March 20, 2011 2nd Sunday of Lent
Genesis 12: 1-4a, Psalm 121, Romans 4: 1-5; 13-17, John 3: 1-17
I recently watched the movie Avatar on T.V. I will have to say that I enjoyed it very much. I love movies with special effects like Avatar has. The idea that a person can be in one place and "send" one's avatar to do something somewhere else, like infiltrate the people of a distant planet, is not unique to this movie. The concept of the avatar comes from the religion of Hinduism. It is believed that divine beings send an avatar as manifestations of themselves to earth to do things for them.
The same kind of thing is going on today in cyberspace. On the internet there are 100's of sites where you may claim an identity, design your own avatar, and inhabit a virtual world. There are virtual worlds for everyone; for children, such as Disney's Toontown, Mokiville, and Whyville; for teens and adults there's SimsOnline, the Second Life and Dreamville.
In these virtual worlds you can be yourself or someone else. You have the ability of designing your body. You can have red hair, blue hair, or brown hair. You can be short, tall, slim, young, old, good or evil. In these virtual worlds of cyber space, you can be the person of your dreams.
Not only can you dream yourself up and become that dream, you can also interact in these worlds however you want. The fantasies you have, you can live out in places like Simcity. Since there are so many of these sites on the Internet, it is obvious they are very entertaining and popular.
The Sims which is called a strategic life simulation computer game, has sold over 35 million copies since it was first developed, and has become the best selling computer game of all time. (In sales alone over $20 billion.) That's a lot of Avatarian living. People obviously enjoy living a second life...or a third, fourth or fifth life.
Today I am going to be talking about having a second life. No, not a virtual life that we create, but the one Jesus has told us about in the gospel lesson we have for today.
Our lesson from John contains the words of which most of us here have heard enough in our life time that most of us have memorized them: John 3:16. Can you say that verse with me? "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."
We remember the verse easily enough, yet we often forget the surrounding story. We forget things like who Jesus is speaking to when he spoke these words, why Jesus said them, and what about them makes them important to us; so important in fact that we have memorized them, printed them on T-shirts, engraved them on buildings, made jewelry with them, and spread them the world over.
The story is about Jesus and his encounter with a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem. We know from the scriptures that he was part of the Jewish ruling court, called the Sanhedrin (John 7:50) which was made up of political leaders, religious leaders, teachers, temple priests, and the influential men of the city.
Nicodemus came to see Jesus during the night. A lot has been made of the fact that Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, indicating that he was coming on the sly, and that he didn't want to be seen by people who might then associate him as a follower of Jesus. That could be true. It could be true as well that it was the only time when Nicodemus could speak to Jesus privately and talk with him directly about his teachings.
As I read the story of Nicodemus, I see a person who was seriously seeking something. A person who was coming to the source to get the answers straight, even if that might taint his reputation. Nicodemus didn't want hearsay; he wanted first hand information; instruction from Jesus himself. Therein is a lesson for us. When we have a question about faith, about Jesus, we too need to go to the source. We need to go to God, to the Word of God and like Nicodemus, speak to God directly in our meditations and prayers.
Nicodemus already knew that God was with Jesus. He knew that a man couldn't do the things Jesus did without the presence of God with him, and he told Jesus as much. Jesus' answer to Nicodemus bypassed the niceties of religion. Rather than talk religion, Jesus took Nicodemus right to the heart of the real question he was asking.
Jesus knew what Nicodemus was seeking. Jesus knew that Nicodemus had not come for religious answers. His question wasn't really about where Jesus had come from, or whether God was with him, or whether Jesus teachings should be followed. Jesus knew that Nicodemus had come there for himself. A true seeker does that.
There are a lot of people today who appear to be seeking Jesus. But rather than seekers, I would characterize them as "dabblers." They are seeking something, but it is more about religion than Jesus. They will attend a church for a while, looking for answers about many things. They want to know about doctrines, what a church believes about this subject or that subject. They want to know what kinds of programs are available for their family; what kinds of children's programs, bible studies; whether there is good preaching, good music or if they get out by 12 o'clock. Those religious things are really what they are looking for, they are merely "dabbling around" with Jesus.
A "dabbler" is usually seeking a religion that will suit them, something they can feel good about doing; a place that fits them, has the music they like, and where they can be "fed." A "dabbler" is not looking for a faith that will ask anything of them.
This week I saw on a techno web site about a Christian Virtual World that is being designed. It is called Universe of Faith, and its icon is a dragonfly. When that world is completed and online, dabblers, if they are computer savvy, will be able to become the exact Christian they want to be, attend the perfect church for them, and live in a perfect world, all from the comfort of their favorite arm chair.
Seriously though, I don't think Jesus is too impressed with "dabblers." What happens to a dabbler when they encounter Jesus is like what happened to Nicodemus. Jesus goes to the heart of a dabbler. In the presence of God, we just don't get by with dabbling.
In response to Nicodemus' religious questions Jesus said, "If you want to see the kingdom of God...you must be born again." Nicodemus didn't understand. I'll admit it isn't an easy concept, especially when you are thinking in physical terms as Nicodemus was. "How can that happen?" Nicodemus asked, "Can you really come from your mother all over again?"
But Jesus was talking about a different kind of life; second life is what I'm calling it. It is a life that is not of a physical nature. It is the life that is Spiritual. With faith in Jesus, belief in Jesus, we are born from above, and born of the Spirit.
When Nicodemus came to Jesus he was looking for something. I believe he was looking for truth. Jesus told him the true nature of things. Jesus told him the true nature of God's kingdom. Jesus told him that what he and his disciples were witnesses to was a different life, one that was of the kingdom of God, one available to the whole world.
Because God loved the world so much, God gave his only son...not to condemn the world through more laws, more things to do, more programs, more bibles studies, more preaching, more hymns, but...God gave his son so that the world might live...a second life...through belief.
When you consider what it means to believe in Jesus, what exactly do you think. I'll admit that often we fall into the trap of thinking that believing is what we do with our minds. Really though believing in Jesus is much more than in our minds. Believing in Jesus must also happen in our hearts and in our very bodies.
The second life, this new life is life in the Spirit of God, not some ethereal world where we live--like living through an Avatar, a life of the mind. No. The new life is life in God's kingdom, where the Spiritual life we have been given and our physical life are connected.
Jesus made that connection possible when he overcame death for all of us. Jesus, because he as the perfection of humanity was the one, the only one, who could reconnect us to God. Who else could have done that? Who else has ever lived a perfect life? Who else physically embodied the living presence of God? No one else; only Jesus lived that life.
When we read further into the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus explained that believing means coming into the light, being a part of the new life that we are given. New life means giving up the darkness with its evil and wickedness. It is acting out, living out in a physical way, in our bodies, the new spiritual life that is received. That is what Jesus did. He lived the life of the kingdom of God in his own body.
When we believe, we are given the power to make the same connection that Jesus made to God. The new life we are given is in Jesus. It is through him that we are able to connect both to God in the Spirit, and to connect to the world in the physical.
In the second life...we are given the very Spirit of God within us. We are given the same Spirit of Jesus our Lord, so that we can enact God's presence physically in the world. When we say to our children, Jesus is with us...it is true. Jesus is still in the world today. Jesus lives within each one of us who believe in him. Jesus is still active, moving, loving, giving, and working in us to bring the fullness of God's kingdom on earth.
No wonder Nicodemus had difficulty understanding this awesome second life; the gift that gives us a life where we are connected both to God and to the world. The reality of the gift of God is almost too wonderful to comprehend. Is it not!?
For God so loved the world...that he gave to us Jesus...so that we can have a new life, the second life. To have that life, which is eternal in Jesus Christ, we believe that what Jesus told Nicodemus is true. We believe this in our minds, in our hearts and in our bodies. We are alive in Jesus, and Jesus is alive in us. Thanks be to God...who loves us beyond all of our comprehension. Amen.
©2011 Judy H. Eurey
