Year A

John 3:1-17

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Risk of New Birth

How much risk are you willing to take? Did you know that when people over the age of 95 are asked in a survey what changes they would make if they could live their life over again, one of the top three answers they always give is that they would take more risks. But you don’t have to be 95 to look back on life and wish you’d been more of a risk-taker. We can’t go back to seize opportunities time has already snatched away. No one can live life again. But we can go forward. Yet, even so how much risk are we willing to take? In the business world, it seems the bottom-line is that risk taking is the only way to success. And according to Jesus this is the same for people of faith. The crux of the discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus today is about risk taking.

That’s what Jesus meant when he said “You must be born again.” For birth is an inherently risky procedure. Ask any pregnant woman entering the labor and delivery room. In spite of the advances in prenatal care and the wonders of medical science, most women when asked will tell you they are anxious for every expectant mother knows that birth is a risky adventure. Birth requires commitment; it requires all that we have. With that in mind, Jesus tells Nicodemus today in our gospel that being part of the kingdom of God requires that same commitment. It requires commitment and a willingness to risk: a willingness to let the old life go and trust in God for a new birth.

As long as Nicodemus holds on to the old, as long as he is afraid to go into the light or unwilling to risk his life for God, he cannot be a part of God’s great adventure. And that adventure is available for all who take the risk. For it is only when we stretch the horizons of our lives and venture away from the comfortable to follow Christ that faith takes on its true dimension in our lives. We have to be willing to take the risk to follow.  Abram was willing to take the risk. “The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him.”

Abraham believed God. He didn’t just believe in God, as in the belief that God exists, he believed what God had to say and was credited with righteousness. In the OT story today, we see an example of God working through a promise to an individual as a means of blessing a multitude. God worked though Abraham’s faith and willingness to risk it all, to bless “all the families of the earth”. Paul in his letter to the Romans says that because Abraham believed God and was willing to trust in God, to take that risk, “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Paul uses the example of Abraham today in his letter to the Romans to claim him as the spiritual father of all the nations, of all “those who share the faith of Abraham.” He is a model of faith for both Jews and Gentiles. For all who “belong to Christ… are Abrahams’ offspring, heirs according to the promise.” What did Abraham’s belief get him? It brought him challenge and turmoil as it did Paul but ultimately, it got them salvation because they believed God.

Many great people have believed God and risked it all. Noah believed God when he said there was going to be a great flood. He went ahead and built an ark. Moses believed God wanted his people, the Israelites, to be free from Egyptian captivity. He went to Pharaoh, risking his life, and demanded, “Let my people go.” A young child named David believed God when he told him he could defeat the giant Philistine named Goliath. Armed with a slingshot, he headed into battle and won. John the Baptist believed God when he told him that the Messiah was in the world. He preached repentance of sins to the multitudes of people and thousands turned to God. Jesus believed God when he stood in front of Pontius Pilate and said nothing in his defense and he believed God as he carried his own cross to Calvary.

The disciples of Jesus believed God when their resurrected leader told them to go to all nations, baptizing and making disciples of all peoples. They all believed God. It wasn’t always easy but they went beyond “believing in” God, to “believing” God. Are we so different? We believe that Jesus came into the world to die for our sins. We believe in the promise of Jesus and we put our faith in that promise. We don’t always want to do what we know God is asking of us and we find at times we hesitate to trust him completely. To risk it all and yet God’s promise to love us and be with us does not depend upon what we do or not do. It is a gift freely given with no strings attached.

Paul puts it this way, that if we work for wages, then we expect to get paid; we expect something to be due us. It’s the old saying: A day’s pay for a day’s work. But if we don’t do the work, and still get paid, then it is a gift. It’s something we get undeserved. That’s called grace. “To those who without works trust him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness…” God has told us that his promise comes to us by faith that we must rely solely on the grace of God for our salvation. And that grace, that love of God, is guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring through faith in Christ. It is the same gift that Jesus offered to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin that night.

Jesus thought it was time for him to come out of the darkness into the light, to be reborn by water and the spirit. To be born from above—to do what is true, to follow the one who is the way, the truth and the life. To risk it all…because through Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension—all of which is implied in “the Son of Man must be lifted up”—eternal life with God is possible. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” God asks us to be risk-takers for Christ and calls us to follow Jesus on paths that are unknown, to venture forth in faith. The question is not how much faith does it take to follow; it is whether we will use the faith we have.

For John, being born from above and believing in Jesus are clearly not so much what one does with one’s mind as about what one does with one’s heart and one’s life. As for Nicodemus, he appears to live in the darkness and shadows of this story until its conclusion, when he emerges publicly with Joseph of Arimathea, who is also a “secret disciple”, to bury Jesus. It was risky for him to bring his faith into the light but it seems he was willing to be “reborn in Jesus.” Faith means being born again as a new person, leaving the comfortable behind to adventure with God. For once we are born of the spirit of God, we are led by the spirit to see and live in the life of the spirit here on earth. So how much are we willing to risk to see the kingdom of God?