When I wake up to headlines about war and
assassination and leaders of countries being bombed, I wonder about the secret
conversations that happen behind closed doors in the middle of the night. Orders given, decisions made, and worst of
all, accountability ignored, compassion sneered at, human rights completely
disregarded. It is deeply disturbing
that two men, having most of the world’s military power, made a decision that impacts
the whole world. Where is the
accountability? Why do they think they
are entitled to take over countries and send the world in a tizzy? Why do they want to start another world
war?
Today’s scripture reading shows a conversation that
didn’t start a war, for all it happened in the night and not in public. Was Nicodemus sneaking off to talk to Jesus
secretly, or was it one of those, “gosh, look at the time” conversations? We do know that Nicodemus was really
struggling to understand Jesus. He
wanted things to be practical and easy to understand. Jesus was talking in metaphor.
Nicodemus struggled to understand what Jesus was
trying to explain to him. Not just the
whole “being born of the Spirit” but all that Jesus was teaching. The way of compassion, empathy and
spirituality. This way that the United
Church has described as “deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring
justice” was not something Nicodemus was comfortable with. He had heard Jesus talk in scathing terms about
Pharisees like Nicodemus. Jesus thought the pharisees who were more concerned
about what people thought about them than what God thought, were hypocrites. The leaders that Jesus challenged liked
having a clear rule book of what would bring them closer to God and what would
pull them away from God. Rules were easy
to follow on a surface level. Jesus wanted
them to explore at a deeper level what a relationship with God could be like.
For Jesus, a life of faith was centered around loving
God, and loving neighbor. This wasn’t a
matter of nice stories or poetic prayers. It wasn’t about compartmentalizing what
we believe on Sunday mornings and what we do on Monday mornings. This wasn’t a conversation that was a fun
little exercise in debating skills, but a call to reexamine our lives and our
priorities.
It was
about what we do in public. It was about
how we live out our God-shaped priorities.
It’s about when do we make a stand, when do we act? When do we make a
commitment to empathy, compassion and justice?
Jesus
wanted people to live deep bold and daring lives, not secretive ones. He wanted people to have deep, bold and
daring conversations about their faith and their relationship with God. All too often, we’ve seen how that has been
done in abusive ways. In ways that are
more like the Pharisees than Jesus.
Especially now, when Christian Nationalism seems to be the only game in
town. When John 3:16 is used to shame
and blame people for not having a deep enough faith. When conversations are not dialogues where
people actually listen to each other’s opinions and try hard to understand
them, but monologues spouting whatever conspiracy theory happens to be most
popular on social media.
Nicodemus was very brave, even though he came in the
dark. But Jesus called him to live a
more honest and open life. A life of
secrecy can cause tremendous harm and stress.
In modern business lingo, it is ‘living below the line’. Below the line attitudes are like thinking,
“I’m right, I will reject new ideas, I’m reacting emotionally, I’m
resisting.” Nicodemus was resisting what
Jesus was trying to teach him. He
didn’t like the new idea of being born into a spiritual way of being. He didn’t want to look at his theology as
something to be lived, not just thought about.
But somewhere during that conversation, some time during that long
night, something Jesus said made sense.
And his words still resonate today:
“This is
the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women
everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were
not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing
evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it,
fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality
welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
This Lent,
we can see on the world stage what happens when world leaders become addicted
to practicing evil, addicted to denial and illusion. It’s easy to point fingers at them for their
behaviors that are leading us into another war.
But we can’t control the men who order armies around. We can only change ourselves. Nicodemus was changed by his
conversation. He became public in his
exploration of what Jesus was teaching.
He became accountable for his actions, standing up for Jesus to the
other Pharisees, and eventually publicly burying Jesus in his own family tomb.
This Lent, let us give up living in secret, hiding our lights, being addicted
to being right, avoiding hard conversations and being stuck in denials and lies. Instead, let us remember that God loves us as
we are and wants us to live lives that are deep, bold and daring, for the world
needs more transparency, more love and more hope. Let us also remember that when we choose to
live deep, bold and daring lives, we will find that we are not alone, we live
in God’s world, in life, in death, in life beyond death, thanks be to God.
Amen!
