1. Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday July 23, 2017
Born Again
Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard
Sunday July 23, 2017

2. John 3:1-10 (NRSV)
1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, 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.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

3. John 3:1-10 (NRSV)
 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 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.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

4. Walter: Disorientation
Nicodemus is impressed by Jesus and wants to know how to incorporate him into the system and worldview that he already has
Jesus, as so often, uses a parable to confuse him, disorient him, shake him up Make it possible for him to have a new thought

5. In the past . . .
Christians have used a variety of measuring sticks to see whether or not you were “born from above” or, more commonly in some circles, “born again”
Baptism
Right belief
Right belief and right practice
Right internal feelings (God-consciousness)
Conversion experience (Sinner’s Prayer)
Conversion experience (some form of ecstatic encounter)

6. Underlying Assumptions
You move from one static condition to another (“person without God” to “Person with God”)
Whatever initiation led to this new state, you are now different than you were before in the eyes of God
St. Augustine (AD 354—430) believed that you had passed from “not able not to sin” to “able not to sin”
(it is believed) The story with Nicodemus is about this change

7. What I think is more likely . . .
That Jesus is actually giving away his ”magician’s tricks” as he answers Nicodemus’ question: “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 . . .”
Remember, this is the Gospel account that begins with a poetic and philosophical description of “Word” before asserting that Word (Spirit) became Flesh in Jesus
What if Jesus is saying that the way the signs are accomplished is by an on-going dance of interaction between Spirit and Participant?

8. For one thing “above” is more normal than “again”
Of the 13 NT uses, aside from the 2x it’s used in this passage, there is only 1 that could be translated “again”
The rest are all “above” or “from the top” or “from the first”

9. For another thing
Jesus’ words: “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above” tend to be interpreted as though they are about a one time static change (moving someone to the place where he or she can expect to go to heaven after death)
This is not how Jesus uses this term (Kingdom of God)
He is living and describing a different quality of life that He is inviting others to join
It has already begun in his life and work

10. For one more thing (!)
This would not be the first time that historic interpretation needed correction
The more you read, the more you realize that the Church has missed Jesus’ meaning again and again
One example is the Doctrine of Discovery, a proclamation from Pope Nicholas V in 1455 called Romanus Pontifex
The many acts of torture, rape, and genocide as Europeans dealt with “sub-humans” in other cultures followed

11. David Moore: Making America Great Again

12. Simone Weil: Awaiting God
Passage from Thucydides regarding the Athenians and the Melians
The “diminishment of God”
Being “born from above” is an instantaneous occurrence that takes place when a party with power enters into personal diminishment by caring for a party that is lacking in power

13. Jean-Pierre de Caussade: Abandonment to Divine Providence
There is a Fountain of Living Water near us at all times
Creativity and heroism depend upon learning how to drink from it

14. Born Again? Not a static change that makes you somehow fit for heaven
Rather, a process, an on-going dance that allows you to interact with God’s Spirit day by day
This brings continual discovery of the following things:
My own need for growth
New thoughts about how life works
Creativity in whatever I am working on
Creativity in care for others
Surprise and delight in life in the enjoyment of God, nature, others and myself