"Sitting in the (Literal) Dark, Seeking Enlightenment" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday February 26, 2023

Scripture Reading:  John 3:1-17

 

 

(Note:  In our Story for All Ages this week, we read The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown - there is a brief reference to this story towards the end of the reflection.)

 

 

That reading that we just from the Gospel of John contains some pretty well-known verses in the bible.  There’s the verse that is beloved by football fans across North America:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  And then there are the bits about “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above,” and “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”  And there is my favourite verse:  “The Wind-Spirit blows where she chooses, and you hear the sound of her, but you do not know where she comes from or where she goes.”

 

I could probably preach three or four sermons on any one of those verses, but that’s not the path I want to go down this morning.

 

Instead, because our Lent theme is reading stories about people who encountered Jesus, I want to look at the person who encountered Jesus in this story – Nicodemus.

 

We’re not told much about Nicodemus in this passage. We are told that he is a Pharisee – Pharisees were the Jewish people of that time who believed that anyone could be set apart or made holy by observing all of the law in the Torah.  In the Pharisees’ understanding of the world, holiness was not limited to a small group of people, the priests who could approach God in the temple, but holiness was accessible to everyone.  In the bible we often see the Pharisees in conflict with Jesus, and I can kind of understand where they were coming from. They wanted holiness and access to God to be available to everyone, and in their understanding of the world, this was only possible by strict observance of the Torah.  So when Jesus came along, teaching a different way of interpreting the Torah, I’m sure that they thought that he was preventing people from being able to access God.

 

But here, in Nicodemus, we have a Pharisee who seems to be curious about Jesus and what he is teaching.  We see Nicodemus coming to Jesus to ask some questions.  He comes to Jesus at night, which I find to be a curious detail.  Did he want to stay hidden away?  Was he afraid of what his colleagues might say if they knew that he was coming to talk to this renegade rabbi?

 

Some scholars suggest that Nicodemus was a plant – sent by the others to try and trip Jesus up, which means that he wasn’t authentic in his questions.  But I prefer to take Nicodemus at face-value – as a spiritual seeker – as someone who is seeking enlightenment, even as he comes to Jesus in the literal dark.

 

When I read the dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus, I hear it as a conversation between prose and poetry.  Nicodemus opens the dialogue with a prosaic question, asking if Jesus comes from God, since how else would he be able to do the things that he is doing.  Jesus responds in metaphor, speaking about being born from above.  Nicodemus takes the metaphor literally, puzzled by how someone could be born again after having grown old.  Jesus replies with more poetry about being born of both water and Spirit, and how the Spirit blows where she chooses.  Nicodemus, still puzzled, asks, “How can these things be?” And Jesus, after insulting Nicodemus for still not getting it, still doesn’t drop the poetry but talks about the Son of Man being raised up just as Moses raised up a serpent in the wilderness.

 

After that last question, “How can these things be?” Nicodemus just seems to disappear from the conversation.  Jesus keeps on talking, long beyond the part of the story we heard this morning, but we don’t hear from Nicodemus again. He just seems to fade into the shadows.  He’s a shadowy figure to begin with, and now he seems to slip back into the shadows of the night.

 

But the thing is, this isn’t the last time we hear from Nicodemus in the Gospel of John.  This isn’t the end of his story.  This isn’t his final encounter with Jesus; and I don’t think that we can talk about Nicodemus’s story without reading the rest of his story.

 

If we were to flip ahead to the end of chapter 7, we would run into Nicodemus again.  This time, Jesus has been teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, teaching again about the Holy Spirit saying, “All who are thirsty should come to me!  All who believe in me should drink!”  The crowd is divided on the wisdom of his preaching, and their grumbling catches the attention of the guards who go to the chief priests and Pharisees to ask what they should do.

 

In the following discussion, Nicodemus stands up for Jesus, saying, “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?”  It’s almost like Jesus’s teachings have been working in Nicodemus’s heart ever since he first heard them.  It’s almost like Nicodemus is starting to understand what Jesus was teaching… or at least understand that there might be some value in his words.

 

But when his colleagues accuse him of sympathizing with Jesus – “You’re not from Galilee too, are you?” – Nicodemus falls quiet, and we don’t hear from him again.

 

We don’t hear from him again until the very end of the gospel story.  If you flip ahead to the end of Chapter 19, you’ll find Nicodemus again.  This is after the crucifixion.  Jesus has been arrested, has been put on trial, has been tortured, and has been nailed to a cross and left there to die.  After he is dead, Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus, approaches Pilate and asks for the body of Jesus.  Pilate gives him permission, and so Joseph of Arimathea takes his body down from the cross to bury him.  And Joseph is accompanied by none other than Nicodemus, the one who at first had come to Jesus at night.  And Nicodemus is bringing with him a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloe, the spices needed to prepare a body for burial – an extravagant amount of them.  And together, the two of them lay Jesus’s body to rest in a tomb.

 

Like I said, I see Nicodemus as a spiritual seeker, someone who moves from the shadows of the night towards enlightenment.  If we look at his full story, we can see him moving from curiosity and confusion towards discipleship, serving Jesus at the end, even when it was too late for Jesus to be aware of this service.

 

And for us, I think that the good news of Nicodemus’s story is that our journey isn’t over yet.  Our story is never over.  We always have the opportunity to deepen our faith, to grow in our love towards God and towards our neighbours.  And so wherever you are along your faith journey, it’s not over yet.  The Holy Spirit is still working in you, turning you towards Jesus.  You are deeply, deeply loved, and God is always calling you, chasing after you like the mother bunny, and drawing you even more deeply into love. Thanks be to God!

 

 

Image:  “Nicodemus” by JESUS MAFA

From Art in the Christian Tradition

Used with Permission

"It is Good to Be Here" (Annual Meeting Sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday February 19, 2023

Transfiguration Sunday and Annual Meeting Sunday

Scripture:  Matthew 17:1-9

 

 

(Here at Two Rivers, our annual congregational meetings are woven together with our worship, and my reflection ties in my Minister's Report. If you want to read the Annual Report, you can download a copy from our website.)

This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday – the day when we remember the time when Jesus and three of his disciples climbed up a mountain, and Jesus’s physical body was transformed as his disciples watched – his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzlingly bright. His disciples could see that Jesus was still the friend and teacher they had been following and learning from, but in that moment they could also see that he was so much more. They could see God even more fully revealed in Jesus.

 

Peter, being Peter, blusters in and asks if he should build tents there on top of the mountain in order to prolong the experience, but before he does that, he acknowledges, “It is good to be here.”  It is good to be here, here on this mountaintop, here in this moment, here in the presence of God.  And even though Peter couldn’t see the future, I wonder if remembering this moment on the mountaintop sustained him through all of the challenges he was going to encounter when they reached Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week began to unfold.

 

Mountaintop experiences – those moments when we are intensely aware of God’s presence, moments when we are almost painfully aware that we are standing on holy ground – they don’t happen every day, but they can sustain us through our times in the valleys.

 

And I wonder if, as we wander through the valleys carrying our memories of the mountaintop, we might gradually come to recognize God’s presence there as well.  God’s presence isn’t confined to our mountaintop experiences, but God is with us at all times.

 

As you read through my Minister’s Report, you will see that I have highlighted some of my mountaintop times, some of our mountaintop times in the past year – gathering together to worship, opening Ida’s Cupboard to provide food for our community, concerts and musicals, confirmation, weddings, sabbath time.  These were moments when it was easy to see God’s presence in our midst – times when it was easy to exclaim, like Peter, “It is good to be here!”

 

And in my report I also mention some of the valleys of 2022 – the loss of beloved members of our churches, the turmoil caused by the ongoing presence of Covid.

 

But I can be assured that God is present in these moments as well; and in any moment when God is with us, we can proclaim, “It is good to be here.” Whether we are on the mountaintop or in the deepest valley, we can proclaim, “It is good to be here!”  Our whole lives can become a song of praise to God who is always with us.

 

I say this frequently to the Official Board –at every meeting, I think – but I am so very grateful to be here at Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, working alongside all of you.  I don’t say this often enough, but I am so very grateful for all of you, and for your ministry and for your commitment to reflecting the face of Christ to the world around you.  Truly, truly I say, it is good to be here.  Thanks be to God.

 

 

"Choose Life. Choose Love." (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

Sunday February 12, 2022

Scripture:  Deuteronomy 30:11-20

(The Harper Collins strike that I mentioned in my last post has been resolved, and so I have resumed my normal practice of linking the bible reading from Bible Gateway, a site run by Zondervan, a Harper Collins imprint.)

 

 

I’m going to say something that may shock you.  I love the book of Deuteronomy.  (Though I think that I’ve said this here before, so it may not be as shocking to you as it would be to people who didn’t know me!)

 

Like Leviticus, which we’re reading in Bible Study right now, Deuteronomy can be a bit of a slog to get through if you try to read it from beginning to end – when I took a course on Deuteronomy at AST and part of our homework for the first week was to read the book, I chose to listen to it on my bible app to keep my eyes from glazing over and skipping over large chunks of it.  Most of the book is filled with a great long list of “thou shalt do this’s” and “thou shalt not to that’s” and it’s really easy for my eyes to start skipping around on the page.

 

There is also a lot of the book that is not in keeping with our 21^st Century worldview, which makes it challenging to read – we generally don’t believe in stoning people these days; and fathers aren’t paid for their daughters.

 

So with all of this, why do I love the book of Deuteronomy?  It’s definitely not because of stoning people, and it’s definitely not for its great plot.  I love this book because of where it stands in the overall story of the Old Testament.

 

Remember the story.  Remember that the Ancient Israelite people, the descendants of Jacob, were slaves in Egypt.  Remember that Moses encountered God in a burning bush in the middle of the desert.  Remember that God told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh “let my people go.”  Remember that after a whole host of plagues descended on the land, Pharaoh did let the people go.  Remember that God worked through Moses to part the waters of the Red Sea so that the people could cross over to safety and freedom.  Remember that Moses met with God on the top of Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments and the rest of the law.  Remember that God guided the people through the desert wilderness, traveling with them like a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.  Remember that God fed them there in the desert with manna and with quail, and that God made fresh drinking water flow from a rock for them.

 

Remember that for 40 years, God was with the people in the desert, feeding them, hydrating them, guiding them, and keeping them safe.

 

All of this is the prelude, the prologue to the book of Deuteronomy.

 

At this point in the story, the people have reached the Jordan River, and they are ready to cross over into the Promised Land – to cross over into the land that God had promised to their Ancestors – to cross over into a land that, in contrast to the desert, would be metaphorically flowing with milk and honey.

 

They are about to cross from a land of scarcity into a land of abundance, and God doesn’t want the people to forget the lessons that they have learned in their 40 years in the wilderness.  God doesn’t want them to forget that they depend on God for everything – for food, for water, for protection, for guidance.  Even though God’s provision will be less obvious in the promised land where it will seem like food just appears before them, it will still be God who makes the rains fall and the ground fertile and the seeds to germinate.  And God doesn’t want the people to forget this.

 

And so this is why the first 29 chapters of Deuteronomy consist of Moses reciting the law for a second time.  The people have done very well keeping their side of their covenant with God out in the desert, and so here is one final reminder of their obligations before crossing the river.

 

And here in Chapter 30 we come to God’s exhortation – choose life.  Out there in the desert, they had no choice but to choose to follow God, but once they cross the river, they will have a choice.  They will be able to choose to turn away from God and not face immediate starvation or thirst, but God wants them to know that choosing that pathway won’t allow them to flourish; won’t allow them to experience the fullness of life that God wants for them.

 

God wants them to choose to be in relationship with God, since that is the only way that we can flourish.  Here at the end of Deuteronomy, on the banks of the Jordan River, God pleads with them, “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God, and holding fast to God, for that means life to you and length of days so that you may live in the land.”

 

And how do we choose life?  Well, Jesus gave us a pretty good summary of God’s law when he taught that the two most important commandments are to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.  When we choose this way of love, then we are choosing life.

 

And God tells us that all of this is in our reach – we don’t need to ascend to heaven or cross to the other side of the sea – instead this promise is in our mouth and in our hearts for us to claim.  The Holy Spirit is in each one of us, empowering us to choose God’s way of love and life.

 

Living in a time and a place of abundance as we do, it can be easy for us to forget that God is the source of all of that abundance. It is easy to take for granted that fresh water will continue to flow down the river.  It is easy to take for granted that we can walk into a grocery store and buy a carton milk.  It is easy to take for granted that when we take a breath in, oxygen will fill our lungs and pass into our blood.

 

I wonder if sometimes we face the same challenges as our ancient ancestors did, when they crossed into the promised land.  When there is abundance, we aren’t always able to see God as the source of that abundance.  Maybe we need a Deuteronomy movement – a reminder that even when we can’t immediately see it, God is the one who provides for us.

 

I wonder if I can take that one step further, and ponder whether or not we can use the past couple of years as a wilderness time, like our ancestors wandering in the desert.  I don’t know about you, but I find that I don’t take things for granted as much as I did 3 years ago.  I don’t take it for granted that we can gather together in this place and open our mouths – safely shielded by our masks – and sing together.  I don’t take it for granted that I can hop on an airplane to celebrate Christmas with my family.  I don’t take it for granted that the grocery store will have everything on my list.  And because I don’t take these things for granted, I find that I appreciate them all the more, and I give deep thanks to God for all of these everyday blessings.

 

And as we notice these things, God implores us:  Choose life.  Choose love.  Let the Holy Spirit turn our hearts to see God and to follow God’s ways.

 

And I think that God gives us Deuteronomy moments all through our lives to help to sustain us on the way.  We are given moments when we can pause; moments when we can remember; moments when we can choose the fullness of life and choose love; moments when we can choose to journey with God.  Moments when God jumps out at us and reminds us, “I’m here!”

 

For me, sometimes these moments come when I’m listening to a piece of music, or singing with a choir and the harmonies are just right.  Sometimes they come when I’m talking with someone and we are sharing from our hearts and I can sense the presence of the divine in the space between us.  One time, around this time of year when I was living in Halifax, I was given a reminder of God’s presence when I was sitting on the bus and there was a ledge that was about eye-level with where I was sitting, and someone had written in the fresh snow on the ledge, “Love > Fear.”

 

These moments, like the Ancient Israelite people pausing before crossing the river, cause me to pause and remember God’s presence with us, closer to us than our very breath; and they remind me of God pleading with us to choose the way of love and life.

 

We are coming close to the season of Lent, which will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22 this year.  The theme that we are going to be following through Lent this year is Encountering Jesus.  In worship, we will be reading stories from the bible about people whose lives were changed by an encounter with Jesus.  At our Wednesday evening Lenten gatherings, we will have time to meditate and perhaps encounter Jesus ourselves.  And at the beginning of our worship services each week in Lent, there will be a space for all of us to share (in-person or online) times and places in the week before when we have noticed God present in the world around us.

 

So this is your 2-week notice to begin looking for those God-moments!  It’s an invitation to keep your eyes and your ears and your heart open for those times when God reminds you, “I’m here. I’m with you. I love you. Love the world.”

 

And together, we listen for God’s reminder, and then we choose the fullness of all that life has. And we choose love.

 

 

 

Crossing from a dry and barren desert

to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Choose life. Choose love.

Photo Credit:  orientalizing on Flickr