John 3: 1-17
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
In your insert this evening you will see an image of a painting by the African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. Tanner used light and dark in his pictures to draw attention to particular parts of the image – his Annunciation is one of my favourite paintings.
In his gospel account St John used light and dark as emphasis and contrast – and as symbols to guide the reader. In the passage this evening we meet someone who is trying to process signs and symbols .Nicodemus is on the right track – he has been able to discern that Jesus is someone who has ‘come from God’ and he knows this because of the signs that he is able to do. And yet, he is hesitating, he is not quite sure what these signs really mean. He is hopeful but cautious. And so, as a man of standing in his community, a man who is a leader and an example to others, he approaches Jesus in secret, at night. It would not have been ‘the done thing’ for a man of his stature to wander the streets at night time. And of course, we know that in John’s Gospel account, light and dark have a symbolic meaning. Those who are ‘in the light’ have grasped who Jesus is and follow him. Those who are still ‘in the dark’ have not come to believe in him.
Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night because his faith is not yet fully formed or confirmed. He wants to believe but he hovers at the doorway of faith – there are many reasons why this might be the case. Perhaps he sees faith as a private thing. He may want proofs and certainties. He appears to be a rational intelligent man; perhaps he values self-restraint and a calm, measured approach to the matter of faith. But something about Jesus has connected with his imagination, has stirred him to action, to this night time visit and these genuine, heartfelt questions.
Jesus responds in a rabbinical fashion – asking questions, drawing comparisons, using brightly woven images of birth and rebirth which seem to puzzle and confuse Nicodemus. Yet at the heart of this is perhaps just one question for Nicodemus – are you willing to bring your faith out of the dark and int the light? Jesus does not doubt that Nicodemus has faith, otherwise he would not have made the visit to see him. But he does challenge the quality and intent of that faith.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be (in the famous phrase) born again, because his faith is, in the writer Debbie Blue’s memorable phrase, gestating. Nicodemus is still in the darkness of his mother’s womb (as far as his faith is concerned). Now this is a safe and secure place to be, a place of nourishment, a place of growth and development. And yet, faith must be born. It must be brought out of this safe place and out into the world. And to extend the birth metaphor, there is of course labour in the birth. And the one who labours, who brings our faith to birth is of course, not us, but God. Nicodemus, you and me we are all being ‘birthed by God’. And God is ‘impatient to deliver us, impatient for us to be born’. Viewed in this way, what an incredible act of intimacy this being born of the Spirit is – how close is God to us, how much does God love us?
We know that in a physical sense ‘being born’ is not easy, this is why Jesus’s metaphor is puzzling and shocking to Nicodemus. And when we ponder this metaphor as an invitation to greater life in God, to a greater commitment to our faith, that too can be challenging to us. But the invitation to enter the Kingdom of God, to be born of the Spirit, is God’s great desire for us. His desire for us is not that we merely have life but that we have life in abundance.
This faith we have, requires us to engage our hearts, our souls and our minds. And this Gospel reading, at its core, asks us to also open our imaginations, to be able to imagine a God who births our faith and makes us ready and able to serve him in the world.
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen