+ Lent 2 – March 16th, 2014 +
Redeemer Lutheran, HB
Series A: Genesis 12:1-9; Romans 4:1-8, 13-17; John 3:1-17
In the Name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Abraham and Nicodemus. Different
men. Different time. Different place…but the same Lord who called them.
The Lord called Abram to a new
home, Go from your country and your
kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
The Lord called Nicodemus to
receive new birth from above. Unless you
are born from above you cannot see the kingdom of God.
A new birth, a new home – all in
Christ.
And although you’re separated by
time and space from Abram and Nicodemus, you’ve a lot more in common with these
two men than you think.
You have received a new birth
that leads to a new home. The Lord calls you out of the land of your father,
Adam, and calls you into a new home, the kingdom of our heavenly Father. And
you are God’s child precisely because you’ve been given a new birth from above.
Holy Baptism, your new birth by water and the Spirit.
In Christ you receive a new birth
and a new home. Jesus’ calling us to new birth by
Water and Spirit isn’t the only thing with which we can identify with
Nicodemus.
No doubt, we also share his
bewilderment. “How can a
man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb
and be born?”
And if the
question is a bit absurd, Jesus’ answer sounds even stranger: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Jesus’ response makes us wonder:
“What was wrong with our first birth that a second one is needed?” Though Nicodemus
doesn’t ask that question, it’s definitely on his mind. The answer to Jesus’
riddle is simple. You have two birthdays.
“Nicodemus knew only one birth
from Adam and Eve. He did not yet know the birth from God and the church. He
knew only the parents who beget death. He did not yet know the parents who
beget life…Though there are two births, he only knew one. One is from the
flesh, the other from the Spirit. One is from mortality, the other from
eternity. One of from male and female, the other from God and the church” (Augustine).
Same goes for us…our first
birthday is usually in a hospital, where we’re born to our parents. Your second
birthday is your baptism in the font. Your first birthday is bodily life. Your
second birthday is spiritual life. Your first birthday involves muscular
movement and a first breath. Your second birth involves the gift of faith and
faith’s breath and movement, love and good works for your neighbor.
But here’s the truth about our
first birth, we are born dead, blind, sinful – like Nicodemus. That’s our
problem, our first birth brings bodily life. And along with our bodily life
comes great affliction: disease, suffering, despair, sorrow, grief, sin, and
death.
So, Jesus comes to you as he came
to Nicodemus and calls you out of your first birth, out of death and into life. And it is your Baptism, your second
birth which bails you out your first birth. In your first birth you are a child
of Adam but in your second birth you are God’s own child. Unless anyone is born of water and Spirit…
Water and Spirit. that’s creation
language. In the beginning, everything was born of water and Spirit by the
Word. The Spirit of God hovered over the chaotic waters of the Deep that
covered the earth. This is also baptismal language. Unless one is created anew,
born from above by the working of the Holy Spirit with the Word in the water of
Baptism, one cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood born of Adam and
corrupted by Sin cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Adam wants nothing to do with the
kingdom of God. Adam wants to be god in his own kingdom. This is why we have
conflict at home, work, school, church – really wherever 2 or 3 (or more)
sinners are gathered. We want to be our own gods – on the playground, around
the house, at the office, in our congregation.
Lent is a seasonal reminder that
our sinful flesh doesn’t need a little rehab or some remodeling or remedial
sanctification. We simply need to die. Our sin is that bad. Start completely
over. Not a second chance. No, death and resurrection. A new birth from above.
Adam must die; Christ must rise.
Your sin must be daily drowned and your new man in Christ raised up.
In Christ you receive new birth,
and a new home, by his promise…
The same promise he gave to
Abram. “…in you all the
families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The word that’s woven throughout
this morning’s readings is the word “faith.” Trust in the promise of God. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to
him as righteousness.”
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This is what you and I believe
and confess as Christians. This is what makes Christianity “Christian.” This is
what sets Christianity apart from the world’s religions. But it’s also what
many people just don’t get. God justifies the ungodly. God grants this as a
gift: unconditional, undeserved, and unearned.
The Lord’s promise came to Abram
before he did anything at all. God simply told Abraham how it would be. And
here’s the remarkable thing: Abraham believed God. He trusted the Lord’s word.
He believed the promise, as crazy and far-fetched as it all sounded for a 75
year-old childless man to be the father of a great nation. Abraham took God at
His word, and God counted that trust of Abraham as righteousness.
And so he does for each us too.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works,
his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And
to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his
faith is counted as righteousness…”
The Lord gave Abram a new home, a
new land, and a new name: Abraham. And that offspring whom the Lord promised
Abraham, through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. Well, it
was that offspring, that perfect Seed who stood before Nicodemus proclaiming
the new birth by water and Spirit.
Jesus does the same for you as
well. Jesus was born into our first birth in order to free us from death by his
birth and death. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give us second birth.
Your birth certificate in the kingdom of heaven is signed and sealed in the
blood of the Lamb. You are born of water and the Spirit. You even have a new
name; it is no longer son of Adam and sinner. No, now it is child of God, and
saint.
And with your new birth comes a
new home, a new land, like Abraham before you, only better.
For the Son of Man had no place
to lay his head, no place that is, except the cross and the grave, so that in his
leaving his heavenly home you would find the entrance into his courts through
the doorway of his cross.
And like Nicodemus, Jesus calls
you of darkness into His marvelous light. He calls you out of slavery into
freedom of sins forgiven. He calls you out of self-love and self-worship to
serve and love your neighbor.
Have no fear of provision on this
journey on this Lenten journey. Here our Lord feeds you with his own body and
blood to sustain yours. Here our Lord gives and sustains faith in his promises,
just like he did for Abraham. Here our Lord pours out a new creation and a new
birth for you by water and Spirit. Here our Lord justifies the unglodly. For
here our Lord takes our old-inward-curved-sinful-flesh and points us outward to
see our neighbor in need and respond in mercy. And know that wherever our Lord
calls you, he goes with you.
What will you say? What word of
comfort will you share? Do not fear. It’s as simple as Jesus’ words:
“For God loved the world in this way, that
he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him.”
Rejoice! In Christ you have a new
birth from above and a new home in His body, the Church. Happy birthday in your
Baptism! And a blessed Lenten journey.
In the Name of the Father and of
the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment