Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17
2nd Sunday of
Lent
Expectations of Life
I do have to admit that
childbirth is a bit of a mystery to me.
Not having any children of my own certainly contributes to the mystery
as well as having no recollection at all of my own birth. I have had the blessing of being around
families for the birth of their children.
And I do mean that it is a blessing.
After the struggles and changes that come with pregnancy, the arrival of
the new bundle of joy seems to be a fitting conclusion. I say "seems to be" because in all
reality, the birth of a child is hardly a conclusion;
it's really a beginning. The arrival of
a child is the beginning of a new chapter of not only the family, but certainly
the child's life as well. It's the
beginning of what will hopefully be decades of growing, learning, and
living. A child's birth is not so much
an arrival as it is a start.
In our
reading from
Jesus says
to Nicodemus, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the
To be born
again/above and by water and Spirit/wind is no doubt a mystery. The depths of its meaning and just how it all
fully works is truly beyond human conception.
Yet just because we do not fully understand or can completely articulate
its meaning to the fullest extent of its depth doesn't mean that it isn't real;
that it doesn't matter. Yet just because we do not fully understand how this birth
works, we can still be certain that the birth is real because it comes to us as
a part of God's promise through Jesus Christ.
Now, what do we do with this knowledge
of being born again/above? We can
approach it for what it is; we can approach it as our birth. I mentioned earlier that the arrival of a
bundle of joy is not a completion but a beginning. Likewise, being born again/above is not the
end, not the completion, but the beginning, the start of truly living. Just as an infant starts a lifetime of
growing, learning, and living a life in this world, so too do we begin a
lifetime of spiritual growing, spiritual learning, and spiritual living when we
are born again/above. Yet this new life
is not something passive; it’s something that we are expected to fully engage
in.
Expectations are a part of all of our
lives; and they begin at an early age.
For instance, infants are expected to meet certain developmental
benchmarks for the first few months and years of their lives. Parents are always observing their newborns
to make sure that they begin to reach for objects, recognize faces, roll over,
crawl, begin to walk, etc. Of course
these developmental expectations do not stop in infancy. Children too have expectations. Children usually have to be toilet-trained
before attending pre-schools. And then,
don't forget the expectations that children have when they begin school. Children need to know the alphabet before
beginning first grade. There are
expectations of learning throughout school.
Then upon graduation, there are expectations placed on people before
they get their first job. And the
expectations continue to mount and become more difficult. Yet such expectations are just that gradual
and essential. They're certainly expected
of adults. We would think it truly sad
if not a crime if we knew of an eight year old who was never toilet trained or
never taught to speak particularly if they were fully capable of doing
both. How much worse if it was a forty
year old!
We have similar expectations placed on
us when we're born again/above. Were
expected to grow, learn, and live spiritually after being born again/above just
as we are expected to grow, learn, and live after we're physically born. It would be sad if we came across a capable
eight year old who was never toilet trained and it would be absurd if we came
across a capable forty year old who was never toilet trained. Yet this happens all the time with those who
claim to be born again/above. There are
many Christians out there who have ceased to grow, learn, and live after being
born again/above. Think how absurd it
would be to come across a fifty year old adult who has simply lived as a one year
old for fifty years. Yet that's exactly
what some Christians do after being born again/above. Yes, salvation is extremely important, but
true Christian faith is about what we do after being saved.
How do we spiritually grow,
spiritually learn, and spiritually live after being born again/above? We do so by attending to acts of piety;
studying scripture, prayer, worship, receiving Holy Communion, fasting. We do so by attending to acts of mercy;
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for our neighbor - particularly
the neighbors that we wish were not there to begin with. We do so by loving the Lord our God and our
neighbor as ourselves. We do so by
living a life based on three simple rules: do no harm, do good, stay in love
with God.
We are children of God. We have been born again/above. And we are expected to grow, learn, and live
spiritually. As the last two verses of
our reading from
SDG