Harriette Simmons
2 Lent
John 3:1-17

Many times while watching a sports event on T.V., particularly an NFL football game, I have seen the same sign. It usually pops its head up in the end zone. I'll bet you've seen it too. The sign simply says: John 3:16.

John 3:16 are Jesus' words to Nicodemus which we just heard read:

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life.

- Perhaps the most profound words in the Bible.

What does it mean to believe in God, to believe in Jesus?

In the Gospel reading today we see Nicodemus, a member of that elite group of Jews, the Pharisees, coming at night to see the controversial Rabbi, Jesus. Presumably, Nicodemus comes at night so that he won't be seen by his friends. Jesus is getting a bad reputation among the Pharisees. He doesn't want to follow the rules, and follow the rules is what the Pharisees did best.

Jesus and Nicodemus get into a discussion about being "born again." Nicodemus is scratching his head and trying to figure out how you can be born again after you have already been born once. Jesus is talking on a whole different plane - he is speaking of "spiritual rebirth."

He tells Nicodemus that you have to have a miraculous birth from above by the Spirit of God. He then tells Nicodemus that if he wants to have "eternal life" he must "believe" in Jesus.

Belief in the sense that Jesus means it is not just an intellectual accent.. Most Americans believe in The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, but this belief does not affect our daily lives and actions except as we live under the benefits of a free society. We don't often think about our belief in these documents. We don't ponder these documents.

Belief in the sense that Jesus means it is an action verb. We are to believe actively. Our belief will lead us to action, to right doing in our lives. Belief in this sense gives us the courage to take a risk.

We can look at our ancestor Abraham and see a wonderful example of what it means to "believe." When God speaks to Abraham, Abraham is a man, well advanced in years, who is living in a village called Haran, a town dedicated to the moon god. God, presumably through a disembodied voice, speaks to Abraham and tells him that God is going to make Abraham the father of a great nation. At the time Abraham and his wife Sarah are in their seventies, and they have no children.

And wonder of wonders Abraham and Sarah follow that Voice.

"Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness."

Then they launch out on a journey without maps. They set out for a destination that exists only as a dream of something new, something better, something unknown. Armed with a seemingly impossible promise, Abraham and Sarah went. They went. At this time faith became an action word. They went and did what God called them to do.

We don't know what happened to Nicodemus. We know that his faith empowered him to go and see the renegade rabbi, Jesus. The Gospel of John also tells us that Nicodemus went with Joseph of Aremathea after Jesus was crucified to ask the Romans for Jesus' body. We see Nicodemus anointing Jesus' dead body with ointments. But we don't know if his fascination with Jesus caused him to lead a new life, a different life. We don't hear of him again.

Intellectual assent to God is not enough. Intellectual assent to Jesus is not enough. In the true sense of the word, believe, we are all called to put our whole trust in God and to act accordingly. To do the things God is calling us to do, to go out into uncharted territory, to take a chance.

Lent is a wonderful time to begin this journey. Because we have an excuse in Lent to go inward. We are told to go inward. God tells us to go inward. The church tells us to go inward. To look at our lives and see what needs to be changed. To see if God is calling us to new action, to new being.

Life and death struggles are going on around us all the time. Life and death struggles are going on in us all the time. Maybe not physical life or death, but certainly spiritual life or death. God is calling us to freedom, and we are so afraid to be free.

Many of us want to obey the voice of God, but we think we have a hard time discerning what the voice of God is saying. We think it was so much easier for the saints of old. For Abraham. I don't think it was. Abraham walked out in faith to that Voice that he thought he heard and then nothing happened for twenty-five years.

How many times he must have doubted himself! How many times he must have given in to the temptation to take matters into his own hands! We know of one collosal failure of faith he made. At the urgings of his wife, Sarah, he fathered a child by her maid, Hagar, to speed up the promise that he would be the "father of a great nation." Ishmael the offspring of Abraham and Hagar became the father of the Arab nation, and the Arabs and the Jews have been fighting for centuries.

Despite his error, despite his failures, God still honored Abraham's faith and eventually gave Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac. Isaac means "the child of the promise."

We need to take a lesson from the outcome of this story because so many times we use our past failures as an excuse not to do what God is currently calling us to do. We say to ourselves, "My life is a mess - I've made so many mistakes, how can God use me?"

My friends, Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was finally born. It is never too late to be used by God. God can take anything in your life and redeem it. Our God is the God of the impossible.

So go with what guidance you have. If you think you hear that still, small voice of God calling you to make changes in your life, make them.

If you think you are to go out into the world into a new calling, go. We are told in scripture to "work out our salvation in fear and trembling."

If you are a Christian, God will work in you the desire to do his will. It is your job to work it out. You do this by taking a risk, by taking a chance. By going where God calls you to go.

For many of us these changes will be internal - inward - in places that only God can see. Is God calling you to be willing to forgive? to be willing to lay down the bitterness that has so long poisoned your life and to bless instead of curse? This is perhaps the hardest thing to do.

Is God calling you to be more generous with your earthly possessions? To be more merciful toward the suffering of the world? If he is, then don't turn from him as did the "rich young ruler," who loved his earthly riches more than his own soul.

Is God calling you to speak out more about the faith that is within you? If He is, then don't keep quiet. Take the chance of being a "fool for Christ."

Go, go, go this Lent. Sit down in the presence of God, and then go out into uncharted territories.
Pray for the courage, for the faith of Abraham. Amen.