Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from John 3:1-17

Proclaimed on February 20, 2005

Life is full of surprises! Take, for instance, this story of a man walking up and down the streets of a neighborhood looking for odd jobs. Suddenly he sights a large, beautiful home whose owners are obviously people of means. When he rang the doorbell an attractive, but sophisticated woman greeted him. He inquired of any odd jobs she might allow him to do for pay. “Are you any good at painting?” she asked. “Oh, yes, ma’am,” he replied, “and I have never had any complaints about my work.” The lady then stated that the porch at the back of her house needed painting. When he was finished he could come to the back door and she would be glad to pay him what the job was worth. Several hours later he called her to the back door. “Are you finished already?” she inquired. Answered the man, “Yes. But, Lady, there’s one thing I’d like to point out to you. That’s not a Porsche back there. That’s a Mercedes!”

Misunderstandings. They occur quite regularly in our lives. One such event took place in our Gospel reading for this morning. A man by the name of Nicodemus steals a visit with Jesus late at night. The reason for the late visit may be that this was the only time he could have a private audience with Jesus due his busy schedule. However, many believe that there was a more intriguing reason. Nicodemus was a greatly esteemed leader of the Jews. He was a Pharisee—a teacher of the Law. He was also a member of the Sanhedrin, which was the ruling body of the Jews. For sure the other leading Jews would have frowned upon such a visit for they considered Jesus a heretic. This apparent secret visit could therefore be called “Nic at Nite!”

During this conference, Nicodemus was full of questions. He was well aware not only of Jesus’ unique teachings, but of the mighty acts that accompanied his words. Surely God was present with him. It is these facts that Nicodemus addresses to Jesus. How can it be that God blesses the ministry of Jesus above that of the other religious authorities? Jesus responds with a very simple answer, “Nicodemus, you must be born again.”

Now for many of us, this answer is quite controversial. Many of us, myself included, have heard many a Bible-thumping preacher yell these words at us with a certain self-satisfied condescension. But this was not so with Jesus, as he makes it clear that he came to save the world, not condemn it. The words of Jesus must have therefore been said with a certain gentleness, humility, and intelligence.

Nicodemus, however, did not understand what Jesus was saying. He took the words quite literally, wondering how Jesus expected him to acquire a second navel. Jesus gently chided Nicodemus for his arrested spiritual development. After all, he being a religious leader should have been more spiritually advanced for his position. What he was referring to was a “spiritual conversion” wherein Nicodemus would receive the Spirit of Love that would give him more than a life of being “good” and “successful.”

We are not informed whether Nicodemus received such a life that evening. Probably not. Later, however, we are told that Nicodemus publicly defended Jesus when he appeared before the Sanhedrin the night before he was put to death. Nicodemus was also one of the first to publicly appear at the grave of Jesus after his death, bringing herbs and spices for his burial. His may not have been an immediate conversion, but there is evidence of at least a gradual conversion in which Nicodemus became daring in his love for Jesus.

As I alluded to earlier, this visit of Nic at night tends to make many of us uncomfortable—especially we Episcopalians. We can relate to his social position and bearing. Being told that we must be “born again” calls our very lives and social position into question. This was also found to be true in our Diocesan Convention this past week. “Conversion” became a the thin thread that ran through the agenda. It began with the Rev. Kenneth Brown who gave a very good presentation on church growth. He was an expert with noted success. Toward the end of his presentation he noted that various growth techniques were noteworthy, but only “conversion” can bear real fruit. This theme became especially underscored in the final address of the convention given by the former Archbishop of Canterbury—the Most Rev. George Carey.

The Archbishop centered his remarks on the present conflicts within the worldwide Anglican Communion. He pointed out our need as the Church in the West to listen carefully to the Church in the Southern Hemisphere. As pointed out by the sociologist Philip Jenkins in his recent book The New Christendom, the average Anglican Christian would not be recognizable to most of us today. She is slightly over thirty years of age, has three children, raises her family on less than $2.00 a day, and has two or more friends or relatives that have AIDS. She is from the Southern Hemisphere where Christianity is experiencing its fastest growth ever. Indeed, though it now contains 80% of the 70 million Anglicans throughout the world, it is believed that that number will triple in the next ten years. In that time four out of every five Christians in the world will be tan, yellow, or black. Indeed, the two fastest growing religions of the world are competing vigorously for the Southern Hemisphere. Jenkins predicts that this will bring about a real competition between Moslem jihad and Christian crusades.

Furthermore, the manner of how Christianity is understood and practiced in this developing world is quite different from ours. For instance, they are more mystical and more conservative. They believe that the Bible is the very word of God and practice faith healings. In the West there exists much skepticism about belief in God. The authority of the Scriptures is often questioned. Social action has long ago replaced the practice of the Spiritual gifts as understood by the early Church. Indeed, according to Zygmunt Bauman, another sociologist who recently published Liquid Love, relationships in the West are being dramatically influenced by these changing standards. The foundation of Western Civilization has been the family. These relationships tended to be stable and long lasting. Today’s society, however, has surrendered an absolute morality for a more relative understanding, leaving relationships more fragile, insecure, and transitory. The West is returning to its barbarian roots, while the Southern Hemisphere is fleeing from barbarianism to an acceptance of the more traditional Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage and the family. The Archbishop decried this development by predicting that one day in the future a new Augustine will have to return to England to lead it back to Christianity. He went on to warn that anytime the Church has conformed to the standards of the surrounding culture, it has always been doomed. On the other hand, the Church has always prospered when it challenged the culture in which it existed.

In essence, in a very gentle, humble, polite, and intelligent manner, much like the manner of Jesus addressing Nicodemus, the Archbishop was challenging us to be “born again.” He expressed the hope that as the Primates meet in Ireland this coming week to decide the future of the Anglican Communion, that we of the West will listen to and heed to our Southern brothers and sisters.

The questions facing us today are quite simple. Will we be like the painter who totally misunderstood the lady and painted her car instead of the porch? Or will we be more like Nicodemus—who after initially misunderstanding Jesus, eventually got it right?