Preacher's Post 4.0

Submitted by Executive Direc... on February 13, 2008 - 5:50pm.

The Word: Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 12:1-4a
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17
Psalm 121

Abram sets out on a journey to be a blessing, the Spirit blows where it will, Nicodemus asks about being born again

Quotable Words:

“A blessing is an act – by speech or gesture – whereby one party transmits power for life to another party.” ~ Walter Brueggemann

"Obedience...the willingness to listen to God, is what will wrench us out of the limitations of our landscape. We are being called to something outside of ourselves, something greater than ourselves, something beyond ourselves." ~ Joan Chittister

Preached Words:

Excerpt from a sermon for Lent 2:

“…We want what Nicodemus wants, and like Nicodemus, we don’t want to give up, to set aside, what Nicodemus is unable to set aside.

Nicodemus, John’s gospel story tells us, is unable to understand what Jesus taught, what he means, because he is attached to all those things that he is assured of: the things he can touch and claim as lasting and important. He holds fast to his position: he was a leader of the people, a Pharisee, a person of power and prestige and standing in his community. He holds fast to his reputation: he approaches Jesus by night, lest he be seen in the light of day and lose his reputation, be seen seeking after this odd traveling preacher. He holds fast to the rules, the sure things of his youth, the things he could prove, the things that are familiar.

But Jesus says, look here Nicodemus, see the kingdom, see this new reality right in front of your nose. Enter what you cannot prove, enter the kingdom--this is the journey, come along with me. Nicodemus does not hear the call to a new reality. Jesus offers a new truth, a new life, that is not about rational thought or provable fact. He points to a new place that is not on any map. He calls to him to recognize the reality behind the surface reality, the life of the spirit. Jesus calls Nicodemus to live life on more than one level, to experience birth into that new level of being. There is a reality that is not subject to the limitations of space, time and matter, Jesus says. Come, see this world. Come, experience this new life.

And this new life, Jesus tells Nicodemus, is only to be found by first encountering the mystery of dying, the mystery of self-offering, of suffering, the mystery of the cross. Jesus says that the journey to new life is the journey to the cross..
That’s the promise; it is a promise of journey and of destination all in one. God will meet us. And in the meeting we discover blessing. Then we become blessing. Not perhaps in the way that Abraham did, but we become one who brings some bit of the goodness of God to bear on our world, some bit of light or strength or goodness to the one who needs us, the place that calls to us for help.
Our task on the journey is to discover the cross, when we might prefer to look the other way, to avert our eyes from the crosses around us and to deny the sharp pain of the crosses within us. We forgo integrity for a safe solution. As Americans, we have established a national identity in our turn from ambiguity, in our refusal to wrestle with tough issues, in our preference for the quick fix, the 22-minute sitcom conclusion. As a culture, we do not want to travel the hard journey to the cross. We do not allow ourselves the meeting place that the cross means.

As a church, as the followers of Jesus, we stand against the culture of the quick fix. We embrace the struggle with ambiguity. We make the hard choice, we take the journey to the unknown. Because we trust the promise that we will meet God in the struggle. And we will know new life. The blessing of new life, the blessing of knowing that we can BE Blessing…”

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