Community Church Sermons

First Sunday after Pentecost, Year B - June 18, 2000

"Can Old Men Learn New Tricks?"

John 3:1-17

"Can old men learn new tricks?" may seem to be a rather dangerous title for a Father's Day sermon. By asking the question though, I do not want to imply that there are any old men present here in this congregation today, though one day - in the far off future - some of us will begin to approach the state of being old. How do you know when you're old? Well, some suggest that you know you're getting old when almost everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt, doesn't work. You know you're getting old when your little black book contains mostly names that end with the letters M.D. And my personal favorite - you know you're really old when you light the candles on your birthday cake, and a group of campers form a circle around you and start singing "Kumbaya."

But chronologically challenged men are not who I want to address today. When I ask the question, "Can Old Men Learn New Tricks?" I'm really speaking to those among us - male and female - who are like the man in today's Gospel reading. Nicodemus was an accomplished person - a highly respected man in the community, a learned rabbi, a member of the Sanhedrin - the religious equivalent of the Supreme Court. But for all of Nicodemus' accomplishments, he had come to a crossroads in life. In Jesus of Nazareth, he caught a vision of life much larger than the life he was living, much more wonderful than anything he had ever imagined.

And so, John tells us, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night.

Now, it's interesting to me that Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of darkness. In the Gospel of John, the image of night is used to describe unbelief and uncertainty. And it seems to me that there is a place of night in each of our lives, even those of us who are people of faith like Nicodemus. It's sort of like when we recite something like the Apostle's Creed and get to the part that declares that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. We say the words, but some among us wonder. Or, it's like the question you ask when you wander through the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau - the gas chamber, the crematorium - and you pause and ask, "How can a loving God allow people to inflict such inhumanity upon others?" Or, it's like when you've lived the life of success, accomplishing your goals, providing for your needs, reaching the top of your career, but way, deep down inside you're just not happy, and you don't know why. "What is the meaning of my life?" you ask. And you can't find an answer.

If there is such a nighttime place in your life, I hope you'll learn something important from Nicodemus. He let Jesus in on his hidden, non-public doubts and uncertainties. And Jesus didn't chase him away! Instead, Jesus ministered to the doubts, the questions, the uncertainties. Jesus explained the Kingdom of God. Jesus laid out before Nicodemus the way to new life. So come with me, for a few moments today, and let's explore what Jesus said.

The encounter begins with Nicodemus telling Jesus that he believes Jesus has come from God, because no one could do the signs Jesus did without God's power. Nicodemus had seen how Jesus healed the sick. He saw how souls tormented by evil spirits had been set free. He was no doubt aware of how Jesus had turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, a story reported in the preceding chapter of John. Nicodemus has witnessed miracles! And because of what he's seen, he believes!

But Jesus tells Nicodemus he's all wet!

One of the wonderful subtleties of this story is that it actually begins in Chapter 2. There, John reports that many people believe in Jesus because of the miraculous signs he performs. But Jesus does not trust himself to these people because this religion, based upon seeing signs and wonders, is a dead end street. John says Jesus knew what was in the heart of such "men." And then Chapter 3 begins by introducing Nicodemus as such a man.

"We know that you are a teacher who came from God” says Nicodemus, “because no one could do the signs you are doing apart from the presence of God."

Many people come to faith because of some miraculous moment in their lives. I'll never forget Lt. John Johnson of the North Attleboro Police Department, running into the sanctuary of our church during the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. John had come to get his wife Phoebe to go with him to the local hospital where their daughter Mary was fighting for her life, the result of a very serious automobile accident. After the service, I joined the family in the emergency ward, and we prayed together, and John told God that, if God would spare Mary's life, he would start going to church and never miss a Sunday. Well, Mary survived, and I don’t think John has missed a Sunday in the nearly twenty-five years since it happened.

Many of us come to faith because of miraculous signs. An answer to prayer. A powerful conversion experience. An accident avoided because of what seemed to be God's providence. A prodigal son or daughter who comes home after trusting them to God's care.

And God is at work in our world! Miracles do happen! Prayers are answered!

But these are not enough to form the basis of faith. The miraculous signs we've experienced in our lives are gifts of grace. They are illustrations of what the Kingdom of God is like. They are intended as reminders that God loves us and cares about us. They serve as an invitation to come deeper, to draw closer, to begin a relationship with God. But when the signs become an end in themselves, they produce a faith that easily evaporates when the prayer isn't answered, or when the loved one doesn't survive. And the commitments that flow from such faith very seldom last very long.

When Burt Reynolds decides to end it all in the movie "The End", he swims out into the ocean as far as he can. And then, in a moment of desperate resignation, he slips below the surface of the water. Several long moments pass. And then - all of a sudden - he bursts back to the surface! He's had a change of heart! He doesn't want to die! He wants to live! But now he's so far out that he can't make it to shore. So he prays!

"Lord, if you get me out of this, I'll give you everything I own!" A few minutes later, and closer to shore, he prays again. "Thank you Lord for helping me. If I make it to shore, I'm gonna give you half of all I own!" And a little while later, and closer to shore still, it becomes 30%, then 10%…and, well, you get the drift. You can't build your faith on miracles because they are a means, not an end. They are an invitation to come to something better!

And now Jesus tells Nicodemus what it is. "No one can see the Kingdom of heaven without being born again."

You see, it's not a sign or a miracle you need to be made whole. It's a birth! A new birth!

And if you're puzzled by this, you're in good company because Nicodemus couldn't quite grasp it either! He asks, "Can old men learn new tricks?" That is, can a person who is old become a baby again? "Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"

And Jesus tells Nicodemus he's got the right concept, but the wrong direction. You see, a human baby moves from the warm, safe world of his mother's womb into the unknown world outside the womb. But spiritual birth is different. In it, we transition from our world - the world we know so well, the world in which we feel at least somewhat safe and comfortable - into God's world!

It's appropriate, I think, on Father's Day, to remind the men in our congregation of the multi-faceted world in which we have lived our lives. Many of us grew up in the world of competitive athletics. We were nurtured in a world where men are required to be strong and unemotional. We live in the world of "the provider". We know the in's and out's of the business world, and the world of the corporate boardroom.

But none of these worlds can satisfy the longing of our souls. There is something deep inside that cries out for another world.

God's world!

And you can't ever experience the true power of faith in your life until you're willing to move from the womb of the world in which you've been living to the new world of the Kingdom of God! And then Jesus describes some of the differences between the two.

First, he tells Nicodemus, God's world is built upon higher values.

It troubles me when I hear people talk these days about family values. It seems to me they are talking about trying to restore society to an image of the family that existed in a prior time in our history. And what troubles me about this is that this so-called value has no place in it for the increasing numbers of single parents and the children of single-parent families. When people talk about "family values" they never get around to talking about the need for good childcare, or the importance of developing a welfare system that adequately provides for those in need, and that truly provides the opportunity for people to become self-sufficient. Wouldn't a discussion of family values include a proposal to increase the minimum wage to a level that could truly support a family? And if not, wouldn't it advocate public policies that make it possible for low-wage earners to improve their job skills and move on to higher paying jobs - for the sake of building stronger families? These "family values" batted around today usually don't include people like my widowed mother who lives on Social Security and pays over $300 a month for prescription medication. These "family values" have a far greater interest in things like a constitutional amendment to restore prayer to school, but no interest at all in making it unconstitutional for poverty to exist here in the wealthiest nation in the world.

Now, I'm not trying to criticize people who legitimately want to make things better for families. In fact, God bless them for caring about families. But what I'm saying is that the values have been set too low! God has higher values! In God's Kingdom, the poor, the disadvantaged, and even the irresponsible are never left behind. In fact, how a society treats society's outcasts becomes the very basis upon which God judges the morality of a nation.

In God's Kingdom, people are valued differently! The lost, the lame, the least, the last all have a place at God's table! And to be born again means to be born into these new values that often conflict with and run contrary to the values we've held all our lives.

Then Jesus describes a second characteristic of the new birth. It is a life that is driven by the Holy Spirit. "The wind blows where it will and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes to. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Early on in my ministry, a special visitor showed up in church one day. It was a sparrow. Evidently, the bird had flown into the bell tower, made its way down to the balcony level, and then found an open door into the sanctuary. It made its grand entrance just about the time I was starting the sermon.

Now, I’ve preached to some pretty tough crowds. But when a whole congregation begins to look like spectators at a tennis match – heads moving left as that little bird flew to one side, heads moving right as it flew in the other – you know you’ve met your match. Besides, the bird kept trying to get out those big Palladian windows, and each time it crashed into the glass, there was a gasp that came from the people.

What do you do in a situation like that?

My only thought was to pray. So, I asked the ushers to open the doors, and everyone to be still, and to bow their heads. Then I asked them to pray that God would show that little bird the way out of the church. And so we did.

And, as we prayed, a most amazing thing happened! That terrified little sparrow flew down into one of the aisles, landed on the floor, and then slowly walked right down that aisle, and out the doors of the First Congregational Church! In fact, one of the Deacons said that, as the bird stepped through the doors, it turned around and gave a little birdie wave with its wing! I’m not sure I believe that!

But I DO believe that the Holy Spirit guided that sparrow to safety. We prayed, but it was the Holy Spirit who put it into the heart of the sparrow to fly away.

Now, if you’re at all like me, you spend a lot of your life trying to make sparrows fly. You try to be a good parent depending upon your own skills and experiences. You try to work through the challenges of your marriage by your own reason and understanding. You try to lead others to Christ by finding clever things to say, or just the right book to recommend. You draw upon your own strength and resources to help others solve their problems.

But Jesus teaches that life’s not that simple. You can’t live your children’s lives for them. You can’t control what your spouse thinks or feels. You can’t manipulate people into faith. You can’t make your neighbor a nicer person. You can’t solve other peoples’ problems for them.

But even though you can’t make sparrows fly, Jesus promises that the Spirit can! And Jesus invites us to be born into a new way of relating to both others and ourselves. We are to trust that the Holy Spirit is active in every person and every situation. And that our love, and encouragement, and prayers support the work of the Spirit in people’s lives. To be born again is to enter a lifestyle that understands that there is a spiritual dimension of life. The wind of the Spirit is blowing in our world, and in the lives of people we care about. You and I are invited to learn to trust the Spirit, and to live in such a way that identifies the Spirit at work, and that supports the Spirit in what he's doing.

And then finally, Jesus reveals the most important dimension of what it means to be born again. A born again person is one who has been birthed into an experience of redemptive love that is greater than anything they’ve ever imagined.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that that the world through him might be saved.”

And for a man like Nicodemus - who grew up in a religion that was quick to judge people, prone to separate people into the saved and unsaved, fast to point out the flaws in other's lives, inclined to believe that the end of the world will involve a handful of people being redeemed while most of humankind perishes in eternal flames - this was an incredibly radical idea!

And this almost-unbelievable love of God for the world - that leaves no one out and that will not rest until all God's children are safely at home - is the most difficult part of the new birth for you and me. We have been steeped in religious traditions that routinely throw people away. We have become convinced that a salvation for the few is the only victory God is capable of. We have come to believe that the sinfulness of human beings is greater and stronger than the love of God.

But it's not!

God's love is unlike any love you've ever known before. God's capacity to forgive and provide for new beginnings is beyond anything you can imagine. God's passion for people is so relentless that he is willing to die for us. And even then, he rises up above death, in order to open the door for everyone!

And Jesus once described this love in a wonderful way. He described it as a father waiting by the window for his prodigal son to come home. Life could not go on, meals had no meaning, family gatherings were empty, until both his children were home - the one who never strayed, and the one who strayed so far that no person in their right mind would even imagine that he'd ever come to his senses and return home to his father.

And on this Father's day, I challenge you to be born into this awesome love of the Kingdom of God. Come and learn how love can go on even when others don't deserve it. Come and discover love that overcomes the temptation to divide people, and label people, and give up on people. Come and be born into the arms of a God whose love will win out over the law of sin and death. Come and learn to sit by the window, gazing toward the horizon in a spirit of love for God's prodigal world.

"No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again!" Jesus declared.

Are you willing to let it happen? Are you ready to cross over into God's world? Some say being born-again is something that happens once in your lifetime. I'm not so sure. The new birth, the Bible shows, is a life-long adventure of old men and women, old boys and girls, learning new ways to live. Today, ask God to draw you deeper into the world of His Kingdom. Seek new birth! And then go and live as born-again people!