March 5, 2023
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Romans 8:1-17; John 3:1-17[1]
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He is perhaps afraid or
embarrassed to be seen with Jesus. He is, after all, a Pharisee, a teacher of
Israel, and as we learn later in John’s Gospel, a member of the Sanhedrin.
These are the people most threatened by Jesus, and who will eventually put him
on trial. So, Nicodemus doesn’t want to be seen with this rabble-rouser. But he
is troubled, confused. He has questions for which he cannot find answers. He is
no longer sure where he belongs. He comes by night to speak with Jesus.
Jesus seems to leave Nicodemus more confused than when he
arrived. He talks about being born from above, born of the Spirit. “How can
these things be?”[2]
asks Nicodemus. A careful reading of the law and the prophets has not revealed
to him what Jesus is trying to communicate. That’s because Jesus is speaking a
different language – the language of the spiritual, the heavenly. Jesus isn’t
speaking the language of rules, of procedures and “how to get into heaven.” He
is, rather, speaking the language of relationship, of belonging, and of love.
We, too, come with our questions, out of the night of fear
and confusion, seeking the fresh perspective, the new life offered by Christ.
We are pulled in a thousand directions, dragged down by the weight of
temptation at every turn, trapped in living, as Paul puts it, “according to the
flesh.”[3]
We know that the way of the flesh is the way of death, and we are trying to
live according to the Spirit, to seek the way of life, but we are stuck
somewhere in between. We’re not sure who we are, and who we are supposed to be.
Like Nicodemus, we are drawn toward something that we don’t understand, the
mystery that is God.
Jesus speaks of God in the language of relationship. To
Jesus, God is “Abba”, literally “Daddy.” God is a parent who
loves us as children, who seeks to save us from our self-absorbed lives. God is
a sibling, one of us, who seeks to show us the way of eternal life. God
is a Spirit moving through us, empowering us, shaping us. It is the
nature of God to be in relationship, and this is what we celebrate on Trinity
Sunday, the one God with three identities in relationship with one another. And
it is God who seeks us out to love us, to teach us that we belong to the family
of God.
Belonging is a basic human need. As children we need to know
who mommy and daddy are, and where our home is where we can feel safe. We need
to belong to a community, a country, a school, a team, a club, a church. We
need people to call family, friends, we, us. And we seek out ways to identify
ourselves with where we belong. Where we feel belonging changes over time as
well. Right now, right here, in St. John’s UCC in Union, in Lent, in the month
of March, as members and friends of this community is where we belong in this
moment. Five years ago, five years from now, things might be different.
Young people attempt to find their place, their identity, in
many ways. Some dress in the latest fashions, join teams and don the colors of
a school; others dye their hair, shave their heads, or get tattoos and
piercings. Most will try out a sport, an instrument, a school club, the
musical, or talk about favorite books, movies, and music in search of
commonality with others.
Adults try to find their way as well. “What do you do?” is a
question that usually puts a vocational identity on a person. Where you live
and what car you drive sends a message of your “place” in the world. Whether we
belong to the Harley club, the Lions, or the church softball team, we surround
ourselves with the symbols of where we belong. I have a certificate from my
college fraternity on my wall at home, I wear a UCC lapel pin on my suit
jacket, and I fly the flag from the front of my house. In high school I wore a
letter jacket, or a camp sweatshirt, and (briefly) a calculator watch. And who
I am has a lot to do with the other people around me.
One of the ways that Christians often identify where others
fit in is to ask something like “Are you saved?” or “Are you born again?” From
an insider perspective, it can function as a way to determine if a person is a
believer, an insider, or an outsider in need of evangelization. From the
perspective of an outsider, it can serve as a convenient way to label a
religious fanatic. Neither of these perspectives is especially accurate or
helpful, since they rely on stereotypes of what it means to be a Christian. Not
all Christians identify as “born again” or understand salvation in the same
way.
Jesus was a traveler, and did not have a permanent home. One
of the first things he did was gather a group of people around him. The
disciples derived identity as followers of Jesus, and some of them even had
nicknames – James and John were the “Sons of Thunder,” Simon was called Peter,
“the Rock.” This group became Jesus’ friends, his family even. We read in Mark
that “A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and
your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who
are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he
said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!’”[4]
Jesus invited the disciples into that intimate familial relationship he had
with his brothers and sisters, his mother, and with Abba.
Jesus offers an identity that goes beyond what the world
offers. Clothing and cars, haircuts, sports teams, friends, and even churches
change, but the identity that Christ offers is based on a relationship with God
that does not end. Clayton Schmit, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary
explains it this way: “The intimate relationship of faith is richer than others
because it is established by the Spirit of God and will not fail. And even if
it leads us into threatening or challenging circumstances as we share in
Christ’s suffering, we have the assurance of God’s parental love, the Spirit’s
power, and presence of our brother Christ.”[5]
No matter what happens, no matter where you go, God goes with you.
There is a touching scene in John’s Gospel at the foot of
the cross. “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing
beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to
the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her
into his own home.”[6]
The disciple is adopted, literally, into the family of Jesus, just as we have
become, through Christ, adopted members of the family of God.
Paul says that we have been adopted as God’s children.[7]
I heard a story once that grasps the feeling of what Paul is talking about. In
Native American culture the blanket makes a statement of belonging in the
community. Blankets were woven with patterns unique to a particular community
and family. A Pueblo woman might wear a simple dress at home. “But before she
goes out to join the group dancing in the plaza of the pueblo, she wraps
herself in a fringed shawl – a symbol of her belonging to the community. At the
moment she wraps herself in the shawl, she is transformed. She’s wrapped in a
different identity.”[8]
A similar thing happens when orphaned children are adopted
by another Native American family. They are wrapped in the family blanket and
walked through the village. This is a statement that these children now belong
to my community; they are adopted children of my family. When Paul talks about
our relationship with God he says: “you have received a spirit of adoption.”[9]
We are wrapped in the blanket of Christ’s love and walked through the village
of humanity. God says these are my children, the adopted ones, “heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ.”[10]
Those who are led by the Spirit of God belong to the family of God.
Belonging to the family of God gives us an identity, but it
also challenges us. God has adopted the people around us as well. We are in
this together. We are joining a large family, and we must learn how to love all
of our sisters and brothers. One of the mottoes of the United Church of Christ
is “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome
here.” The relationship with God is a gift of the Spirit, open to all, for the
blanket of God is big enough for every one of us. The people with whom we share
this community, this country, and this world are our family. Our brothers and
sisters in Christ are our partners in this community; they seek with us the
realm of God. The challenge for us is to open our blanket, to wrap it around
the shoulders of those around us, and to walk together to the dancing in the
plaza of the pueblo. Amen.
[1] The
Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
[2]
John 3:9.
[3]
Romans 8:5.
[4] Mark
3:32-34.
[5] Clayton
J. Schmit, “Homiletical Perspective on Romans 8:12-17” in Feasting on the
Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, Vol. 3, David L.
Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, General Editors (Louisville: Westminster
John Knox Press, 2009), p. 43.
[6]
John 19:26-27.
[7]
See Romans 8:14-15.
[8] Robert
W. Kapoun and Charles J. Lohrmann, Language of the Robe: American Indian
Trade Blankets (Gibbs Smith, 2006), p. 17.
[9]
Romans 8:15.
[10]
Romans 8:17.
