Rev. Sandy Lacey
March 01, 2026
Good morning! How are you today? A quote from the author Annie Dillard in her book, Teaching a Stone To Talk, says “Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? . Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we (carelessly) invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are like children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; instead, we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares at the door; in fact, they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us to where we can never return.” She may be right – we may very well have tamed Jesus’ message from the earth shaking, life altering, upending message he originally gave.
If Abram (from the reading in Genesis this morning) and Nicodemus (from the second reading in the Gospel of John) were alive and present with us this morning, I think they would both be the first in line to receive the crash helmets and the first to encourage all of us to do the same. This is no tame God we worship in this place. This is no “sweet little Jesus boy” who remained in a manger and expected nothing of those who sought him in the plain light of day or under the cover of darkness. And (as we talked about last week) this is no “sweet Spirit” that one day declares Jesus to be God’s loved Son but then the next day drives Jesus out into the wilderness to be tested. But before you start bolting for the door, let’s talk about these two texts today.
When you are looking at a text and you are wondering where to begin as you consider its message, one can always begin by looking at the verbs. In the Genesis passage we hear the strong action verb, “Go.” Go, God says to Abram, from all that is familiar, from all that is comfortable; go from your father’s house, go from what has always been expected and mapped out for you; go from your traditions and certainty . . . go to a place, a land that I will show you. Go and I will bless you. And what will Abram leave behind? He will leave behind clear boundaries, clear expectations; he will leave behind his country, his family, his connections; he will leave behind protection, safety, security. He will take on risk and uncertainty. “Go and I will bless you,” God says. Many of us know the story. Abram and his wife Sarai indeed go from what is familiar into the unknown. In the process, everything changes – even their names. And they are given a purpose. They are blessed by God so that they might become a blessing to others. Their journey is not an easy one. It is marked by occasional disorientation, confusion, and uncertainty. It seems that to “go” will always involve risk.
Like Abram, Nicodemus is also compelled to go from what is familiar to him. A leader among the religious elite of Jesus’ day, he is quite familiar with the Law and Jewish traditions. This man has all the credentials. He is a leader among the Pharisees and presumably has developed a strong reputation. He is savvy enough to know that he cannot approach Jesus during day hours for fear he will become associated with him and that just might be problematic for him and his credentials. After all, Jesus was a threat to the established religious and political authorities of the day. He associated with suspicious characters and he “bent the rules” on a regular basis. He often called religious leaders, hypocrites, and questioned their loyalty to God and God’s people. He was developing a negative reputation among the religious elites. In John’s Gospel, prior to today’s passage, Jesus had just finished causing a big ruckus in the Temple. He overturned the tables in anger at the money changers’ treatment of the poor. Jesus was not seen as a friend to the religious authorities of his day . . . and yet Nicodemus is curious. He’s been watching and listening. He’s heard about Jesus’ works and he may have even witnessed some of them. Nicodemus is not unlike some of us who follow all the rules but yet, still feel something is missing. He wonders if there is something more than keeping the rules and being a good man in the eyes of society, and so he approaches Jesus quietly – under the cover of darkness. And when he speaks to Jesus, he does not hear anything close to what he expected! In fact, he does not even get to finish his question. Like many of us, he thought he would warm up to the question by paying Jesus a compliment: “everyone knows you are great, Jesus, and you do amazing things . . .” He does not get to finish his thought before Jesus interrupted him with, “You must be born from above (or some translations say, born anew or born again.)” Well, okay – you can almost see Nicodemus wrinkle his brow. Another way of saying what Jesus said is, “your life must be re-oriented.” “You must be willing to leave what is familiar to go where the Spirit leads . . . and by the way, the Spirit is always unpredictable.” It blows where it wills. You must go from what has always been certain for you into something that will be uncertain. You must go from the shadows of tradition and religiosity into the light of the Spirit. You must be willing to leave behind what you have been taught in order to imagine God and God’s kingdom differently. It is as if Jesus is saying, “Yes, Nicodemus, you are blessed . . . but it is not enough for you to be blessed and to keep it to yourself. Like Abram, you have a responsibility beyond yourself. You must do something with your faith.
John’s Gospel continually emphasizes that it is not enough to believe with your head; your belief must fundamentally change your heart and change the way you live. You can be part of something that is being born – a new life. Trust the Spirit and the energy the Sprit brings, and know that the Spirit blows where it will. We read that Nicodemus leaves the scene confused and disoriented. He had a fundamental problem with his vision as verse 3 suggests. No one can see (and therefore understand) unless they are born anew, unless their life is re-oriented to kingdom rules, rather than tradition and culture rules. If you are born anew, you can see the Spirit blowing and you can see the connection of God’s larger world and larger purpose, and you can be part of it. God’s love is for the entire world, not just for some in it. To be born anew/from above/again is not solely about what happens after we die; it is about recognizing God’s gift of life right here and right now. It is a fundamental re-orientation of your life right here and right now. The new life that Jesus has in mind is elusive, mysterious, and entirely God’s doing. The incomprehensible wind of the Spirit blows where we struggle to see and have difficulty comprehending. Commentator Mikeal C. Parsons says, “for the Johannine Jesus, eternal life is not some disembodied escapism into a remote space known as ‘heaven’ ; instead, everyone who believes in him may share in the life of God’s new age beginning right here and right now.”
Nicodemus must have been looking at Jesus with a blank look on his face, and he gets tripped up by the language because he seems to miss the point by asking how we can travel back into the birth canal. Jesus often disorients his educated listeners before he sends them away with food for thought. In John’s Gospel, this is not the last time, though, that we will hear from Nicodemus. John’s Gospel tells us later that Nicodemus intercedes briefly on Jesus’ behalf in front of the other Pharisees. And we read near the end of John’s Gospel that Nicodemus is with Joseph of Arimathea to bring spices to carefully prepare Jesus’ body for burial. In fact, the amount of spice he brings is the amount typically brought for the burial of kings. What happens to Nicodemus after that, we are not told.
Jesus reminds us in this passage that God so loved the world, not just you and me – the world. We are blessed . . . to be a blessing to God’s world. If your orientation is so limited that you are only focused on yourself and your little part of God’s world, then watch out! God is in the re-orientation business.
Like individuals, the Church is being called to go also. Go from doing what is familiar, from what has been traditional, from even what is comfortable . . . into a new way of being. Jesus calls us to new life, to be born from above, and to follow the Spirit – it blows where it wills. If you have been quite comfortable for some time now, if you are content with keeping things just as they are – then watch out because the Spirit blows where it wills. Jesus is not in the “get comfortable” business! Get out your crash helmet, take a few deep breaths, take a risk, get uncomfortable, be willing to be disoriented and together let us be willing to follow the Spirit wherever the Spirit leads! AMEN.