2nd Sunday of Lent: Born Again

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and for evermore.

John 3. 1- 17

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ 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.”

⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

 ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

In John chapter 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus that he ‘must be born again’.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and a Member of the Ruling Council, he had come to see Jesus undercover of darkness, and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus challenges him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Nicodemus was puzzled. Born again? In terms of human biology, that did not seem a realistic option.

What do you understand by, 'born again?'

It is unfortunate the idea of being 'born again' has become almost exclusively identified with the more evangelical parts of the Church.

If someone asks, ‘have you been born again?’, they're probably asking if you converted decisively to Christianity at an identifiable time and place; have you had a conversion experience?

There are people who have dramatic conversion experiences. There was a character who would wait outside Loughborough Parish Church, where I served my curacy, and ask the congregation as they passed by, “have you been born again?”

He had a dramatic conversion story, having no previous interest in Christianity he was driving along in his car, when suddenly he become overwhelmingly aware of the love of God.

I have no doubt his account was sincere. I have heard many such accounts of God intervening in people’s lives, but that is not how God deals with everyone.

It is a mistake to think that your experience of Christianity is the only possible way, and all should follow in your footsteps.

The only footsteps Christians should be following are those of Jesus.

The ‘dramatic conversion’ understanding of 'born again' causes difficulty for those who have experienced no defining moment of change in their lives.

I grew up in a Christian household, and attended varied Evangelical churches, full of born again enthusiasts. I will be forever grateful to the faithful Christians of those churches who by their example and teaching helped me along the way, but they did such a good job that I had no need of a dramatic conversion.

I remember as a seven year old saying the little prayer I was taught you had to say to become a Christian, but I already knew I was.

I once heard a preacher say his conversion was like travelling on a train across a border, at some point he had crossed that border, but he was not aware at the time of doing so.

The liturgy of the Anglican Confirmation service allows for this understanding, when the Bishop asks, ‘do you turn to Christ’, the Bishop is not asking for an on the spot decision, the Bishop is asking for a public declaration of a decision that has already been taken.

So, have you been born again?

You do need to be able to answer this question, not just in case some keen Evangelical corners you, but because Jesus commands that we be born again.

This may help - the word ‘again’ in ‘you must be born again’ in the Greek of the New Testament is ‘anóthen’. If you take the word ‘above’ and compact it in to the phrase ‘from the beginning’ then you get an idea of ‘anóthen’ – a word which has no easy English equivalent.

You must be born anóthen - ‘from the beginning, from above.’

If we turn to the beginning, to Genesis, we read that we are created in the image of God. The wrong we do disfigures that divine image, but Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God, and he came from above to show us how that divine image may be restored in us.

Jesus is from the beginning, and from above.

The waters of baptism symbolise this new birth, Jesus tells Nicodemus ‘no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.’

Repentance brings new birth, and baptism make this visible.

Continued repentance brings maturity.

Good Christians should always be a work in progress.

To repent means to think again, to stop going your own way and start going God’s way. It is about our direction of travel. Christians are followers of 'the Way.'

I don’t know about you, but I have to continually repent, to continually reset my direction as I wander off the path.

Actually, when I say ‘I don’t know about you,’ that’s disingenuous.

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans chapter 3,’ ... all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ There are no exceptions, we all need to lead lives of repentance, to be constantly checking our moral compass so we continue on the right way.  

That's why it is so good to know you are born again, because the evidence of your life will not support the notion you are a part of the Kingdom of God.

Thanks be to God, it is not our holiness that saves but Christ’s.

We receive Christ’s holiness when we accept that our own is woefully insufficient, and so turn to him.

That's what it means to be born again, to you know you have exchanged your own poor rags for the glorious garment given by Christ. You may well get that precious garment dirty along the way - but Jesus is there to clean you up and set you straight once more.

Jesus tells Nicodemus, ‘...God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’

God does not seek to condemn you, He seeks to save you. If your Christianity causes you to condemn others, or yourself, then you are doing it wrong.

Trust that you have been born again, know you are a part of the Kingdom of God, and that you have been saved, and are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

The Psalmist knew salvation came from the beginning, from above.

Amen.