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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.
A young man came to me on my second tour of duty in Iraq, struggling with a spiritual matter. He wasn’t a part of the Lutheran congregation; he was just some kid in the unit. But he was tripped up by a two-word phrase that is very confused within the Christian church, and pretty much has been since, well, at least here in America. Since the age of revivalism, and that’s the two-word term known as born again. Now, what does that word mean, and what does it imply? And that’s the confusing part, for this young man said, “Chaplain, every time I’m struggling with my faith, I feel like I’ve got to be born again, as if it wasn’t good enough the first time that I came to faith. Or I’m not sure whether or not that event that happened in the past that everybody’s pointing me toward really was sincere. How do I know?”
This man was looking at his spiritual struggle through the eyes of reason and senses, but not through his faith. He’s a believer. I had no doubt denying that he is a true believer. No doubt whatsoever. What he was struggling with was this two-word phrase and what it meant for his life. He had grown up or had grown in the faith with people advising him that the term born again is connected to an event, an emotional event, a physical event, something that says I was once different and now I’m totally different from what I was. I’ve changed. Something has occurred within me.
Now granted, there are people in Scripture, Paul for example, that could point to that event on the road to Damascus to say, “I was once Saul and now I am Paul.” And in Christianity, there still are brothers and sisters who could point to possibly an event like that that happened in their life. But it is not that event that is the true key. When you and I were given birth by our mother, we did not sit back in our preconceived state of existence and say to ourselves, “I wish to be born of that woman.” I don’t think so. My mom sure would have said no to me because I was the fourth child and weighed 11 pounds. She would have said, “No way, young man, find somebody else to give birth to you.”
In the same way, you and I did not choose our mother and choose our father by which we were given birth; it was done to us, acted upon us. That is what being born again really is meaning. Nicodemus comes to Jesus with his reason and senses. He comes to Jesus at night because he doesn’t want anybody to know that he’s really going to go talk to Jesus, the Messiah. Ironically enough, the young man in Iraq didn’t come in the daytime either. He happened to come at night. Kind of interesting.
Now, Nicodemus comes with a great statement of introduction: “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Now, you would think Jesus would say, “Well, thank you, Nicodemus, it’s so glad to have you come,” you know, the normal social thing that you and I would think of saying. Jesus could see in Nicodemus’ heart, just like he could see in that young man’s heart who came to me, just like he can see into your heart. And he cuts through all of the rhetoric and anything else that we can come up with and says to him in very pointed terms, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The first word out of Nicodemus’ mouth in response to this statement is a telltale sign of you and me. That first word out of Nicodemus’ mouth is “how.” How can this be? When you and I are struggling, you notice that? It never happens. We never ask the word “how” when everything is going well. When things are going swimmingly for you and me, we don’t say, “How is it, Lord, that you’re blessing me in such bountiful ways?” It’s usually when we’re struggling, when God is pushing us and allowing Satan to be a tormentor, that we ask, “How is this, Lord, that you would allow me to be enduring such difficult times?”
So when Nicodemus asks how, he’s trying to understand God according to his flawed reason and his sinful senses. He’s trying to understand how this can be, just like this young man. “How can it be, chaplain, if I am struggling over here, not knowing whether or not I am a believer, and yet I believe, and yet I don’t, and I don’t know, and what is it that I got to do?”
In the Old Testament reading, when God came to Abraham and revealed himself to him, he said to Abraham, “Go, go from here,” which was, by the way, interestingly enough, in Iraq. Abraham lived in the land of Ur, which is in Iraq. Go from here and your kindred and your father’s house and go to the land I will show you. That’s a long way from there to the promised land. And then he says, “I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, make your name great,” and so on.
Abraham, a happy clam, heads off to the promised land. But having arrived at the promised land, what does he find? The text says it’s filled with the Canaanites. Now, you and I, being you and I, probably think, “There are a bunch of Canaanites in this land. God must have thought—he probably forgot to say anything about it—but he must have thought that I’m going to do something about these Canaanites. Therefore, I need to start doing something about these Canaanites.” God never said anything of the sort, did he? Abraham could be tempted to think that God’s promise wasn’t enough for the situation in which he’s been placed.
And God did take care of things, didn’t he? And Abraham believed God. And Paul commented on that faith of Abraham. God did not explain it to Abraham. “Abraham, here’s how it’s going to work. This is going to happen, and this is going to happen, and this is going to happen.” Because that would have been explaining it to Abraham’s reason and senses, and there would not be faith involved whatsoever in the working of the Holy Spirit through that Word of God that flowed from his mouth, that is, God’s mouth, to Abraham.
And as we heard last week, “Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Paul said, “If what Abraham gained was according to the flesh, then he’s got something to boast about.” And it wasn’t according to the flesh. What Abraham gained was according to the Spirit. What you and I gain as believers is according to the Spirit, not by our posturing with God. Now that doesn’t make sense to our reason and senses. Abraham, again, could have questioned God. “I don’t understand how,” like Nicodemus did question. “I don’t understand how.”
Now, the good news about Nicodemus is that it is very, very true that we believe that Nicodemus died a believer. But he died a believer not because he figured out how this could be, but that it is. Jesus even goes a step further with Nicodemus and says, “Not only must you be born again, you must be born again of water and the Spirit.” The very thing that many of our Christian brothers and sisters misteach and teach falsely about, that baptism is a gift of God.
Now, their argument is this: If that really is the gift of God, and if that really does produce faith, then why is it that some who are baptized fall away from the faith? Now, you may be blessed with some people in your family that have never walked away from the faith. Some of you may not. Some of you may know those of you in your family who were baptized and have turned their back on it. Does that make that invalid? Simply because they’ve walked away from the faith given to them? By no means. That is valid because it flows from the word and the mouth of God, Jesus himself, who speaks such words. It does not make sense how.
But another thing that God wants to make sure that it’s imprinted upon our mind, he pulls, that is, Jesus, a great Old Testament example of not explaining how. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Now that story comes from Numbers 12. When the people of Israel were on their way to the promised land, they became very grumpy and complaining. Now, a lot like those long cross-country trips when we would say to our parents, “Mom, Dad, how long?” No, I am not going to use the bathroom and the coffee can. My dad was hardcore, I’m telling you now.
It was not such innocent complaining. This was outright complaining that God had made a mistake with choosing them. So God sent poisonous snakes to bite all of the people of Israel. Why? Moses pled for the people of Israel in prayer. God answered that prayer and said to Moses, “Fashion a serpent of bronze, affix it upon a pole, lift it high, and tell the people, ‘Look upon the serpent attached to that pole and believe the promise, you will be healed from having been bitten.’”
Now there were some people who didn’t even look at that serpent. They felt in their body the pain and the poison of that serpent, and they died. And the people watched them die. There were others that looked upon that serpent. And out of those others that looked upon the serpent, there are some who looked upon it, denied it, and died. And people watched them die. And then there were some who looked upon that serpent and believed and lived. And they watched each other live.
Now, the Bible does not explain how it is that some of the people who looked at that serpent died and some of the people who looked at that serpent lived. I don’t know. How is it that some of the people who were baptized remain in the faith, and some of the people who were baptized fall away from the faith? It is not something that is grasped by reason and senses. Think of how ridiculous of a thing it could be for someone to tell you, “All you’ve got to look at is this piece of metal that happens to resemble a serpent upon a pole, and it’s going to heal you.”
It has nothing to do with reason or senses, but a promise that flows from the mouth of God. No different than the very words that flowed from the mouth of the one who was hung upon the accursed tree, Jesus himself, who said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” and pointed to himself, “that whoever believes in him, pointing to himself, may not die but live forever.”
That is what we proclaim and preach here. That’s what gathered you here. Now, there are familial connections and all other kinds of connections that have brought us here to this place, but it is the faith that is being planted in your heart as I speak. Not because I’m speaking it, but because God is speaking it to you. That has created that faith that sustained that young man that came to visit me, who I would love to know what happened to him, but I don’t. And isn’t that like how a lot of people that come into your life, that God allows to come in, you proclaim yourself that which you believe to be true about Christ, and they move on, and you have no idea of what God has done in their life. And we will find out on the last day.
But that God used the word proclaimed to this young man cannot be denied. In the same way that there were people who believed and lived having been bitten by that serpent. In the same way, you sit here believing in the one lifted up high upon the accursed tree for you and believe. Abraham, Nicodemus, and you and me believe. And it is not something that is of our reason or senses. And I cannot explain to you how, but you and I have heard its truth. Believe.
Sometimes the first prayer of the day, the collect of the day, can be overlooked. So what I prayed at the very beginning were chanting. Listen again to what was prayed: “O God, you see that of ourselves we have no strength. Like we talked about in Sunday school, we are beggars; this is true. By your mighty power, defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul.”
You and I struggle with our reasoning senses. We don’t struggle with our faith. We think it is our faith. It is not. It’s our reason and senses that are trying to convince us of something other than what God has revealed. What a beautiful prayer. Abraham believed. Nicodemus struggled and believed. You and I struggled and believed. What a blessing.
Now, you may not be going through a struggling time now, but buckle up because that’s how God works in our lives, by sending things to try and test us so that we do not rely upon reason and senses. And if you are struggling, then you know very well what I’m saying. That these words that God has planted in our ears and will feed us from His great grace come from His mouth and are our life indeed.
In the name of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, given for you. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus. Life everlasting. Amen.