Responding to God's Initiatives

As a family we shall be sorry to leave Norwich and its fine cathedral as well as our many friends and colleagues. But with the Hostry now building this is very much the right moment to go, opening the way for someone else to come in who can help shape the vision for when the Hostry is complete and will still be here to carry that vision forward. I suppose it's somewhat ironic that our first reading this morning is of when God commanded Abram to pack his bags and move to another country. But I don't want to begin there. I want to begin with the collect for the day. In it we pray that we may reject those things that are contrary to our Christian profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same.

Reject is rather a bland word and I much prefer the Prayer Book original - eschew - spit out. For this more evocative word recognises that we often get involved with things only to recognise later that they are not right. We need to spit them out and actively pursue those things that are right.

The collect is all about Christian formation and we are reminded of Paul's words to the Romans, "do not be conformed to this world, but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed". The Christian life is a steady process of transition from the way of the world to the way of the gospel as we respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and allow ourselves to be steadily drawn into the life of the Kingdom. But for that to happen there does have to be a recognition of the need for change and a willingness to let go so that the transition can happen.

Nicodemus, the subject of our gospel this morning, is a good example of where the tensions can begin to bite. He is the epitome of the establishment, cautious, diplomatic, reluctant to commit. He has seen the signs that Jesus has done and cannot deny them. He wants to find an accord between his world of the Jewish temple and this man who clearly has something his world needs. As ever he is diplomatic, "we know you are a teacher sent by God - no-one could perform these signs if that were not the case". But Jesus knows where he is going and sweeps such niceties aside. He cuts straight to the chase, "In truth I tell you". "The hard truth is this, you cannot ever see the Kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit". The reference to water would have taken Nicodemus straight back to the baptism of John. Perhaps he was there when Jesus himself was baptised. But certainly he would know that Jesus was referring to the repentance of John. In order to move forward the past has to be recognised for what it is and left behind. When we repent of our sins it opens our eyes to see that there are things happening around us which we never noticed before. It's like the transition from black and white to colour. When we see things in black and white they are flat and monochrome; with colour they come alive. Colour draws us into the picture and it is then we begin to notice things we had previously missed. Colour speaks of the glory of God and the beauty of a world that has infinite depth and variety. In Lent we are reminded of the need to be serious about our repentance.

But our Lord's word to Nicodemus is also about Holy Spirit and the need to be born again through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Baptism in water enables you to see the Kingdom, but baptism in the Holy Spirit enables you to enter the Kingdom. And the coming of the Spirit says Jesus is like the wind. You don't know when it's coming and you cannot control it. To Nicodemus the wind was 'Ruach', the Hebrew word for the scorching wind that swept in from the desert and made life very uncomfortable. It was also the gentle breeze that stirred the olive branches and came as grace in a hot climate; a free gift to cool the fevered brow. But there was also the wind that moved in eddies across the desert its circular motion sweeping up the sand (or the leaves) into communal piles. In all these ways the Spirit of God can be experienced, changing and healing, transforming and binding. But if we shut ourselves away we shall only hear the wind as a disturbance, and we shall never experience the salvation it comes to bring. In Lent we are reminded of the need to open our lives a little more and embrace the spirit that comes. Like Abram it will feel like setting out on an uncharted journey and to do that requires courage and faith.

But for Nicodemus the problem remains and not least because the Greek word for wind, pneuma, was also the word for breath. It was breath that distinguished the living from the dead. So when Jesus talks about spirit and likens it to wind, Nicodemus hears him saying, you need to be brought back to life again. Resurrection from the dead was for most people unthinkable, hence Nicodemus' question, how is this possible? How is the transition to be made? Mentally Nicodemus is still looking for that accommodation between his own familiar environment and the world of Jesus. He was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish Council. He was steeped in the history and the tradition. For someone in his position it was unthinkable that the covenant might be set aside. So where was the point of transition between the security that comes with the law and the freedom that comes through grace?

It was to be an issue for many that were to come after. For the Jews saw salvation in the descent from Abraham and those who embraced the covenant of circumcision. And it was St Paul in writing to the Romans who suggested a different way forward. Salvation he argued was nothing if it was earned. Salvation was a free gift in response to faith. It was the faith of Abram, who set out not knowing where he was going that sets the pattern of salvation and opens up the possibility of salvation for all who come after, gentile as well as Jew.

St Paul's teaching accords with our Lord's reply to Nicodemus. For he reminds him that as a teacher of Israel he of all people should know that it is God who always takes the initiative. It is God who stoops down from heaven to lift fallen humanity. It is from God that the Messiah will come and it is in the Messiah that he must put his faith. The question he must ask himself is this "does he see in Jesus the light that was to come into the world"? If he does then he must put his faith in him and follow him, not covertly and half-heartedly, but openly and with full commitment. In doing so he will discover a new relationship that is not built on covenant and contract, but on sonship and on love.

But, you can hear Nicodemus still asking the question, "but how does faith make a difference? How does this transition happen"? Last week I was interviewing candidates for ordination, seeking to discern if they had a vocation to the ordained ministry. Each of them has a different story to tell. For some it was people saying to them that they should be a priest. For others it was the way doors seemed to close. Some spoke of an inner conviction, and yet others of how taking services seemed exactly right. Occasionally there were accounts of particular events in which God seemed to speak in a very human voice, but overall there was a sense of being drawn ever closer to God; and being drawn ever closer wanting to know more of God and wanting to spend more and more time with him in prayer.

The picture we are left with is of God gently stirring up new possibilities in people and then slowly drawing them to himself. And the important thing for us today is that God doesn't act any differently with you or I. Like a light breeze on a warm summer's day the breath of his love gently flows over us, stirring up love in response and drawing us to himself. But first we have to see the error of our ways and recognise that salvation lies not with the world, but in the Church. From time to time we are given pointers to that, moments of revelation. They come through the operation of our conscience, they come when other people speak a word of truth to us about our actions, they come when something goes wrong or when we sense that things aren't right. It is then that we need to take note. Then that we need to recognise that God is showing us the error of our ways and pointing the way of righteousness. From that beginning he can work in us, making us increasingly sensitive to right and wrong and leading us ever further into the heart of the Kingdom. It is God's initiative, but we must respond. It is we who must spit it out when we know it is wrong. We who must work hard to do things that are right and good and true. We who must turn to Christ and renew our faith in him day by day. Lent gives us a good opportunity to practice all these things knowing that the breath of his spirit is working in us to help us achieve our goal.

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