Sunday, March 16, 2014

Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-8, 13-17
John 3:1-17

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

Have you ever heard it said, “S/he deserves this gift”? We’ve probably all said it once or twice. We go to the trouble of finding the perfect gift for someone who has done something great, like the father who buys his daughter a car for her graduation. “She deserves this gift because she had worked so hard to get that diploma.” This is an oxymoron. If it is deserved, then it is not a gift, it is payment for the work. If it is a gift, then there need not be a reason for giving it.

Paul tells us that we don’t receive the gracious gifts of God because we deserve them. We can’t trust enough, believe enough, work enough to deserve God’s blessing. We don’t deserve heaven. We don’t deserve the gifts that God gives. If we deserved these things, if we have done something to earn them, then they aren’t gifts. But we receive heaven and God’s blessings because He has offered them to us and we believe Him. That’s righteousness; we aren’t righteous because we’ve done something or because we are somebody who deserves what God has given. We are made righteous by the faith given to us to believe what God says.

God never said we’d be blessed for our works. We are blessed because of faith. Abraham was given an incredible promise, one that is beyond anything we might expect. He was promised that his name would be great and that his offspring would become a great nation. To see the fulfillment of this promise, Abram would have to leave everything he knew and loved behind and trust in God’s Word. He did not deserve what would come. As a matter of fact, he did not even see the fulfillment himself. But his offspring did. They received the promise because God was faithful. And we receive the same promise because God is faithful.

The promise was given to Abraham later in the book of Genesis than our scripture for today. But today’s passage shows us the beginning of the journey. In Chapter 15, God tells Abraham to look at all the stars in the sky and promises that his offspring will equal that number. It was a hard promise to believe because Abraham was old and his wife had not given him any children. Yet, we know that Abraham believed and it was credited to him as righteousness.

But let’s look at the beginning of his story. Abram didn’t know anything about God. He followed a different religion which worshipped a multitude of gods. They had a god for everything, and prayed to those gods to meet their daily needs. One day, however, Abram heard a voice that told him to pack up his entire life, leave everything he knew and loved behind, and travel to some place he did not know. This voice promised Abram that his name would be so great, that he would be so blessed, and that he would deal with everyone, good and bad, according to their relationship with Abram.

If you heard a voice like this, what would you do? In today’s modern age, everyone around you would say you were crazy. They might even lock you up. We don’t know how Abram’s family and friends reacted; perhaps they threatened to do the same thing. It didn’t matter to Abram. He packed up his life and he went into the wilderness following a voice that he trusted. It took faith to leave the past behind and go into the world chasing after a promise. Even at this moment, Abram believed God, and though we do not hear it credited to him until later in the story, Abram was righteous from the very beginning. He had a right relationship with God from the moment he heard his voice.

God’s promises were misunderstood by Jesus’ time. Instead of trusting in God, the people trusted in their own righteousness. But Abram’s righteousness came not after he did something; he was made righteous by the invitation from God to which he responded. The same is true for us.

We often talk about inviting Jesus into our hearts. There is even a painting that has long been misinterpreted to mean exactly this. The painting shows Jesus on the outside of a closed door with no handle. He’s knocking, and wants us to let him in. Many people have interpreted that to mean that we should open the door, invite Jesus inside, and make Him a part of our life. However, the scripture on which is based, Revelation 3, is written to the people who are already Christians. It is a message to the Church at Laodicea, whose people have forgotten their first love.

We can only invite Jesus into our hearts because He is already there. He snuck in by the back door, and when we heard the knocking (or the voice) He whispered, “Trust. Answer. Everything’s good.” That’s what happened with Abram. God was already there, so when he heard the voice, he trusted, answered. And in the end, everything was good.

Nicodemus knew there was something to what Jesus was preaching, but he didn’t understand it. He knew Jesus came from God, but he didn’t have the heart connection. His faith was still in himself, his family ties and his position. He confessed that he knew Jesus was who He said He, but Jesus knew that his thinking was upside down and backwards. Jesus answered his confession, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus thinking as they all did in those days, “according to the flesh.”

Paul uses this term often in his letters, but it isn’t meant to separate our flesh from our spirit. In the verses that are left out of today’s reading, Paul talks about circumcision. Those who lived in that day, according to that faith, believed that they were made righteous by circumcision. They believed they were sons of Abraham very literally by the cutting of their flesh. Abraham was quite old when he was circumcised. The act would have been extremely painful and perhaps even life threatening. But it was not the circumcision that made him righteous. He trusted God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

In today’s passage, the phrase means that they lived according to human standards. They believed they were righteous because they were obedient to doing what they were supposed to do. They were circumcised, so they must be godly. They did what they were supposed to do, so they must be children of Abraham. They want righteousness credited to them because they have earned it.

The word credited is a legal term. Some translations use the word “counted.” We like to make check-lists and to-do lists, mostly because it is so uplifting to see things get checked off. I feel like I’ve accomplished something when I get to the end of a day and all my errands have been run. I feel good when my household chore list is complete. When we do reach the end of a list, we often reward ourselves. We do the same thing with our faith. We make check-lists, as if we can do enough things to earn the reward. I went to church: check. I tithed: check. I did a good deed for my neighbor: check. I didn’t break any the commandments today: check. That’s how they felt in the days of Jesus. Nicodemous was probably a good man according to his checklist. He probably deserved to go to heaven.

But Jesus told him that it isn’t enough to live according to human expectations. Nicodemus was a smart guy. He knew the scriptures. He was a leader of the Jews. But he didn’t get it. Jesus confirms Nicodemus’ confession of faith. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus has seen the kingdom of God, even though at this point he does not fully understand what it means. Even in the later stories of Nicodemus, we do not see someone who is passionate about his faith, but Nicodemus is quietly faithful in the trial against his Lord and as he helped put Jesus into the tomb.

The conversation continues as Jesus tries to explain the deeper things of God. He tells Nicodemus about new birth and about the anointing of the Spirit of God, but he can’t seem to see these things through his eyes that have been conditioned by his religious understanding and the culture in which he lives. To him, birth happens once and righteousness comes from the law. He knows Jesus has come from God but he can’t understand the deeper purposes of His life and His future death. Jesus points to the cross in this passage, telling this Pharisee that He would be lifted up in death to bring life for those who believe. It is no wonder that Nicodemus was confused; this was a very radical revelation for the Jews.

God promised to bless Abram and his descendents and to curse their enemies. This is a promise we can embrace. Wouldn’t we all love to see our friends blessed and our enemies punished? We see a similar message in today’s Psalm: God will protect you from all harm. Yet, this promise is not the end, it is just the beginning. God says, “…and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. Israel was blessed to be a blessing. We are blessed to be a blessing.

This is radically different than the worldly view by which we live. We look at our life, with all the good things we have and we think, “I worked hard for all this.” We do work hard at our jobs and perhaps we deserve to have the nice house and the car parked in our driveway. Yet, the voice of God calls us to look at these things with a new vision, through eyes of faith. How different would our life be if we woke up every morning and said, “God, everything I have is yours, lead me to use it for your glory.” Instead we wake up grumbling that we have to go to work to earn the money to maintain the lifestyle we have created for ourselves and we do not see the opportunities that God presents to us daily to live in faith. We are no different than Nicodemus, even though our religious view might be. We still live according to the flesh. We still strive to check off everything on our lists, expecting the reward for our faith. Sadly, faith doesn’t always mean faithfulness.

Abram had faith, but he was also faithful. He responded to the invitation despite the dangers and unknown. He had confident trust in God’s voice and followed Him. God’s voice invites us into the unknown. I confess that there have been times when I failed or refused to follow.

Jesus calls us to look at the world through the eyes of faith. We have been blessed to be a blessing and so we go forth in faith to share God’s kingdom with the world. We may see our neighbors as Nicodemus, doubtful and confused, but Jesus sees them differently. He knows there is a seed to be watered or a spark to be fanned and He sends us out to make that faith grow. We may never see the fulfillment of the promise; Abraham certainly didn’t. His children did not inherit the Promised Land until four hundred years after Abraham died, yet he continued to walk in faith.

The scriptures are not clear about what happened to Nicodemus, we don’t know the end of his story. The same is true about many of the people that cross our path. With our worldly eyes we see unbelievers who don’t care about God. They may even challenge our faith with their questions and their doubts. It is easy to assume that God will do with them what we will, bless and curse them according to their flesh. And yet, Paul reminds us that God justifies the ungodly whose faith is counted as righteousness. See, we can never deserve the gift, otherwise it would be a reward. We are blessed not because we do everything right but because God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to pay our debt.

So often we focus on that one verse in the scriptures. John 3:16 is beloved and well known. John 3:16 is recognized the world over. Anyone who has ever seen a football game on television has seen signs raised above the crowds beseeching people to believe in God. Even if they can’t quote the verse word-for-word, even non-Christians know what it says. It is the foundation of our faith. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life.”

This is a favorite passage because it shows both God’s gospel and man’s response. God loves and if we believe, we will not die. Yet, John 3:16 should not be taken without verse 17. “For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.” We like to think of God in terms of love, and love He is. However, it is not love that saves us. Love is the reason why we are saved, but it is not our salvation. Forgiveness saves us.

God forgives. God forgives because He loves, but love is not the foundation of our faith. We are saved by God’s mercy, by His forgiveness. Nicodemus went to Jesus in darkness, seeking answers to the questions of his heart. There was something about Jesus, but Nicodemus was afraid. What did it all mean? What was He saying? Nicodemus was a teacher. He was responsible for the spiritual lives of the people, yet he could not understand what Jesus was saying. Nicodemus understood the Law. He understood the things he could grasp and the things that he could do. He lived according to the flesh.

It is easier to respond to God’s word than it is to accept His grace. It is easier to think that all we have to do is open the door in our own way, or that we just need to check a few more things off our list and we’ll be saved. But we will never deserve the salvation that is given as a gift from God. He invites us into a relationship, not expecting us to be righteous in it; the invitation makes us right with Him. He’s already inside, speaking those words that will gently guide us on the path He has ordained. We were once among the ungodly, those who were outside the covenant promise of God, but He called to us and invited us into the relationship He established through Abraham, who has become our father, too, not according to the flesh, but by trust in God.