It was night. There was a knock on the door where Jesus was staying. When he opened the door, there was one of the more respected Jews in the area, a man named Nicodemus.

Why was he there? In some ways it did not make sense. Jesus had just been involved in very dramatic and disruptive acts of protest in the temple. He had made a whip and driven the moneychangers and the men who sold animals used as sacrifices out of the temple. Jesus had even talked about the destruction of the temple.

Now, in the darkness, just outside the door stood this leader of the Jews who was also a Pharisee. According to William Barclay, in Jesus' day there were no more than 6,000 Pharisees in the whole country. This special brotherhood was composed of men who had publicly made a pledge to invest their lives striving to observe every detail of the scribal law. They believed the Law, contained in what we call the Old Testament, was the perfect word of God and that to add or take away a single word was a deadly sin. By and large, Pharisees were viewed as the best people in that society-certainly the most devout.^[1] By and large, they were men who were working hard to live as they believed God commanded them to live.

Now this devout, respected leader of the Jews had come in the night to see Jesus. Why? I suspect he was longing for something more than he had been able to find through his very disciplined religious life. Maybe he, too, had been offended by the way the moneychangers and animal sellers were desecrating the temple. Maybe he thought, maybe he hoped that in Jesus he could find answers to some of the troubling questions in his life.

And why had he come in the night? Maybe it was not that he did not want to be seen talking to Jesus. Perhaps Nicodemus had come in the night because he was among those who believed that nighttime was the best time to study the Law because in the night there were fewer interruptions.^[2]

Whatever the reasons for coming in the night, Nicodemus was there, saying that Jesus must be a teacher from God because no one could do what he had done without God being with him. And Jesus' response was to say, "No one can see or recognize the reign of God without God enabling him to see it." Then the next thing Jesus said is not easy to translate into English because the key word has no adequate English equivalent. What Jesus said can be translated, "No one can see the kingdom or the reign of God unless one is born anew" or "… born again" or "… born a second time" or "… born from above." The Greek word anöthen has to do with a completely new, beginning.^[3] It is a fresh start. It is like a "mulligan" in golf.

In my imagination, I see Nicodemus standing there, hearing what Jesus was saying, and then responding, not asking as much as simply expressing a deep yearning, "How can anyone who has grown old have such a new beginning? How can any of us who have deeply formed habits in living, who are so deeply established in a life style-how can any of us who have lived so long the way we have been living really begin again? How can we have a fresh start? We cannot start all over in life like a newborn infant. We have too much mileage on us, too many deeply entrenched habits, attitudes, opinions. How can anyone have a truly new beginning?"

The issue of new birth was not merely one of receiving God's forgiveness for the past. The issue has to do with making changes in the present so that the future is a different future. The issue of being born again or born from above has to do with making major changes in our living. It has to do with letting go of old priorities and living with a new set of priorities. It has to do with abandoning the set of values we have used for a long time trying to make our lives meaningful, and embracing a different set of values to shape what we do with our time and how we invest our resources. It has to do with leaving our old way of living behind and moving in a new direction in our living.

"How can anyone really do that?" This is what Nicodemus was asking Jesus.

It is a tough question. Little wonder so many Christians have tried to make it easier and less demanding by simplifying new birth to mean little more than having a special emotional, religious experience. But Jesus was talking about more-much more-than merely having an emotional experience some people identify as "being born again." In this passage, being "born again" has to do with us making major, even radical changes-changes from living the way we are living to living as God intends us to live.

How can this happen? This was the question Nicodemus asked, "How can anyone be born again?"

"It takes an act of God," Jesus said, "and no one can reduce an act of God to a formula. There is always profound, divine mystery involved." Obviously, these are not the words John records Jesus having said, but, as I understand it, this is the essence of what Jesus meant. "It takes an act of God, and no one can reduce an act of God to a formula. There is always profound, divine mystery involved."

It takes an act of God. Jesus said, "No one can enter the kingdom of God, no one can live under the reign of God, no one can live as God intends them to live unless that person is born of water and Spirit." "Water and the Spirit" is a key phrase for Christians. It is a phrase loaded with more meaning than we can adequately express. We humans have many such phrases; for example: "love of country" or "a mother's love" or "a person's honor." These phrases mean more than any dry, pedantic definition can convey. So it is with the phrase "water and the Spirit."

We use water to clean ourselves and our clothes. We must have water to sustain life. Water is a cleansing, life-sustaining reality. Spirit, of course, has to do with the presence of God. It is God's presence cleansing our lives and sustaining us in life that makes it possible for us to live under the reign of God. If God does not cleanse us, we cannot live as God intends. If God is not nourishing and nurturing us, living as God wants us to live is impossible. As Jesus said, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, it is impossible to live under the reign of God." It takes an act of God.

So, how does this happen? How are we born from above? How are we bathed and nourished by the water and the Spirit?

Jesus told Nicodemus that it is finally a profound mystery. But it happens. It is as real as the wind that blows, and it is as big a mystery as the mystery in Jesus' day of understanding when and why the wind blows. "The wind blows where it chooses," Jesus said, "you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes."

The working of God in our lives, is a mystery beyond our understanding. But it is real. It is as real as the wind that blows.

But that was not the answer Nicodemus wanted. So, just as I would do, he asked once again, "But how? How can this happen? How does it happen?"

And Jesus' response to Nicodemus was, "Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" Jesus is saying to us, "Do you know all you know about God and the ways of God and yet you do not understand what I am saying?"

As I have thought about Jesus' response, this is the message I think his words contain. Jesus was saying to Nicodemus and to us, "Look, your problem is not that you do not understand what it means to be given a fresh start by God. You have been around long enough, and you know enough to know what I am talking about. Your question is not so much a desire to have an analytical, detailed answer describing and defining how God does what God does. The real issue is that you are trying to avoid the issue. You already know enough to know that God is at work in life. You already know enough to know that life in general and your life in particular is not yet what God intends. You already know enough to know God wants you to be the person God sees you can be. You already know enough to know God is making, and will continue to make it possible for you to live as God intends. God is at work in your life. The question is not one of understanding how God does what God does. The real question is whether or not you will stop resisting what God is trying to do."

For me and for many of us, this is the question. The wind of God is blowing. The question is, will we set our sail so that our living will go the direction God intends us to go, or will we resist the wind of God either by continuing to sail off in some other direction or stubbornly dropping anchor, refusing to budge from where we are?

Like Nicodemus, in the eyes of our society, we are good people; most of us gathered here, like Nicodemus, are religious people. Like Nicodemus, we, too, knock on the door of Jesus, recognizing he is a teacher from God. And like Nicodemus, we hear Jesus say to us that it takes more than dropping by for a visit to be the persons God intends us to be. We must be willing to allow the water and the Spirit to be at work on us and in us. We must be willing to set aside what has been shaping our living and to be open to what God is trying to give us-a fresh start, a new start, a new birth, a birth from above that will set us on the path of living each moment of each day as God intends us to live. This is what being born again is really all about.

God, enable us to become the persons you intend us to be, doing what you want do and saying what you want said. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:
Thank you for the gifts in life, the rain as well as the sunshine, the times of trial that cause us to develop muscles of courage and character as well as the happy times of laughter and pleasure. For all the gifts and for all the ways that you are at work in our lives, we give you thanks.
God, forgive us for being so focused on ourselves and our own agendas that we fail to notice the signs of your presence in the world and in our lives. Forgive us for being so caught up in trying to make a name for ourselves, so involved in trying to get ahead in life that we forget to seek your will and fail even to try to follow your guidance.
God, it is easy for us to become so focused on ourselves that we begin living as if we are center of the universe. In our self-centeredness and pride, it is difficult for us to live with compassion for others. And when we are hurt, our arrogance cripples our ability to offer forgiveness.
God, we need a fresh start. Help us begin again to seek your will for our living and to strive to live as you intend us to live, listening as you would have us listen, serving as you would have us serve, sharing as you would have us share.
God, enable us to live as Jesus was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: "Our Father …"

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