Step into the Light

Step into the Light
John 3:1-21
First Sunday after Pentecost 


If, during the reading of our Scripture lesson this morning, you had the feeling, “Didn’t we just hear John 3:16 recently?”  Well, you’re not wrong.  John 3:16 was a part of our worship readings only a couple of months ago; and I am going to just assume that there is not a one of us who is upset by hearing it again.  Were I a betting man, I would wager that every single one of us could hear John 3:16 every day of our lives and never grow tired of it.  “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.” See, that didn’t bother you at all.  

We love John 3:16, and rightfully so.  It gets to the heart of what we proclaim as the Gospel.  I could preach that Good News from John 3:16 for maybe a month before I started repeating myself.  I could proclaim the God that moves in love for the sake of the world.  I could proclaim the depths of that love that would even give an only son.  I could proclaim what belief in him means.  I could even proclaim a sermon around the sin we were once perishing from.  But best of all, I could proclaim the joy of the assurance we have of eternal life.  We are right to love John 3:16 and it may not be possible to hear it too often.

But I noticed something else this time around.  Maybe you’ve noticed this before too, I don’t know.  Did you ever notice that, in John chapter three, there are other verses besides verse sixteen?  I know!  It turns out, John 3 tells an entire story!  

It’s a story about a conversation between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.  I think I noted a couple of months that Nicodemus is not a major character in the Gospel story, but that being said, he is important to us.  He’s important because in some ways, we’re a lot like him.  He’s important because, in different ways, he is who we seek to become.  He’s important because, in still other ways, he is like people we likely have near us in this world every day of our lives; people that, just like us, God so loved, even before we knew it.  

So who is this Nicodemus?  John describes him as a Pharisee and a leader of the Jewish people; later in John we’ll find out that what he meant by that is that he’s a member of the Sanhedrin; Israel’s legal system, made up of well-respected teachers, or “rabbis.”  So, we know that Nicodemus was a teacher, so well-respected that he served on the Sanhedrin.  We also know that he was a Pharisee: that he belonged to a socio-political movement, which sought to bring righteous obedience back to the nation of Israel.  In short, he was exactly like us.  

Don’t look at me like that, you know it’s true.  We may not have as much clout as Nicodemus did, but we want all of the same things he did.  We want to live in a nation that conforms to the will of God.  We want to adhere to the God’s Law and we want that for the people around us as well.  We want righteousness and justice and we will do our part to maintain it.  We want to live in a nation that seeks the will of God and lives up to the sacrifice of those valiant souls that we remember this weekend.  If nothing else, we are like Nicodemus because we seem to want everything he seemed to have wanted.  

And that even includes a deeper relationship with Jesus.  That is something in Nicodemus that we also strive to be.  Nicodemus comes to Jesus because he saw that Jesus was someone worth knowing better.  He came and said to Jesus, “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.”  Now, first of all, I’m not sure who the “we” is.  Jesus had just cleared the money-changers out of the Temple with a make-shift whip; an act a Pharisee might approve of.  It could well be that he’s talking about other Pharisees.  Remember, this is early in the Gospel of John; perhaps they haven’t yet realized that Jesus is threatening their authority too.  But that’s a bit beside the point.  The point is: he comes to Jesus to get to know him better, just like we’re trying to do right now.  

Often we think of the Pharisees as the enemies of Jesus, but I think we’re right to trust Nicodemus.  If their conversation seems a bit awkward, it seems it’s only because they are talking on different levels: Nicodemus is having a conversation about religion; whereas Jesus is having a conversation about Spirit.  Those are very different conversations.  We’ll dig a bit deeper into that thought next Sunday.  For today, their conversation is awkward, but Jesus isn’t being antagonistic.  Jesus sees potential in this Pharisee.  Now sure, he comes to Jesus under the cover of night, but at least he comes.  I am convinced that Jesus doesn’t so much care how we seek him, but that we seek him.  

We were talking at our men’s group on Friday about how everyone comes to a church for the first time with a story: maybe it’s “my life is a mess,” maybe it’s “I’m on vacation,” but everyone has a story.  Because of this, when you see a new face come through our doors, you have an automatic ice-breaker: “So, what brought you here this morning;” and that’s really the way to say it.  “Why are you here?” is not really the question.  Why they came is secondary to what brought them.  We know what brought them: the Spirit brought them; we’re just trying to find out if they know it yet.  Jesus knows what brought Nicodemus; their conversation is awkward because Nicodemus doesn’t know it yet.  

Last week, as we celebrated Pentecost, we remembered the Spirit being poured out upon the disciples with the sound like the rush of a violent wind.  I can’t help but think of that when I hear Jesus say, “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 can’t say I blame Nicodemus for not completely understanding Jesus when he talks about Spirit things; I puzzle over his words too sometimes.  Is he really saying that those born of the Spirit are blown around by the Spirit, like a leaf in the wind?  Is he really saying that, like how we don’t see where the Spirit comes from, we don’t know where we’re being blown to either?  It seems like it; and if so, what is he saying about Nicodemus?  Perhaps Jesus is telling him, in his own Spirit way, “The Spirit is blowing in you.  Just wait until you find out where it’s blowing.”  

That thought excites me more than you know.  The implications are amazing.  It means that the Spirit of God is at work, blowing through the lives of those around us in this world, before they even know it.  As you may recall from the last time we looked at this text, Nicodemus has a part to play in the Gospel story; he never exactly “steps into the light,” as it were; but he will find his place as one who believes.  I think this story not only shows us how God’s Spirit works in us—drawing us to believe even before we knew how to believe—but it also shows us what to look for as God’s Spirit blows about our world.  

I had a remarkable experience last week; I’ve told some of you about it.  It came to a head last week, but it started, I suppose, back at our workshop in February.  We’ll talk in more depth of these things next Sunday, but I sensed several important points: as a church, our heart breaks for the hurt in our community, especially for the young; we know the answer to that hurt is a faithful, welcoming community just like ours; and we detailed some ideas to bring our Savior to our community and bring renewed life to our church.  With Lou Ray’s passing, some of those ideas got a little stalled-out, but the passion and the purpose remains.  

Speaking of Lou Ray, last week I then decided that it was time for someone to start checking the church’s email regularly again.  I installed an email program to my computer, set it up to get the emails, and began the long process of sorting through a ton of junk mail.  Toward the end, was an email titled, “Youth Development and Community Connection.”  I thought, “Well they’re probably selling something,” but I was intrigued by the title.  Turns out, it was from a group that is forming a county-wide coalition to combat the very things that break our hearts in this community; the very things that we talked about at our workshop.  The email was sent on a Friday, I read it on Monday morning, emailed them back a minute later, we met in my office later that day, and I was at their meeting the next day.  That in itself was so obviously the blowing of the Spirit, but it just got better.  

I’ve met some remarkable people through this coalition.  My job so far has been to help them make inroads, as most of them are not connected with Bayfield.  They don’t have all the answers, but they’re working toward the same things we are; they are doing, in my eyes, the Kingdom work we’ve been talking about.  But here’s the thing: they’re not all followers of Jesus.  They are Nicodemus: the Spirit is blowing in them and some don’t even know it.  I mean, I look forward to telling them; they know what I do for a living, I don’t have to be bashful about it.  When they’re ready; I’m not pushy.  

In our own way, we are all a bit like Nicodemus.  But in one important way, we are not: we know where that wind is coming from.  I am convinced that, at this important time in our history, our central task is to watch for those who are being blown around by the Spirit in the same directions we are.  People who look a lot like Nicodemus: People who are drawn to and are working within our Savior’s Kingdom, even before they realize it.  These are the ones we are called to work alongside and simply show God’s love; a love for this world that would give an only Son, that all who believe in him may not perish, but have eternal life.