The Eyes Have It

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent Yr A
March 8, 2020
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
The Reverend Canon Michael J. Horvath
Gospel: John 3:1-17

Take a moment to think about a situation that you wished you had a second chance to change, correct, or avoid.  We all have them, don’t we?  The times when we wish we hadn’t said those words that finally broke down a relationship.  Those times when we wished we had told someone who is no longer with us just how much we loved them, how much they meant to us. How about those times when we met someone visiting our church and only later realize that we didn’t ask what their name was?  Or the times we denied ourselves the opportunity to do something interesting or different because we were scared of change?  How many of those situations fill your heart?  Our lists are likely to be long if we sit and really think about it.  I think about it in my personal life and as your rector.  And I find myself sometimes up in the middle of the night thinking about it all in various degrees.

I imagine similar thoughts were crowding Nicodemus’ head that night as he lay in bed.  I imagine him tossing and turning until he stirred himself to go out into the night air and seek Jesus, the man he had heard so much about.  I imagine that Nicodemus knew in his heart that there was still something new to learn about God, a revelation that he yearned for, being a man of God himself.  It has been wrecking havoc on his heart and mind and something in him is seeking to be born anew.  Jesus says “Truly, truly I tell you unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” [NRSV - Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”] I don’t think Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he had to leave all that he knew and believed to ultimately see the Kingdom of God.  What I think Jesus was telling him was that Nicodemus had to acquire the eyes of a baby, a child, and to see the Kingdom of God in his midst.

And you know what Jesus is talking about.  You see babies and young children doing it all the time.  They seem to approach every new experience (like a new toy) as though it held all the world’s vast mysteries in it.  They don’t try to explain it or judge it, they simply experience it, connecting to something that is wildly new and spiritually familiar.  There is a sense of wonder that is not crowded out by past experiences, disappointments, sadness  and pain.  It’s a pure posture of wonderment.  And haven’t we lost that?  Being adults we know everything, some of us have turned cynical with such great knowledge.  Is there room in you for wondering, for being present to this very moment with an open heart and mind?  Or are you sitting in your pews thinking about all the things that fill up our know-everything adult minds?

Then of course, we need to address what I think is the saddest part of today’s Gospel reading.  Nicodemus responds to Jesus “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  How can I get a second chance when the end of my life is just over the horizon, Nicodemus asks?  Baby eyes, Jesus responds.  God has already given Nicodemus all he needs for salvation.  And the Holy Spirit, the ruach of Jewish learning already fills Nicodemus, but Jesus is highlighting how little Nicodemus gets in touch with it.  The second chance, Jesus teaches, is already within us.  It is already given.  It is the gift of grace that we have because we are God’s beloved.

And our God is not simply a God of second chances.  Our God is a God of Another Chance, and Another, and Another.  God yearns only to have us turn to God, believing that we will never lose that love or grace.  It’s the story of stories, or the meta-narrative, if you will, of the Books of the Bible.

• David committed adultery and murder - and yet went down in Scripture as a man after God's own heart.  
• John quit on his first missionary journey with Paul - and yet Paul, in the latter years of his ministry asked for him by name, saying he was helpful to his ministry.  
• Rahab was a prostitute - but, because of the grace of God is found in the lineage of Jesus.  
• Noah was a drunk and yet is remembered as the man who built the ark.  
• The matriarch Sarah was barren, yet another chance was given her to be the mother of Israel.
• Lazarus was DEAD, for goodness sakes, and yet our God of Another Chance never abandoned him.

The gift of another chance is not the opportunity to continue to live a life separated from God in sin.  Instead, it gives us the power to free ourselves from regrets, stewing anger, and from those places where we are less than our whole beloved selves.

At our Clergy retreat last week, I had the opportunity to meet many priests in our diocese that I had not met yet, and I had one interesting conversation in particular.  It was with a priest who was getting ready to retire in a few weeks. By all outward appearances, he is in good health, full faculty of mind and had a deep sense of calling.  You can’t stop hearing the calling of being a priest, he said, just because one retires.  I could tell that what was weighing on his heart the most was the fear of a changed life.  His congregation is at a good place, healthy and spiritually mature, and now he needs to gently hand it over to a new way of being, with a new rector.  What would his life be like after that?  In his case I think our God of Another Chance, may also be called the God of Another Opportunity if he uses yet another set of child-like eyes.  How will God reveal God’s self to this priest, born anew in this season of his life?

And just as God calls us to be born anew as individuals, we are also called to be born anew as a church.  At the same clergy retreat we had a round table discussion about our parishes.  I proudly shared with my colleagues all of the many things you all as a community had accomplished in the past year – from new ministries and services (like Family@Five), to a successful giving campaign, to a new sense of life in your relationships with one another.  Yes, pride is sinful, but I was very proud of all of you, so I took the opportunity to sin boldly!

But we are not without our challenges.  One of the challenges/opportunities that faces St. Michael’s really crystallized for me on this retreat.  It was the realization that for the last 4 years or so, St. Michael’s has been operating on survival mode, whether that was explicitly named or not.  Without the presence of a committed, guiding clergy leader, the vestry rightly filled the vacuum to keep the ship moving forward.  And the reality is that all of the success of the last year can be be traced back to the solid foundation that your lay leaders had set and put in place prior to my arrival.  They kept the ship moving forward with dedication and service.

But even in this time of stability God calls us to be born anew.  Operating in survival mode isn’t sustainable if we are to open our eyes to new vision and transformation.  So we need to see our church with new eyes, new ways of being that will give us the life that Jesus says will be ours if we are born anew. And my promise to you as your rector is to lead us into a shared vision for our lives together, because it will take all of us. And because of the groundwork that was done prior to my arrival, we have the time to reflect and dream and to listen to where the Holy Spirit is guiding St. Michael’s.  It’s time to take a deep breath, be still and create a life not based out of fear or mere survival.  A life of base survival is not God’s plan for us.  We’re going to move forward with deliberation, and prayer that will involve all of you because we are the Body of Christ.

Like the retiring priest, I am excited to see how God will reveal God’s self to St. Michael’s, and how we will be born anew.  What worked or didn’t work, or failed miserably gets another chance.  What relationships were broken gets another chance.  The love that leaves itself unexpressed, gets another chance.  The wholeness of our life together gets another chance.  And we desperately need another chance at all times, because we are painfully human, and we will fail each other again and again, but we need to look each other in the eyes and remember that we worship and praise a God of Another Chance.  Open your eyes.

How do you want to be born anew during this Lenten season?

“Truly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Amen.