Finding Grace Along the Way

Life is a journey. The end of one chapter marking the beginning of the next. Though we journey through this world, trusting in the hope that one day we will cross over the Jordan and live in eternity with our risen Lord Jesus Christ, how we journey through this world matters. As with any journey there are dangers, those we can see and those that are hidden. There are pitfalls that may befall us. There are also joyous experiences, wondrous moments that are worth holding on to. The journey is the shared sum of our experience, defining who we are as individuals.

In The Fellowship of the Ring Tolkien writes,
“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”

Life is a great journey and we are blessed to be on that road with God, Creator, Son and Spirit. The author of Psalm 121 knew of the dangers that one could experience on the road. Psalm 121 is often referred to as the Traveller’s Psalm. But it is about more than merely travelling to a new destination or the family vacation. As we journey through Lent, we need to ask ourselves where is it that we are travelling and why? What is the purpose of our trip, what do we hope to learn, what do we hope to discover, what do we hope to see?

The Psalm is broken into two parts. The first is found in verses 1 and 2, which might be formed as a concerned question followed by an answer. The second part is verses 3 through 8, which form a priestly blessing.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

In these first two verses we find a Chiastic pattern. We lift our eyes to the hills, and our help comes from the very one who made those hills. We might think that we are looking to the hills for God, but it is just as likely that those looking to the hills did so with fear and distrust. For in the hills lurked hidden dangers. Like walking down the Jericho Road, the hills held thieves and robbers, those who would do us harm. The Psalmist reminds us that it is from God that our help comes.

This same fearful journey is one that Nicodemus undertakes. The imagery found in this passage is fascinating. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. The next time we see Nicodemus it will be day. A journey occurs from the darkness of not knowing to the light of understanding. In many ways the path that Nicodemus is on, mirrors our own. As followers of Christ, we journey from a place of shallow understanding where we live in the dark, to the gradual illumination towards God plan and what that means for our lives.

Chelsey Harmon writes, “Have you ever been in bed and had a thought or a question or a concern drive you out of the warm sheets? A gracious reading of our friend Nicodemus is to see him as someone who’s had a spark lit in him by the Holy Spirit and who can’t let go of his question until he gets to the bottom of it.”

Nicodemus is curious and tentative as he seeks out Jesus under the cover of darkness. As biblical scholar Emerson Powery notes, “The purpose of this story is not to explain Jesus’s tension with the Pharisees, although that conflict is central to the narrative’s arc. Nor is it to explore the origins of Jesus’s authority to deliver signs, although that is implicitly addressed here. Rather, it is a story on how individuals are able to understand the signs that Jesus performs. This is an account on the nature of God’s Spirit.”

When we look at John’s gospel, we find a different representation than what is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John is writing his gospel account much later and appears to have influences of Greek philosophy intertwined with themes from Judaism. For John, the world is the lower story, a sphere of hate, darkness, falsehood, slavery, and scarcity. The world for John is thus not just the creation, teeming with humankind, animals and other natura but is a sphere of existence that lives in pain with only partial knowledge of God. Inhabitants of the world die.

As Ronald Allen notes, the upper story is heaven, centered around God. It is a sphere of life, light, truth, freedom and abundance. God reveals the possibility of heaven through Jesus. Eternal life is an essential quality of heaven. John appears to be influenced by Greek thought and philosophy which has influenced much of modern western European thought. A dualistic approach to understanding the story of the gospel.

It is with this sense of dualism that we approach the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. What we find in the conversation is a lot of above and below, before and after, born and born again.

The message that Jesus is sharing is that it is essential to be born from above. What does that mean exactly? Is it a literal birth? Baptism in the sacrament that we have which can help us understand what this new birth might look like. A powerful moment of understanding and awakening. Clearly, we can’t be physically born twice. What Jesus is alluding to is an awakening towards Gods plan for creation. It is a reminder of the nature of discipleship and the deep desire for transformation.

Jesus is not likely speaking about an altar call or a sudden conversion experience. We need to keep the context of the whole passage and put a bit of work in. The same Greek word means both again and from above. This ambiguity often leads to misunderstanding, and it is very possible that the verse about being born again or from above is a moment of humour in the passage which is lost on us through translation. Jesus is clearly speaking about being born from above, which is evident when we progress a few verses further where Jesus is speaking about earthly and heavenly things.

Theologian Andrew McGowan writes, “However this doesn’t mean just that there is a higher realm to which we should aspire, but that he himself will be lifted up so that all may see the mystery of salvation in the cross. Above therefore doesn’t just mean spiritual reality in a vague sense, it means a truth displayed in the exaltation of the crucified Jesus. The cross reveals what kind of spiritual reality the God of Jesus offers.”

Remember the Psalm:
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

What is this rebirth or being born from above then? What does it mean for us as the individual believer? Andrew McGowan writes, “It is not a decision alone, neither is it baptism alone, although it may require both. It is God’s work in people’s lives, a transformation whose beginning may be less clear to us than its result.”

This inner change transforms how we relate to the world around us. Emerson Powery reminds us that “This is a dialogue about how to transform the self, not the world. Perhaps our political debates should be carefully calibrated to think about how they might shape us as human beings and not only to develop strategies for how to win arguments.” This wisdom is so vital for respectful dialogues across political and theological divides.

What is that plan? It is centered around love and the words we find in John chapter 3. “God so loved the world he sent his son.”

This is very different to how the world operates. Jesus comes to clarify, teach, correct, and to demonstrate that love, community, forgiveness, and grace are the themes which should dominate our lives. Jesus comes to teach this because what God is observing is the opposite of this. Gods choice to interact in human life is radically different than how society tends to operate.

When things don’t go our way, we tend to escalate. We respond through often violent or damaging interactions. Several years ago I heard a radio ad for a lawyer. The premise of the ad was if something on your neighbours yard caused damaged to your yard, you should call the lawyer and they would sue your neighbour and get you lots of money. That’s the message we hear in society and it is the opposite to how God reacts. We damage, tear down, threaten, hurt, and divide. God through Christ, heals, repairs, calms, loves, and unites.

Human logic says that when we find ourselves frustrated and angry, we should act in a spirit of disunity. We are encouraged to react with anger or to tear things down. But, God does not act in this way. God choses to respond with love.

The invitation we find in this passage is to accept the offer of welcome and love that God provides. To turn towards the values of heaven, grace, love, and mercy. And then to experience a more illuminated life with Christ Jesus.

I saw a picture of a church sign. It read, “You’re a temple, not a courtroom. Don’t judge.”

The message of Jesus isn’t one of judgement and condemnation. It is a message of love.

If that is the message that Jesus has for the world, then we need to work hard to ensure it is also the message we have for the world. Of course, it’s difficult. It’s far easier to build barriers or walls, to use our judgement or disapproval of individuals and group to strengthen those barriers. After all walls, fences, and gates keep us safe.

And yet, the message we receive is “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Saved. Saved from what? From judgement, from misunderstanding, from division, from indifference, from intolerance.

Psalm 121 reminds us that God protects, shields, watches over, guards and keeps. In God we can trust. This is good news, just as the promise we have in Jesus Christ, in the Gospels is Good News. News that matters. That through Jesus we have access to life abundant. All this is through God.

It doesn’t mean that the road is easy. Nor does it mean that there aren’t dangers and pitfalls before us. What it means is that God is with us, no matter what we may face in life. In John’s gospel reading this morning we receive the promise that Jesus does not come to condemn, but to save. Jesus does not come to judge, but to offer life.

For John, Jesus does not come to condemn or to judge. The world already sits in judgement as it has turned its back on God. Jesus comes to save, to bring the light, to remind us what we are about as a created people. Jesus comes to offer an eternal relationship of love, grace and mercy.

But the world we live in, we ourselves, we often choose death, the world chooses death over life. It does it repeatedly, it does it without thinking, without regard for the consequences.

Prof. Rolf Jacobson reminds us that we live in a bad news world. “The world is so full of bad news, sad news, angry news, judgmental news, scary news, divisive news, death news. Those who live in the world are so bombarded by that which degrades and divides, shames and blames, threatens and frightens. And the world so desperately needs to hear that which is truly good and truly news, that Jesus saves. That Jesus is life itself, abundant life.”

When we follow the story of Nicodemus through John’s gospel, we see this incredible grace taking root. Nicodemus appears two more times in John’s gospel. If we follow his story, the third time we meet him he arrives during the day. The first meeting is at night, in secret, ambiguous, and full of questions. When Nicodemus is last seen in John’s gospel, Jesus is above, lifted on the cross. From where does my help come?

Nicodemus brings spices for the burial. He is drawn into new life by the one who was lifted up to save the world. Nicodemus is born again, from above.

As we journey through Lent in this bad news world, it is good to keep the words of the Psalmist close at hand. Listen closely again to the words of the Psalm,

I lift up my eyes to the hills,
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved,
he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper,
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all evil,
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore. Amen.

God loved the world enough that Jesus came to demonstrate a different way. As we travel along our own journey this season, may that love illuminate our paths. Amen.