Along for the Ride; a sermon for the Second Sunday of Lent

John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”

3 Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.”

4 Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the mother’s womb for a second time and be born, isn’t it?”

5 Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 8 God’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus said, “How are these things possible?”

10 “Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things? 11 I assure you that we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you don’t receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. 17 God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Let the words of my mouth
    and the meditations of my heart
    be pleasing to you,
    Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

If there is one verse that Christians seem to know today, that everyone can reference, whose numbering has been seen far and wide…

Maybe it used to be Psalm 23.

Not anymore.

John 3:16.

I’ve even heard people say, “I’m a John 3:16 Christian!”

Really? I’m a Jesus-following kind of Christian.

Godsolovedtheworldthathegavehisonlybegottensonthatwhosoeverbelievethinhimshouldnotperishbuthaveeverlastinglife.

Over it.

Mostly, I’m over it because it’s been handled so completely out of context for so long.

It’s like an overplayed song on the radio.

You know it’s true: everything I do, I do it for you.

Baby, baby, baby, oh baby.

Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number…

You know what’s even prettier than John 3:16? The poetry, specifically the imagery, eight verses earlier:

God’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes.

Of course, it helps to remember other passages of God-Wind, like:

When God began to create the heavens and the earth— the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters

Or:

As I looked at the creatures, suddenly there was a wheel on the earth corresponding to all four faces of the creatures… There was one shape for all four of them, as if one wheel were inside another. When they moved in any of the four directions, they moved without swerving…  Wherever the wind would appear to go, the wind would make them go there too. The wheels rose up beside them, because the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels.

Or:

Suddenly a sound from heaven like the howling of a fierce wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. 

God loves the world so much that God’s Spirit just blows around everywhere, blowing love into all the world, everywhere, wherever, with about as much reason or predictability as the wind over the surface of the Earth.

And when we enter into the renewal of who we are, the re-creating of ourselves into the Image of God that our Creator intends for us, the born-again person, then we submit ourselves also to the whim of the Spirit. Ours is not to determine where and when God will call us. Ours is to hear and to follow. That’s all.

If we do, God promises us a wild ride. Not a safe ride. Not a comfortable ride. A ride like Ezekiel’s creatures enjoy: unpredictable, uncontrollable, unencumbered by all the baggage that we use every day to define ourselves.

A wild ride.

We think of being born again as securing an eternal future. Sure, there’s a piece of that, but that, frankly, isn’t what’s important. If that were the important bit, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to be human. God could have done this salvation thing any way God wanted to, but God chose Emmanuel. God chose to be with us. And by choosing humanity, by choosing to take on mortality, God shows us just how important this creation is.

If we choose to follow, God will gift us with that Spirit. It is an act of empowerment. Selfish, fearful, and broken as we are, we hope in the promise that God’s Spirit is our Comforter. While that’s true, and fundamentally important, God’s Comfort also Encourages us. God’s Encouragement Empowers us. God’s Empowerment Enlivens us, Revitalizes us to go out and breathe God’s Spirit into creation.

We who are empowered have no business sheltering ourselves against the world. We have no business being afraid of - what?

Think you’re getting beat down? Oppressed? Are you suffering the way Paul suffered? He didn’t gripe about it:

Instead, we commend ourselves as ministers of God in every way. We did this with our great endurance through problems, disasters, and stressful situations. We went through beatings, imprisonments, and riots. We experienced hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger.

Instead, Paul says:

We displayed purity, knowledge, patience, and generosity. We served with the Holy Spirit, genuine love, telling the truth, and God’s power.

If you are a born-again Christian, then act like one! Get off your duff, stop complaining, stop being so threatened by all the fear-mongering all around you.

Turn off your Faux News, take your hands out of your pockets, and start using them the way that Jesus does. Go be healing! Go be mercy! Go be forgiveness to all those broken people around you!

Get out and let God’s Spirit blow you around! The best possible thing you can do is be along for the ride. You’ll be amazed at just how God will bless your stinky socks off.

Think you can handle that today? Then come let God feed you this morning, meet your Creator at this table, and then get out that door and let God’s Spirit do something with you.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.