New birth is basic to our Christian understanding of how God reconciles you and me to Himself. I’ve walked in the flesh (instead of the spirit) like Nicodemus was walking that night and those drear and somber states of the soul may still come over me again before I leave this earth. Walking in the flesh sounds and feels like this: “Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find, me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” (“Invictus” by William Earnest Hinley). This me-centered flesh attempts to control destiny by being my own master and opposing God’s will. Then I miss the mark and live in sin away from God’s perfect plan.
Jesus introduced Nicodemus to a rebirth into his spiritual existence. This is life changing for anyone. For me as a 10-year-old boy having asked Jesus to come into my heart. I still didn’t feel changed very much. By the time I was to be baptized at 11, the preacher had done such a good job of convincing me that all my sins would be washed away and that I would be a totally new person – I was convinced that I was going to die and another person, “a new creature” was going to take my place. In my child’s mind and imagination I was easily mixing my preachers sermon messages up with many tales I heard or watched in the movies. That summer a horror movie played on our local Saturday morning matinee called the “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” It convinced me that there might be some evil forces that could make perfect physical duplicates of original people out of big plant pods. They would be indistinguishable from the original person, except for their milk toast bland lack of emotion. Rev. J. Omar Jones preached about a loving God who could change me into a good person, one who would be more obedient to my parents and even maybe make better grades in school. So I thought it would be better to get in the first punch on this body snatching business and let God snatch me into being more like Jesus in a permanent kind of way.
This kind of playful imagination still goes on in many children’s minds and hearts. And although I have convinced myself that I have a more grownup understanding of what Jesus does in my life, I still remember the feeling that I was really going to die when I so much as touched the water for my baptism. Then when the pastor put me under and pulled me out while saying, “buried with Christ Jesus and raised to walk with Him in newness of life” I was astounded that I seemed to be the same person.
My friend Fred Craddock used to teach preaching at Emory University and he still likes to say in his sermons one particular phrase to explain how much of God’s grace it takes to change a person’s life: “It’s enough . . . it’s just enough.” That night when Nicodemus was with Jesus - those few words spoken were “just enough.” There was a little part of me that did die when I asked Jesus to come into my heart so as to make room for Him. And then when I was raised from the water still a little bit must have died for God’s Holy Spirit to work in me. That seed of faith God planted changed me “just enough” at that time and continues to grow in my life. Some people give this process after new birth in the Spirit a fancy title like “moving on to perfection” or “growing in grace” or “the process of sanctification.” All I know for sure is that it’s “just enough” for God to still change me. I feel sometimes like I’m still walking down that aisle with Jesus.
The Spirit’s basic lesson plan is “death and resurrection.” There are themes of captivity and exodus, wandering and finding a home, exile and return, forgetting what is behind and pressing toward the goal, putting off and putting on, dead to sin and alive to righteousness, sin and grace, cross and tomb, being strangers and being made members of the household of faith.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You so very much for not changing me or my brothers and sisters here with some body snatching spirituality of instant overwhelming promises, packaged relief or honey-coated Cracker Jack savior. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit that changes us “just enough” from wintry waiting periods that can only be learned with a fever of 104. Thank You for Your faith, love and hope that come to us in the waiting for You, “so the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” For the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright; And Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth, The Kingdom of Love and Light. I wait for You and I hope that all of us here wait for You to rebirth this church and these people, in the precious name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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