Lent 2a:  We can hope.

It is fitting that Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, comes to Jesus in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is the city of Abraham’s blessing, and as the royal city of the promised land, Jerusalem is a monument to faith in things unseen.  Abraham’s blessing wasn’t about great wealth or cultural achievement but about hope.  God promised to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars of the heavens.  But in his lifetime, Abraham and his wife Sarah had only one child.  Abraham had hope in things unseen.  Jesus knew he must give new meaning to the promise of Abraham.    Jesus knew that he must give voice to the hopes, dreams, and yearnings of Israel.

In the Gospel of John that we read today, Jesus has a lot of special knowledge.  This special knowledge is all about hope, hopeful knowledge or hope knowledge.  Jesus knew that he was living water in the desert and that those who drank would never thirst again. That is hope-knowledge.  Jesus knew that he was a light shining in the darkness—and those who had this light would never stumble. That is hope-knowledge. Jesus knew that he was bread come down from heaven to give life of the world for the world. That is hope-knowledge. Jesus had a hopeful plan to unite, to draw all people to himself and so he knew that he was the living vine and those abiding in him would bear much fruit.  That is hope-knowledge. Hope is always and everywhere about change.  Jesus hoped for change and so Jesus knew that to change Israel, he must be the good Shepherd.  The good shepherd is an agent of change and hope.  In this Gospel of John, Jesus is a change agent who begins his work by changing water into wine.

It was long after dark, a secret, back room, private meeting away from the crowds that hovered around Jesus during the day. Nicodemus wanted privacy to cautiously ask Jesus a question, to ponder the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven with one who appeared to know. Nevertheless, when Nicodemus came to Jesus, He did not bring a question. Instead, Nicodemus brought his own announcement of who Jesus was. Nicodemus was a man with heavy baggage, with his many pedigrees, a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews, a teacher in Israel.  He came to Jesus and said, "I have seen your miracles, your signs and wonders, and I know that you are from God. I know who you are."  But Nicodemus is old school, the old dispensation.  Nicodemus doesn’t have hope-knowledge.  That’s why Jesus tells him that he is not born from above.  With hope-knowledge, Jesus looks into the heart of Nicodemus and tells him, “You don’t have a clue.”  For Nicodemus represents people who carefully and cautiously must examine the new things that God may be doing and subject these to painstaking scrutiny in light of past traditions and experiences before jumping in and embracing them.  Nicodemus is wary of change.  He is cynical, doubtful, suspicious.  Because Nicodemus is not born from above, he is unbelieving.  He is hope-less.

Jesus came to do something new.  Jesus came for unity instead of division, hope instead of fear.  Jesus came to draw all things to himself, to break down the dividing wall of Jew and Greek, young and old, male and female, so that we might take hold of our future.  Jesus looks at Nicodemus and says, “You don’t have a clue”, because Jesus calls Nicodemus to change, and Nicodemus measures out his response in coffee spoons.  Jesus calls Nicodemus to allow people to respond to God in a variety of ways and Nicodemus would rather prescribe just one way.

The Spirit blows where it will.  Jesus has the hope-knowledge that God is unpredictable, unforeseeable, incalculable.  Jesus proclaimed that the old ways would not do, that it was time for the Kingdom to break in. The Kingdom of God could not wait another day.  The kingdom could not wait for water to turn to wine.  The kingdom cannot wait for Lazarus to rise from the dead.  The Kingdom cannot wait for the man blind from birth to see. The Kingdom of God cannot wait another day.  And when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, Jesus said “Fear not O Jerusalem, your King has come.”  That was hope- knowledge too.

 The Kingdom of God is not about the battle between the genders, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the Greek or the Jew.  The kingdom of God is about the past versus the future.  What is finished and what is to come.  What is elapsed, spent, over and what is looked for, coming, being born. The kingdom of God is about being born again, about the new things that God is doing.  Jesus is about hope and change.

That is who we are. That is the Kingdom that will be on earth, if we cast off our fears and leave behind our doubts, and choose the Kingdom that we know is possible.  The Spirit that “blows where it wills” came through Jesus and it will come through us too, if we choose God’s future over our past.  Paul prays, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.  This Paul understood about Jesus.  He understood that the Kingdom cannot wait.  He said “only one thing matters, the new creation.” Paul got it; We can hope too. Amen.