When We Give Our Hearts to God
Trinity Sunday - June 15, 2003
By
Deacon Linda Yeager
- Exodus 3:1-6
- Psalm 93 or Canticle 2 or 13
- Romans 8:12-17
- John 3:1-16
(From The Lectionary Page)
"Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night." What a great beginning for a story of illumination! For enlightenment is what today's gospel passage is all about. It's actually what the entire gospel of John embraces: moving from darkness into light. Nicodemus is in the dark, as we all are, in a certain sense. He wants to understand Jesus, to see. Jesus tells him that he must be born again -- be born anew -- be born from above -- be born from the spirit. He must experience a spiritual rebirth in order to understand the kingdom of God.
Many of us back away from the phrase "born again," as it has taken on the connotation of exclusivity, of belonging to some secret society of mystifying forces where one is suddenly struck by the spirit and is changed forevermore.
Before we move into this mysterious realm, let's think for a minute, first, about what it is that Nicodemus wants to understand. Jesus names it for us: "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." The kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God anyway? We use the phrase every time we pray The Lord's Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven . . . " The kingdom of God is central to the message of Jesus. It is not some far-off place in the far-off future -- at least it doesn't have to be. The kingdom of God is life here on earth if God were truly king. The kingdom of God is about transformation, about justice. Think about the phrases that follow the kingdom of God in The Lord's Prayer. "Give us this day our daily bread": OUR bread, bread for everyone, resources for all of us everywhere. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us": let go of our insistence for restitution from others, forget about the recovery of debts -- of any kind of debts. The kingdom of God is about social transformation, which comes from spiritual transformation. Jesus said, "No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
Let's go back to this born again theme. Why do I -- or anyone -- need to be born again? Because I -- we -- have moved away from our spiritual selves. It happens to us all. There is a story about a three-year-old whose parents present him with a new baby sister. The toddler is very excited about this new arrival, and shortly after the baby comes home from the hospital, the little guy makes a request of his parents. He wants his parents to let him go in the baby's room all by himself, shut the door, and be alone with the baby. The parents are reluctant to allow this, not knowing what is really going on in their son's mind. But, they remember that they have the baby monitor, so they can hear what is going on when they are out of the room. So they let their little boy go in the room by himself and shut the door. They hear a few rumblings and then they hear their son's voice speaking very quietly to his baby sister: "Tell me about God," he requests. "I've almost forgotten."
We all have the need for reconnecting. Not one of us grows up without being wounded in some way, and we all acquire cultural messages about ourselves and our lives -- about who we are and who we should be. The world molds us. Frederick Buechner calls this living from the outside in, rather than from the inside out. To be spiritually reborn means to redefine oneself spiritually. How does this happen? Jesus tells Nicodemus, "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' 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. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
The Spirit. We're getting into the Trinity here, you know, and since this is Trinity Sunday, I guess that's OK. Spirit, wind, breath -- all come from the same root word. Spiritual rebirth means dying to an old way of being, dying to an old identity, and being reformed in a new way, to a new identity in the Spirit, in Christ, in God.
In the Nicene Creed we express our belief in God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit. Marcus Borg opens to us a new way of looking at this. He says that the word credo, Greek for "I believe," carries with it also this meaning: "I give my heart to," or "I commit myself to." If we replace "I believe" in the Nicene Creed with "I give my heart to God, the Father; to God, the Son; and to God, the Holy Spirit, how much deeper our emotions engage. That to which we give our hearts becomes the focus for our lives.
Can this spiritual rebirth that we are talking about be sudden and dramatic? Yes, but often it is gradual and incremental; it can be a daily occurrence in fact. Martin Luther called it "daily dying and rising to Christ." Actually, this notion of rebirth is at the center of all the great religions of the world. Mohammad called it "dying before you die." Buddhists speak of "letting go."
And we can be intentional about spiritual transformation -- we can't make it happen, for the Spirit does that -- but we can become conscious and intentional about deepening our relationship with God. Intense intention and intense love go together. That which we desire we make primary in our lives, so personal transformation must be at the center of our spiritual lives, an opening of ourselves to God, a consenting to enter into a deeper relationship with God.
How do we know when we experience spiritual rebirth? By its fruits, of course. The fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit are many fold: freedom, joy, peace, hope, gratitude, love, especially as compassion, for when we experience this transformation, these gifts affect our lives. Spiritual transformation leads to social transformation.
God loved the world -- us -- so much that he gave his only Son to us, to live and die for us. God cares about this world and God understands the suffering of this world. When we experience spiritual rebirth, we, too, must cringe at the injustice we see all around us -- the compassion that comes as a fruit of the spirit must respond to injustice wherever we encounter it. The kingdom of God is far different from the kingdom of this world, and we are the only ones who can change it. How do we do this? By prayer, of course, but also through action. Where do you see injustice? In the workplace? In your neighborhood: In the world?
When our spiritual life dominates our life in this world, we have no choice but to respond. And the spirit will lead us to the response and give us the courage and guidance to respond. Compassion and a passion for justice feel the suffering and pain of the world. We, in fact, will not be able to resist responding to injustice. When we give our hearts to God the Father, to God the Son, and to God the Holy Spirit, we will be transformed, and so will God's world.