Yesterdays sermon Born Anew, by Rev. Edward Horne. What if I were to tell you that I am a Bible-believing, Spirit-led, washed-in-the-blood born again Christian? Some of you would respond, “Amen. Praise Jesus!” Others of you might wonder, “What has gotten in to Pastor Ed? I thought that born again Christians were a bit out there; certainly not very Methodist.” And others are thinking to themselves, “What in the world is a born again Christian?” If you answered in the first way, affirming my profession of being born again, you might be somebody like our dear former Associate Pastor, Tisha. You can just her, can’t you? “Hallelujah!” If you wondered what has gotten into this mild-mannered Methodist to get me to make such a bold proclamation, you would be like most of what we call “main line Protestants.” No big shows of emotion for us. And if you don’t know what in the world I’m talking about, you’re like a lot of other folks these days. What does it mean to be “born again”? That third response would put you in the company Nicodemus, who called on Jesus one night many years ago. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a leader of his people. Pharisees were a Jewish group who devoted themselves to following the rules of their religion as strictly as they could. They saw Law, the Torah, as a gift from God and so faithfulness meant adherence to the Law---and all of the intricate web of regulations that were based on them. No wonder Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Jesus was already being criticized for breaking the Law, for eating with the wrong people and hanging around with impure and unholy sinners. Better to slip in under the cover of darkness so that no one would get the wrong idea. Not long into their conversation, though, Nicodemus has no idea what Jesus is talking about. “You must be born again,” Jesus tells him. “Huh?” replies the befuddled Nicodemus. “How can you return to your mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Of course, Nicodemus is thinking on the literal level and Jesus is taking him to a much deeper plane. Jesus isn’t talking about a physical rebirth but about a spiritual one, the kind that far outlasts our time on earth. The word that Jesus uses---in Greek it’s anothen---actually has three different meanings. It can mean, “born again,” or “born anew,” or “born from above.” It really means, “Being remade from top to bottom.” In advertising, when somebody decides that an ad campaign needs to be re-conceived, they do not mean they want to change the wording or retouch the pictures. They want it reconceived, done over. They want it remade from top to bottom. What Jesus is talking about doesn’t have to do with being formed in the womb of your mother but in being re-formed in your inner being by God. It’s about being taken down a new path and allowing God to re-make you as one of his own people. It’s about letting go of all of the parts of yourself that keep holding you back from becoming your best and getting the most out of your life and, like Abram---who later was renamed Abraham---leaving the safe and comfortable to go out on a great adventure to discovery and a new life. And remember that Abraham was seventy-five years old when went on this journey, which means that we’re never too old to try something new. My office here at church is directly over one of the nursery school classrooms. And every day at 1:00 p.m. for the past two weeks I have been serenaded by a group of preschoolers singing their favorite new song, “Let It Go.” There’s nothing quite like a group of four year-old’s singing at the top of their lungs and really letting it go. Maybe we ought to sing it some Sunday in church. You see, to follow God’s call and to be re-made into a friend of Jesus, you’ve got to let it go. Let go of the fear of trying something new. Let go of worrying what other people will think if they find out you go to church and actually believe in God. Let go of your need to be in total control of your life so that God can take you to amazing new places. Let go of everything that holds you back from being the kind of person who really want to be and allow God to shape you and make you his own. How that happens and when it happens is all up to God. It’s as predictable as the wind blowing in one direction or another, Jesus says. God will send the Holy Spirit, the holy breath of God, whenever and however God chooses. We don’t control how God will change us or where God will take us. We can just put up our sails and get ready to go along for the ride. I guess that’s why some people resist the idea of being born again. They’re feeling fine about where they are and who they are and the thought about letting God re-make them is too much to take. The trouble is that you can’t really get to know God without it changing you. I’m not talking about becoming a super-Christian who always knows and does the right thing. I’m talking about getting to know the heart of God and letting that make your heart much, much bigger, too. On Ash Wednesday I invited us all to spend some time in the school of Jesus this Lent. Today I’d suggest some personal tutoring as well. It’s one good way to get to know him and his hopes for you. The thing is, once you’ve been schooled by Jesus, you can’t help but become more compassionate and more kind. Once you have a one-on-one with the Savior of the world you can’t get narrower or more rigid but you have your arms opened to others in a way you never were before. Poor people. Foreign people. Gay and lesbian people. More and more of God’s children. Spending time with Christ changes you. Sometimes all at once, sometimes so slowly you don’t even notice. But other people will. Something surely happened to Nicodemus. We only hear about him a couple of more times. Once, he sticks up for Jesus at a meeting of his fellow Pharisees---a lone voice in the growing chorus seeking to do Jesus in. And then, at the end, when Jesus has been crucified and most of his followers have fled in fear, Nicodemus is there. He brings spices of burial to clean and anoint the bloody and decimated body of Jesus, spices of devotion and love whose aroma are carried on the wind that blows where it wills. That’s all we know about Nicodemus, this influential leader. But it’s enough to tell us that he has been re-formed by God. Born anew from top to bottom. What I want to say is that every person who has been touched by Christ has been changed by Christ. And everyone who has been changed by Christ is in the process of being transformed by him. I know that it’s happened to me. We all have different stories to tell how Christ has re-shaped us, but we all share one quality. The love of God is working in us and making us into better people all the time. Friends, the world needs a few born-again Christians who are willing to let go of their fears and doubts and let Jesus re-shape them into the his loving, open-armed people. We need radically-reconceived followers of the teacher who shows us that love is the answer to most of life’s questions. We need, all of us, to be born from above, and to allow the Spirit of God to blow us to a wonderful new life. I have to tell you, it’s a great way to go. Would you pray with me, please: Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us. Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us for your loving and life-giving work. In praying for your spirit, Lord, we realize that we ask for a gift that may disrupt or disturb our lives. Save us from our desire to be confirmed in what we already know, our preconceptions and our prejudices. Re-orient, remake us, if you must, from top to bottom, that we may become citizens of your kingdom: your compassionate, giving and forgiving people. We come now to offer our lives to you. Blow us where you will, and make us your own. Listen to the complete sermon On Line. westportumc.org/podcasts.html
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 19:16:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015