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Sunday, October 12, 2014

The Wind at Our Backs

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, October 12, 2014.  The Bible verses are John 3:1-17.


            As many of you know, we’re doing a sermon series called “Theology 101”, trying to learn more about God and about our relationship to God, which after all is all theology really is.  When we talked about the trinity, we talked about how God, in the form of Jesus, God the Son, took the punishment that we should get for our sins so that we can have salvation and eternal life.  And we know that we receive that salvation by our belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior.
            So the question, then, is what does “belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior” mean?  Obviously, it has to be more than just saying the words.  Anybody can do that.  We have to mean the words.  If I say, “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior” but I don’t do anything about that belief, I’ve done nothing.  If we mean the words, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, that belief needs to affect our lives in some significant way.
            That brings us to our Bible reading for today.  Jesus is talking to a man named Nicodemus.  Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council.  Now, the Pharisees are often thought of as the bad guys in the gospels, and there are reasons for that, but whatever the Pharisees were they were not dummies.  And this one was a member of the Jewish ruling council.  Nicodemus was a man who had studied the scriptures and who knew what he was talking about when it came to the Bible, or at least the Old Testament, which of course is all the Bible they had back then.  And Nicodemus, unlike most of the Pharisees we read about, seems to have had a favorable opinion of Jesus.
            But Jesus gives him a concept that he cannot understand.  It’s one that you and I struggle to understand sometimes, too.  Jesus tells him, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again."
            Nicodemus had no idea what that meant.  His instinct was to take it literally.  He said, well, how’s that possible?  How can I be born when I’m already an old man?  I cannot somehow get back into my mother’s womb and be born again.
            And Jesus explains it, kind of.  It’s not exactly a detailed explanation.  But Jesus says, “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”
            For Nicodemus, the explanation did not explain.  And it can feel that way for us, too.  But it is something we need to deal with.  We need to take it seriously.  Because Jesus said no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.  And I assume we’d all like to see the kingdom of God when our time comes.  I know I would.  So, we need to try to figure out what Jesus meant when he said we have to be born again.
            Jesus said we need to be born of the spirit.  For some people, that means a sudden specific event.  Just like we have a specific day and time at which we are born on this earth, there are people who believe there needs to be a specific day and time at which we are born of the spirit.  And there are people who say they’ve had that experience.  There are people who can tell you the exact day and time at which they believe they were born of the spirit, born again.
            Maybe some of you have had that.  If you have, that’s great.  I do believe it can happen that way.  I believe that the Holy Spirit can come on us all at once and change our lives.  When that happens, it must be an awesome experience.  It’d definitely be something you’d never forget.  It’d be something no one would ever forget, I would think.  To have the Holy Spirit come on you suddenly, and completely turn you around.  That would be incredible.
            But as United Methodists, we don’t believe that’s the only way it can happen.  Now don’t get me wrong.  We do believe that we need to be born again, to be born of the spirit, just as Jesus said.  It’s just that we don’t think it has to be a sudden, life-changing experience.  It can happen that way, but we believe that the Holy Spirit can also come on us slowly, gradually.  The Holy Spirit can come on us over a period of time.  And when the Holy Spirit does that, it ultimately has the same effect.  It does completely turn us around.  And when we look back from where we were to where we are, it is pretty incredible.
            And we think this is consistent with what Jesus said next.  Jesus said, “The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to the wind.  And in fact, I’m told that in Greek, the word for “spirit” is the same as the word for “wind”.
            Now “wind” is a concept we’re pretty familiar with around here, right?  The wind blows.  Sometimes it blows hard, sometimes it’s soft.  Sometimes it comes from one direction, sometimes it’s from another direction.  Sometimes it swirls.  Sometimes it does several of those things within the course of a day.  And how much control do we have over the wind?  Zero.  Zip.  None.  The wind does what the wind is going to do.  We can put up walls and try to block it, but we cannot stop it or even change it.  The wind does what the wind is going to do.
            And that’s how the Holy Spirit works.  And that’s how the Holy Spirit works in our lives.  Sometimes it comes on us hard, all at once.  Sometimes it comes on us softly, slowly, gradually.  Sometimes we feel the Holy Spirit coming from one place.  Sometimes we feel the Holy Spirit coming from another place.  And we have absolutely no control over the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit does what the Holy Spirit is going to do.  We can try to block out the Holy Spirit, but we cannot stop the Holy Spirit or even change the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit does what the Holy Spirit is going to do.
            There’s one other thing about the wind.  We can accomplish a whole lot more when we go with the wind than when we go against it, right?  Have you ever tried to row a boat against a strong wind?  You don’t get very far, do you?  Have you ever tried to run against a strong wind?  You can do it, but it’s sure a lot harder.  
I rode my bike a lot this summer, and I take kind of rectangular route.  That means there were times when I was riding against the wind, and there were times I was riding with the wind.  And I can tell you that going with the wind is a whole lot easier.
And that’s true of the Holy Spirit, too.  When we try to work against the Holy Spirit, we don’t get very far.  And even when do get somewhere, it’s really hard.  But when we work with the Holy Spirit, it’s like we have the wind at our back.  Everything seems easier.  Everything just sort of falls into place.
I think that’s at least part of what it means to be born again.  To work with the Holy Spirit instead of against the Holy Spirit.  To go where the Holy Spirit leads us to go.  To do what the Holy Spirit leads us to do.  To be faithful to God in all things, to the best of our ability.  To trust that if God is leading us to go somewhere and to do something, then it must be right, and so we’ll do it even if we’re scared of it or even if we’re not sure what’s going to happen as a result.  Because we know that we can trust God in all things.
God would not have to let us work with the Holy Spirit like that, you know.  God does not need us to accomplish God’s purposes.  God chooses to work with us.  God chooses to allow us to work with God the Holy Spirit.  God chooses to allow us to be taught and guided by God through God the Holy Spirit. This is an incredible gift that God gives to us.
When we are born on this earth, we have our earthly parents to teach us and to guide us.  We trust their teaching and their leading because we trust them to have our best interests at heart.  When we’re born of the Spirit, we have God the Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us.  We can trust the Holy Spirit’s teaching and leading because we can trust God the Holy Spirit to have our best interests at heart.
Jesus said we need to be born again.  We need to be born of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s take that seriously.  Let’s open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit.  Let’s let God the Holy Spirit teach us and lead us and guide us.  It’ll feel like we have the wind at our back.  And when the time comes, we will see the kingdom of God.

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