"Understanding Being Born Again" Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – March
16, 2014 Centenary United
Psalm 121; John 3:1-12 This morning we are going to discuss what Jesus meant by
being born again. This
teaching has become the
cornerstone for many Christians for determining the quality of a
believer’s faith. What is a
mystery is how the one-on-one conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus
has become such an essential teaching in Christian theology. Our journey
through Lent provides us with an excellent opportunity to re-examine
what Jesus was teaching this Pharisee.
Nicodemus was one of the most brilliant teachers in Even though Nicodemus was highly educated, he found it impossible
to understand what Jesus was telling him.
This conversation had more of an impact on Jesus than it
did on Nicodemus. This
Pharisee was teaching Jesus what may have been the most significant
lesson that Jesus learned during the early stages of his ministry.
What was that lesson?
Jesus learned that if the greatest teacher in
After this encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus never again mentioned the necessity of being born again. Instead, he taught by using examples with which his listeners were intimately familiar. He started many parables with the words, “The Kingdom of heaven is like this.” After these introductory words, Jesus gave examples that all his listeners experienced every day and during every growing season. For example, “The Kingdom of heaven is like this: A woman takes some yeast and mixes it with a bushel of flour . . . .” The problem
Jesus faced throughout his ministry was guiding his listeners to shift
their thinking away from being
obedient to the time-honored
Covenant,
to developing compassionate
attitudes that surfaced in one’s daily living from a willing spirit.
Teaching this idea was an
uphill struggle for Jesus.
Had it not been for Jesus’ miraculous ability to heal people, it
is doubtful that many people would have been attracted to his radically
new message of love over obedience.
Humanity has lived with Jesus’ teachings for over two thousand
years and still we miss countless lessons that offer guidance for our
growth because we have not made this shift in our consciousness.
We are still intimately attached
to events in our physical lives that are governed more by the countless
unrecognized
laws
of self-interest than by
attitudes of compassion.
For example, when we were living on Capitol Hill in The Postal Clerk had to find the exact postage for each card in a
large book. Once the woman
was told the correct postage, she had to take coins from her purse and
put them in a tray. I had gone into the Post Office just to purchase
stamps. I was amazed at what was happening within me.
I actually began clocking this woman’s tedious, slow-motion
movements. I was becoming crazed
by this inconvenience. Other Postal employees saw what was happening and
no one came to my assistance. I
actually thought I might be on
Candid Camera, a very funny television program many years ago that
captured moments of people being people in situations just like the one
I was experiencing. I was a veteran of episodes that require patience.
I have been trapped in my car during rush hour in There was a time when I sat endlessly in traffic at a blinking
red traffic signal because the other motorists had a blinking yellow
light and those drivers were refusing to take turns.
On another occasion I had an appointment with my ophthalmologist
at 10:00 a.m. and it was 11:25 a.m. before I heard a receptionist say,
“Mr. Stetler, the doctor will see you now.”
While in that Post Office, I kept asking myself, “Why is my
patience being tested again?”
The answer came swiftly, “Dick, you are still in a hurry and your
impatience is eating you alive.”
We are easily controlled by these
unrecognized rules
of self-interest.
All my rules were being violated and I was being taught once
again that my frustration would not change what was happening.
I needed to be born again
in that moment i.e., I needed to change my impatience to an attitude
of peace. Peace never destroyed anyone’s mental processes.
Peace never produces adrenalin and cortisol in the quantities
that seething impatience creates. Once
I realized what was happening to me, I adjusted my perception and was
prepared to stay in that Post Office the entire afternoon if that is how
long I had to wait. As soon
as I had chosen peace, the light
went on in my consciousness and I smiled in a spirit of thanksgiving for
how my angels had provided me with another opportunity to replace my
impatience with peace.
I had come to realize that this episode appeared as though it had
been specifically designed for me because all during that time, no one
else had come into that Post Office.
How much we get done in a
day is not nearly as important as the spirit we bring to each moment.
If we are in pain right now, it probably is the result of our
thoughts, our fears, our worries, our “me-first” attitudes or moments
when our needs are not being met.
During
Lent we need to explore how our faith saves us from all the anxieties we
create within ourselves because we live in a world that does not care
one bit about our
personal laws of self-interest.
The world could easily say, “If you want to be your own
worst enemy, have at it!”
Of course, the other alternative is to show up in life totally prepared
to deal compassionately with whatever comes to our life’s stage. Linda Caldwell was a student at the The professor had waived all the prerequisite courses because she
was the darling of the
faculty and had maintained a 4.0 average in every course.
Everyone knew her.
She had all the talents and graces to perform well in life
wherever she went. To the
chagrin of everyone that knew her, she was failing Philosophy.
Linda could not grasp abstract
thinking just like Nicodemus had failed to do. The day of the final examination arrived. If she failed, she
would not graduate. She
would not deliver the address to her graduating class that was always
the privilege of the student that had achieved the highest
grade-point-average. To
give Linda a break, the professor gave the class one question for the
final examination -- “What is faith?”
All the students began writing feverishly in their blue books.
Within seconds, Linda stood up, handed in her blue book and left
the classroom. The professor was heartsick. He had given her every opportunity
to succeed. Her professor
thought, “With so much at stake, why would she do this?”
Filled with a sense of sadness
and frustration, the professor picked up her blue book to see if she had
written anything. He developed a broad smile on his face, nodded his
head in an affirming manner and gave her an A.
Knowing that her graduation depended on the decision of her
professor, what had she written in that blue book that was so profound?
In answering the question, “What is faith?” Linda wrote two
words, “This is” and she left the classroom. Linda had successfully
illustrated the meaning of faith by placing her destiny into the hands
of her professor. Countless Christians are not prepared to place their destinies
outside of their control. We
know very well what we do.
We worry. We pray.
We become insecure.
We seek God’s will while remaining influenced by the
unrecognized laws of
self-interest. We
cannot let go of our destiny as Linda had done, and row our boats gently
down the stream.
Jesus knew that finding and living in the Kingdom of heaven was
difficult because of how entwined people become and how dependent we are
on the things in our material world. He
once said, “The gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to life is
hard, and there are very few people that ever find it.”
(Matthew 7:14). Do you remember the time when a Samaritan village refused to
receive Jesus and his disciples?
James and John came to Jesus and angrily asked, “Lord, do you
want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
(Luke 9:54) On
another occasion, Peter drew a sword in the Garden and cut off the ear
of Malchus. (John 18:10)
How long had Peter, James and John been listening to Jesus’ message?
Like Nicodemus, they had not learned what it means to be
born again.
Their spirits were still being
manipulated by events happening in their experience. What a blessing it is to know that God’s love is so extensive and
so encompassing that God waits for us like
a pot of gold at the end of
a rainbow.
We cannot earn God’s love
with our titles, our academic degrees, our manner of witnessing to our
faith, our ordination papers or our wonderful, thoughtful deeds.
We are saved from the
craziness of this world because God loves us. God takes each kernel of wheat that we represent and with the breath of loving kindness, blows the chaff away. There is a wideness in God’s mercy, as our final hymn tells us, that we seldom consider. Too many believers living in fear cling to God’s judgment rather than being filled with thanksgiving and gratitude for God’s mercy. Jesus taught us from the cross and from the empty tomb that such mercy can be ours as well when we make developing a merciful spirit our choice. |