Born of water and spirit - 5/30/21

 

Call to worship:

L: You in your fields! Come into the barn, for the voice of the Lord cracks over the grain.

P: The skies are clapping their dappled hands and tramping upon the ground.

L:You in your boots! Come into the shore, for the voice of the Lord breaks over the deep. 

P: The floods are lifting up their voice and pounding upon the strand.

L: You in your shops! Come down to the cellar, for the voice of the Lord whirls over the rooftops.

P: The winds are stripping the forests bare and shaking windows in their frames.

L: You in your fields, your boats, your ships, come into the temple where all shall cry, ”Glory!”

A: Give glory to God, who thunders above! Give glory to God, who rumbles below! Give glory to God, from here to beyond!

Opening Hymn:  Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty   #64

1. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

2. Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

3. Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,
perfect in power, in love and purity.

4. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Opening Prayer:

O Holy One, we enter your presence. Ahead of us a bush burns without leaving an ember; an angel stands without touching the ground. The bush may be just a tree bursting into brilliant flowers, but the sight bewitches. The angel may be just a child swinging from its branches, but the vision entrances. Amen

Your presence, O God, makes of this world a mystery; of this life, an odyssey. Illumine our shadowed world with your glory, that we might behold you in a world transformed. Amen.

Epistle Reading:  Romans 8: 12-17

¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³ for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵ For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Hymn:  For the Beauty of the Earth   #92

1. For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies;

Refrain: Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

2. For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light; (Refrain)

3. For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind's delight,
for the mystic harmony
linking sense to sound and sight; (Refrain)

4. For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild; (Refrain)

5. For thy church, that evermore
lifteth holy hands above,
offering up on every shore
her pure sacrifice of love; (Refrain)

6. For thyself, best Gift Divine,
to the world so freely given,
for that great, great love of thine,
peace on earth, and joy in heaven: (Refrain)

Prayer of Dedication:

O One who is as no other, we dare to call upon your name, for you have revealed that we, like Christ, are one with you. In you our bodies dwell; in you our spirits breathe; in you our minds explore. In you our births are begun, and our deaths transformed. In you our hopes reside, and our fears are harbored. Amen.

Help us to be born again. Inspire in us the confidence that you will be born with us, that you will grow in us. Then surely we will perceive the kingdom, where before we only saw dust.  Amen.

Gospel Reading:   John 3: 1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

Sermon Title:   Born of water and spirit

My mother always told me that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. And yet, here we are, talking about a story where the main point is that we must be “born again” in order to get to heaven. Being born the first time, of water, isn’t going to cut it. We must be born again, and this time of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit.

The real issue, I suppose, is that more people have trouble understanding the Holy Spirit aspect of this than the born again part. So let’s dive into that for a while…

Since we already know that the Holy Spirit is one of the three entities that make up the Holy Trinity that we believe in. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost). Each of these entities is God and each of them stand alone. If that seems difficult to understand, we have only to look at the fact that Jesus himself was completely Divine and completely human at the same time. This is God we are talking about and He/She/Whatever name you give, can do anything.

In Christian theology, pneumatology refers to the study of the Holy Spirit. Due to Christianity’s historical relationship with Judaism, many studious persons identify the Holy Spirit with the concept of Ruach Hakodesh in Jewish scripture, on the theory that Jesus, who himself was Jewish, was expanding upon these Jewish concepts, including the Rauch Elohim (Spirit of God), Rauch YHWH (Spirit of Yahweh), and the Rauch Hakodesh (Holy Spirit). In the New Testament it is identified with the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, the Paraclete and the Holy Spirit.

The New Testament details a very close relationship between the Holy Spirit and Jesus during his earthly life and ministry. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke and the Nicene Creed state that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove during his baptism, and in his farewell discourse after the Last Supper Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples after his departure. The participation of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity nature of conversion is apparent in Jesus’ final post-resurrection instruction to his disciples at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, when he said, “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, the arrival of the Holy Spirit happens fifty days after the resurrection of the Christ, and is celebrate4d with the feast of Pentecost; the birth of the church.

So how do we get born of the Spirit, you ask? Well, we come back to our reading from John where Nicodemus, a Pharisee or holy man, is talking with Jesus with the intentions of gaining more knowledge about heaven. Nicodemus tells Jesus that it is understood among the Pharisees that Jesus is a great teacher and has come from God, for no one could do the things he has done without being so.

And then Jesus tells ol’ Nic that one must be born from above (born of the Holy Spirit) in order to see the Kingdom of God. Of course Nicodemus, who is caught up in the physical world, doesn’t quite get how one can be born again. And after telling Nic that he doesn’t quite have the education that he thinks he has, Jesus tells him in no uncertain terms what God has done for His creation, the people of earth, so that they have the opportunity to be born again; and thus born not only of water (like a baby from a mother’s womb), but also of the Spirit, where we ask the be guided as well as found and cared for as well as loved.

So in this season of Pentecost, let us be thankful for our first birth of water, but let us also be ever vigilant in our progression of being born of the Holy Spirit.

Amen. 

Closing Hymn:  Here I Am, Lord  #593

1. I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin,
My hand will save.

Chorus
Here am I, Lord. Is it I, Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

2. I, who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Chorus

3. I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people's pain.
I have wept for love of them.
They turn away.