LENT 2A
February 17, 2008
SCRIPTURES
SCRIPTURES
We call this a faith journey because the destination was known only to God.
- We are a Pilgrim people. We don't know what it will be like when we get there, etc....but we know that God is on the journey with us. Lindy
-" I heard him call, "Come and follow". My gold grew dim, my soul rose up and followed him. Who wouldn't follow if they heard that call. Lindy
- Abraham is a central figure in three faith traditions: Islam, Judaism, Christianity.
-The Greek word anőthen can mean either "from above" or "again." Nicodemus takes it to mean "again," whereas Jesus has the first meaning in mind as is evident from the ensuing conversation
-“The one who is born again doesn’t all of a sudden get turned into a super-Christian. To be born again is to enter afresh into the process of spiritual growth. It is to wipe the slate clean. It is to cancel your old mortgage and start again Peter Gomes
-Peter Gomes, in a book currently studied by one of our adult classes, observes: “…God has made the world and loves it so much that he has given himself into our hands and thus made his work our opportunity….(W)e are licensed…by the incarnation to be the action, the activity of God in the world.”
-As long as people consider Christianity as something we do, are they not trying to control the Spirit -- telling it where and where to blow? Stoffregen
-Malina and Rohrbaugh in "Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John," build on the idea that one cannot usually aspire to a higher (social) level than where one is born. Jesus is able to return to God because that's where he is from. However, those who have been "born from above," are also able to return there, because that's where we are now from.
-Being born again is not something we can will ourselves into. It is God who grants new life, it is God who raises us from the death of our former selves
-Being born from above is not something we do. It is something done to us (by God). In a similar way, being born the first time was not something we did
- Christians are called the "Children of the light"
-We are ALL spiritual people. Do we dare invite the spirit that is in us out. and do we dare to invite the spirit that is God’s in? Gomes
-The Greek phrase translated born from above also can be translated born again. Translators have struggled with whether to translate it as born from above or born again, but it's clear that the author of John intends both meanings. To be born again is to be born from above, to be born of the Spirit. it means dying to an old way of being and being born into a new way of being. It means dying to an old identity and being born into a new identity--an identity in the Spirit, in Christ, in God. “Most of us have known at least one person who was born again in a remarkably unattractive way.” Borg
-It’s a separating from that which focuses on self, and a union with that which centers us on God.. Rev. Sandy Messick
-The whole process of being born again is about dying to that false self and being reborn into our true self. Being born again involves being born into an identity centered in God, Christ, the Spirit. This experience can be sudden and dramatic. God. But for the majority of us, I suspect, it is a more gradual and incremental process, a process that goes on throughout a lifetime--perhaps a process that occurs several times in a lifetime in periods of major transition. Indeed, it is even sometimes a daily rhythm in that daily remembering of God or reminding ourselves of the reality of God that can raise us up momentarily out of our self-preoccupation and burdensome confinement. Borg
-"Eternal" does not mean mere endless duration of human existence, but is a way of describing life as lived in the unending presence of God.
-The "serpent" (v. 14) is mentioned in Numbers 21:9-11: the people were bitten by poisonous snakes; some died; others became gravely ill. Instructed by God, Moses mounted ("lifted up") a bronze snake on a pole. Those who looked at this emblem (trusting in God) were healed, lifted up, given life. Now Jesus would be the one lifted up.
-The story of Nicodemus invites the reader to grapple with the issue of genuine faith that goes beyond mere belief on the basis of miraculous signs.
- sermon A Nicodemus type faith. Based on miracles, visible proofs, extraordinary events. Talk about the difference between belief and faith. Religion is easy, faith is much more risky. Abraham not knowing where he was going.
-The Divine call then is to trust the creative, transforming power of God in our lives, the call that urges, entices us into an unknown future, a future that is filled with new possibilities.
-The symbol of Jesus on a pole indicates that the problem with us is us -- and that Jesus is the solution. Stoffregen
-So we live our lives “east of Eden,” outside of connection to God, and we become self-centered. To be born again is to undergo a transformation that leads to an identity that is a source of freedom and peace and joy, a kind of serenity. Borg
-New life = birth pangs Richard Anderson blog
QUOTES
- Man is strangely amphibious, inhabiting two worlds.
- The spirit is what we see with rather than what we see. Yancey
-Spiritualize the material or materialize the spiritual? Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
-"Bring me a worm that can comprehend a human being, and then I will show you a human being that can comprehend the Triune God!" John Wesley
-As Dag Hammarskjold said, "For all that has been, thanks. For all that will be, yes."
-Like Nicodemus, despite all our accumulated experience and knowledge (or because of them), we are old people. White
-“It takes as much faith to believe that there is no God as it does to believe that there is.”
- A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, called out of darkness, into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9)
- At midnight, all cats are gray.
-The main task of life is to give birth to self. Eric Fromm
-We are like asthmatic people. God's spirit has taken away our narrowness...Latin for anxiety is angustia means narrowness. H.Nouwen
- " I see, it's like a light bulb came on in my head"
- Rejoice that we have a savior that keeps evening hours. Rejoice that our God works the night shift. Willimon
-The temptation is not to become human, but to become a dysfunctional human,
-In his autobiography entitled Confessions, a young Augustine was in the wilderness struggling with life's carnal temptations. St. Augustine wrote, "Give me chastity and continence, but not just now."
-"Where Humanity Fails, Jesus Prevails!" Rev. Alex Stevenson
- "A triumphant cry: It is accomplished! and it was as though he had said: Everything has begun." Nikos Kazantzakis
--From the beginning in the Garden, to Jesus' temptations, and ours; the Liar entices us with things that appear to be good. Stoffregen
-To err is truly human
-"To err is human; to forgive is divine." "The devil made me do it." "I'm only human." “I couldn’t help myself.” These phrases suggest that when temptation comes along we are merely the victims
-The spirit never leaves....is simply overlooked
-Spiritual myopia...near sightedness...no vision.
HUMOR
-These texts are pregnant with possibilities
-Nicodemus reminds me of that Television station, Nick at night.
-Too many of the "Born again Christians" were breech births. Lindy
-Discouraged again, eh, Charlie Brown?" "You know what your whole trouble is? The whole trouble with you is that you're you!"
Charlie asks, "Well, what in the world can I do about that?"
Lucy answers, "I don't pretend to be able to give advice...I merely point out the trouble!"
--I generally avoid temptation, unless I can't resist it. Mae West My Little Chickadee
-“Eve was framed"
-"How come opportunity knocks only once, but temptation beats down the door every day?"
ILLUSTRATIONS
1.A scientist walking through the jungle saw piles of wood as if someone was going to start a fire. He discovered that the apes, mimicking man laid the pieces of wood down. The only trouble was that the apes were missing the spark needed to finish the act.
2. John Newton experienced both the instantaneous and the lifetime transformation. A slave trader in the 1700s in England, he made his living on ships that carried human cargo from Africa to the New World. On one of the journeys, he happened to find a copy of Thomas a Kempis’ “Imitation of Christ.” Shortly after, during a storm, he prayed for God’s forgiveness. He was born again. But even then, God was still at work. He didn’t leave the slave trade immediately, he even moved up to the position of captain. But over time he began to see the injustice and absolute horror of how he was making a living. That perhaps was the real re-birth. He left the trade and became a minister. And through his preaching and work as an advocate, he helped lead England to abolishing slavery. He never forgot his wretched past, or the gracious gift of new life he found in a life lived centered in Christ. We remember him today not so much for his abolitionist movements, but for one of the hymns he wrote: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
-We tend to be spiritually anorexic ....starve ourselves of spiritual nourishment and don't realize we are starving to death. Like
an anorexic...we must learn again how to be hungry!. Jesus is trying to teach us how to be hungry for spiritual nourishment.
Idea from Barbara Brown Taylor
CHILDREN
- Can you see the wind, oxygen, C02, gravity, stars in daylight,
-The little fish asks his mother, "Where is the ocean?" Answer. "It's all around you" it fills your holes.
- Tell the story of John Newton (illustration 2). Maybe sing one verse of Amazing Grace with congregation.
PRAYER PHRASE
- You are the Lord of the night as well as day.
- ....we fail to hear you call. We are too busy, the world is too noisy. Sometimes what we hear is not what you mean. Sometimes we fail to hear what you whisper. Many times we listen backwards...hear only what you said centuries ago or hear only what you say to OTHER people. O God, help us with our deafness. Lindy
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- We ask for stability, for inward reserves of spiritual power that while the outward man is decaying, the inward man may be renewed day by day.
- Make our s now thy sanctuary. Remind us that we are the temple of God the living spirit. Make sacred our inner lives today… In the light of our inward worship help us to see beyond our failures into our possibilities. Come to us, lift us, transform us. Minister to us all, not according to our ability to ask, but according to your insight into our need and your infinite resource in Christ
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