Dennis M. Campbell - Sermon Untitled (March 3, 1996)
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| (calm organ music) | 0:02 | |
| - | Good morning. We'd like to welcome you to Duke Chapel. | 1:42 |
| Our guest preacher today is the Rev. Dr. Dennis Campbell, | 1:45 | |
| dean of Duke Divinity School and professor of theology. | 1:49 | |
| We're glad to welcome him in a return visit to Duke Chapel. | 1:52 | |
| Today's anthem and offertory were composed | 1:57 | |
| by David Arcus, chapel organist, and first premiered | 2:00 | |
| by the Duke Chapel Choir, March 7th, 1993. | 2:04 | |
| We invite you to read the descriptive notes | 2:08 | |
| that are found in your bulletin. | 2:10 | |
| On Tuesday, March 5th, Duke Chapel will be co-sponsoring | 2:13 | |
| Carol Lynn Pearson in a one-woman play, | 2:17 | |
| Mother Wove the Morning, in Reynolds Theater. | 2:20 | |
| Tickets are available through Page Auditorium. | 2:23 | |
| Let us continue our worship with the greeting. Please stand. | 2:26 | |
| Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous. | 2:34 | |
| (congregation drowned out by background noise) | 2:38 | |
| For the Lord is a hiding place in time of trouble. | 2:42 | |
| (congregation drowned out by background noise) | 2:46 | |
| (calm organ music) | 2:49 | |
| (congregation singing praises) | 3:30 | |
| Let us pray. | 8:10 | |
| Almighty God, we pray for your blessing | 8:16 | |
| on the church in this place. | 8:19 | |
| Here, may the faithful find salvation | 8:23 | |
| and the careless be awakened. | 8:26 | |
| Here, may the doubting find faith | 8:29 | |
| and the anxious be encouraged. | 8:33 | |
| Here, may the tempted fine help | 8:36 | |
| and the sorrowful, comfort. | 8:39 | |
| Here, made the weary find rest | 8:43 | |
| and the strong be renewed. | 8:46 | |
| Here, may the aged find consolation | 8:49 | |
| and the young be inspired. | 8:52 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. | 8:56 | |
| You may be seated. | 9:00 | |
| - | Let us pray the Prayer for Illumination. | 9:15 |
| Open our hearts and minds, oh God, | 9:20 | |
| by the power of your Holy Spirit, | 9:23 | |
| so that, as the word is read and proclaimed, | 9:26 | |
| we may hear your message with joy this day. | 9:29 | |
| Amen. | 9:33 | |
| The Old Testament reading | 9:36 | |
| is from The Book of Genesis 12:1-4. | 9:38 | |
| Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country, | 9:48 | |
| "and your kindred, and your father's house, | 9:52 | |
| "to the land that I will show you. | 9:55 | |
| "I will make of you a great nation, | 9:58 | |
| "and I will bless you and make your name great, | 10:02 | |
| "so that you will be a blessing. | 10:05 | |
| "I will bless those who bless you, | 10:08 | |
| "and the one who curses you, I will curse, | 10:12 | |
| "and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." | 10:16 | |
| So Abram went, and as the Lord had told him, | 10:22 | |
| and Lot went with him. | 10:27 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 10:30 | |
| Congregation | Praise be to God. | 10:33 |
| - | The epistle is from Romans 4:1-5 and 13-17. | 10:39 |
| What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, | 10:51 | |
| our ancestor, according to the flesh? | 10:55 | |
| For if Abraham was justified by works, | 10:59 | |
| he has something to boast about, but not before God. | 11:03 | |
| For what does the scripture say? | 11:09 | |
| Abraham believed God, | 11:13 | |
| and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. | 11:15 | |
| Now, to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift | 11:20 | |
| but as something due. | 11:25 | |
| But to one who without works trust him | 11:28 | |
| who justifies the ungodly, | 11:31 | |
| such faith is reckoned as righteousness. | 11:34 | |
| For the promise that he would inherit the world | 11:38 | |
| did not come to Abraham or to his descendants | 11:42 | |
| through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. | 11:45 | |
| If it is the adherence of the law who are to be the heirs, | 11:52 | |
| faith is null and the promise is void, | 11:58 | |
| for the law brings wrath. | 12:03 | |
| But where there is no law, neither is there violation. | 12:06 | |
| For this reason, it depends on faith | 12:11 | |
| in order that the promise may rest on grace | 12:15 | |
| and be guaranteed to all descendants, | 12:19 | |
| not only to the adherence of the law, | 12:22 | |
| but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, | 12:26 | |
| for he is the father of all of us, as it is written. | 12:31 | |
| I have made you the father of many nations. | 12:36 | |
| In the presence of God in whom he believed, | 12:40 | |
| who gives life to the dead and calls into existence | 12:44 | |
| the things that do not exist. | 12:48 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 12:52 | |
| Congregation | Praise be to God. | 12:55 |
| - | The psalm for today is Psalm 121, | 13:03 |
| found on page 844 in the hymnal. | 13:06 | |
| Let us sing it responsibly, please stand. | 13:10 | |
| (calm organ music) | 13:14 | |
| ♪ I will lift up my eyes to the hills ♪ | 13:20 | |
| ♪ From whence does my help come ♪ | 13:25 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 13:29 | |
| ♪ The lord will not let your foot be moved ♪ | 13:38 | |
| ♪ The Lord who keeps you will not slumber ♪ | 13:43 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 13:49 | |
| ♪ The Lord is your keeper ♪ | 14:00 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 14:05 | |
| ♪ The sun shall not smite you by day ♪ | 14:11 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 14:16 | |
| ♪ The Lord will keep you from all evil ♪ | 14:21 | |
| ♪ And will keep your life ♪ | 14:26 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 14:30 | |
| ♪ All glory be to your creator ♪ | 14:46 | |
| ♪ And to Jesus Christ our savior ♪ | 14:50 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 14:55 | |
| ♪ As it was, their time begun ♪ | 15:02 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 15:06 | |
| Please be seated. | 15:18 | |
| - | The Gospel reading is from The Book of John 3:1-17. | 15:34 |
| Now, there was a pharisee named Nicodemus, | 15:46 | |
| a leader of the Jews. | 15:49 | |
| He came to Jesus by night and said to him, | 15:51 | |
| "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher | 15:56 | |
| "who has come from God, | 15:59 | |
| "for no one can do these signs that you do, | 16:01 | |
| "apart from the presence of God." | 16:05 | |
| Jesus answered him. "Very truly I tell you, | 16:08 | |
| "no one can see the kingdom of God | 16:14 | |
| "without being born from above." | 16:16 | |
| Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born | 16:20 | |
| "after having grown old? | 16:26 | |
| "Can one enter a second time | 16:28 | |
| "into the mother's womb and be born? | 16:31 | |
| Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, | 16:34 | |
| "no one can enter the kingdom of God | 16:40 | |
| "without being born of water and spirit. | 16:43 | |
| "What is born of the flesh is flesh, | 16:48 | |
| "and what is born of the spirit is spirit. | 16:52 | |
| "Do not be astonished that I said to you, | 16:56 | |
| "you must be born from above. | 16:59 | |
| "The wind blows where it chooses | 17:03 | |
| "and you hear the sound of it, | 17:06 | |
| "but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes, | 17:08 | |
| "so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit." | 17:14 | |
| Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" | 17:20 | |
| Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, | 17:24 | |
| "and yet you do not understand these things? | 17:29 | |
| "Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know | 17:33 | |
| "and testify to what we have seen, | 17:37 | |
| "yet you do not receive our testimony." | 17:41 | |
| "If I have told you about earthly things | 17:45 | |
| "and you do not believe, how can you believe | 17:48 | |
| "if I tell you about heavenly things? | 17:51 | |
| "No one has ascended into heaven | 17:55 | |
| "except the one who descended from heaven, the son of man. | 17:57 | |
| "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, | 18:03 | |
| "so must the son of man be lifted up, | 18:07 | |
| "that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. | 18:10 | |
| "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son | 18:15 | |
| "so that everyone who believes in him may not perish | 18:20 | |
| "but may have eternal life." | 18:25 | |
| Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world | 18:28 | |
| to condemn the world, but in order | 18:33 | |
| that the world might be saved through him. | 18:36 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 18:41 | |
| (congregation drowned out by background noise) | 18:44 | |
| (slow suspenseful music) | 19:18 | |
| ♪ Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God ♪ | 19:23 | |
| ♪ For no one can do these things, apart the presence of God ♪ | 19:40 | |
| ♪ No one, no one ♪ | 19:54 | |
| ♪ No one ♪ | 19:56 | |
| ♪ No one can stear you kingdom apart ♪ | 20:02 | |
| ♪ And not be born ♪ | 20:10 | |
| (chorus humming) | 20:13 | |
| ♪ How, how can anyone be born after having grown old ♪ | 20:26 | |
| ♪ Can one, can one ♪ | 20:43 | |
| ♪ Can one enter a second time ♪ | 20:46 | |
| ♪ Can one enter a second time ♪ | 20:49 | |
| ♪ A second time into the mother's womb ♪ | 20:52 | |
| ♪ And be born, can one ♪ | 20:58 | |
| ♪ Can one ♪ | 21:01 | |
| ♪ No one can enter the kingdom ♪ | 21:05 | |
| ♪ Without being born ♪ | 21:12 | |
| (chorus humming) | 21:16 | |
| (winds howling) | 21:29 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 21:34 | |
| ♪ How, how can anyone be born after having grown old ♪ | 21:44 | |
| ♪ After having grown old ♪ | 21:49 | |
| ♪ How can anyone ♪ | 21:52 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 21:55 | |
| ♪ Born of the flesh, his flesh ♪ | 21:59 | |
| ♪ And what is born of the spirit ♪ | 22:04 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 22:11 | |
| ♪ Do not be astonished that I said to you ♪ | 22:20 | |
| ♪ You must be born of the ♪ | 22:25 | |
| (chorus humming) | 22:29 | |
| (rousing organ music) | 22:39 | |
| ♪ How can these things be ♪ | 22:41 | |
| ♪ How can these things be ♪ | 22:45 | |
| ♪ How can they, how can ♪ | 22:48 | |
| ♪ How ♪ | 22:54 | |
| (chorus drowned out by background noise) | 23:00 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 23:43 |
| Oh God, we give thanks unto you | 23:51 | |
| for this lesson from your holy word. | 23:53 | |
| We pray that your spirit may be with us in this hour, | 23:58 | |
| that we may rightly hear and understand | 24:03 | |
| its significance for us in our time. | 24:06 | |
| In the name of Christ we pray, amen. | 24:10 | |
| Ronnie Mcnabb read the scripture lesson from St. John | 24:17 | |
| for this second Sunday in Lent, | 24:22 | |
| and this wonderful choir anthem that we just heard | 24:25 | |
| that was David Arcus's composition, | 24:30 | |
| set to music the text that's before us. | 24:36 | |
| It's a remarkable text, | 24:41 | |
| one that you probably know quite well, | 24:43 | |
| but one that perhaps you've not given enough attention to, | 24:47 | |
| because it's of enormous significance to Christian faith, | 24:51 | |
| and indeed to Christian theology. | 24:56 | |
| This third chapter of John is very important. | 24:58 | |
| And in the first part of the chapter | 25:04 | |
| is this story of the encounter of Nicodemus and Jesus, | 25:09 | |
| and that's what I want us to look at this morning. | 25:14 | |
| Nicodemus, we are told, comes to Jesus in the night, | 25:18 | |
| and Jesus receives him, | 25:25 | |
| Nicodemus affirms Jesus as a great teacher | 25:34 | |
| and says that we know that you are a teacher, | 25:39 | |
| because we have seen these signs which you have done. | 25:43 | |
| Now, in Israel there was a tradition | 25:47 | |
| of teachers and prophets who were recognized by signs, | 25:51 | |
| and so it's not unusual for a teacher of Israel, | 25:56 | |
| a pharisee, Nicodemus, to recognize Jesus as one of those. | 26:01 | |
| But interestingly, there's a sort of disconnect. | 26:08 | |
| Because in reply, Jesus doesn't say, | 26:12 | |
| "Thank you very much, you're right." | 26:15 | |
| He says rather, this enigmatic statement, | 26:18 | |
| that if one is to see the kingdom of God, | 26:23 | |
| one must be born from above. | 26:27 | |
| Now, the Greek word is anothen, | 26:31 | |
| and it can be translated either as | 26:35 | |
| born again, born anew, or born from above. | 26:40 | |
| And I think that the gospel writer is intentionally | 26:46 | |
| playing with that word. | 26:49 | |
| Because Jesus evidently suggests | 26:53 | |
| that we must be born from above, | 26:56 | |
| but Nicodemus hears it as born again. | 26:58 | |
| And then he says to him, to Jesus, | 27:03 | |
| "Well, how can that be? | 27:06 | |
| "If you're already grown up, | 27:07 | |
| "you can't go back and enter into your mother's womb." | 27:09 | |
| That doesn't make any sense, | 27:13 | |
| and it's almost a comical interchange between them. | 27:14 | |
| Jesus reaffirms the fact that this birth from above | 27:20 | |
| is a gift of the Holy Spirit, | 27:24 | |
| and Nicodemus remains confused. | 27:30 | |
| Now, this passage is of enormous importance | 27:36 | |
| to the whole history of Christian faith, | 27:40 | |
| and the idea of being born anew or born again, | 27:44 | |
| or born from above, is really fundamental | 27:48 | |
| to Christian affirmation. | 27:52 | |
| It's a text that is popularly used. | 27:55 | |
| John Wesley, the founder of methodism preached, | 27:58 | |
| we know from his journal, more than 60 oral sermons | 28:01 | |
| on this one text of John 3:7, | 28:06 | |
| "You must be born from above." | 28:10 | |
| I want us to look a bit at this this morning | 28:16 | |
| and reflect on the importance of the text | 28:21 | |
| and its meaning for us in our own time. | 28:23 | |
| And it might be best to begin with the question, | 28:26 | |
| who is this Nicodemus? | 28:29 | |
| He appears only in the fourth gospel, only in John's gospel, | 28:32 | |
| and he appears only three times there. | 28:37 | |
| Here in the third chapter, | 28:40 | |
| where he comes to talk with Jesus in the night. | 28:43 | |
| In the seventh chapter, where, | 28:47 | |
| in another interchange between Jesus and the Pharisees, | 28:50 | |
| Nicodemus speaks up in Jesus' defense | 28:55 | |
| and says we can't judge him until, according to our law, | 28:58 | |
| we allow him to be, in effect, tried. | 29:03 | |
| And then Nicodemus appears once again | 29:08 | |
| in the 19th chapter of St. John with Joseph of Arimathea. | 29:12 | |
| At the time after Jesus' death, | 29:19 | |
| Joseph asks permission to come and take the body | 29:22 | |
| and prepare it for burial and bury it, | 29:26 | |
| and Nicodemus is there and comes bringing | 29:29 | |
| some of the myrrh and aloe, | 29:33 | |
| "a 100 pounds," John says. | 29:36 | |
| So three times Nicodemus appears, | 29:39 | |
| but we don't really get much picture of him | 29:42 | |
| beyond what we could say this. | 29:45 | |
| That he seems to be a figure | 29:49 | |
| who we might describe as a would-be disciple. | 29:51 | |
| We know he's a good man, he's a pharisee, | 29:56 | |
| he's a leader of the Jews, a teacher of the Jews | 30:00 | |
| and a good man. | 30:03 | |
| He's a person who my colleague, Moody Smith | 30:06 | |
| described to me yesterday in a conversation | 30:10 | |
| as being "on the cusp." | 30:14 | |
| That is to say, an almost believer. | 30:16 | |
| Never a true believer, but an almost believer. | 30:22 | |
| John I think very deliberately tells us | 30:29 | |
| that he comes to Jesus in the night, | 30:32 | |
| and he reiterates that in the seventh chapter, | 30:35 | |
| and we get the idea that what John is meaning by that | 30:38 | |
| is that Nicodemus is sort of in the dark. | 30:41 | |
| He doesn't finally really get it. | 30:45 | |
| Merrill Abby, who used to teach preaching | 30:51 | |
| at Garret Theological Seminary | 30:53 | |
| once had a sermon that I heard when I was a boy. | 30:56 | |
| I don't remember lots of sermons, | 30:59 | |
| but I remembered this one because it was entitled, | 31:00 | |
| When High Religion Fails. | 31:03 | |
| And in a sense, that's what we've got here with Nicodemus, | 31:10 | |
| a man of high religion. | 31:15 | |
| He does everything right. | 31:18 | |
| He is officially religious. | 31:21 | |
| He is observant and he follows all of the rules. | 31:24 | |
| But Jesus suggests, in this encounter with him, | 31:28 | |
| that there is something missing in this high religion, | 31:30 | |
| there is something missing. | 31:36 | |
| Now, this notion of high religion suggests to us | 31:42 | |
| that a little more enlightenment isn't enough. | 31:47 | |
| For us in a university community, that's hard to accept. | 31:51 | |
| But the idea is that it's not a matter | 31:56 | |
| of simply knowing more or learning more effectively, | 31:59 | |
| there is something still incomplete there, | 32:05 | |
| and Jesus suggests it is this gift from the Holy Spirit, | 32:09 | |
| gift from God, that he describes as being born from above, | 32:14 | |
| which is a complete redirection, | 32:18 | |
| an intrusion into our lives that suggests | 32:21 | |
| that the high religion isn't enough. | 32:25 | |
| I think that's what people are calling out for | 32:29 | |
| among Christians in our day. | 32:32 | |
| It's what I would want to call authenticity. | 32:34 | |
| It goes beyond the outward show. | 32:37 | |
| Last week I was in Atlanta, | 32:41 | |
| not primarily to see my family, but as a added bonus, | 32:47 | |
| at the end of the day I got to stop by | 32:52 | |
| and see my sister who lives there, | 32:55 | |
| and I was at their home very briefly. | 32:59 | |
| And I said I want to go in and use the powder room, | 33:02 | |
| we were going out to dinner, and she said, | 33:05 | |
| "Now wait a minute, I've got to run upstairs | 33:07 | |
| "and get you a towel to use." | 33:10 | |
| I said, well there's a towel right there. | 33:12 | |
| She said, "You can't use that towel. | 33:14 | |
| "Now just just wait a minute, | 33:16 | |
| "I'm gonna run upstairs and get you the towel." | 33:18 | |
| She came down, and I said, now why couldn't I use that towel | 33:21 | |
| right there in the powder room off the front hallway. | 33:26 | |
| She said, "That's a show towel." | 33:29 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 33:33 | |
| You know what she meant, | 33:38 | |
| and you know why I used that illustration, show towel, | 33:39 | |
| and many of us know people, maybe ourselves, | 33:45 | |
| who sometimes have about us a show religion. | 33:48 | |
| I worry that that's what informs | 33:53 | |
| a lot of the political life today, | 33:55 | |
| this show religion used for political purposes, | 33:58 | |
| not authentic and not a religion that is evidence | 34:03 | |
| of having been born from above. | 34:09 | |
| Now, what then does it mean to be born from above? | 34:14 | |
| I was in Dallas this weekend. | 34:20 | |
| It was Thursday morning after our great | 34:24 | |
| Blue Devil victory up in Maryland, | 34:26 | |
| and the Dallas paper had a little article | 34:28 | |
| about the Duke basketball team, and the headline was, | 34:33 | |
| "Duke's, Blue Devils born again." | 34:38 | |
| And in reference not only to what's happened this season, | 34:42 | |
| but in comparison to last season. | 34:48 | |
| And of course, we will show | 34:51 | |
| just how born again we are this afternoon. | 34:54 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 34:57 | |
| The term born again is a popular one in our culture, | 35:01 | |
| and it often is misused. | 35:05 | |
| I don't propose to tell you | 35:08 | |
| that the Blue Devils are necessarily born from above. | 35:10 | |
| But what would we mean by that? | 35:15 | |
| It seems to me that there are several aspects of it. | 35:17 | |
| I could talk for a very long time about it. | 35:20 | |
| But let me just suggest some things. | 35:23 | |
| Being born from above, as Jesus uses this phrase, | 35:26 | |
| reminds us first of all, it seems to me, | 35:31 | |
| that we are brought up clearly against the reality | 35:34 | |
| of the condition that we human beings find ourselves in, | 35:39 | |
| namely, that we aren't as great | 35:46 | |
| as we would like to think we are. | 35:49 | |
| That is good Christian theology. | 35:52 | |
| It's sometimes in theology talked about as original sin. | 35:55 | |
| We are sinful, mortal people | 35:59 | |
| who stand in need of the grace of God. | 36:03 | |
| No matter how much we like to talk about human potential, | 36:08 | |
| no matter how much we like to talk about progress. | 36:12 | |
| This after all, the 20th century, | 36:16 | |
| was supposed to be the great century of progress | 36:18 | |
| in which science and technology | 36:21 | |
| would bring us such greatness, and in some sense it has, | 36:23 | |
| but fundamentally, we know that our human condition | 36:28 | |
| is still the same, namely, we are selfish | 36:31 | |
| and we would like to put ourselves in the place of God. | 36:37 | |
| That's where we begin. | 36:43 | |
| Being born from above is coming | 36:46 | |
| straight against that reality. | 36:48 | |
| A few years ago in England, a very prominent man | 36:52 | |
| of great wealth and privilege and learning | 36:57 | |
| went to see the abbot of a Anglican monastery | 37:02 | |
| of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. | 37:07 | |
| And he came to him and he said, | 37:12 | |
| "I am wealthy, I'm privileged, I'm very learned, | 37:15 | |
| "and now I want to learn something about God." | 37:22 | |
| The abbot smiled at him | 37:28 | |
| and invited him into his private apartment. | 37:30 | |
| He said, "Let's have a cup of tea | 37:34 | |
| "before we talk any further." | 37:38 | |
| And so, the abbot prepared a pot of tea, | 37:40 | |
| two cups on the table, and they sat at the table. | 37:44 | |
| And the abbot began to pour the tea for his guest, | 37:48 | |
| and he poured, and he poured, and he poured. | 37:51 | |
| And all of a sudden, the teacups started to spill over, | 37:55 | |
| the tea spilled over into the saucer, | 37:58 | |
| it spilled over onto the table, | 38:01 | |
| it spilled over onto the man's lap and onto the floor. | 38:03 | |
| And finally he said, "Stop! | 38:08 | |
| "The tea cup is full, it's overflowing, | 38:11 | |
| "it won't hold any more." | 38:14 | |
| The abbot put the teapot down and he said, | 38:18 | |
| "It's like you. | 38:25 | |
| "You are full of yourself, | 38:28 | |
| "and until there's some self-emptying | 38:34 | |
| "you won't be able to learn anything about God." | 38:39 | |
| First of all, being born from above brings us squarely | 38:46 | |
| into the reality of our human condition | 38:51 | |
| and the fact that we cannot do this ourselves, | 38:54 | |
| we stand in need of God's grace and that alone. | 39:00 | |
| Secondly, | 39:07 | |
| we are reminded here that this is an act of God. | 39:10 | |
| The marvelous music with the sense of the spirit moving | 39:16 | |
| reminds us that this being born from above | 39:22 | |
| is what God does in us, | 39:27 | |
| and not what we do for ourselves. | 39:32 | |
| One of the things that's so troubling | 39:37 | |
| about some of the language and discussion | 39:39 | |
| about being born again, after all, is that you get the idea, | 39:42 | |
| you know, the signs on the side of barns and whatnot, | 39:46 | |
| you get the idea that this is something you must do. | 39:50 | |
| In fact, from the scriptures, it's clear to us | 39:58 | |
| that this is a gift that God gives, | 40:01 | |
| it is what God does in us | 40:05 | |
| and there is nothing in the first place that we do. | 40:09 | |
| Thirdly this being born from above, | 40:16 | |
| it seems to me, | 40:21 | |
| reminds us clearly | 40:23 | |
| that we must receive the gift. | 40:25 | |
| That's the other side of the equation. | 40:30 | |
| It is given by God for us, | 40:32 | |
| but we must receive it. | 40:36 | |
| We are persons who, because of God's grace, | 40:41 | |
| have been given freedom to choose. | 40:45 | |
| Now, in the first place, | 40:50 | |
| we may choose to receive this birth from above, | 40:52 | |
| which will crash into our life and change it, | 40:56 | |
| crash into the show religion | 41:03 | |
| and bring us up short | 41:09 | |
| and bring us to the truth, | 41:13 | |
| that it is only in God's grace through the Holy Spirit | 41:15 | |
| that we do anything at all. | 41:20 | |
| We choose that, and then we make choices | 41:21 | |
| day by day about our life. | 41:25 | |
| We are not men and women, persons | 41:27 | |
| who lack the ability to make choice, | 41:31 | |
| every day, | 41:36 | |
| and we can't excuse ourselves by blaming | 41:38 | |
| other people or our circumstances. | 41:41 | |
| We make choices. | 41:46 | |
| And among those choices is how we're going to live, | 41:48 | |
| how we're going to think, how we're going to act. | 41:50 | |
| Fourthly, this business of being born from above | 41:57 | |
| implies for us a clear action orientation. | 42:02 | |
| Again, one of the things that bothers me | 42:08 | |
| about so much of what's said about being born again, | 42:10 | |
| when that language is used, | 42:14 | |
| is that it seems to be almost a test. | 42:16 | |
| Are you born again? | 42:21 | |
| And the answer is either right or wrong, yes or no, | 42:23 | |
| as though there were something that I was to believe, | 42:28 | |
| or a right way of expressing it, a word that was to be said. | 42:31 | |
| And then if I say that, oh well, then it's all right. | 42:36 | |
| That's not the story from the gospel. | 42:43 | |
| The story from the gospel about being born from above | 42:47 | |
| is that this is a change in our life that results | 42:51 | |
| not only in a change of our thinking and belief | 42:55 | |
| but in the way we live our life, | 42:58 | |
| it is the practice of the Christian life. | 43:01 | |
| It has consequences for the way we live | 43:05 | |
| and for the way we act. | 43:11 | |
| Being born from above means not just saying | 43:13 | |
| that we're born anew, | 43:19 | |
| but it becomes observable. | 43:23 | |
| That's this business of authenticity that I'm talking about. | 43:24 | |
| A couple years ago I was struck by a story | 43:30 | |
| that was in the New York Times | 43:33 | |
| about a neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia, | 43:37 | |
| which was an all white working-class neighborhood | 43:42 | |
| in which a black family was seeking to buy a house. | 43:45 | |
| And one morning there appeared, | 43:52 | |
| in terrible graffiti spray painted on that brick row house, | 43:55 | |
| an ugly, ugly statement, | 44:01 | |
| "We don't want no niggers, KKK." | 44:07 | |
| It was sort of thought that it came out of this community, | 44:14 | |
| and that perhaps some people in the community | 44:21 | |
| had some idea of who had done it. | 44:23 | |
| And so, the police started to go door-to-door | 44:26 | |
| and they got constantly the same response, | 44:30 | |
| "No, we don't know anything about it." | 44:36 | |
| Finally they got to a house of the Demarcos, | 44:40 | |
| and there was a boy, 13 there named John Demarco, | 44:45 | |
| and he told the truth. | 44:51 | |
| He said that he had seen the person who had done it, | 44:55 | |
| and it turned out indeed to be | 45:00 | |
| a 34-year-old man from the community, | 45:02 | |
| and he was prosecuted | 45:08 | |
| and was found guilty. | 45:12 | |
| The article in the Times explored why this boy did that. | 45:17 | |
| And what's so interesting to me, | 45:23 | |
| it wasn't that he just said, | 45:25 | |
| well, I thought that that was the right thing to do. | 45:27 | |
| He actually said, right there in the New York Times he said, | 45:30 | |
| "I did this because I am a Christian | 45:34 | |
| "and I believe I was called to tell the truth." | 45:38 | |
| A 13 year old boy to a New York Times reporter. | 45:42 | |
| His mother said, "We are Christian people, | 45:47 | |
| "and I had always told my son, 'tell the truth.'" | 45:52 | |
| The way we finely act out our life | 46:00 | |
| is evidence of this business of being born from above. | 46:05 | |
| It's not simply what we say about God or about theology. | 46:12 | |
| It's not simply what we pronounce about the social order. | 46:17 | |
| In the end, it's how we live our life. | 46:22 | |
| It's about the decisions we make, how we treat people, | 46:28 | |
| what we do, how we spend our money. | 46:31 | |
| That's what it's about, this being born from above. | 46:35 | |
| A little more enlightenment isn't enough. | 46:42 | |
| In that sense, we're still like Nicodemus. | 46:50 | |
| Our prayer for Lent should be, | 46:55 | |
| Lord, we know a little more enlightenment isn't enough. | 47:00 | |
| Let me be born from above. | 47:07 | |
| Amen. | 47:13 | |
| (tranquil organ music) | 47:19 | |
| (congregation singing praise) | 47:42 | |
| - | Please be seated. | 50:15 |
| The Lord be with you. | 50:22 | |
| Congregation | And also with you. | 50:24 |
| - | Let us pray. | 50:25 |
| Eternal God, before we came looking for you, | 50:32 | |
| you called us into covenant to be your people, | 50:36 | |
| as you called Abram and Sarai, gave them new names | 50:41 | |
| and promised that, through them, | 50:45 | |
| all the nations would be blessed, | 50:47 | |
| just so, through your son Jesus Christ, | 50:50 | |
| you extended the call to covenant relationship | 50:53 | |
| to all people in all nations, | 50:57 | |
| and promised that we would be renamed | 51:00 | |
| Children of the Living God. | 51:02 | |
| We give thanks that you love us so much, | 51:06 | |
| and pray that we might be made worthy of your love | 51:09 | |
| and a blessing to others. | 51:14 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 51:16 | |
| Time and again, you've called us to live by faith, | 51:21 | |
| but we still try to impress you by our good works. | 51:25 | |
| You have called us to authenticity, | 51:30 | |
| but we put on a show of being better than we are. | 51:32 | |
| We know that to meet the law, | 51:37 | |
| we would have to be perfect as you are perfect. | 51:38 | |
| Yet still, we try to live by the law | 51:42 | |
| rather than in your grace. | 51:44 | |
| In our sinfulness, we come before you | 51:48 | |
| seeking the way to life. | 51:51 | |
| Have mercy upon us, | 51:54 | |
| not because what we have done | 51:56 | |
| should be counted as righteousness, | 51:58 | |
| but because of our faith | 52:00 | |
| in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, | 52:01 | |
| in whom there is eternal life. | 52:04 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 52:08 | |
| We have been born of water through our baptism. | 52:14 | |
| Give us now, a rebirth through your spirit. | 52:18 | |
| O breath of life, come sweeping through us. | 52:22 | |
| Revive your church with life and power. | 52:27 | |
| Wind of God, come, cleanse, renew us, | 52:31 | |
| that we might be born from above. | 52:38 | |
| Make us truly yours, | 52:41 | |
| that we might be fit to be your covenant people, | 52:44 | |
| your church, a blessing to all the nations. | 52:47 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 52:52 | |
| With hopeful hearts we await | 52:56 | |
| the blowing of your spirit among us. | 52:58 | |
| How will you change us? | 53:01 | |
| What will our world, our community, | 53:03 | |
| our church, our lives look like | 53:06 | |
| when we've been born from above? | 53:08 | |
| Reveal to us what our own lives would be like | 53:11 | |
| if we were no longer full of ourselves, | 53:14 | |
| and unable really, to receive or give love. | 53:17 | |
| Help us to imagine churches | 53:21 | |
| that are faithful instruments of your blessing. | 53:23 | |
| Give us a glimpse of communities | 53:27 | |
| no longer marred by poverty, violence or greed. | 53:29 | |
| Show us a vision of nations | 53:33 | |
| that have destroyed their weapons of destruction, | 53:35 | |
| because they've learned that war begets war | 53:38 | |
| and peace begets peace. | 53:41 | |
| Give us eyes to see the world as it could be | 53:44 | |
| when we've been born from above, | 53:47 | |
| and give us faith to trust your vision of life | 53:50 | |
| and your power to make all things new. | 53:53 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. | 53:57 | |
| Almighty and eternal God, | 54:02 | |
| ruler of all things in heaven and earth, | 54:04 | |
| mercifully accept the prayers of your people, | 54:08 | |
| those we have spoken and those that remain unspoken, | 54:11 | |
| and strengthen us to do your will. | 54:17 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 54:20 | |
| God has given us the gift of life and love, | 54:26 | |
| and surrounded us with abundant resources | 54:30 | |
| We express our thanks and token offerings | 54:34 | |
| in an outpouring of our best. | 54:37 | |
| (tranquil choir song) | 55:16 | |
| (choir song continuing) | 56:55 | |
| (choir song continuing) | 58:09 | |
| (choir song continuing) | 1:00:54 | |
| (tranquil organ music) | 1:02:48 | |
| (congregation singing praises) | 1:03:54 | |
| Let us pray. | 1:04:33 | |
| Oh God, creator of this pleasant world | 1:04:36 | |
| and giver of all good things, | 1:04:38 | |
| we thank you for our home on earth | 1:04:41 | |
| and for the joy of living. | 1:04:43 | |
| We praise you for your love in Jesus Christ, | 1:04:46 | |
| who came to set things right, | 1:04:49 | |
| who died rejected on the cross | 1:04:51 | |
| and rose triumphant from the dead. | 1:04:53 | |
| Because he lives, we live to praise you, | 1:04:56 | |
| our God, forever more. | 1:04:59 | |
| Oh God who called us from death to life, | 1:05:01 | |
| we give ourselves to you, | 1:05:04 | |
| and with the church through all the ages, | 1:05:07 | |
| we thank you for your saving love and Jesus Christ Our Lord, | 1:05:09 | |
| who taught us to pray together, saying, | 1:05:13 | |
| "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. | 1:05:16 | |
| "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, | 1:05:21 | |
| "on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:05:24 | |
| "Give us this day our daily bread | 1:05:27 | |
| "and forgive us our trespasses, | 1:05:30 | |
| "as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 1:05:32 | |
| "and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. | 1:05:35 | |
| For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 1:05:40 | |
| and the glory, forever. Amen. | 1:05:43 | |
| (tranquil organ music) | 1:05:48 | |
| (congregation singing praises) | 1:06:21 | |
| Go forth in peace, to love God | 1:09:33 | |
| and serve your neighbor in all that you do. | 1:09:36 | |
| May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, | 1:09:38 | |
| and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. | 1:09:41 | |
| (choir singing praises) | 1:09:47 |