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"Born Again" Sermon - Angels from Inkblots

"BORN AGAIN" SERMON ~ ANGELS FROM INKBLOTS

TEXT: JOHN 3:1-17

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
During Lent, we'll be preaching a series of sermons on encounters Jesus had with individuals in the Gospel of John. To help us experience the immediacy of these conversation, we're lucky to have an acting team that will bring them to life for us. We're moving the scripture to the time for children since the youngsters are also studying these same stories in Sunday school. So parents, see what insights your children might have about these same texts. The scripts are amalgams of two different scripture translations, the NRSV and "The Message." John 3:1-17.
BORN AGAIN
There is a whole category of believers called "born-again Christians." In fact, we know that some of these believers think they are the only people who even deserve the name of Christian. The rest of us are Christian in name only and probably are destined for eternal damnation. This is a bit odd. Since the term "born again" appears only in this single verse in John.

THERE ARE OTHERS METAPHORS FOR CONVERSION.
WHY IS "BORN AGAIN" SO POPULAR?
There are lots of places in the Gospels where people come to Jesus and ask for the secret of a meaningful, God-centered life and he answers them different ways: "follow me" is the most common. Why does "born again" take precedence over "follow me." We have "born again" Christians, why don't we have "follow me" Christians? Or "take up your cross" Christians? Or "love God and your neighbor" Christians? Or how about "sell everything and give the money to the poor and follow me" Christians? OK, I can guess why that one wasn't picked to be the identifier for Christian conversion ... No, it seems like "born again" caught on. Why? I have a theory.

1. First, it's a great image. Very vivid, with a clear message of starting over.

2. Second, it encapsulates the quintessential Protestant claim of being saved by grace alone. Everything about being born again is about what God does, not what we do. God is the pregnant woman giving birth to us. This second reason also shows that "born again-ism" is a relatively new concept in Christian history and could only be enabled by the Protestant Reformation.

I love this born again metaphor myself since I am a firm believer in grace and new beginnings. But Jesus' meeting with Nicodemus tells us one thing about the life of faith, not everything. In fact, it seems clear that Nicodemus was not miraculously saved by a sudden born-again experience that night. He went home to ponder what this concept of being "born from above" might mean to him.
WHO WAS NICODEMUS?
Nicodemus was a prominent leader of the Jews, a Pharisee, a devout scholar of scriptures, interpreter of the law, member of the ruling council of the synagogue. An important man of wealth and high social status. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Some say it was because he did not want to be seen consulting with Jesus, this radical prophet who was stirring up the people with teachings about God's love and the worth of each person. Some say, he came at night because he respected Jesus' interpretations of Hebrew scripture and was honestly hoping to spend some time studying with him. Jewish tradition taught that night was the best time to study Torah, apart from the distractions of the day. Some say, the darkness of night is a metaphor for Nicodemus's unenlightened spiritual state. Since the gospel writer, John, is a master of symbolism, I'd say it's probably all of the above.

I like Nicodemus because I think many of us can relate to his character. He's a member of the religious establishment, socially upstanding, respected, influential. He's probably middle aged. And as modern sociologists are pointing out, middle age is a time when people often review what their lives have been like up to this time and begin to wonder, how can I make my life mean something for the next half? Nicodemus's encounter with Jesus pushed these buttons for him. And I think that first introduction happened before this night-time meeting.

NICODEMUS IN CONFLICT WITH JESUS
The Gospel of John starts Jesus' ministry with a bang. By the third chapter, he is already in Jerusalem ticking off the powers that be. There is this incident: Jesus has an angry outburst in the sacred temple in the center of Jerusalem. He throws around tables belonging to the money-changers and merchants. He accuses the religious establishment of defiling the house of God. The other gospel writers put this event at the end-the tipping point that leads to Jesus' trial and crucifixion. But John starts right out with it. Immediately, John sets Jesus up as a figure of equal authority with the rulers of the temple.

Nicodemus was one of those rulers; one of the men called on to deal with this disruption, to settle down the crowds before the Roman soldiers were called on to do the settling-which would be brutal indeed.

But John is saying that Nicodemus does not have a knee-jerk reaction to Jesus' critique of the temple. He's attracted by his teaching and by the spiritual power evident in Jesus' everyday interactions with the people. Perhaps he's saying, "Yes, we've sold out. It's time for us also to regain some of that passion and fire. There's got to be more."

My on-line clergy study group has been debating the born-again phenomenon. It started with a pastor who described one of the parishioners in her street church.
A CONTEMPORARY BORN-AGAIN STORY
Folks on the street struggle with drugs and alcohol and mental illness, and often all three. [Michael] can tell you the exact moment he was "born again" - it's when he fell on his knees and cried out to God, begging for relief from his alcohol/drug addiction. He told us that he fell to the floor of his flophouse room and wept for hours. "When I stumbled out of that room and headed for an AA meeting, I knew that I was a different person." He just celebrated his 10th year of being clean and sober, [a happily married father and businessman]. He has a strong, vibrant faith in Jesus and grace and he shares that with everyone he meets. (Rev. Pamela Tinnin)

AND A NOT-SO-BORN-AGAIN STORY
It's a gripping story and we give thanks for Michael's very real salvation. But other pastors warned about the "born again" metaphor which suggests that everything is brand new. Another told of his own experience of being born again and getting sober with the help of AA. He says, "My ex-wife noted ... that it did not make me a different person. She was correct, as I looked back over those years; I had been much the same, especially ... with her and our children." (Rev. Phil Gilman)

A realistic look at Nicodemus probably puts him in the latter category and reminds us that conversion is often a process rather than a sudden life-altering event. One pastor suggested it is more like pentimento in which the artist paints over an old painting. The original is still there, and often shines through. I took the title of my sermon from a lovely illustration of a kind of pentimento.

PENTIMENTO ~ ANGELS FROM INKBLOTS
Some of us remember sitting at school desks with a hole in the corner for an inkwell. Some of us may even remember the days when there was an inkwell in those holes and kids dipped a pen into it and proceeded to write their lessons, dipping and trying not to drip. It was hard. And often the children would leave inkblots on their pages. Most teachers would grade the students down, circling the inkblots in graphic red and taking away points for sloppy penmanship.

Joseph Craik, was appointed writing master in a village school in Scotland. He was himself, a talented calligrapher and artist. The school authorities expected him to demand perfection in the children's writing. But instead of taking the red pen to their papers, Craik, his talented pen in hand, began with the blots made by the children, and he would add a line here and another one there. And out of the inkblots would come pictures of angels! When the students were given back their papers, they weren't all marked up with harsh criticisms but decorated with exquisite angels! The children were delighted and pleased and encouraged. And Joseph Craik became known far and wide as the man who turned inkblots into angels! (From a sermon by Rev. Mark Allen Doty, Bangor, Maine.)


THE PROCESS OF BEING BORN AGAIN ~ GOD, THE ARTIST
I believe that this is a far more helpful image for the process of being born again or born from above. God, the master artist, is overpainting our lives with a line here, a brush-stroke there.

Nicodemus turns up twice more in the Gospel. First, when the temple court considers arresting Jesus for heresy, his is a lone voice of in Jesus' defense. "Does our law pass judgment on a man before hit gives him a hearing?" It prevents an arrest at that time. Who knows what happened after that? Did that dissent from the majority put Nicodemus at risk? Did he join the tiny Jesus movement? We know that he is there at the end. After the crucifixion, Nicodemus helps Joseph of Arimathea put Jesus' body in the tomb. That suggests a pretty intimate involvement. Did Nicodemus find what he was looking for? People don't take risks like this without counting the cost. I'm guessing that Nicodemus found new passion and purpose for his life. There was nothing wrong with the pentimento of his religious past showing through-his devotion to study and the law. Nothing wrong with trading on his reputation and social capital or using his wealth to help bury a man who had nothing. But and angel emerges over the underpainting of what had been his life.

I said at the beginning that being born from above is all about the grace of God. There is truth to that. Jesus tells Nicodemus that if he wants to experience the kingdom of God, he needs to step into an entirely new realm of understanding; to open himself to the spirit that blows where it wills and is not contained by laws and traditions nor housed in a building-even one as sacred as the temple. Jesus demands that Nicodemus (and we) acknowledge that God's love is flowing freely all over the world, that it's there for the grabbing of it. But surrendering to God's grace is hard for Nicodemus as it is for many. There were these barriers. The down-for-the-count guy at the street church was better able to enter that realm because his barriers were already obliterated. For Nicodemus, it took time.

Looking at his whole story is helpful to me. A formula of instantaneous conversion has emerged from this story but it ignores the context of it. Nicodemus was not born again in a sudden epiphany. It took time. Sometimes it's a process. And we're never really finished. There will always be inkblots.