Speaking of Heavenly Things

We have heard of someone who is teaching and preaching unlike anything we have heard before.  This person is gaining a following.  They even say that this person is performing miracles.  Yet many of the our peers are suspicious of this person, maybe even jealous.  There are even whispers that this person could be the long hoped for Messiah.  I may jeopardize my position by openly going to see this person.  So I go under the cover of night to see and listen to this person for myself.  What I find out is more than I could have ever imagined.
In today’s gospel, we are introduced to Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  Nicodemus is well educated and holds a high position in Jewish society.  He has decided that he must go to meet Jesus for himself.  Everything he has heard up to this point has been fascinating.  Jesus preaches and teaches with the kind of authority that even the most senior leaders in the synagogues do not possess.  Jesus has also performed miracles like healing the sick.  Many were coming to Jesus.  Yet Nicodemus, because of his position, had to be careful.  So he went to Jesus at night when no one would see him and he could speak freely.
As educated as Nicodemus was, he was not ready for the heavenly concepts that Jesus was talking with him about.  Nicodemus was like most of us.  He spoke of what he knew.  When Jesus began speaking about being born from above (or depending on the Bible translation, born again), Nicodemus could only use his earthly intelligence to try to understand Jesus.  The idea of being born from above had no real meaning for Nicodemus.  His earthly experience had him wondering how someone could be born again.  Jesus tried different ways of explaining what he meant.  Jesus was not talking about a physical rebirth.  Jesus was talking about a spiritual rebirth, like when we are baptized or even when we are confirmed.  We become a new person in the spirit.
Jesus goes on a discourse and seems to be talking to all of us.  Jesus seems to chastise us when he says that we do not receive his testimony.  He is right.  We do not.  We continue on with our human understanding and forgetting that Jesus brings us a new way of living and understanding - if we will only listen.  It is like we have forgotten that God said that we should listen to Jesus.  
Many of the things that Jesus said that day to Nicodemus, he did not understand.  Most humans of that time would not understand His meaning until after His death and resurrection.  Jesus draws the analogy of Moses lifting up the serpent so his people to be healed from their snake bits and Jesus being lifted up on the cross to save us from our sins.
Then Jesus utters one of the most remembered verses of the New Testament: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.
We are reminded that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world, but to save it.
Brothers and sisters, today we are listening to Jesus talk about heavenly things.  All these generations later, the words are not always easier to understand, but they are definitely worth the effort to understand how much God loves us.  It is ok if we do not get it the first or even the second time around.  We can admit to being a little like Nicodemus.  We can pray for guidance as Jesus reveals His Truth to us.  We can prove by our faith and our deeds that we believe in the words and mission of Jesus Christ.  If we are sincere, everlasting life with God begins now and continues on our journey to heaven.
The good news of today’s gospel is that Jesus will always be with us to help us to understand the heavenly things.  All we really have to do is believe in Him.  Then we have to act accordingly.  We may have to be brave like Nicodemus.  We may have to search for Jesus and listen to Him for ourselves.  It is ok if we search for Jesus in the dead of night when no one else is looking.  The important part is that we never stop searching for Jesus and His wisdom.  We must never stop trying to be better.  We must never tire of trying to understand.  Jesus will never tire of us seeking Him and Him welcoming us.
St. James family, we are continuing our journey through Lent.  We are seeking to understand the message of Jesus and to change our lives.  Thank goodness, we serve a patient God who will never tire of our questions.  We will make the necessary changes needed to help change our lives, improve the lives of our families, help our communities, and save our church.  We need to remember that the foundation of a better life is love of God and love of neighbor.  God bless us all.  Amen.