March 20, 2011 In God s Tzelem Rev. Diane Dulin Lent II John 3:1-10 The Place Where We Are Right by Yehuda Amichai Our church is blessed with several gifted poets. If you have read yesterday s entry by Jim Kirk in our Lenten Devotional booklet, you have discovered that he is one of them. Jim s words about Lent are not formatted in the usual shape of a poem; yet poetry is definitely what his words are! Jim helps us see the promises of Lent in the form of muddy boots and weeks of rain. He writes, Lent is supposed to be purple and contrite, restrained and subdued. (But) Lent leaves clues the delicate fragrance of a camellia and the golden glow of a daffodil. A half day of warmth [which] can erase a week of misplaced February. Perhaps we may think of Lent as the flower catalogue that shows us what summer may become. With this reminder (as Jim writes) about the sneaky promise of Lent, we come to the threshold of a new idea about being born anew. The NT lesson for today is a Lenten Standard. It is definitely a Golden Oldie. The lesson from John holds the story of Nicodemus nighttime visit with Jesus. This passage contains Jesus famous words about being born again. Inevitably, this passage also carries with it into our brains, everything we have ever heard about what it means to be born again (or not). This chapter of John tells and retells, and makes us face, what it means to look at Nicodemus and figure out whether he is smart or dull in asking the questions he poses; whether he is cowardly for coming to Jesus under cover of night, or brave for coming to Jesus at all. The judgment that we pass upon Nicodemus matters since, in this story Nicodemus the Pharisee, and also Nicodemus the genuine religious seeker, clearly stands for us! Actually, in this encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus represents most of the people I know, in a surprisingly modern mixture of curiosity, rationality, fearfulness and hope. Nicodemus gives us a sneaky peak into our own souls; (using Jim Kirk s language) Nicodemus become the Biblical mirror which awakens our deeper thoughts Before I say more about Nicodemus, though, I want to tell you about Samir Selmanovic. Selmanovic is pastor of a Christian community in New York City called Citylights. He also serves with various interfaith worship communities and commissions. His book, It s Really All About God, is the place where I discovered the poem for today s Witness of the Spirit lesson. This poem by Israeli writer Yehuda Amichai reflects something of Selmanovic s experience with the dangers of being right, versus the rich potential of NOT knowing. Selmanovic is the Christian son of secular Muslims, and he hails from the once officially atheist nation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Within and through the diversity in his background he
has established a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ, and also a wide and inclusive conviction about the nature of God. It s a classic born again story, but it s also NOT classic at all. Selmanovic describes a happy family life during his childhood, where his originally Roman Catholic mother joined the prevailing Muslim culture of his father. They were secular Muslims, however. They didn t have much time for any religion. Selmanovic writes that their operating values were Enjoy Life and Don t Be A Jerk. (Or, if you want to use more philosophical terms, the guiding values of the family were Pleasure and Honor.) It was while serving his compulsory tour of duty in the Yugoslav army at age eighteen, that Selmanovic (as he puts it) found the pearl he was looking for, and became a follower of Jesus. He tells how a fellow soldier introduced him to the NT, and how the life and the words and the person of Jesus came to haunt and delight him. One evening after his work was completed, Selmanovic went off by himself toward the woods, as far from the sounds of army life and as deep into solitude as possible. He found an old wooden bench in a patch of weeds, placed himself upon the bench, and in his lifechanging encounter with the divine, Selmanovic uttered a one word prayer. The one word was God. This was his simple, sincere commitment to open the door to faith. As he writes, it was his decision to enter the story of the universe. He describes how, sitting on that bench, he had been reminded of a city park bench he had sat upon years earlier, when he kissed his first young love at the age of 12 or 13. He remembered back to the moment he had timidly kissed Sonja, and he also remembered experiencing her delightful, surprising kiss in response. This was what Selmanovic felt was happening, with his one word prayer. He tells how his beating heart responded to the overtures of God. Selmanovic writes, Faith sat on the bench beside me. She had been close to me all my life, but that evening, for the first time, I heard her breathing. [My] feelings of fear and hope were impossible to differentiate. After placing a kiss on my forehead to soothe me, her beloved Faith waited. I said a moment ago that this is a classic born again story and also that it is not. Before I call it either classic or not classic, let s acknowledge that the whole idea of being born again has, in some ways, been reduced in our experience to a bumper sticker proclamation. Being born again is sometimes used as the way to draw lines, not only between who is saved and who is not saved, but even between who is saved according to the correct formula and who has gotten it all wrong. It is a sad thing how we Christians can take a great story about Jesus and an honest seeker, and empty that story of its mystery and its promise. Yet, that is exactly what we so often seem to do. This story is Exhibit A. Instead of a door into the mystery of faith, this story has been used in such a lead-footed way, that it makes one wonder if people even read it before using it to club others over the head! Consider what Jesus says. First
of all, he is obviously speaking in metaphor when he refers to being born again in some DIFFERENT sense than physically. He is also clearly speaking in metaphor when he uses the mysterious sound and feel and origin of blowing wind, to stand for the impact and sway of the Spirit. Nicodemus was a smart man! He was a leader in his community, he was inquisitive and curious, he was rational and insistent. He knew that people do not enter again into their mothers wombs. He was trying to understand what Jesus was actually talking about, because he didn t get it. Therefore Jesus explained the first born again metaphor, with the second blowing wind metaphor making the point in both cases, that diving into a relationship with God through the Spirit, is not something we manage, or create on our own, or even understand. The wind blows where it chooses, (Get it??) and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is, Jesus explained, with everyone who is born of the Spirit. You are not going to see it coming. You are not going to be in charge of where it takes you. Some say that this reply by Jesus, followed by his next question, shows that he is annoyed with Nicodemus. Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? sounds in some minds like a criticism. And we know we don t want to annoy Jesus! We don t want to make Jesus mad with our dense questions! To others, however, Jesus sounds more bemused than critical. Maybe Jesus is actually enjoying this conversation, and finding some pleasure in his encounter with Nicodemus! In a similar way, to some ears, the words of Jesus You must be born again, sound like a command. To some, these words sound like the first homework assignment which must be turned in before the teacher will even consider accepting additional efforts. To others, however, the words of Jesus sound like a promise. Oh yes, my friend, God is doing something new in you so get ready for a big surprise! And finally, some people read this story and believe it says that once we are born from above, our confusion and doubt will end. Others read it, and begin to suspect we are only just getting started when it comes to the new discoveries which are in store when, by the grace of God, we truly will feel as if the wind has blown us to a place we never expected to go. That is what happened to Samir Selmanovic. When he became a Christian, his joy was immense. However, when he became a Christian, his parents and wider family cut him off for two difficult years. Now, over 20 years later, the joy is still there and the work of repairing that breach is still going on. When the Wind of Faith blew into his heart, Selmanovic was blown into Christian communities which sometimes thrilled him, sometimes nurtured him, sometimes disappointed him, and sometimes alienated him.
We can perhaps all relate to that experience! The story of one man s life of faith is not the story of a single moment in time when he was born again. Rather, as he says, Faith had been there all the time. His born again experience is the story of a process which (in the words of the poet Amichai) embraces doubt and love; looks deeply at what was ruined; and leaves behind the cold, hard comforts of being right in exchange for something better. Yehuda Amichai writes, From the place where we are right/ flowers will never grow in the spring. The place where we are right/ is hard and trampled like a yard. Our own poet Jim Kirk has written, Lent is not yet the garden planted by God and give to humankind but perhaps we may think of it as the flower catalogue that shows us what summer may become. We look into its pages, dream of new growth, and begin to notice that certain blossoms and stems are already starting to appear. In Selmanovic s words, Faith waits for us. If we are quiet, we can hear Faith breathing beside us on the bench. One commentator has written about the story of Nicodemus, This text gives us a great foil in Nicodemus: he has already asked all the stupid questions. [But] they are actually very funny questions. Jesus listens carefully to Nicodemus question about second birth, and adds to the wordplay by saying, God is the wind. God blows where God chooses. Of course, by the end of the story, John the Gospel writer has Jesus speaking about himself in the third person. As children many of us have memorized what John quotes Jesus as saying in verse 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. I hear these words as true words. However, I embrace these words as the faith affirmation of the Church, more than a direct quote from Jesus the man of Galilee. I hear these words as mysterious and somewhat confusing words. These words are like the wind in my life blowing where they choose, allowing me to hear them but not telling me exactly where they come from, or precisely where they will take me. At one time I thought I had these words nailed down and knew exactly what they meant. Now I am more like Nicodemus: a regular person who does not always understand, but someone who likes the feel of the wind in my hair. I enjoy the breeze of new possibilities and new horizons of what it means to love God and neighbor and world. I continue to hold with gratitude the promised pearl of great price: Jesus Christ the Risen One. I know that some of you also enjoy the breezes of faith and love and hope and mystery. By contrast, others prefer to be more concrete in their words of
faith. Some work better in well-polished formulas and creeds of faith, while others prefer the soft edges of metaphor. Both ways are okay. Both ways are deep and profound; both ways are clumsy and human. Both ways allow new birth; neither way is for the faint of heart. The wind of God s spirit blows where it chooses. We are created in God s own image, God s own Tzelem Elohim. God chose to pack truth and beauty and freedom into us; our lives tell the story of God in the world. We are born and we are born again. If we sit on a bench somewhere, and pray the one word that comes if we say the word God, or some other holy word that invokes a deeper truth, that we don t yet understand... that is our labor toward new birth. That is our Yes to the Spirit. That is our blessed and fertile not knowing. That is the Living Christ beside us. Let the church say Amen.