Trinity Episcopal Church

June 7, 2009

This morning we heard about two guys, Jesus and Nicodemus, talking about becoming born again. John 3:3 calls it being born from above. In the Greek, Jesus does not use the word born at all, but rather he uses the word begotten. Although Jesus had tremendous respect for motherhood, in this passage he uses masculine verbiage. He is using begotten as a farmer might use the word sire, referring to the male parent of an animal.

Jesus said, You must be born again only once in the gospels, yet when I was growing up, some denominations made it the absolute formula, the only criterion for becoming a Christian. Some preacher would preach for half an hour and then, like wielding a big “born again” club, he would bully you into coming forward. You would have to say the magic words about how you were a rotten sinner and ask Jesus into your heart (which is a mixed metaphor, but whose counting?) and then you’d be born again and avoid going to hell.

When it comes to spirituality, I hate formulas. I don’t believe Jesus meant this dialogue in John’s Gospel to be a formula, but rather, I see Nicodemus learning something very basic about life---something, as an expectant father, I have learned too.

The other night we had Kristi’s world famous spaghetti and, of course, I ate too much of it. When we took our empty dishes to the kitchen sink, I turned to Kristi and stuck out my belly and, patting it with my hand, I made a remark about her good cooking, “Look what you created.” I said. Without missing a beat, Kristi started patting her belly and retorted, “And look what YOU created!”

What is the basic, simple message of Jesus to Nicodemus? A child enters this world because his or her father begets them; a person can enter the kingdom of Godonly when he or she is begotten by our Heavenly Father. In other words, life comes to a child through the father; likewise, eternal life comes to us through our Heavenly father. (Look what God created…YOU!)

Trinity Episcopal Church

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June 7, 2009