I would like to share with you the following excerpt from the act of comedian Lewis Black.  Lewis says: “I was sitting in the International House of Pancakes when from behind me; a young woman of 25 uttered the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.  She said ‘If it weren’t for my horse I wouldn’t have spent that year in college.’  I’ll repeat that.  I’ll repeat that because that is the kind of sentence when you hear it your brain comes to a screeching halt.  She said ‘If it weren’t for my horse’…giddy up, giddy up; let’s go… ‘I wouldn’t have spent that year in college’… a degree granting institution.  Don’t, don’t think about that sentence for more than three minutes or blood will shoot out your nose.  The American medical profession doesn’t know why we get an aneurism; it’s when a blood vessel burst in our head for no apparent reason.  There’s a reason.  The reason being somebody says the dumbest thing you have ever heard and it goes in your ear ‘If it weren’t for my horse I wouldn’t have spent that year in college’ and you brain goes let’s figure it out.  I wonder was she riding the horse to school?  No she wouldn’t be riding the horse to school.  Maybe it was a polo pony and she was on a polo pony scholarship.  Then you realize that anybody who went to college would never say anything that stupid in public.  And as soon as you have that thought your eyes close and the next morning they find you dead in your bathroom.”

           I share this with you because I think it provides the only lens through which we can honestly talk about what Jesus said to Nicodemus in the passage we read a few moments ago from the gospel according to John.  This morning it strikes me as very ironic that when someone thinks they are Jesus we label them as psychotic and roll our eyes and go coco coco as we ridicule the strange, puzzling, crazy things they say.  The ironic part of all this is the real Jesus said some pretty strange, puzzling, and crazy things but for some reason we accept his crazy talk as if he were talking about the weather.   What’s more we think we have it all figured out and can’t understand why other people simply don’t or refuse to believe in Jesus the way we do.  We must never forget how radical this good news is and how crazy it must sound to others.  I want to be very clear on this point, I believe there is much truth in what Jesus says and I believe within is some incredibly good news for us and I in no way am trying to discredit or disrespect what Jesus says as being simply the ranting of a mad man but I think we have to acknowledge how crazy this sounds, how radical this is.  I believe also that when we speak of these things we must quit speaking of them as if we were discussing the weather.  This story we read in John does not appear in any of the other three gospel accounts and we don’t really know much or hear anything more about his man named Nicodemus, we don’t know what happened to him we don’t know for instance how he died.  I firmly believe it is likely he died from an aneurism because what Jesus said to him went in his ear and swirled around until Nicodemus collapsed from trying so hard to figure it out.

              Let’s look at the passage and I will explain what I mean.  First this occurs near the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry and I would submit to you that already folks were writing him off as being radical if not crazy.  Notice what the first two verses tell us Nicodemus is a leader among the Jewish people and he comes to see Jesus under the cover of night.  A leader in the community of faith, a well respected man comes to see Jesus under the cover of darkness presumably because he doesn’t want anybody to know about it.  Jesus was at the beginning of his ministry and already thought to be so out there that Nicodemus didn’t want to risk being seen with Him.

               Out there maybe but even Nicodemus has to agree the things Jesus can do are pretty special and certainly could not be done apart from God.  So Nicodemus says so and Jesus responds: “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.  Nicodemus is confused because the same word translated above can also mean again.  This is kind of like we can’t tell for sure if “eats, shoots, and leaves” describes a panda bear or a gun slinger.  But we have read this passage so many times, we are comfortable with it, we have had it explained to us and we think to ourselves “Silly Nicodemus how could he have thought Jesus meant to be born again when it is so obvious he meant born from above.”  Fact of the matter neither way would have made sense to Nicodemus.  Born from above what does that mean?  Jesus could have said in order to get to heaven you’ve got to eat lime Jell-O and Nicodemus wouldn’t have been any more confused.  To Nicodemus this sounds crazy so he says “What?!?”  Choosing the interpretation that made the most sense at the time he said “what do you mean born again, how can anyone be born again it doesn’t make any sense.”

             Instead of clarifying Jesus says “No you got to be born of water and Spirit because flesh is flesh and Spirit is Spirit.  So of course you have to be born from above.”  Well that clears it right up.  Before Nicodemus has a chance to catch his breath Jesus goes on to say “the wind blows where it wills…so it is with the Spirit” again a play on words as the words wind and spirit are interchangeable.  Doubly confused just before Nicodemus collapses he says: “I just don’t get it how can these things be?  Jesus chides “and you call yourself a teacher… you don’t understand the things of this world how can you expect to understand heaven?”   Ouch!

              I want to pause here for a moment because if Jesus had stopped here we would be left as confused as Nicodemus.  As it is however Jesus goes on, still using the same cryptic sort of crazy language but he does give us a little more to go on.  For time’s sake I will make the interpretive moves for us.  Jesus first hints that he is not only of God but he is God, and as such he must be lifted on a pole, like Moses did with the serpent in the wilderness so that the people might be healed and live.  A reference to the crucifixion that is necessary for salvation.  All of this has been set in motion, the very Son of God has come for this because God loves the world and wants the world to be saved, not condemned.  This sounds Crazy!  I think Martin Luther would agree, for he wrote, “If I were as our Lord God, and these vile people were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world to pieces.”  Any sensible God would squash us, but this crazy, radical, maybe better said eccentric and extravagant God loves us instead and gives us new life.  This eccentric, extravagant God loves us even when we are a mess, when we are guilty of disorderly conduct, when we are in emotional or spiritual disarray and loves us so much he came to be crucified so we might live.  Good news indeed but it still sounds a little crazy on the face of it, it sounds a little too good to believe.

              You know it is interesting to me that even with the rest of scripture to help us, even with the other clues Jesus gives us, and even with the guidance of the Spirit we still don’t understand entirely what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus.  We may think we have it all figured out, we may talk about it casually like we would talk about the weather, but not all Christians agree on what these passages mean.  John 3:16 seen scrawled on poster board at sporting events billed as being the gospel in miniature and we can’t all agree on what it means for us.  Some Christians latch on to the believe part, and the saved part, and they say you have to believe in order to be saved and so the emphasis is on believing, and being born again.  I want us to think about that for just a moment, not too long and not too hard or blood might shoot out your nose. 

             It would seem to me that if the Spirit blows where it will like the wind then it isn’t up to me to get saved as much as it is up to God to save me.  I may hope the Spirit blows on me but I have no way to make that happen.  I have no control over the wind I can’t even see it, but it affects my life; neither can I control God’s Spirit, I can’t even see it, but it moves me.  So maybe it’s not being born again, something I do, but it is truly being born from above, something God does on my behalf.  Maybe it’s not up to me to believe to make this saving act of Jesus on the cross take affect so I can go to heaven but maybe it is because God loves me and saves me that I am brought and bought to be in God’s presence.  It is Jesus that has to be lifted up not me.  It would seem to me the point of what Jesus tells Nicodemus is that salvation is God’s doing not our own.  Being born from above, being of Spirit, the Spirit blowing where it will, Jesus being lifted up, for God so loved the world; all of these things seem to me to point to Salvation being the work of God not humans.  But who’s to say I have it all figured out?  It’s all still rattling around in there as I continue to try and figure it out and more importantly live it out. 

           That God’s movement in the world may at times appear bizarre and crazy to our puny perceptions seems to me to be a part of Jesus’ message in this passage. Jesus portrays a God who chooses to act in ways we might not, likely can not understand, but ways we can always trust are on our behalf and in our best interest.  You may not understand entirely what that means for you and that is ok because we are in the hands of a God that loves us will take care of us.  That is exceedingly good news and we ought to share it with others, but share it with understanding when people look at us like we are crazy, and share it with more enthusiasm than we might if we were talking about the weather.  As we continue on our Lenten Journey in this the second week may we be awe struck by a God who loves us beyond all understanding.  Amen.