Three Ways to a Deeper Faith June 3, 2012

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 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.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.                                      John 3:1-17

Through my childhood and teenage years, I was nurtured in the faith in an evangelical tradition.  There was a little pamphlet that was very popular called “The Four Spiritual Laws,” that summarized 4 steps that a person needed to embrace in order to be right with God.  It was largely based on the verse I just read, John 3:16:

1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
2. Man is sinful and separated from God.  Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life.
3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s sin.  Only through him can you know and experience God’s love and plan for your life.
4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

For many years of my life, I fully embraced this perspective.  I even had my own little stash of “Four Spiritual Law” booklets that I would carry around and hand out to people on occasion.  (I was an odd child.)  At this point in my life, however, I have come to find this approach to faith problematic on a number of levels.

John 3:16 remains one of the most familiar verses in all of the Bible.  It was the very first verse I memorized at a very early age.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have ever lasting life.”  I know that one in my bones.

In my opinion, John 3:16 is also one of the most misused verses in the Bible.  It has motivated some of the most destructive and unchristian actions.  If taken literally, it says, of course, that people who believe in Christ will have eternal live and suggests that those who do not will not fare well.  And so, throughout history we have had, the bloody Christian Crusades against Muslims in the middle ages; the Holocaust toward Jews; Christian missionary work in foreign lands that annihilated indigenous religions.  All of those events are back in history, but this way of thinking is not a thing of the past by any means.  Many Christians continue to condemn those who practice a faith tradition other than Christianity. 

Christian exclusivism is fueled by the idea that these “other people” (whoever they are) who do not “believe in God’s only begotten Son” are going to be sorry some day.  A literal reading of this verse suggests that all these other people are somehow less than us.  They are wrong.  We are right.  They will perish, but we will have eternal life.

The irony is that of the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, John was the least literal among them.  All of the gospel writers take great liberty with the actual events of Jesus’ life and the things he said.  They were not historians.  The Gospel writers took the events of Jesus’ life, as they could recall or understand them, and wrote about them in a way that furthered the Gospel writers’ point of view.  They were seeking to communicate a faith.  And John is the one who exercises the greatest freedom in reworking and retelling the story of Jesus.  John would be aghast at turning his Gospel into a literal retelling of the things Jesus said and did.

And it is particularly ironic that in today’s text, John tells us a story in which Jesus specifically and unequivocally says, Hey, don’t take this literally.  Don’t miss the point!  Jesus tells Nicodemus – if you want to see the Kingdom of God that I see, then you have to born from above.  Nicodemus scratches his head and says, “I’m old.  How can I be born again?  I can’t exactly go back into my mother’s womb and be born all over again.”  (I imagine the prospect did not seem appealing to Nicodemus on a number of levels.  And I can guarantee you it wouldn’t appeal to his mom.)  Jesus is amazed at Nicodemus’ lack of understanding.  He says, You have got to be kidding me.  You’re a teacher of faith and yet, you don’t get this??? 

I think Jesus would still be amazed at how his invitation to deepen our encounter with God through a rebirth of the spirit continues to be used as a literal basis for exclusion, rejection, and judgment.  A few years ago, I recall a visitor who came to worship at Community Christian Church one day.  A few days after that, we were having coffee and she was telling me how much she loved this church.  She enjoyed worship and she felt so welcomed and she was so excited about getting more involved.  There was one thing she wanted to clarify, however.  Were we a “born again” church?  I said, “I’m not sure exactly what you mean by that.”  She said, “Well, the Bible clearly says that we must be born again right?  That means that we must be saved; must accept Jesus Christ in our hearts as our personal Lord and Savior.  Do you teach that?”  “Well,” I said, “being born again in the way that you’ve just described is absolutely one way that people experience God and that’s great!  But there are lots of ways people experience God through Christ.  For some, being born again is a once-and-for-all thing and they can tell you exactly when it happened.  Others have never known anything else.  And others find power in the hope of new birth again and again.”  She just sort of looked at me,, her row furrowing.  The conversation got awkward and I never saw her again.

Neither Jesus nor John in his Gospel were interested in establishing a rigid, well-defined process that we go through in order to be right with God.  Jesus and John were, however, interested in this question:  How does one come to have faith?  How does one grow and mature in the experience of God?  If our interest is in deepening our walk with God rather than creating a basis for us to exclude others, then this passage in John has much to teach us.  It offers a snapshot of three influences that will help us deepen our faith.  While these three ideas are not an exhaustive list of the ways we are nurtured in faith, it is difficult to imagine any substantial spiritual growth, any rebirth, without them.

The first thing that can nurture our faith is participation in a faith community.  In the text, notice how Nicodemus is first introduced.  It says that Nicodemus is “A Pharisee; a leader of the Jews.”  Nicodemus is one whose experience of God is nurtured and supported by a community of believers. 

John reminds us of Nicodemus’ connection with community because John, like Jesus, considers the role of a faith community central to the development of one’s faith.  Do you need to be in worship on Sunday mornings to experience God?  (People ask me that all the time!)  No, of course you don’t.  But the songs we sing together on Sunday morning, the prayers we offer, the support we give and receive, the study and reflection, sharing the bread and cup in communion with each other play a vital role in our spiritual formation.  When we cut ourselves off from a community of faith then we cut ourselves off from one of God’s primary tools for nurturing a deeper and more intimate encounter with the Holy.  I don’t say this because I want more people to be in church.  I say it because I fiercely believe it to be true.

The second influence that nurtures our faith is service to others.  Nicodemus is quite clear that the reason he has come knocking on Jesus’ door at night is that he has seen Jesus tirelessly heal the sick, feed the hungry, care for those in need.  Nicodemus says, “No one can do the things you do apart from the presence of God.”  He wants to know more about how Jesus sustains such service to others.  For Nicodemus, it was the acts of caring and compassion by Jesus which further opened his heart to God’s presence.

A literal reading of John 3:16 can result in a lack of concern for human suffering.  If the overwhelming goal is to keep people from perishing in the life to come, then the problem of them perishing in this life due to lack of food or health care seems less important.  Nicodemus reminds us that we encounter God precisely in those places where our hearts are open and we respond to people’s needs around us. 

And the final influence found in this text that can nurture our faith is openness to the guiding of God’s spirit, maybe to a place we don’t understand or are not entirely comfortable with.  The question faced by Nicodemus and anyone seeking to grow in faith is, are you willing to let go of your certainties about who God is?  Are you willing to experience God in new ways? 

Although Nicodemus came knocking on Jesus’ door, what he ultimately discovers is that Jesus is knocking on his door.  Jesus is inviting Nicodemus; Jesus is inviting you and me to let the Spirit of God be our guide, to be born anew.  Are we prepared to trust God enough to live with the mystery and confusion that sometimes cloak who God really is?  When Jesus comes knocking on our door, it is an invitation to grow in faith through the guidance of the spirit; to let go into an experience we do not understand.

Our faith is strongest when we participate in church; when we care about other’s needs and seek to meet them, and when we let go of our certainties and remain open to the guidance of God’s spirit.  A commitment to these three practices will deepen our faith.  Amen.