fully comprehend God’s Spirit. “You do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” But if we can do this, we might, just might, come into the light and actually glimpse God’s Kingdom right here on earth. After all, isn’t that what we’re praying for each time we say, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done.
On earth as it is in heaven.”?
When we put aside our categories, our boundaries, our knowledge of what’s possible, and our need to control the future, we too can step out in faith and DANCE ALL NIGHT…until the morning comes. Amen.
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