Born of the Spirit

Transcribed from the sermon preached June 3, 2012 

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Romans 8:12-25, John 3 1-17

Back in 2003 the Da Vinchi Code was all the rage, and in 2006 they made a movie of it. Dan Brown, the author claimed his mystery novel was extrapolated from historical fact. The basic idea was that the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei, two Roman Catholic organizations had been battling over the centuries to reveal or hide evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered a child by her. The Catholic Church suppressed this knowledge because they feared that if the real bloodline of Jesus were discovered, then the pope and the hierarchy of the Church would be discredited and destroyed.
This was a hugely popular best seller. Many loved the mystery story. I am not an expert on mystery novels, but I couldn’t get beyond the first half because of Brown’s poor use of history. It was surprising to me that historical fiction was so fictional with its history. Granted, the Church has surely suppressed many alternative points of view throughout history, and has no doubt had orders of suppressive agents. It probably would have suppressed the idea that Jesus had married and fathered a child by Mary if it was ever more than a folk legend. There were gospels not included in the scriptural cannon that were attacked and suppressed, and the some translations of the Gospel of Philip, written sometime between 150 and 300 CE, have a line, which claimed the disciples were jealous because Jesus loved Mary more than them, and kissed her on the lips. But that is about it; Brown filled in the blanks with a load of fabricated history to suit his story.
But what bugged me the most about the book and all the hype it received, was the idea that if Jesus had fathered a child, it would make a radical difference to the Gospel message and the true nature of the Church. That this was the assumption of the book showed Brown has a very poor understanding of the Gospel message. The idea that bloodline would carry authority is not radical at all, for it is what most political history has been based on. The radical notion of the Gospel is exactly the opposite: access to the divine grace is not based on bloodline. “The Spirit blows where it wills, we know not from where it comes nor where it is going.” It would make no difference whatsoever if Jesus had blood decedents, because the Kingdom of God and the Church is built through birth of the Holy Spirit.
14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Now it is important to understand the nature of the suffering and sacrifice of Christ.  Sacrifice was nothing new of course. Many nations offered human sacrifice to the gods. Not only that, there has always been an understanding of those in power that it is expedient to sacrifice a certain number of subjects to maintain ones power. Some people have to die that others may live. Some have to slave so others can be wealthy, some nations have to be oppressed or wiped out so that others can thrive and expand. Some bloodlines must be snuffed out that others can continue.
The logic is easily expanded to other actions: some lies must be told that the greater truth may live. Everybody cheats so we might as well too. Some people must be sacrificed at the altar of low wages so we can afford Barbie dolls and broccoli. Everybody has to have the latest thing, so we might as well too. Compromise soon becomes so great that it is hard to tell the difference between us and those we justify our compromise to defeat. The elite bloodline of Israel and the elite of Egypt or Babylon or Rome begin to look a lot alike. The fanatical exclusive faith, or the lukewarm bureaucracy of the Christian, Muslim, or Jew look alike. We can’t tell the difference between the compromises of the Democrats and the compromises of the Republicans, and the same poor children are sacrificed on the battlefield by both. Even privilege because of merit becomes the merit of the privileged. Soon the whole world is a mess, and we are all mixed up and confused, and compromise and sacrifice are so common that we think nothing of it. It means nothing. One debt, one compromise, one sacrifice of the flesh begets another in an endless cycle of sacrifice. At a certain point some of us may feel powerless and just lose hope and trust altogether, and, slaves to fate of a poor blood line, in fear or anger isolate ourselves further, and just try to maintain our own life, our own family in any way we can, to hell with ethics and morals or anyone else. We can’t climb up and we can’t change anything, so why try? We will just live and die.
This is the life of the flesh that Paul speaks of.
12So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die;” The claim to bloodline, the claim to nationality, the clamor and maintenance of privilege, it all leads to more fear, more exclusion and more death.
Now if we have been taught falsely that the gods want human sacrifice, that to maintain the divine, elite, holy or pure bloodline, blood of the common flesh must be spilt, then how would God send us a new message? We might think God might just show his anger by wiping it all out, another flood or something. We might think God would be tempted to just condemn the world. But, what if God wanted to show us and give us hope that a new way of life is possible? How would God say enough of the sacrifice and death on my behalf? How would we get a glimpse of what divinity is truly about?
John shares the answer through this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is one of the powerful elite in Israel who has no doubt tried to do his best but is still all caught up in the system. He senses that Jesus is someone special, a man of God, but not wanting to compromise his position he slips over to see Jesus at night.
2He 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.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”…
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8The 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.”
“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. 17“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.
So this, according to the Gospel, is how God shows us all this compromise and sacrifice of others and the sacrifice of our own spirit, morals and values is bogus, and that there is a new hope, a new way. If God is born in the flesh as a lowly peasant, and lives a life of love and grace no matter what, even to the point of death, even death on a cross, then we see the pure and holy way to live, we see and experience that we are not condemned but loved by God and saved by God. It is a sacrifice to end sacrifice, suffering to end suffering, the compromise to end compromise; God becomes human and dies on a cross.
When we see the beauty and truth of Christ Jesus, our own compromise and complicity in the culture of sacrifice to false gods is exposed, and we are convicted. Now this conviction is internal, in our heart. We may sometimes regret what we have done because we have been caught; we may sometimes regret what we have done because of the suffering we feel as a result of our wrong deeds; yet conviction is not feeling bad because of the outside world. We feel convicted because we understand and feel in our heart that we were wrong, that we have gone against the spirit within us and others. We have seen the beauty and truth of God and we are far from it. Like Isaiah in the temple we cry out, Woe is me, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips.”
But by the love of God manifest in the person of Christ Jesus, we are washed and cleansed; we are given a fresh start, we are born again.
12So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
So if we are debtors to the flesh, if someone cheats or kills for us, then we must cheat or kill for them, if someone harms us, then we must harm them, if someone sacrifices our blood then we must avenge and sacrifice theirs. If we want something, then we must take it or it will be taken by someone else: our need and fear is the debt we must pay off. But we can’t, the devil is the king of predatory lending. He demands a sacrifice that leads to death and more death. The sacrifice and suffering of the devil leads to more sacrifice and more suffering.
So the suffering and sacrifice of Christ, and the suffering and sacrifice we are called to participate in, is the suffering which is the result of choosing to live by the Spirit of love and grace, even when it may cost us immediate gratification, power, prestige or causes us physical or material suffering.
It doesn’t mean that we look to suffer. It is not suffering and sacrifice for its own sake, but suffering and sacrifice to end suffering and sacrifice. It is to live with the hope that the suffering, injustice and violence of this world will not have the last word. It is not the suffering which leads us to live in fear, as if we were slaves to this world of suffering, but the suffering that comes from the power of knowing, no matter what happens, we are children of God.
Now that is radical.
When we are born again by water and Spirit, there is no longer an importance on bloodline, nor do we need a pope or a priest as an intermediary, for the Spirit is within us, and we speak directly to God, as Father and Mother.
It doesn’t matter who your biological father or mother were, whether descendants of generations of royalty or generations of slaves, a priest or a horse thief, a maiden or a prostititute, a general or a coward, a Jew or a Roman or an Ethiopian, if you receive the grace of God through Christ, you are born again, you tap into the source, the Spirit that was in the beginning with God and was God, and will be in the end.
Either way we live, this flesh is temporary, but the love and truth of God through Christ is so clearly above all this clamor. It is so divine that it needs no crown, it is so high that it can be born in a barn and die on a cross and it still rises like cream to the top.
And no matter who your parents were or who you were before you came in here, we can receive the grace of God and see the truth of God for the world in a new way. By the grace of God through Christ, the Holy Spirit within us is revived and resurrected, we begin to see and hear, listen and do the Word of God; we become brothers and sisters, coheirs with Christ.
And like Isaiah, though we may be convicted in our heart and have to confess, I am a man of unclean lips, and live among the people of unclean lips; cleansed by God’s grace, when God calls and asks “whom shall I send, the Spirit within us lifts us up and we call out, Here I am Lord, Send me.