Know-It-All John 3:1-17 (NRSV + The Voice) Rev. Chris Mereschuk Second Sunday of Lent March 12, 2017

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1 Know-It-All John 3:1-17 (NRSV + The Voice) Rev. Chris Mereschuk Second Sunday of Lent March 12, 2017 About 15 years ago, author A.J. Jacobs set out to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica: all 33,000 pages, 65,000 articles from 9,500 contributors, with 24,000 images; a total of 44 million words. 1 Jacobs was picking up the baton passed by his father, who only made it as far as P. The quest completed, Jacobs compiled the most fascinating facts in his 2004 book, The Know-It-All: One Man s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. With endearing humor, A.J. Jacobs describes his favorite entries - - A through Z - - as they relate to his life. Despite the fact that he could, as he writes, tell you the title of Turkey s leading avant-garde magazine, argue about British tax law, and school you on the Achagua tribe s theology, Jacobs remained remarkably humble. He writes, I used to be smart. Back in high school and college, I was actually considered somewhat cerebral. I brought D. H. Lawrence novels on vacations, earnestly debated the fundamentals of Marxism, peppered my conversation with words like albeit. I knew my stuff. Then, in the years since graduating college, I began a long, slow slide into dumbness. At age thirty-five, I ve become embarrassingly ignorant. 2 It s really a fun and educational book with lots of little historical insights. But what stuck with me the most was Jacobs s personal insight under the entry for Burial, Here s something I m learning: what a shockingly conventional thinker I am. Despite my liberal cross-cultural education at Brown, despite my delusion that I can think creatively, I m realizing that I ve been trained to look at life in a very particular way. 3 Even this man with literal encyclopedic knowledge can admit that he has room to grow, that his perspective is not the only perspective, and that his knowledge and perspective have blocked his ability to understand and see the world in very real ways. Jacobs knew enough to know that he didn t know, and that you can t truly know it all. Maybe in that sense, his quest to be a know-it-all was attained. Did you grow up with a Know-It-All kid in your school? Oh man. Unless they can get a dose of humility and a shift in perspective, Know-It-All kids often grow up to be Know-It- 1 Jacobs, A. J. ( ). The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (p. 5). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. 2 Jacobs, A. J. ( ). The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (pp. 1-2). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. 3 Jacobs, A. J. ( ). The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (pp ). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

2 All adults. And those less-flexible and malleable adult brains are extra resistant to new knowledge and perspectives. Not long ago I got into a disagreement with a Know-It-All adult about the very contentious issue of whether or not it was cold outside. As the October winds blew and I shivered, I ignorantly stated, Man! It s cold! My friend replied: No, it s not. It doesn t get cold for another month or so. That s when the Arctic air begins to move from the north and There was a whole meteorological refutation of my opinion on the temperature. Just to be clear, this was not my friend who is an actual local meteorologist. So I replied, OK then. Well, I m cold! But my friend still did not seem convinced. It was as if we were speaking entirely different languages, or had different definitions of the word cold, or had a different understanding of how one person can have their own valid experience that the other person is not having. We were operating on different frequencies - - and I m sure mine was the lower of the two. And that s how I imagine it was with our man Nicodemus when he sought out Jesus in his attempt to simultaneously show off his Know-It-All status and resolve some unanswered questions in the scripture reading we heard today. Once again, we find ourselves engaging with familiar messages from scripture that many people think they already know, and so we might tune out and think there s no new knowledge for us to gain. In my opinion, the Gospel of John is the hardest to wrap my head around, and it is the one that resonates with my theology the least. It is also loaded with verses that are beloved and boldly proclaimed by many Evangelical Christians, with this third chapter containing two of the most cherished and most often recited lessons: John 3:3-5: 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. 4 From these verses come the belief that to truly follow Christ and be a Christian requires that you are born again. In some faith traditions, whether or not someone considers themselves to be born again is the dividing line between a real Christian and someone who only just kind of likes Jesus. That s a whole sermon right there, which maybe I ll tackle when this scripture comes around again in three years. 4 John 3:3-5

3 But the second verse is more highly favored, when Jesus drops the big one. John 3:16: 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. 5 John 3:16 has made its way onto billboards and banners, customized license plates and coffee mugs, snuck into corporate logos and printed on commercial products, airbrushed onto t-shirts, embroidered onto baseball caps, and inked into skin. 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. 6 When reciting this verse, many people have in mind what we d call Substitutionary Atonement: the theology that claims God demanded a blood sacrifice in order for humanity to reconcile with God. Since God did not want every drop of blood from every human to be shed, God sent a sacrificial lamb to earth - - God s own flesh, God s own blood - - so that we were spared the sacrifice, suffering, and punishment. That s heavy, and there s a lot to unpack from Substitutionary Atonement. But we re not there yet. First we have to eavesdrop on this meeting between Jesus and this Know-It-All Nicodemus. Narrator: Nicodemus was a member of the learned and well-respected sect of the Pharisees - - the favorite nemeses and foils for so many of Jesus s teachings. Nicodemus would ve enjoyed some power and social capital as a Pharisee, maybe even holding a seat on the ruling council known as the Sanhedrin. The Pharisees were rigid, legalistic, zealous. They did not look favorably upon Jesus and his rag-tag crew of troublemakers. Yet, Nicodemus seems to not only know a lot about Jesus, but actually values his teachings. Nicodemus would not want word about this to get out, so he goes to see Jesus at night when he has less chance of being seen. Nicodemus has questions, and he wants more proof of Jesus s connection to God. He opens the conversation with some flattery - - maybe with a hint of know-it-all cynicism: Nicodemus: Teacher, some of us have been talking. You are obviously a teacher who has come from God. The signs You are doing are proof that God is with You. Narrator: What further proof could Jesus possibly offer that Nicodemus would accept or even understand? And how is it that Jesus has been gifted with the presence of God? How can Nicodemus get in on that? Jesus: I tell you the truth: only someone who experiences birth for a second time can hope to see the kingdom of God. 5 6 John 3:16 John 3:16

4 Nicodemus: I am a grown man. How can someone be born again when he is old like me? Am I to crawl back into my mother s womb for a second birth? That s impossible! Narrator: Ah, Know-It-All Nicodemus! His thinking is all wrong, too narrow! Of course he s correct that a grown man can t literally be born in the flesh a second time. The whole idea is absurd - - not to mention painful. Am I to crawl back into my mother s womb for a second birth? That s impossible! It seems like Nicodemus is not ready to even try to understand. When he came to Jesus, he brought with him the certainty of his knowledge and his rigid perspective of what is possible and what is impossible. Nicodemus is beginning to doubt that this guy Jesus is as smart as he thinks he is. Jesus, of course, is on another level: Jesus: I tell you the truth, if someone does not experience water and Spirit birth, there s no chance he will make it into God s kingdom. Like from like. Whatever is born from flesh is flesh; whatever is born from Spirit is spirit. Don t be shocked by My words, but I tell you the truth. Even you, an educated and respected man among your people, must be reborn by the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. The wind blows all around us as if it has a will of its own; we feel and hear it, but we do not understand where it has come from or where it will end up. Life in the Spirit is as if it were the wind of God. Nicodemus: I still do not understand how this can be. Narrator: Jesus enacts a facepalm of biblical proportions. Nicodemus is locked in his worldview, in his belief that everything is ordered in a certain way - - the way he sees it - - and is immutable. For Nicodemus, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown - - but the unknown can become known. If you just ask the right questions, you ll get the right answer. Jesus is inviting Nicodemus into the uncertainty of the unknown - - a whole new realm of knowing that is, at present, inaccessible to Nicodemus due to his own belief that he knows it all. Nicodemus is a teacher, but Jesus schools him: Jesus: Your responsibility is to instruct Israel in matters of faith, but you do not comprehend the necessity of life in the Spirit? I tell you the truth: we speak about the things we know, and we give evidence about the things we have seen, and you choose to reject the truth of our witness. If you do not believe when I talk to you about ordinary, earthly realities, then heavenly realities will certainly elude you. No one has ever journeyed to heaven above except the One who has come down from heaven the Son of Man, who is of heaven. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. In the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up; then all those who believe in Him will experience everlasting life. Narrator: Jesus tells Nicodemus, It s too much for you, brother. Your focus is all wrong. Your thinking is too small. Too much flesh, not enough Spirit.

5 Yes, Nicodemus is a smart and learned man. His social status and religious office confirm that. He can probably preach and teach and judge all day based on what he knows, theologize on all that he has seen and heard and touched - - but this is nothing incredible. Pretty much anyone in his position can do that - - or should be able to. But Jesus is saying that Nicodemus, with all of his knowledge and prestige, lacks the ability to even comprehend even these ordinary things. So Jesus is not surprised that Nicodemus lacks the capacity to even attempt to understand the extraordinary. At this point, I think Jesus stops trying to engage with Nicodemus directly. The conversation bores him. But Jesus doesn t stop teaching to whomever else is in the room - - probably his Disciples, all sleepy from being woken up by some pretentious Pharisee sycophant sneaking in at night. Here, I imagine my favorite Jesus: indignant, fed-up, impatient-yet-still-trying-to-educate-you-sorry-people Jesus. While Nicodemus is heading toward the door, tail between his legs, Jesus drops this revelation; a glimpse of that thin place where ordinary earthly realities meet extraordinary heavenly realities: Jesus: For God expressed God s love for the world in this way: God gave Their only Son so that whoever believes in God will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. Here s the point. God didn t send Their Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction. 7 There it is: John 3:16. Ah, we think we know. We reach the point where everything is familiar and we think we have it locked up and down pat, and we don t go any further. Whenever I come across John 3:16, I always think back to a conversation I had with an acquaintance of mine who describes himself as a gay Christian Southern Boy: Everyone wants to hit me with that John 3:16. Don t stop there. Ain t nobody talking about John 3:17. Keep reading. For me, John 3:17 is the most powerful verse in this whole chapter. I especially like the translation from The Voice that we just heard, with a little tweak to be more genderexpansive: Here s the point. God didn t send Their Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction. 8 To me, you can t proclaim John 3:16 without also proclaiming John 3:17. Because when we move on from that too-familiar place where we think we already know it all, that is when our perspective shifts and we actually begin to know. Reading past John 3:16 on to John 3:17 takes us from Christ died for you to Christ lived for you! To me, that s it right there. That s the line that makes my heart sing and my soul take comfort. But we don t see John 3:17 emblazoned on every printable surface, and to be fair, it doesn t exactly roll of the tongue like John 3:16. 7 John 3:1-17. The Voice Bible Copyright 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice translation 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. Edited and expanded by Mereschuk, 3/9/17. 8 John 3:17, The Voice translation, adapted by Mereschuk for gender-expansive God language

6 You can read these verses and come away with the completely valid and scripturally sound belief that true Christianity means being born again, and that God sent Jesus to earth as a substitute sacrifice for the sins of humanity or your sins personally. If that is what this scripture means to you, if that speaks to you and draws you closer to God, then by all means believe that. But do yourself a favor and don t stop there. Read it again for other meanings. Just the same, you might read these verses and dismiss them, never want to read them again or hear anymore about being born again or how Jesus died for your sins. If arguing against that speaks to you and draws you closer to God, then by all means believe that. But you also do yourself a favor and don t stop there. Read it again for other meanings. In fact, do that with other scriptures that you love and other scriptures that you don t love. Do that with other scriptures that you think you know inside out. But don t stop there, either! Do that with every aspect of your life, every bit of your knowing and your seeing. With everything you are so certain about, pause and look at it another way. Flip it over, turn it sideways, upside down and backwards. See what you are not seeing; know what you are not knowing. Do not be conformed to the singular perspective of your worldview, no matter how enlightened you believe yourself to be. Do not fool yourself into thinking you know it all. Even Nicodemus, the highly learned and well respected Pharisee, did not know it all. Even A.J. Jacobs, the man who read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, does not know it all - - but at least he has the humility to confess that he does not know it all, he can say unashamedly, I don t know. It s OK to say, I don t know. You could even make it a spiritual practice. It s OK to say, I don t know. But don t stop there, either. Maybe it s even better to say, I don t know, but could you help me know? Maybe you ll see and hear things just differently enough that you ll know a little more. You don t have to be a know-it-all! From time-to-time, each one of us has been a Know-It-All. It s OK. God still loves us. Lord knows I ve been like that before; and the Lord knows that what I don t know could fill several editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica. But one thing I do know is that God will always find a way to remind me that I will never truly know it all. Amen.

JOHN 3: the kingdom of God unless they are born again." 1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named

JOHN 3: the kingdom of God unless they are born again. 1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named 1 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