Redeeming Our Language: Born Again John 3:1-8 Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany February 8, 2015 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! II Corinthians 5:17 Wikipedia which, as we know, is always reliable defines the phrase born again as follows: to undergo a spiritual rebirth of the human spirit by the Holy Spirit, contrasted with the physical birth that everyone experiences. Although rather generic, based upon what most of us know about our faith that seems to be a rather fair definition. Surprisingly, it is a cut above how more respectable dictionaries define the phrase. The Random House Dictionary simply labels born again as committed or recommitted to religious faith through an intensely religious experience. The very proper Oxford English Dictionary describes it only as regenerated, renewed; having received spiritual life. Yet even though both definitions are less specific than their Wiki counterpart, both seem to have presented rather objective assessments of the phrase. Other dictionaries, however, are less objective. The Urban Dictionary, which has become one of my favorite resources, has no definition for the phrase born again. Instead, it uses the more specific Born Again Christians, and offers the following definition (and please know that I have cleaned it up a bit for Sunday morning use): Born again Christians are the sect of Christianity for people who [messed] it up the first time around. They believe that redemption will come from following the Bible more literally than God would ever wish, to the point that their ideology becomes culty and near immoral. Born-agains are extremely hypocritical and their misuse of God s texts and discriminatory views give Christianity a bad name. Ironically, it is these people who preach their superiority that are the biggest (insert term for male donkeys here). And then they have the nerve to look you in the face, after they have just finished bad mouthing gays and other religions, and preach the superiority of their religion. Now I don t know about you, but while I obviously enjoy that definition I find it to be rather disturbing. Based upon what I know of current events and popular culture, I also find it to be rather accurate. The phrase born again is one of the most important phrases in the 1
Christian faith. It s a rich and essential expression, and one sits at the very center of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. But as the Urban Dictionary definition attests, these days it is one that comes with a lot of baggage. You know as well as I know that over the past 50-60 years this most important phrase has been hijacked by folks like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and the late Jerry Falwell, and has come to be identified with a certain type of theology and a particular outlook on life. Fairly or unfairly, born again is now understood in the popular imagination to be a phrase that represents a very judgmental system of beliefs and values that has a tendency to create an in-group as well as an out-group; a system that fits in well with that heaven-and-hell framework that we have mentioned in previous weeks. Even more disturbing, when I searched for the phrase born again on well-respected public opinion research sites like Gallup and The Pew Forum, the top results almost always tied the words born again and voters together. For better or for worse, those that have been identified as born again voters have almost been exclusively affiliated with a particular kind of politics. And study after study, survey after survey, report after report, tells us that it is this popular understanding of this most important phrase is driving more and more people especially young people away from the church. Well, it doesn t take a seminary-trained genius to realize that this popular understanding of born again is a far cry from the way the phrase is used and understood in Holy Scripture. Like some of the other words we have explored in the past few weeks (words like salvation, righteous, sin, and believe), and because of its centrality to the gospel message, it seems to me that it is rather important for us to recover its ancient and biblical meaning. For such an important phrase, it s surprising that there are only two places that it is actually used in the Bible. So just for the record, let s remember those two places where the phrase is actually mentioned. The least familiar mention is found in I Peter 1:23. It s a part of that author s call to holy living, and it goes like this: You have been born again (or sometimes translated born anew ), not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. And that s that. 2
The most famous mention of born again, of course, is found in the 3 rd chapter of the Gospel of John when Jesus has a conversation with a visiting Pharisee and says, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without begin born from above (And please notice that I said born from above. I ll tell you why in just a moment.). It would probably do us well to take a moment and remember the story in which that verse is found. It seems that a man named Nicodemus once paid Jesus a nighttime visit. The Gospel of John s mention of night is probably more than just a reference to time. For someone like Nicodemus to actually show up and show interest in Jesus would be frowned upon by his fellow Pharisees. Getting caught asking honest questions to someone that his peers saw as a threat to their authority would be a real career killer. So Nicodemus came to Jesus while it was dark; at a time when no one could see him offer this carpenter-turned-preacher what sounded like a sincere compliment. It s probably also worth mentioning that in the Gospel of John the whole concept of night or darkness is very symbolic. Nicodemus just didn t come to Jesus while it was dark. He came to Jesus while he was in the dark; as one who had yet to see the light. And when he did come to Jesus he said (and I ve found that in this case the translation known as The Message captures the gist of the conversation better than others), Rabbi, we all know that you re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts that you do if God weren t in on it. Whether or not Nicodemus expected a compliment in return for his words is unknown. Knowing the rules of common courtesy, one would expect Jesus to at least say thanks. But instead, Jesus plunges ahead and offered this: You re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it s not possible to see what I m pointing to to God s Kingdom. Not surprisingly Nicodemus completely misses the point. People do that a lot in John s gospel. John had a habit of using words that are packed with double meanings that almost always led to misunderstanding, which then allowed Jesus to do a little preaching. It is no different here. The New Testament word used her can legitimately be translated as either born from above or born again. So in response to Jesus words that one must be born from 3
above, Nicodemus said, How can anyone be born who has already been born and grown up? You can t re-enter your mother s womb and be born again. What are you saying? Now let s think. You ve heard me say before that thinking is a very important thing to do when studying the scriptures. Please notice that Jesus said Unless a person is born from above, while Nicodemus replied, You can t re-enter your mother s womb and be born again. Remember, born from above and born again are legitimate understandings of the same word. What this tells us is that while Jesus used the word in one way, Nicodemus understood it in another. Jesus was talking spiritually, while Nicodemus was hearing physically. Jesus was speaking figuratively, while Nicodemus was responding literally. Realizing that was so, Jesus said to him, You re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person is born from water and from spirit it s not possible to enter God s Kingdom. Unless a person is born from water and from spirit... What do you think Jesus meant by that? There are some that think that his mention of water refers to baptism. That very well may be the case. But in the context of this discussion, there are many more who think that this mention of water is about something else. Without going into great detail, let me simply ask you to raise your hand if any of you know anyone who was born from water? If you didn t raise your hand, then please come to my office after the service. I have some fairly basic biological information that I need to share with you. Every human being, you see, is born from water. Every mother and every father know how water and birth are intimately related. My first introduction to this amazing fact came at around 3:00 a.m. on June 4, 1980 when I was awakened from a deep sleep and told in no uncertain terms that It broke! To be born from water means to be born like every other human being that has ever been born. To be born from water means physical birth. To be born of the Spirit, on the other hand, means spiritual birth. Just as every human is born of water, every Christians not just those of a particular theological persuasion are born of spirit. Let me say that again so you won t miss it: every Christian is born of the spirit. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about being reborn he was talking about spiritual birth; about the total transformation that takes place once God s gets into and ahold of a person s life; about how one dies to the old Adam, as Paul wrote to the Romans, and how one is made alive in Christ; about that process of leaving those old patterns of life behind 4
and by the unmerited grace of God being born again into a life that is brand new. And while we find that phrase specifically mentioned only twice, it s an idea that is central to the message of the Christian faith and the way that not only people, but the world in which we live is transformed. I suppose that I could detail that idea with all kinds of scriptural and theological themes that prove how being born from above or born again is so important to the Christian faith, but it s so much easier to just tell you a couple of stories. The first and probably most famous is that of a young man born to Jewish parents in a city just off the Southeast coast of Asia Minor back in the 1 st century A.D. After coming of age, he moved to Jerusalem to take his formal education under a brilliant scholar named Gamaliel. He was one of his mentor s best and brightest, and he became devoted to his ancestral faith. As a matter of fact, he became so devoted that he soon began to persecute those he thought to be a threat to it especially that ever-growing sect then known as The Way. Yet while on a journey to the city of Damascus, on a reported mission to arrest and return to Jerusalem anyone who claimed to follow the one he believed to be a false Messiah, everything changed. A light from heaven flashed around him, knocking him to the ground. A voice then followed, asking, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? When the stunned young man asked who it was who was asking this, the voice responded, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. The rest, as they say, is history. Saul s life was forever changed, so much so that he later wrote, I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20). Paul, as he was now known, underwent a lifetransforming experience on that road. Once born from water, he was now born from spirit. He had been born anew, born from above, born again, or whatever else you want to call it. Or how about this story? One of the most successful slave traders of his day, this man had successfully navigated the so-called Middle Passage many times. Sailing from Britain to West Africa and then to the Caribbean, he had made a fortune through the trafficking of human lives. On what would become his last journey, he was returning to Great Britain when he was shipwrecked. Floating out in the middle of the Atlantic gave him lots of time to think about his life, about what he had done, and about the lives he had destroyed. A bit of oceanic 5
introspection, it seems, is always good. Well, after finally being rescued he was taken to London, where one of the first people that he met was a crazy old preacher whose last name happened to be Wesley. It doesn t take a lot of imagination to envision the conversations the two of them probably had over the course of the next few months. To make a long story short, during this time this man underwent a complete and total change of life, eventually giving up the business of slave trading, becoming an Anglican priest and ardent abolitionist. He also tried his hand at song writing. He penned a verse or seven about how he had died to his old life and had been born into a new one; how once born from water, he was now born of spirit; how through the love of God he was a new creation. Perhaps you are familiar with the first few lines of John Newton s autobiographical hymn: 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. Paul s conversion experience was almost immediate, while John Newton s was more prolonged. Yet each experienced a transformation so complete that it could only be compared to being born again. It is the same today. Whether it happens immediately like Paul or gradually like John Newton, every Christian is born again. Despite its current cultural baggage, the phrase born again is essential to the Christian faith. It almost seems silly to say this, but please remember that being born again has nothing to do with affirming an inerrant Bible, opposing abortion, resisting same-sex marriage, voting for a certain slate of candidates, or being a member of a particular type of congregation. Being born again is not about what happens to society; it is about what happens to you. Being born again has nothing to do with living like Jerry Falwell (to pick on somebody who is dead and can t fight back). Being born again has everything to do with living like Jesus. One would think that if those who followed Jesus did actually lived that way, then all that awful baggage that most important phrase presently carries with it would quickly fall away. 6
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