June 18, 2006

How Can This Be?

by Julianne Stokstad

We love stories. People always have, and I think always will learn, and remember through stories. The Bible is full of stories with an amazing variety of characters. Nicodemus in this week's scripture is a one for whom I have special connection and compassion. His story is a pretty simple one: Nicodemus comes by night to ask Jesus a few questions and after the visit, he leaves with more questions than he came with and a lot to think about. That is how much of the Bible is for me, after reading it, thinking about it and studying it, I always leave with more questions.

So let's look at what we know this guy, Nicodemus. We are told he is a Pharisee. Pharisees were a sect of Jews who were set apart by their promise to most strictly follow the Jewish Law. Of course, they had to determine exactly what that meant and how to do it. They were mentioned by the Roman historian Josephus and in the gospels where the Pharisees are seriously maligned as the chief opponents of Jesus. It isn't clear they were as strongly opposed to Jesus as were other sects like the Sadducees. From the gospels' description though, the word Pharisee has come to mean hypocrite, someone who pretends to be something he is not. Nicodemus was a Pharisee

He is also described as a ruler of the Jews, meaning he was probably a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court in ancient Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin Council was composed of seventy members and even though their power was limited by the Roman occupation in Jesus' time, it still had great religious authority over all the Jews. One of its duties was to keep the faith pure. They examined anyone suspected of being a false prophet and dealt with them. Given this position, it is surprising that Nicodemus would even come to visit Jesus.

Nicodemus was a man of importance: highly educated, wealthy and used to having power, speaking in the royal "we." Besides being a very religious man, he was a true seeker of God's presence. But he was also an independent thinker. He went to meet Jesus to decide for himself what he thought.

Lastly he was a fundamentalist, taking Jesus purely literally. His question "How can anyone be born after growing old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" points out the absurdity of taking Jesus' words that way. Yet understood another way, the question begs us to consider how can we ever change or have a new relationship with God, which was as important a question then as it is now. I wonder if this portrayal isn't so much about Nicodemus as it was about a conflict with the early church of John.

As I said, I strongly identify with Nicodemus. One of the ways is how this man of privilege and power came sneaking around coming by night to visit Jesus. As a science teacher, my task was to teach not only the facts of biology but also how to reason, how to understand what was good evidence and what wasn't. When I was irresistibly drawn to attend the Pacific School of Religion to study with those who were studying about God, ethics and values, I felt embarrassed that this could be seen as a betrayal of all my rational teaching. I would have gone at night, but the Admissions Office wasn't open then. I will never forget walking on to the campus late one fall afternoon in 1992. I remember walking quickly, in the shadows, even wanting to walk sideways so I wouldn't be seen by anyone I knew. It is a fearsome thing to begin to seek a new way to see one's life.

In many ways I see in Nicodemus qualities in today's scientists. They are questioners. They, like him, are well-educated, people who have power of information and position, who strictly study the evidence before they state what they believe to be true. They worry about details. Nicodemus was a thinking man. He had heard of Jesus' miracles and wanted to learn and to question Jesus directly.

Like Nicodemus, most of us here don't feel comfortable with born again/salvation talk. We don't understand it. It is hard for us to believe that anyone can have a one-time intense experience, like a birth, and be so completely changed as to be born again. How can an old person enter into his mother's womb and be born again? How can this be?

Nicodemus knew the Law and followed it all carefully, yet this had not brought him to a relationship with God like the one Jesus had. Jesus explained this with metaphors of wind and birth that just didn't make sense to Nicodemus. He will have to rethink how he understands God and his relationship with God.

Jesus is talking about spiritual transformation, about the beginning and growth of our soul's relationship with God, following a process similar to our physical birth and growth. Jesus told Nicodemus we have to think about our souls, not just our bodies and the material world. The Spirit is like wind, blows where it wills and only those who see things from a new point of view are spirit born. Did Nicodemus have a spiritual transformation? Apparently so, because he is mentioned later in John's gospel as a follower of Jesus, but this story leaves him just asking questions.

That's why I think questions are so very important. Questions are like windows, which provide a view into new place. Jesus didn't give the formula of how to have a spiritual transformation, because there isn't one. Each person has to discover this new place within themselves, in their own way, in their own time, in their own self. This transformation is like a birth. It is about a relationship with God and a new way of experiencing our relationship with God and who we are. When we get it, we know that our job is to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, returning and responding to God's love of us.

There are so many things that stand in the way of understanding this. Like Nicodemus, certainty of what we know can block us or clinging to things as they are, resisting change like it is death or perhaps our anger or fear or grief at change. Perhaps the hardest place to be in is a place of self-satisfaction and contentment. I wonder if any here even want to be deeper relationship with God or if you are satisfied with what you have and just want to hold on to it?

Change is a great impetus for our soul's growth. It is most often in times of change that a window of opportunity opens to growth and transformation. Change can be chosen, like retirement or moving house or job or can be imposed upon us, like aging, loss and illness.

How can one cope gracefully with the changes that come upon us all? Last week, I had a conversation with someone who wept at not being able to do things she had always done before-physical deterioration and weakness was changing her entire life.

The only answer I know is soul growth.

I suspect we all wish this to come upon us painlessly and effortlessly. After all, it is a grace, a gift from God. But we have a big part in letting go of what it is that holds us back from our relationship with God.

Our story doesn't tell us that Nicodemus had a great change of heart and immediately became a follower of Jesus. His transformation began with this visit, but continued on as he lived into his questions. His spiritual transformation took a while, just like ours do.

We all know when a baby is born; it is not all that it will be. Our bodies grow, mature and decline. Our souls grow, mature into fullness of faith, but they can grow brighter and brighter until the moment they return to God. It is nurtured and sustained within a community of faith. That is why it is so vitally important to me that our children be an important part of our community. When our soul is growing, others often see it before we do. When we see someone filled with light and love, we are all affected. We want to be around these people because we instinctively know that those who's souls are alive have found a little piece of the promised kingdom of God. This eternal truth is what Jesus knew and this is what the Bible stories tell us.

May God bless you with new window of opportunity. Amen