Sermon: Winds of the Spirit

Text: John 3:1-21

2^nd Sunday in Lent (A)

February 17, 2008

Scripture introduction.  One of the distinguishing features of John’s gospel is that several times Jesus is portrayed as engaging in a type of word-play.  This pattern in John can be seen when Jesus, in conversation, uses a term that has two equally valid meanings.[1]  We call these “homonyms”—words that are written and pronounced the same but have different meanings.  (An example would be the English word “lie” [l‑i‑e], which means either to tell an untruth or to recline.)  According to the pattern, Jesus’ companion understands Jesus to be using one definition of the word.  Soon, however, Jesus corrects his companion; and we learn that Jesus intended the other definition.  In making the correction, Jesus often lifts the conversation to a much higher theological plane.[2]  Jesus’ conversation partner is thinking on an earthly level but then discovers that Jesus is on an entirely different level, speaking of spiritual things.

According to many interpreters, this happens in our text this morning, the story of how the religious leader Nicodemus came at night to have a conversation with Jesus.  Jesus tells him that in order to see the kingdom of God, one must be born—and the Greek word is anōthen—which can mean either “again,” as in “born again,” or “from above,” as in “born from above.”  Nicodemus, assuming Jesus meant “born again,” begins to wonder how anyone physically could be born a second time.  Comparing this story to other similar ones in John, many interpreters have concluded that Jesus really meant “born from above.”  Are we to be “born again” or “born from above”?

Sermon.  This is a rich and complex passage, and of course it includes the famous words of John 3:16, which many of us memorized in Sunday school.  I included all the verses through 21 because the lectionary passage ended with verse 17, just before the verses in which Jesus speaks of condemnation.  I want you always to hear the difficult, as well as the easy verses in the Bible.  Having said that, I’ll be focusing this morning on the first part of the reading, the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. 

Nicodemus had just told Jesus that “we know”—I guess that means “we Pharisees”—“we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  We might expect Jesus to respond directly with some statement like, “Yes, I do come from God”; but instead Jesus makes a more general statement of truth: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born—I’m going to say anōthen because at this point Jesus had not indicated how he intended the word to be understood—“born from above” or “born again.”  Nicodemus understands Jesus to be saying “born again.”  We know that because he says, “How can anyone be born after having grown old?  Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  Nicodemus is thinking about an earthly birth.

Now Jesus makes the same statement, but in a slightly different way.  He says, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”  In other words, being “born anōthen” means being “born of water and Spirit.”[3]  And what might it mean to be born of water and Spirit?  Because Jesus mentions water, some interpreters assume that he was referring to baptism.  And decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when this gospel was written, the early Christian church surely heard references to baptism in this exchange.[4]  But Nicodemus would probably have known nothing of Christian baptism, at least not enough for him to have picked up this brief reference.  For this reason some suggest that Jesus was making a distinction between earthly births, which are quite literally “through water,” and spiritual births.[5]  In other words, Jesus would have been saying, “You enter this earthly world, this earthly life, by a natural birth, through water, and you enter the kingdom of God, the spiritual life, by a spiritual birth.”  This interpretation is further supported by the next words of Jesus to Nicodemus: “What is born of flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” 

Now Jesus goes back to his original statement, “Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born anōthen.’”  Frankly, as I read the story, it seems that Jesus is using both meanings of anōthen—born again and born from above.  When he refers to two births—one of water and the other of Spirit—the most natural reading is that the births happen at different times, first the natural birth and then the spiritual birth.  The implication is that there is a time in each of our lives when we come to recognize that we have been born not only into this earthly life, but also into a spiritual life.  In the evangelical Christian church, this realization is often described as a decision, even a moment of decision.  Indeed, evangelicals frequently refer to this moment of decision as the time when they were “born again.”  And they describe Christians who have had this experience as “born-again Christians.”

In contrast, persons in the so-called “mainline” traditions like the Presbyterian Church often understand the spiritual birth to happen over a long period of time.  While we accept that persons sometimes have what feels to them like a moment of decision, we also emphasize that the process can be gradual, so that a person’s realization of spiritual birth seems to be the inevitable working out of many influences in that person’s life.  Some mainline preachers even suggest that evangelicals are wrong to refer to the experience as being “born again.”  As they interpret this story of Jesus and Nicodemus, they conclude that Nicodemus missed the point, that all along Jesus intended the meaning “born from above” rather than “born again.”  You can see this disagreement in the modern translations.  The New Revised Standard Version, which we generally use in our worship and study, reads “born from above.”  But the New International Version, another highly respected and modern translation, sticks with “born again.”  Sadly, in this disagreement about interpretation some in the mainline church have looked down upon evangelicals’ insistence on the term “born again” as evidence of their lack of education and biblical sophistication. 

It is true that every other time in John’s gospel that Jesus uses the word anōthen,[6] we know from the context that he means “from above.”  So it is reasonable to infer that Jesus intended the meaning “from above” in this morning’s passage.  On the other hand, Jesus mentioned two births—water and Spirit—so I keep coming back to the conclusion that it is acceptable to use the term “born again.”  Where I have landed in my own interpretation[7] is that Jesus would have intended Nicodemus to understand both meanings of the word anōthen.  That is, we are both “born again” and “born from above.”  Both meanings are important to our understanding of how we see the kingdom of God. 

Whether it is a moment or a process—and it may be either—there comes a time when we realize that we have experienced a new birth, that we are in some way different from how we would have been if we had not experienced this spiritual birth.  However, says Jesus, that re-birth is not from us, from the world, but rather is “from above.”  This suggests that the Spirit, not us, is the active party in this birth from above.  When we are born into an earthly birth, a birth through water, we do not control the process.  Indeed, not we, but our parents, are the originators of the birth process.  Earthly birth is something that happens to us.  I believe that Jesus implies the same is true of our spiritual birth.  We participate in it, but we do not control it.  The Spirit is the active agent in our spiritual birth.[8]  Our role is simply to accept and acknowledge—and maybe cooperate—in what is happening to us.

In what he says next, Jesus emphasizes that we do not control the Spirit.  He described the spiritual birth this way:  “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”  By referring to the wind, Jesus is again engaging in a play on words.  As I have mentioned to you before, in both Hebrew and Greek, the word for “wind” and “spirit” and “breath” are the same.  So we could also translate, the “Spirit blows where it chooses, and you hear the voice[9] of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”  Not only do we not control the Spirit, but we do not fully understand it.  We cannot predict its coming or going.  The Spirit, like the wind, has power; and its effects can be felt.  Yet there is a clear element of mystery about the Spirit.  We in the Reformed tradition have often said that, while the Spirit is unpredictable, it will never do anything that is contrary to Scripture.  But even granting the truth of this conviction, there is still a lot of room for surprises.

During Lent and throughout this year we will return repeatedly to the theme of spirituality.  As individuals and as a congregation, we are seeking to understand the Spirit, to hear the voice of the Spirit, and to experience the power of the Spirit in our lives of faith.  We do not know what the Spirit will do or where the Spirit will lead, except that it will be for our good and that at the end it will move us closer to the kingdom of God.  What a comfort it should be to us that we are not in control: we often make such a mess of things when we try to do it all ourselves.  Instead we should be grateful that the loving power of God, active in the Spirit, is blowing us in the direction that we should go.  We are born into the earthly world through water.  Through the Spirit, we are reborn from above into the kingdom of God.  Whether we come to belief and rebirth in a moment or over the course of a lifetime, we should affirm that most of the process has been the work of the Spirit, which is constantly seeking to give us life and breath.  God’s Spirit is never still, but like the wind is always active.  May we, as God’s people, enjoy the breeze, lift our sails, and fly on the wind!