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Sermon preached
at Bradford Cathedral
Trinity Sunday and Nicodemus. 10.15 HC 7th June 2009 Based on John 3:1-17 |
Looking back now, many years later, I can see that it was a turning point in my life. In fact, it was more than a turning point; it was as though my life begun again after that night time encounter. It was as he had said, just as if I had been born again. At the time I struggled to grasp what Jesus was saying to me. And although it doesn’t hurt now, it did at the time, that rebuke Jesus made - a gentle rebuke, but a rebuke nonetheless: “Nicodemus are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things.” That hurt. I knew the Law and it meant everything to me. I loved teaching it and explaining it. And here was a young Rabbi from up country telling me I didn’t understand. But I had been watching Jesus and I knew from what he had been doing and saying that God’s hand was on him. So I needed to swallow the pride I had as a leader of God’s people and listen. And Jesus was right, what had I been doing? How could I have been teaching others about Yahweh when I had understood so little myself? (Writing my story now helps me to sort it out in my mind). As a Pharisee I had publicly pledged to spend my life studying the Torah, the Law in detail. I had joined the Haburah, the brotherhood of Pharisees and had access to the painstaking work that the Scribes did on interpreting the Law so it could be applied to every day life. It was a privilege, and so I admit, was my wealth, which I saw as a further sign of God’s favour. As a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court for Jews, I had legal authority over our people. Yet, for all this, I carried a restlessness within me. And I saw in Jesus something that my years of learning had not given me. I came to him at night time, not unusual because Rabbis often do their best work in the quietness of night. And I didn’t especially want my brothers to know about my quest. But I now see that it was me who was in darkness and ever since that encounter the light has been dawning in me. A spiritual apprehension was needed. It wasn’t enough to have worked things out with my earthly mind; as he said ‘flesh give birth only to flesh’ – it was a spiritual awakening I needed, a new birth with its origins in heaven. And that’s what He brought me, a new birth; and with it a new understanding – an understanding with the heart not just the mind. Of course there were some significant barriers to overcome, and for most of my fellow Pharisees they were not willing, or were too proud. I know why. How could this simple Rabbi be God’s anointed, the One spoken of in the prophets? To accept his words meant accepting that He was indeed the Messiah, that God’s own Spirit resided in him; that God was somehow incarnated in Him. Jesus spoke of God as Abba, and whilst the idea of God as Father is in our Scriptures, Jesus gives it a whole new dimension, the intimacy of a Father and a Son. But how could I accept that God could be separated from God? It’s essential to a Jewish concept of the Almighty – if there is any Power behind creation, then there can only be One Creator and Designer. The Psalmist expresses it beautifully: “O Lord, our Sovereign, How majestic is your name in all the earth!” God is the majestic maker and He is One. Our cornerstone prayer, The Shema, reminds us of that,: “Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God is One.” I still believe that. But meeting Jesus has filled out my understanding of that. ‘The wind blows where it chooses,’ he said, ‘…so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ That was it! I opened the windows of my mind and allowed fresh air to blow in and bring new life. So now I had God the Creator, I had God the Son, and now God the Spirit, the breathe or wind of God. But how can the Holy One be Three and yet One? Well I have realised that it is with my mind that I try to answer that, and that keeps it in one box. And who am I to try and box in the Almighty? If I can explain this mystery with my mind then God is no greater than my mind. This is where I was falling short as a Pharisee teacher – I was trying to box up the truth. Yet I know I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me. I am a complex unity of mind body and spirit, Three in One. So, (in a sort of way) is God. Yes, God is the Creator, the Mind, the designer behind all that we see. But he came in person, God came in body – in the person that I met and talked with that night. And His power, that life-force – His Spirit is still with us. I understand that now because of that first encounter. I knew I was taking a risk, that there would be a cost, and there was; I have been shunned by my brothers in the Sanhedrin. So, why, you might ask, did I first listen to that carpenter’s son from Nazareth – unqualified and unauthorised as he was? Because of the signs? Well, yes, that’s what drew me initially, but not what kept me. What kept me was the love; love was in that encounter, even in the rebuke. That’s why it was so painful to be there when the Council condemned him to death and why I tried, unsuccessfully to reverse their decision. It’s also why I had to anoint the body, and yes, the myrrh and aloes did cost a fortune, it was extravagant. But so was his death, costly and extravagant in its love. I know now that it is love that holds together the Godhead. I am held now in that love, born again to life eternal because of that love. That is why I have written, because what I have been given is offered to all. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ Amen.
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