Download John 3:1-17 - ST. AMBROSE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

John 3:1-17 16 March 2014 – There is a Widness in God’s Mercy
Lent 2, RCL A
The Rev. Jay Sapaen Watan – St. Ambrose, Foster City, CA
Let the words from my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always
acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.
Good Morning!
Joe’s Cable Car Restaurant in San Francisco is classic burger joint that has existed in the
same location on Mission St., near Silver Ave for 50 years. It is a landmark eatery in the
city and it really did used to look like a cable car. Joe’s Cable Car serves hamburgers,
onion rings, zuccini fries, a slice of cantaloupe and milkshakes. That’s it! No fancy
topings or gimicks. It’s even served on disposable picnic plates. What makes this place
special is the quality of the meat. This place was doing organic feed beef way before it
was trendy… like since the 1965. They serve fresh ground beef chuck stakes that is cut
right where everyone can see and grilled to your liking. And it’s juicy, not greasy! Joe’s
has been feaured on food network and has attacted “foodies” from all over the world.
The ambiance is cheerful and ecclectic - neon lite and full of history. (Plus Joe’s
famously has the shiniest checker board linoleom floors ever.) People have been coming
here for years. I have been eating at Joe’s all my life. This is a place where we as a
family have celebrated the small victories in life. When ever my brother or I did well in
school, or my dad got paid, or we wanted to treat friends and family out, we celebrated
with a good hamburger and a milk shake. This is a special place. But today Joe’s will be
closing shop forever.
Joe Obegi, the owner and San Francisco burger icon is retiering and closing down the
family business. So my son and I have been passing by several times this week to share
the memory and eat well. Joe himeself shared with us that while he’ll miss all the people,
his health is not so great any more and he wants to enjoy his family. Competing with fast
food all these years, he does not want anyone to change the burger. He’s rather close
down than sell out. And once Joe’s Cable Car is gone, its gone. But as Joe, the man,
looks forward to retirement, he is at peace with this change. While I will miss this place
with so many memories and that oh so good Cable Car burger, I am happy for Joe and his
family. Sometimes the only thing people remember is how you ended, and Joe is
choosing to end this part of his life well.
I believe some of most challenging moments we’ll ever face is when the circumstances of
our lives force us to re-evalueate what we are doing, where we are going, and who we’re
related to. Change can be sudden and sad like the ones experenced in a death or divorce,
or it can have the mixed emotions that come with the compleation of a long journey like
in a graduation or retirement. For many of us, its not so easy to accept. Truth is our
natural recation is to resist change, but resistance can sometimes leave us stuck in a past
that no longer exisit. God created us to be alive… and the moment we finally make a
move to be present and in the moment we give our hearts an opening to be transformed in
healthy ways by that very change. There is a line from Rush’s classic song Tom Sawyer
that goes, “…changes aren't permanent, but change is. And maybe this is God’s way of
inviting us to be born again, and move from a past life and into a new one.
The gosple for today shares with us one of the most familiar biblical passages - John
3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. God loves us so much that the
good Lord is willing to give a part of the Divine source in Jesus Christ so that we may be
really alive! Love IS all about the stuff that we’re willing to give.
A few weeks ago while driving down 19th Avenue in the City I saw a sign posted on a
church that said: “Every saint has a past, Every Sinner has a future.” In the gospels its
seems that Jesus isn’t so much interested about where we’ve been, but to were we are
going. Yet to fully accept the love of God and move forward actually does take a
commitment to be transformed in heart and soul by the Holy Spirit. It’s a counscious
effort that can be a stuggle if we allow ourselves to continue to be dominated by the
events of our past. If we understand sin as the things we particpate in that separate us
from relationship with God, our neighbors, ourselves, and all creation, then we also know
that living into love can be like Krazy glue, a bonding agent that can repair all the
brokeness and crazy in our life. There is a certain kind of freedom we gain when we
allow love to be the FORCE that guides us.
Freedom is one value that is so tightly guarded in the United States! This value is
reflected in our Bill of Rights, in the rhetoric of our politics, in the stories of immigrants
seeking a better life, and in our faith practices. Yes, we love our freedom! But that
freedom is still limited by the things we do that break down our relationships. We can
loose our freedom so fast! But I have come to believe that the freedom granted by God
will offer us more freedom than any human law or liberty can muster. Maybe this is
because God doesn’t function by the letter of any law, but by the movement of the Spirit.
The words of Frederick W. Faber famous hymn speaks of the freedom found in God’s
love:
There's a wideness in God's mercy, Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice, Which is more than liberty.
(Ask musicians to play hymn to the tunes - In Babalone, Beecher, and St. Helena)
This is a hymn that carries the magic of musical meter – that is a hymn that can be sung
to more than one tune. This reminds me that creativity is a spiritual expression. Music
has a way for helping us express how we feel and multiple tunes to the same word can
change the feeling of this song. I believe being born of the Spirit means to embrace the
freedom of God to create something new with what we already have. And so, like God,
this song of freedom does not limit us to a single tune, but it gives us the freedom to
creatively re-understand something we’ve heard before.
Listen to the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus. When Jesus says that we must all
be born anew, Nicodemus is downright confused. We are only born once, right? No!
Jesus is inviting his friend to creatively re-understand what he as always understood and
change his thinking. So Jesus then compares life in the flesh and life in the Spirit. And
one of the key characteristics of life in the spirit is an element of freedom. To be born of
the Spirit means that we are making a choice not to be limited by the same concerns of
those who live according to the flesh because our future and fate is directly related to
God’s awesome love. Jesus says, “Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be
born from above.’ 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.”
I believe this understanding of Spirit going to where God needs to go, and to be born of
the Spirit, gives us a whole lot of freedom to best respond to the challenges and
opportunities of our day. Part of what is so anxiety provoking about our times today is
that it feels like there are no road maps. I hear many of brothers and sisters echo the
belief that the institutions that once created patterns of stability in our world - such as our
families, schools, churches, our jobs and even our government - are not longer held with
the same cultural esteem or trust as in the past. While I disagree on some points,
perception is reality. For many this is like driving in an unfamiliar place with only your
GPS to guide you. Many of us who have ever used a GPS system know that you can
never trust a computer satellite system because even though it can tell you where you are,
it may not know how to get you to where you need to go. The feeling of lost really
sucks!
Friends, the good news is that we are NOT alone! There is a wideness in God’s mercy,
like the wideness of the sea. And the Spirit, which Jesus will later define as his own
Spirit, accompanies and empowers us to face the changes of life and a future that may
feel uncertain about. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are reminded that
love is greater than fear! From this perspective, the anxiety that many of us feel, that
“there is no roadmap to guides us thought all the change,” can be transformed into a
joyful shout… “There is no roadmap… and it’s OK!”
I used to be bothered that my son, Rowan, would ask to buy these somewhat pricy LEGO
block sets and totally ignore the instructions to transform that set into something that
could only come from his imagination. Yet it was more about me not adapting to the
change he was creating. Today I see it differently. And especially after watching the
LEGO Movie with him I have come to realize that he didn’t need a roadmap to know
were he was going. He found freedom and joy in letting the Spirit guide him. Friends,
we don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done. To be born in the Spirit
means you and I are free to experiment, risk, fail, learn, and grow in ways only God can
teach us. God’s Holy Spirit will blow us in directions we haven’t even imagined.
Jesus goes on to share, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world
but in order that the world might be saved through him.” God is good, and whatever
brokenness, setbacks or failures we may experience is always a temporary condition
because God has promised to redeem the world in and through Christ. We are free to
give it a go and struggle, to succeed and fail, to live, love and die… all knowing that
being born of the Spirit, God wants us to be fully alive. In other words, in every change
and transition we have, God is there with us!
For the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind…
While the challenges we face together are great. So also are opportunities. Whether we
grow or shrink, flourish or struggle, we sometimes get preoccupied with the immediate
story that, while important, is only part of the larger story God is telling and bringing to a
good end. So this week, I invite you to consider that change may be a way for us to be
transformed by God. Jesus is inviting us to live a new life in him and if we choose to be
born again, his Spirit will blow us to places we’d never even imagined. Friends, may we
live well, work well, eat well, and end well… There is freedom in God’s love! AMEN.
John 3:1-17: There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and
said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs
that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the
kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after
having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered,
"Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What
is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you,
'You must be born from above.' 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."
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and
yet you do not understand these things?
"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive
our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell
you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not
perish but may have eternal life. "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."