Second Sunday in Lent A; 03.01.26; G. Miles Smith+
Updated: Jul 30
John 3:1-17 2nd Sunday in Lent A; 03.01.26; G. Miles Smith+
I can wonder...that if I had not grown up in church…and had had so many good experiences with other Christians…if I would be a Christian today. And I say that specifically in terms of…the bewildering display of Christianity these days...in which a person can get lost.
There is the practical reality of there being just so many individual congregations of so many different denominations and each with their own histories, cultures, personalities, and challenges—much of which you can have no idea of until you venture in. That alone can be a huge leap to take…if you have had little or no experience of Church.
Then you have churches these days which do not name their denominational affiliation…and you either have to directly ask them who they are…or you may need to use Artificial Intelligence to find out what denominational family they actually belong to.
And then you have to navigate the personalities and thinking of the priest or pastor of any church you visit. That can be another piece of work!
There are just so many practical realities of Church to navigate. But then there is the terribly vexing reality of Christianity…where there is so much disagreement between Christians over all kinds of important matters...especially as it plays out in the public sphere. In other words, it is hardly clear what being a Christian actually means…when Christians so often do not agree. And so what is an unchurched person to do? Or even regularly churched people? Who do you listen to? It can be so confusing.
Which is why I’m rather fond of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was deeply involved in the top of the religious leadership of his day…as both a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. And…he was apparently privately unsettled. So much so…that he approached Jesus…secretly…by visiting him at night.
A rather intense conversation ensued between the two of them. And I am still uncertain as to what was actually happening there. Was Nicodemus actually clueless as to what Jesus was trying to say? Or were they engaged in a respectful but intense banter through which Jesus was leading Nicodemus? I don’t know, but there is definitely a sense in which Nicodemus was…in the dark.
He was in the dark…and on some level he knew he was in the dark…and he was willing to bring that to Jesus.
Nicodemus was part of the top of the religious leadership of his day…and yet…he had managed to hear and witness enough of religious life…and Jesus…to be unsettled. And he took his unsettledness directly to Jesus.
Because of two later references to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John…we know that that conversation significantly affected Nicodemus. Later in John 7, Nicodemus reminded his colleagues in the Sanhedrin that their law required that a person like Jesus be heard before being judged. And finally in John 19, after Jesus’ crucifixion, Nicodemus helped with the preparation of Jesus’ body for burial. Something had shifted in Nicodemus…because of his experience of Jesus.
Jesus had said that “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above”…and that the Spirit of God that does this…acts mysteriously…affecting us even beyond what we are able to understand.
So maybe one of the surest signs of the Spirit of Jesus touching Nicodemus…and our spirits…is that we may come already unsettled somewhere in our experience of life…and religion…but then find ourselves unsettled differently by a love and respect for Jesus which the Spirit brings.
Such unsettledness, respect, and love for Jesus…was apparently enough for Nicodemus to be recognized later across the Church of the East and West…as a saint.
So, what do we do with the bewildering display of Christianity these days—with so many painfully different and contradictory voices? It sure is complicated. And it can be very discouraging to witness.
But Nicodemus found something even more compelling in Jesus. And maybe this is going to sound like a cliché—but sometimes clichés can be true: I am wondering if the best thing we can do in these days as Christians…is to keep praying…and to keep returning to Jesus.
And if I was going to get more specific about this, then I would say that it is important for us to:
Keep praying the prayers that we already pray together…and to really notice what we are being given to pray.
And to allow any unsettledness within us to not carry us away, but to take us to Jesus…as he has promised that he can still speak through the scriptures and Holy Communion.
There is plenty enough there…to give any person…who needs a secret meeting with Jesus…a place to begin again.
