Things to Do and Places to Go
Text: John 3:1-17; Romans 8:5-14 (Reading from Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message)
Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.
9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
Let me highlight the heart of what I have just read. Listen again:
Obsession with self is a dead end. Attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God... When God lives and breathes in you, you are delivered from that dead life. With Christ's spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's. ..the best thing for you to do is give your old self-centered, do-it-yourself life a decent burial, and get on with your new life. God's spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go.
Well that pretty much sums up the basic meaning of the gospel.
Unless we can get our ego out of the way, we will continue to live in a dead end life.
Unless we die to self, we will not rise to new life. We will live in a dead end.
If you want to follow Jesus, you have to get ego out of the way so the Spirit can come in and take over. God is in charge, not your ego.
If there is no death of ego, there is no Spirit filled life. So, let go, and let God.
I wonder what it is like for each of you. I know what it is like for me.
It is damn hard to get ego out of the way. I struggle with it every day. How is it with you?
Jesus said the only way is that we must undergo a “death”. That is why he said we have to daily take up our cross to follow him. Unless the self dies, we will seldom live in the here and now. We will seldom live in the present where God is. That part of our self we call the “ego” always takes us to some other place, to some other time. In fact many of you sitting here now are not present—you have been lost in the past, or running off to the future after church is out, or you have been off somewhere doing something else. Your ego has split you into a divided person, and you are seldom all present. Your heart is divided, you mind is filled with many things. And part of you says you want to know God better, to have God touch your life. You want to walk with Christ.
But, our thinking, planning, self-serving ego is in charge and it is busy controlling our life. As long as this is true, we will miss seeing the Christ in our presence, we will miss the movement of the Holy Spirit blowing around us, we will miss the touch of God. The abundant life promised by Jesus will elude us.
Don't take me for a fool when I say this. But the reality is that your “head” may lead you into the greatest success story of your family, or of your school classmates, or of your fondest dreams. Strong egos are good achievers. But you will be living a dead end life, and miss the adventure of life with God. There are places to go and things to do that you can not even imagine as long as our ego is in charge.
Have you found that being religious isn’t really much of a help? You go to church, you give you money, put in some time, maybe sing in the choir, say a prayer now and then. But all the words, all the ritual, doing all the right things–and you still wonder if God even notices. Is God even around? The more religious we are, don’t we expect God to hang around more often? I mean, why not? If some people talk to God every day, and some people talk to God only once a month–where do you think God is going to hang around?
But I have found it doesn’t work out that way. Being religious doesn’t guarantee a difference.
That’s what Nicodemus found out. John’s gospel says that Nicodemus was a Pharisee, one of the leaders. He knew the Law, and he lived with a religious discipline. People followed him. But something was wrong. Being religious left him wondering what he had to do to be close to God. He was religious, but he did not have the Spirit. Jesus figured him out right away. Here is a man who is living a religious life and yet is missing out on the whole thing. Even with all his religion He has missed the kingdom of God. He has not breathed the Spirit. He has not been filled with the Spirit.
Jesus said, “Nicodemus, you must be born from above. From the Spirit.”
This was not a good week for Nicodemus. He came to see Jesus, and was looking for a way to be close to God, and Jesus talks to him about being filled with the Spirit to be born from above.
And so Nicodemus missed it–religious man that he was— he missed it all.
“What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?" He asks Jesus.
Isn’t that our question too? Isn’t that what we ask on most days.
Here I am Lord!, Where are you?
Are you walking with me? Are you working with me?
Are you running beside me? Here I am, Lord.
What do I have to do to know you are with me, here?
Oh yes, we are a lot like Nicodemus–we carry our religion around with us from day to day–say our prayers from time to time; worship on some Sundays and count it worthwhile. We want to think our baptism was enough–after all, we had the water on our heads, the preacher said the right words.
David Adam says in our REFLECTION FOR WORSHIP, “We have a little bit of faith, a few beliefs, some grasp the story of Jesus, some even know a few parables. But it can hardly be called an immersion. We dip in now and again when we feel like it. It’s a strange relationship with our God. It could hardly be called a “love affair.”
A love affair! Isn't that what you want? Instead of being a dipper, to be a lover!
What is Madison Square like, after all? Are we dippers or lovers?
Brother Lawrence was a 17th century monk who mostly worked in the monastery kitchen. But he became famous for the letters he wrote to people inquiring about matters of faith. Those letters are collected into a little book title, Practice of the Presence of God. In it he writes about the immersion into faith, the love affair with God. Listen to his words:
It is not necessary to always be in church to be with God, we can make a private chapel of our heart where we can retire from time to time to commune with him, peacefully, humbly, lovingly; everyone is capable of these intimate conversations with God, some more some less. God knows what we can do…Become accustomed then, little by little to adore God in this way: demand of God his grac; offer him your heart from time to time during the day in the midst of your work, at every moment you can…
How do we immerse ourselves? How do we learn the practices of faith to be present with God?
- When you come to church, is this the place where you learn how to get your “ego self” out of the way so you can be present with God?
- Is this the place where you learn the disciplines of meditation to silence the mind so you can hear the Spirit whisper?
- Is this the place where prayer comes alive and you not only speak to God, but become practiced in listening to God as well.
- Is this the place where you learn to love and not fake it?
- Is this the place where you learn the meaning of serving others instead of serving self? Where self-centeredness is left outside the door?
- Is this the place where you learn how to bring justice into all relationships, both private and public?
- Is this the place where you discover what it means to be born from above to be led by the holy spirit?
- Is this the place where you learn the practice of holy reading, lectio divina, so God can speak to you in the reading of scripture or other texts?
Learning these practices is what the church community is for. Are we there yet?
Is it happening here? It can.
What kind of church might we become if we were to be filled with the Spirit? There is a book titled Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. The fruitful congregation practices “radical hospitality,” it has “passionate worship,” it does “intentional faith development,” it is involved in “risk-taking mission and service,” and it practices “extravagant generosity”.
The disciple came to the Master and said, “Will these disciplines you are teaching me lead to enlightenment?”
“No more than they will cause the sun to rise,” the Master said.
“Then why are you teaching them to me?”
“So that you will be awake when the sun rises.”
There is nothing holding you back from becoming any kind of church community you want to be. There is nothing holding you back from reaching out and embracing each other and creating a strong community of faith. The lid is off of Madison Square Church.
You know this song, so join in singing with me, “Day by Day” . (Day by day, dear Lord, three things I pray, to see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, to follow thee more nearly, day by day).
Jesus speaks to us, even as he answered Nicodemus:
Oh, Nicodemus, you are not hearing me. You are a respected religious leader, but you only listen with your ears. You are not listening with your heart–so you have not understood the ways of God. Your ego hears the ways of the world. But your heart hears the ways of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that you seek. It is the Spirit that brings life. It is the Spirit that gives you new birth. It is the Spirit that comes like the wind blowing free and unannounced, and uncontrolled. Like the wind, you breathe it in and let it fill you and transform you. Like the wind, you do not see the Spirit, but you feel it. Open your heart, Nicodemus. Let the Spirit fill you with trust:
Trust me. Trust my life, trust my death, trust my resurrection,
trust my Father in Heaven who loves you.
Let the Spirit fill you and lead you into a new life of adventure.
God has things for you to do, and places for you to go.
Tell God you are ready, Nicodemus. Say to God,
“Here I am. God. Take me. Take my Day. Take my life. ”
Take me in, send me out.
Trust God, Nicodemus. Listen with your heart for the Spirit.
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