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STARTING OVER – AGAIN!
A sermon preach February 17, 2008 at University United Methodist Church, East
Lansing, by John Ross Thompson
Genesis 12:1-4a
12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and
your father's house to the land that I will show you.
12:2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your
name great, so that you will be a blessing.
12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will
curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
12:4a So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
John 3:1-17
3:1 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
3:2 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."
3:3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom
of God without being born from above."
3:4 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?"
3:5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of
God without being born of water and Spirit.
3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
3:7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'
3:8 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."
3:9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"
3:10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not
understand these things?
3:11 "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.
3:12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can
you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
3:13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man.
3:14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up,
3:15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
3:16 "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.
3:17 "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.
Poor Abram!
Poor Nicodemus!
Was Abraham faithful or just plain stupid? It depends on who is making the
judgment. With hindsight, we see Abraham as a man of deep faith and trust in
God. To his contemporaries, however, he must have appeared crazy. He was
prepared to leave the security of a settled, urban life for the danger of a
nomadic future spent wandering across inhospitable Middle Eastern deserts
looking for a new home. He even took his family with him on this wild adventure.
John Wesley said, “By deserting his country he lost his name there: care not
for that (said God) but trust me, and I will make thee a greater name than ever
thou couldst have had there.”
Poor Nicodemus!
He came to Jesus under the cover of darkness - 'a ruler of the Jews' - a
member of the Sanhedrin which, in most domestic matters, the Romans allowed to
operate as both a civil and religious governing body. Its seventy members were
presided over by the High Priest. Nicodemus was not only a member of this
council, he was also a Pharisee - a member of one of the stricter sects in
Judaism. In many ways the Pharisees were the best people in the whole country.
There were never more than 6,000 of them; but they were known as a brotherhood.
The Bible is meaningful because it gives us stories of real people. Some of
them were people who thought they had arrived in life, only to find out they
needed to start over.
Start over? Me? Again?
God is many ways is the God of new beginnings.
It can happen to almost anyone of us.
Something that changes our lives – sometimes something we choose and often
something that is thrust upon us.
Education
Home foreclosures
Health
Family situations
A new child
Relationships
Jobs - Sparrow layoffs
Ford, General Motors, Chrysler layoffs and buyouts
…..and in your new beginnings you will be –
Moses – a new name, a promise, and a blessing
Nicodemus – saved, made whole
Black History Month – many who had no choice at all in their new beginnings.
Paul in the New Testament discusses “working out our salvation”.
Being born again is not a one-time experience
Methodism is know for its emphasis on “going on to perfection”.
One of the great love stories of literature is that of Elizabeth Barrett. She
was 40 years old, had been an invalid for 25 years, and was living the life of a
recluse in a secluded, darkened room. One day Robert Browning walked into that
room; they fell in love, were married, and had a child. It was the start of a
whole new life for Elizabeth Barrett Browning after a time when most people
would have said her fate had long since frozen into immobility.
The same thing happened to John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist
movement, who at age 35 was a dejected and rejected ex-missionary whose
preaching turned people off more often than it turned them on. Then one night at
a Moravian prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, the Holy Spirit broke
through the life of this broken Anglican pastor who felt for the first time that
"God had forgiven my sins, even mine."
Think of Grandma Moses.
Think of this year, when we have a 71-year-old candidate for President.
An Army man for more than 35 years had been a heavy drinker with a
temperament of a top sergeant long after he had become a Colonel. He spoke
before a group of doctors. He said he'd had a personality change and now he was
as temperate as he had once been intemperate, as considerate as he had once been
severe, as concerned for others as he had once been selfish. In the audience was
a psychiatrist of the school which says that personalities are set very early
and who protested that at his age you can't have a personality change. "Well,"
replied this member of Alcoholics Anonymous, "at least I am under new
management."
"'Born again' is a wonderful gift, but it’s not the end of the journey - it’s
just the beginning." - Thomas Keating
I saw on TV this week a segment showing Barack Obama at a rally. He said he
was greeting folk and someone came up and quietly said, "I'm a Republican... and
I'm voting for you." To which Obama responds, "Thanks. I appreciate that." Then
he adds, "Why are we whispering?" This reminds me of the Nicodemus story, for
he did a similar thing with Jesus in the story of coming by night. We can ask
the same question of ourselves -- Why are we whispering?
Not all changes are unexpected or bad. Some are chosen, but challenging.
Kennetha and Kee and Keeton in our church recently chose to adopt Kamden.
Through it all – God is the God whose love covers it all
John 3:16
The bad news is that sometimes we need to start over again.
The good news is that we can start over again.
God is with us, and God comes to us through supportive, loving people all
around us.
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