Coming Out of the Dark
Rev. Roderick Miller
February 17, 2008
John 3:1-17
Soren Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen in the early 19th century. A Christian philosopher with a keen intellect, he startled the religious world with his denouncement of watered down Christianity. During the period of history we call the enlightenment, Kierkegaard's philosophy served as a corrective to a world and a church that had lost its identity. Behind his deep thought was a heart that longed for God. Here is one of Kierkegaard's parables:
When the prosperous man on a dark and starlit night drives comfortably in his carriage and has lanterns lighted, aye, then he is safe, he fears no difficulty, he carries his light with him and it is not dark close around him. But, precisely because he has the lantern lighted, and has a strong light close to him, precisely for this reason, he cannot see the stars. For his light obscures the stars, which the poor peasant driving without light, can see gloriously in the dark but starry night.
So those deceived ones live in this temporal existence, either occupied with the necessities of life, they are too busy to avail themselves of the view, or in their prosperity, and good days, they have, as it were, lanterns lighted, and close about them is so satisfactory, so pleasant, so comfortable - but this view is lacking the prospect - the view of the stars.
This man Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews - an important person - a member of the "Who's Who" of Jerusalem - yet he is seeking out Jesus. Why would this man of power and position seek out Jesus the itinerant preacher? And why would he come to see him at night? What was he hoping to find?
"Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." What a statement that is! What is Nicodemus saying to Jesus?
And Jesus answers him directly cutting right to the heart of the matter with Nicodemus: "Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Wow. Jesus is sensing that there is more darkness here for Nicodemus than being there at nighttime. He can't see because he is not willing to see.
Nicodemus comes right back to him: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Nicodemus isn't letting go. He genuinely wants to know - yet his head is in a different framework. They are speaking different languages - or are they?
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is nor of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' Nicodemus is baffled and Jesus explanations seem to increase his lack of understanding. Yet Jesus senses something in Nicodemus and gives it to him straight - clear and all he can handle.
Has God ever given you all you can handle? Have you ever found God asking you the question that you would rather not have to answer? It isn't the same question or statement for everyone. We see in the Bible that Jesus' encounters with people hinge on all sorts of questions. What is common about them is that they invite the hearer to let go of whatever they were holding onto - a perspective, a possession, an understanding, a set of realities or truths, and to trust God to step out and go further.
And the invitation is to see differently - to see with the eyes of faith. We are born again when we trust God in the moment. When we no longer need to have the answers. When we no longer need to be secure. In fact, we can trust our vulnerability - our nakedness before God.
Trust, vulnerability, Not knowing. Isn't that what birth is all about? What birthing babies is all about?
I notice that Jesus was in Nicodemus' face on this. "Most assuredly" Truly, Truly" This is the way it is! He was doing everything he could to help Nicodemus see God breaking into his life. Right then and there. Upfront and personal.
Gloria Estefan wrote a song a few years ago called Coming Out of the Dark that refers to the inbreaking of new life.
Why be afraid if I'm not alone
Though life is never easy the rest in unknown
Up to now for me its been hands against stone
Spent each and every moment
Searching for what to believe
(chorus)
Coming out of the dark, I finally see the light now
Its shining on me
Coming out of the dark, I know the love that saved me
You're sharing with me
Starting again is part of the plan
And Ill be so much stronger holding your hand
Step by step Ill make it through I know I can
It may not make it easier but I have felt you
Near all the way
We get stuck living our lives from the perspective of the dark. The skeptical and cautious. In pre-1990's Russia, there was a story of a Russian exhibit at a world's fair. The title of the exhibit was "World Peace" and it featured a large cage in which a lamb and a Russian wolf were living peacefully together - a living witness of Isaiah's vision of a peaceable kingdom. The display was impressive. It attracted a lot of attention. One day, someone questioned the Russian curator - how do you do it - how do you get the lamb and the wolf to live together like that? "O, its very simple", said the curator, "we simply replace the lamb every morning."
Well, it is a jungle out there, and we have learned to become extremely skeptical and cautious about anything that might be considered out of the ordinary. We say - if it is too good to be true - it probably is not to be believed. We have learned how to hedge - to hold back - to keep at arms length.
The sad thing is that we have bought into this approach to our faith. Many people are not experiencing transformed living in Christ - because they are stuck in the limits they have set. We are the church and we say we believe in changed lives. So now is the time to open ourselves to the inbreaking power of God. We will see what we expect to see. We will find what we seek to find. We will discover openings to what we knock to have opened.
Nicodemus appears again at the middle of the Gospel saying that Jesus deserved a fair trial and at the end of the Gospel where he brings spices to Jesus body in the tomb. It seems clear that something happened to him because he showed up that night and went with the challenge Jesus gave to him. Maybe Jesus' challenge stayed with him and led to a changed life - we will never know.
The question, though, is about you and me here today. What do we do with Jesus' call? Ignore it? Duck it? Put if off for later? Act as though it is not for us? Or take it to heart and respond as we are led?
It is for you. It is about seeing rightly. With your heart. Allowing yourself to fall away from whatever you have been holding onto for dear life. That's what picking up the cross is all about. Laying down something so that we can pick up what God is offering us. The cross is our way to new life. The cross is the way to the kind of seeingthat Jesus was referring to when he said that seeing has to do with being born again.
Are you ready to come out of the dark?