Sermon for Holy Trinity – John 3:1-17

What if you could rewind your life? What would you change if you could do everything over again? Would you make different choices? As I come to terms with middle age, those questions pop into my head a lot more. Why didn’t I save more for retirement? Why did I waste my 20s? Why didn’t I travel more? Can you relate? Facebook doesn’t help because you see what other folks your same age are accomplishing, and you start comparing yourself. But I’m an optimist. I like to think that I’ve learned a lot. That I can make smarter choices. Maybe stop watching Facebook so much. Except, how do I know I’m really making better choices? I don’t know about you, but I wish I had some kind of sign that I’m really going in the right direction.

Our gospel reading has a lot to say about this. How can we know if we’re going in the right direction? That’s what Nicodemus wants to know. So he goes to Jesus because he’s looking for a sign, and he believes Jesus can set him straight. Now, we don’t know Nicodemus’ life story. We don’t know what he’s proud of or what he regrets. But we know he’s a Pharisee, and not just any Pharisee, but a leader of the Jewish community. That tells us a lot about him. He’s smart. He knows scripture backwards and forwards. He works hard to obey God’s commands, because a lot of eyes are on him. He should feel confident, right? Yet Jesus must have something he wants, otherwise he wouldn’t be sneaking by night to talk to Jesus. So maybe being a Pharisee isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

And he figures Jesus must be suspicious, so he tries to butter him up first. “We know you’re a teacher come from God, because there’s no other way you could do these amazing signs.” That’s what Nicodemus wants. He wants a sign, because he feels uncertain. Signs give direction. So this is him telling Jesus, “I know you can tell me which way to go, because I’m not sure.” That’s an impressive confession coming from someone in power. But then Jesus launches into this crazy theology lecture. “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus is like “huh?” Honestly, we should feel confused too. Because these are heavy thoughts. I mean, ask 100 different Christians what Jesus means here, and you’ll get 100 different answers. Now, Nicodemus is kind of a literal thinker. He asks, “how can anyone be born again? You mean, like, crawl back in?” Mothers in the room, what do you think?

Then Jesus says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” Water and Spirit? What does that sound like? Baptism. Like Jesus is telling Nicodemus to go get himself baptized and everything will work itself out. But baptism was what that weird guy John was doing over in the river Jordan. They asked him if he was the Messiah or a prophet, and he said no, so the whole thing seemed a little sketchy. Truthfully, it sounds sketchy to us too. After all, how many mass murderers have been baptized? Now maybe that’s extreme, so how about us? Did our baptisms straighten us up and make us fly right? Maybe the jury’s out on that one. Besides, it’s pretty interesting that Jesus never offers to baptize Nicodemus.

But Jesus isn’t done answering. “What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” If ever something needed unpacking, this is it. Because remember, Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He’s an expert in God’s law. He understands faith as being all about making right choices, because God will not be mocked, and you get what you deserve. He’s got lots of scriptures to back that up. And let’s be honest, we know God’s expectations aren’t any less for us either. How many times have we heard Jesus say “go and sin no more”? (8:11 & 5:14) But Jesus is painting a VERY different picture of faith here, and he does it with one little word. “Born”. Not “make right choices.” Not “pray this prayer and be saved.” Just “born”. And that should make us very nervous, because do we choose to be born? No. “Born” means a bunch of choices that were made without your knowledge, and now you’re here, and how’s this all going to turn out? Because nature vs. nurture is a real question that we keep asking but just can’t figure out. Parents in the room, do any of you wrestle with that question? And we all know we’re someone’s child.

That’s not very comforting. Because it sounds like we don’t get a choice. Like everything’s predetermined. So we really want to know if we’re born of the flesh or born of the Spirit. But all we can do is inspect the evidence. Our whole lives. Looking for a sign that we’re not so bad. What good we think we did. Except there’s an old saying. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. How much seems like a really good idea at the time, but hindsight is a cruel judge. So what kind of sign do we expect from God?

Well, the good news is that Jesus never gives signs. He only gives himself. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Jesus goes to the cross to suffer and die for our sake. But after three days he was raised in the glory of his resurrection. And he does all this because he tells us that “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (15:13) So that this kind of infinite love would be a real thing in the world for us to experience. But Jesus knows how often we can’t seem to find the same love for others that Jesus has for us. Yet he doesn’t comdemn us. Instead he tells us “I forgive you all your sins.”

Which is pretty unbelievable. So then Jesus sends down the Holy Spirit to us in the waters of our baptism, to make faith in our hearts, so that we would believe his word for us. We never choose him. He always chooses us, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get to us. That’s why he says “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” But of course, that makes us edgy. We start wondering about folks who aren’t baptized. Does that mean they don’t get the Spirit? So Jesus says, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The Spirit will do exactly what it means to do.

See, Jesus isn’t trying to make baptism a law. It’s supposed to be God’s free gift of rebirth to all of us. So when Jesus says, “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit,” what he’s talking about, is the kingdom of God drawn near because the Holy Spirit gets to work on us. It drives us. To forgive each other as Jesus forgave us. To give ourselves away to others in love. To serve. Not because we’re trying to be better people, but just because we can. And chances are that we won’t even realize it at the time because the Holy Spirit doesn’t give signs either. So we’re still bad at directions and the road to hell is still paved with good intentions. But others will see us as we rise and fall. At our best and our worst. And they need to see that, because it’s the only way for them to know what unconditional forgiveness really looks like. After all, God didn’t send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Thanks be to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.