Sermon - 2014-03-16

As we continue our Lenten journey, we stop and remember some of the things in the past. How they have shaped us into the people that we are today.  We stop and remember the people who have helped form us.  We stop and give thanks that we have come to be part of God’s People within our journey.  As we do this, we begin to also think of the ideas, concepts, and guiding principles that still lead us and guide us within our life today.  

Today, we hear about a man named Nicodemus.  Nicodemus was a leader within the Jewish Temple, he was a man who knew the Scriptures and knew that God was still having a relationship with the people in the world.  As a leader in the Temple, he was a person who others would come to ask questions.  Nicodemus was a person who people expected to have answers to their difficult questions.  Nicodemus hears about the works that Jesus is performing for the people.  How he is able to share lessons of wise counsel to people, having large crowds come to hear him preach?  Nicodemus goes to Jesus to ask his own questions.  

As Nicodemus stands before Jesus, he declares his honor that he has heard from others. That Jesus is able to perform miracles and help people in ways that only God could be a part of.  Yet as Nicodemus is speaking, Jesus begins to answer the very questions that are upon Nicodemus’ heart and mind.  He wants to know more.  He wants answers to some of the difficult questions of how and wants to know that things are indeed certain.  

Jesus begins that a person can only see the Kingdom of God by first being born from above.  Yet Nicodemus struggles with the question, how can a person even be born a second time?  How do we know and ensure that a person has indeed been born in this way?  However, Nicodemus is focused only on the process that the person goes through.  He is not paying attention to the work that God is doing within the life of the person and the world around them.  Jesus explains that a person must be born of both water and spirit.  Jesus explains to Nicodemus that it is a physical birth, of flesh, bone and the life that we see.  There is more that we can not take in with our five senses.

For here, Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus something that we in our modern time must also be reminded of.  For we were born, our very life was a gift given to us by our Heavenly Father.  Yet, there is also a time in which we can be born again.  We realize all of these things that have happened and the gifts that are given to us.  A time in which our Heavenly Father claims us his very own, that we are made new in the family of God.  We realize that this physical work is indeed fleeting, but there is more going on that we can fully comprehend or realize based on our own five senses.

We celebrate this through Holy Baptism. In Baptism, there are two very important aspects that we should always be reminded of: the water and God’s Word.  The water is used for it is part of the physical world that surrounds us.  It helps sustain us and it refreshes us to make us new.  An aspect that we use on a daily basis to be reminded of this very important promise and realization.  This water reminds us of God’s creation and promise that is found in the new birth that is our Baptism.  This water reminds us as often as we use it of the Word of God that is spoken in our own Baptism.  For in this Baptism God’s Word is spoken.  You are claimed and declared to be part of the family of God.  It is this physical element that surrounds us, water, that continually draws us back into being reminded of this great promise that has been given to us.  

Nicodemus still does not understand.  He wants to know how.  He wants to know more so that he can fully grasp to understand the whole teaching so that he can then go and share that understanding with others.  However, Jesus reminds Nicodemus that he is still speaking of Earthly things.  Things that you can see and bear witness to within the world.  And yet, still Nicodemus wants to know even more. Jesus says, believe in the promise that has been given to you.  Be reminded, trust, and live on.  For it is this gift of life that we live out.  It is this promise found in Baptism that we trust and know to be true because it is spoken by the one who created and sustains us.  

We hear this great promise by the Son.  The one who was sent to show the whole world the love and extent that God is willing to go for us within the world.  Today, I hope you stop and remember your own Baptism.  Remember who was there, what was said and what promises were made.  As you remember, may you also believe in the promise and love that surround you that day and always.  May you be blessed with knowledge that God is indeed with you and loving you.