“Saved.”
“Born again.”
“Grace.”
Those are some pretty powerful words
in the lexicon of the Christian faith.
Some would even implore that they are the very foundation of what makes
one a Christian . . . through God’s “grace” in Jesus humanity is “saved” from
the its wickedness and sin to be “born again”.
It is the old “salvation” plan taught to Christians from the very
beginning of the faith journey. It is
the common belief and understanding . . . the fundamental gateway towards
redemption and one’s slot in heaven. At
least that is what is believed. But, is
that the way that it works? Is that what
makes one a person of faith?
Think about it.
Think about it as we consider the
story of Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, from what we can glean from our
scripture reading this morning, is a Pharisee . . . an educated individual,
educated in the scriptures of the people and God . . . an important individual,
maybe even a person with a little power and prestige within the community and
the Pharisees . . . someone who figures he has it all figured out. Because of this, Jesus is a curiosity to him
. . . Jesus the individual and Jesus the teacher . . . and, Nicodemus needs to
know. Nicodemus needs to know whether or
not this Jesus guy is the real McCoy.
To satisfy his curiosity he goes
straight to the source . . . he makes a call upon Jesus . . . but, he does so
under the cloak of darkness. After all,
he is an important person and it is better to be safe than sorry. Whatever the case, he visits Jesus and begins
a discourse . . . a discourse that only seems to confuse him more than when he
started. Jesus is quite blunt with him, “You
are Israel’s teacher and do you not understand.
I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what
we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and
you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
In other words, Jesus is telling
Nicodemus that if he has it all figured out then it should be no problem in
embracing and living what it is that Jesus has been teaching and preaching to
the people. The problem is, Nicodemus is
smart in “book knowledge” . . . smart in “head knowledge”; but, he is flunking
the course on the spiritual side . . . on the “heart” side. He, and others like him, are nothing more
than robotic drones who are going through the motions of faith creating a toxic
and dogmatic expression of faith that is more damning than being ignorant of the
faith.
That which Jesus is speaking about is
not dogmatic . . . it is not ritualistic.
No it is spiritual and freeing . . . something that you cannot box up
and sell off the shelf of the church. Jesus
states: “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh
gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” It is not book learning that Jesus is
talking about here . . . something you learn and mindlessly regurgitate . . .
it is not ritual. It is spiritual, and being
spiritual it takes on a whole new form.
Jesus explains the Spirit—the
spiritual: “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born
again.’ The wind blows wherever it
pleases. You hear its sound, but you
cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Faith is not some habit that one
learns. Faith is a relationship . . . an
act of establishing a relationship of love and community. As one commentator put it: “The focus is
life. This means relationship. The motive is love.” As anyone of us who has ever been in a
relationship will say, relationships are about as predictable as winning the
lottery. When it comes to relationships
there is nothing basic and formula-matic . . . if that was the case there would
not be thousands and thousands of books out on the market about
relationships—there would be one book for everyone. That is the work of the Spirit.
Basically Jesus is telling Nicodemus .
. . for all that he is worth, for all the education he had, for all the
“faithfulness” to the teachings and rituals and posturing he went through . . .
he was not saved. Nope, he needed to be
reborn . . . and, to be reborn he would have to let go of all that he knew and
thought he understood, latch onto the Spirit, and hang on for the ride . . . to
hang on because the Spirit’s ride was unpredictable and wild . . . it would be
an adventure.
And, how would Nicodemus know that he
had been reborn? By the way that he
lived his life . . . in relationship to God . . . in relationship to others . .
. all grounded in love.
So, we go back to those three
phrases—those three words: Saved, born again, and grace.
As Christians we bank on it . . . we
rely upon it . . . that through God’s “grace” in Jesus humanity is “saved” from
the its wickedness and sin to be “born again”.
We believe that we are saved as Christians. Which makes one think, is it working? Or, do we have it all wrong?
Apparently something is not working
using this formula. If the formula was
working the state of the “church” today would not be in the shape it is in with
its decline in society. So, what is the
problem?
I think, and this is my opinion and
thoughts . . . but, I think that the current formula has put the impetus all on
God and that Christians believe if they accept and learn the teachings of Jesus
and the “church” all the bases are covered . . . that things are hunky-dory . .
. and that that is all that we have to do.
All we have to do is to believe . . . believe with our heads. But Jesus tells us that it is not the head
that guides the body, but that it is the heart.
The heart is where the Spirit dwells.
Now it is true that it is through the
“grace” of God that we are given the opportunity to be “saved” . . . “grace”
that was exhibited through Jesus—his life, words, actions, and even his
death. It is through “grace” that God
makes the opportunity available for anyone who is willing to embrace the “gift”
and to follow in his footsteps . . . God provides the opportunity, but God does
not force anyone to take it. No, to
receive the “gift” one has to take it . . . has to embrace it . . . has to come
into relationship with it. And, there it
is again, that word—relationship. That
is where all the action takes place . . . that is where life is lived . . .
that is where community is built . . . that is where the Spirit moves—in
relationship.
We are not “saved” because we say we
are “saved”. We are not “saved” because
we can recite the Lord’s Prayer without even thinking about it. We are not “saved” because we attend worship
every Sunday. We are not “saved” because
we know our Ten Commandments or we can rattle off scripture from memory. We are not even “saved’ when we gather around
the table to break the bread and lift the cup.
No, we are not “saved” until we have entered into a relationship with
God and one another that is built on love.
Relationships are not built on words, but on action. The Spirit guides us where God wills.
When we are “saved” we are “born
again” to the Spirit. The Spirit moves
us towards doing God’s will. God’s will
is that we be in a relationship with God that is open and loving. God’s will is that we be in relationship with
others . . . all of God’s children of creation . . . in such a way that we
truly become one family under God. Such
salvation is does not come through the head, but it comes through the
heart. Jesus showed us the way.
As the followers of Jesus we need to
really consider whether or not we have truly been “saved”. Are we following Jesus . . . his words . . .
his life; or are we following the “church” and its ritualistic and dogmatic
words that reside in the head? The
Spirit resides in the heart. There are
too many words in the “church” . . . there needs to be more action. The Spirit needs to be set free . . . to live
. . . to love . . . to do the will of God.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment