Sermon: Once More from the Top. March 5, 2023

This is the sermon I preached for the Second Sunday in Lent at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest, IL. You can view the bulletin and watch the livestream of the service. The image is a photo taken by me, a failed selfie that includes most of our group members from the retreat.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace be unto you and peace in the name God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

1. This weekend, 14 of our Confirmation students are away at a retreat at Lutherdale, a Bible camp in southern Wisconsin. Pastor Troy joined them Saturday. I drove up with the kids on Friday night and returned after lunch yesterday. Sitting with some of the kids before I left, I asked them what their favorite part of the retreat had been so far. There were a variety of answers, from the food to the songs to the sleeping. But one girl answered, “These people right here. I mean, I knew them all before we came up here. I knew her from Sunday school, and those two from school school, and them from Confirmation, but I didn’t really know know them. You know? And now look at us. We’re all best buds!” Well, that doesn’t have much to do with the sermon. Or does it? But it’s always good to remind you, dear people of Grace, that you are stewarding some amazing young people in their faith journey. You should be proud, and you should be attentive. They grow up fast after all! Why, weren’t these 7^th and 8^thgraders just born, what? Like five minutes ago? Amazing. Look at ‘em now! And we have the chance as a congregation to nurture and care for them in their faith journey. How good for them to be on retreat together. On Friday evening, as we drove along Highway 50 through the snowstorm that wasn’t, we passed a country church, set among sprawling farms, implement dealers, and boat shops. On the side of their parish hall, facing the highway, bold letters proclaimed: “God so loved the world . . . John 3:16.”
2. Dot dot dot. There aren’t too many Bible verses for which you can just trail off into an ellipsis and trust that people will know what you’re talking about. Psalm 23, sure. Micah 6:8? Genesis 1? The pickings get pretty slim after that. But John 3:16? Absolutely. We all know what comes next: that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Even in a culture in which biblical literacy is declining, people know this one. Martin Luther once called this verse the gospel in miniature, for it contains that which we most need to know. But make no mistake: the dot dot dot cannot be assumed or implied. It’s in the ellipsis that our old life is eclipsed, in which new life begins.
3. But how does new life begin after life has already begun? This is the question posed by Nicodemus to Jesus in their middle-of-the-night encounter. Shall he return to his mother’s womb and be born a second time? How would she feel about that? Who knows what drives Nicodemus to see Jesus, what would eventually lead this Pharisee to follow Christ. Perhaps he’s captivated by what he’s heard of this One who has already turned water into wine and overturned the tables in the Temple. Perhaps he has a sense that his understanding of God is too small or his sin too great or his darkness too deep, and that this Jesus can help. Whatever sends Nicodemus to Jesus in the night, it seems he is looking for new life. But to be born again, from above? This, of course, is impossible. Is there no way forward?
4. By the time the story reached chapter twelve, things have gone wrong again. Last week we heard of humanity’s turning away from God in the garden, giving themselves into the power of sin. In short order, the author of Genesis moves us from their expulsion from the garden to Cain’s act of fratricide, from God’s starting over with Noah to humanity’s rebellion at Babel. God chooses at this point to work through one particular family, descended from Noah through Shem, down the generations to Terah. But just when things seem to be moving in the right direction – in this case by a movement to the land of Canaan – the project hits a snag. Terah stops his family’s march in Haran, 400 miles short of the goal. And Terah’s son, Abram, the one through whom God intends to carry out God’s work, is married to Sarai. Abram and Sarai are unable to conceive a child. The family line is about to run out. How will this family’s life continue? It is impossible. But God comes to Abram, promises that he and Sarai will become parents of a great nation, and that through their so-far non-existent family, all of the families of the earth would be blessed.
5. 2,000 or so years later, two of Abraham and Sarah’s many descendants find themselves speaking together in the night. Long ago, Abraham had believed the Lord’s promises, in spite of their impossibility. Abraham and Sarah believed, and they went. Before taking a single step on the journey, and long before God made good on God’s promises, Abraham trusted God. Had faith in God. And God reckoned it to Abraham as righteousness. Nicodemus, a teacher of the people, knows that God is a God of impossible births. A God who makes a way where there is no way. A God who calls into existence things that do not exist. This, Jesus tells him, is what God is up to in the ministry upon which Jesus is now embarked. Is there a way forward? Forgiveness of sins and hope for the future? Yes. The Spirit is blowing in a new direction. Amid life’s darkness and depression, in this life where suffering and sorrow swirl round, in our dead ends with no way forward, a new sign is planted. Jesus, the Son of Man, will be lifted up. If we look to him, we will live. Here, in the ellipsis, we find not condemnation but hope. God gives God’s Son that those who believe will live, that this world that God so loves may be saved. On the cross, God reaches out to us with Christ-created grace, and we reach back with the Spirit-gifted faith. We are drawn with Jesus into his tomb, the womb through which God brings life back into the world. Jesus is lifted high on the cross, and that should have been the end of it. But God brings something out of nothing. Out of the nothingness of death, God brings life. From above, of water and the spirit, we are born again.
6. At camp this weekend, we were broken up into small groups for Bible study. I was with ten young women, including two from Grace, plus a leader from another congregation. Each group was given a large sheet of paper, on which we drew the outline of a human figure. Through the figure, we drew a line, labelling one side “saint” and the other “sinner.” Then we were given names of famous people, and the kids were asked to put them on either the saint side or the sinner side. So, the sorting began. Then we turned to Romans and were reminded that our standing before God is not determined by what we’ve done. And thank goodness, for in spite of our relative merit (or not), we have all sinned and fallen short. We have all contributed to the marring of this world God so loves. We have all been wounded by others. Is there a way forward? Yes. God comes to us again, asking only that we believe. God comes to us again and gives the Son for us. Where we had no life, God gives life. We are all sinners, but for the sake of Christ, we are all saints. Reborn in the waters of baptism, we are made alive as saints, the holy people of God. Granted, this can be hard to grasp. In the end, no amount of theology could convince my middle school group that Taylor Swift was in any way sinful, and no amount of theology could convince them that there was a place among the saints for Aaron Rodgers. We’ll leave that to God to sort out. Today, we are reminded that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, and nothing we need to do to save ourselves, for God has done it for us. Is there a way forward? Hope for the future? Yes. Look up. See Christ, and live.
7. The world, the whole cosmos, had become the realm of those who had turned from God. But God never turned God’s back on the world. God does not turn God’s back on you. God desires what God has always desired for you: life in its fullness, on both sides of the grave. All God asks is that you would believe, have faith. And since even that can be a challenge, God’s Spirit has come to you to create and sustain that faith. You have been saved by the Son and are saints forever. For God so loved the world. Well, you know the rest. But it’s worth saying it all again: He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Believe, friends. Keep the faith. Nurture one another in the faith. From above, you are born again. Welcome to life. Dead ends are dead and there is always a way forward. Amen.

And now may that peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, this day and forever. Amen.