John 3:1-17
Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church
You’ll agree that this morning’s Gospel from John is well known. You know, John 3:16 has been displayed on countless posters at countless sports games, written by fingers into the road grime of a million tractor-trailers. It is such a well-trod passage, that I’m not sure we can really hear it anymore for what it is.
You have to remind yourself that here in the context where Jesus says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” there were no Baptists, no evangelical Christians—and no Lutherans either. And, as many of you probably know, when Jesus says, “You must be born from above,” he is making a play on words, because that word “above” is the exact same word in Greek as “again” or “anew.” But like I said, this all comes before anyone ever identified as being, “a born-again Christian.” No one was Christian at all. Instead, you had Jesus, a Judean and practitioner of the religion of Israel, and the Pharisees, who were pious experts of this faith and practice.
Beneath it all, this exchange between Nicodemus and Jesus is a story of seeking, and a story about how difficult it is to believe—to trust—God. And Jesus doesn’t make it easy for Nicodemus, however. Nicodemus is a religious person, John tells us. If you had to compare us, Nicodemus was much more religious than me, or maybe even more religious than any of us here! I never believe it when commentators say Nicodemus is a dummy or acting in bad faith.
Continue reading “Baptism is a Daily Process—Mar. 8, 2020”
