March
8, 2020 Genesis 12.1-4a *John
3.1-17 “Spiritual Growth: Leadership”
Pastor Jacqueline Hines
Through the years there
have been interesting trends in Christianity. You remember the days when men
wore ties and suits to church. Women wore silk stockings, hats and gloves to
match, if only on Easter Sunday. Through the years, we loosened up a bit and
started wearing jeans, singing to the music of drums and guitars. Children were
set free and allowed to dance in the aisles to a moving praise song. Churches
with holy boldness could be found on the street corners handing out tracks that
said “Jesus loves you” while asking passersby’s that classic question, “Are you
saved?”
We can hear the Rev.
Billy Graham passionately preaching before a stadium filled with hundreds, even
thousands of worshippers. “You must be
born again!” [slide # 1 Rev. Billy Graham]
While at Eastern
University in St. David’s [slide
# 2 Eastern University] I wanted
to share my faith boldly, but I was not at all comfortable speaking to
strangers. When I entered Eastern University, it was not a university. It was
called Eastern Baptist College. Each class began with prayers from the
professor. Every week we attended chapel service often with high profile
speakers. It was not unusual to see small groups gathered for spontaneous
prayer in hallways and at dining room tables. There were bible studies, too
numerous to count, and a chapel open 24 hours a day with recorded messages and
music. There were two or three student choirs who would travel around the city
and surrounding suburbs, sharing the good news of the gospel. This would encourage
churches to send their young people to Eastern because they could see that
youth were genuinely expressing their faith in real and exciting ways. [slide # 3 Eastern’s choir]
I would often travel to
Eastern by train on the mainline at the age of 18. [slide # 4 train]
One day I was on the Paoli Local and decided to be brave and I asked the woman
sitting next to me in a quiet and hesitant voice, “Are you saved?” She pursed
her lips, grumbled something indignantly, jumped out of her seat and stood at
the door of the train for the rest of the ride. Clearly she was insulted by my
question. It was a season in America when it was not an unusual question for a
stranger to ask. It was not unusual to hear that you were going straight to
hell if you did not hurry up and get saved. And, in order to be saved from
hell’s eternal damnation, you had to be born again. [slide # 5…
saved? ] To be born again is to
be saved, to invite Jesus into your heart and receive the holy spirit that is
so subtle you will miss its guidance unless you are still and listening very,
very carefully.
I do not think of hell as
a physical fire burning. I think of it as a spiritual fire burning. Guilt and
regret can burn a hole in our hearts, leaving us feeling wounded and empty. Regret
can singe our minds relentlessly. I do not like to think of hell as a permanent
place for unrepentant sinners to be. However, when we read Diving Revelation of Hell in bible study one year, I moved more in
that direction. I began to understand that we do not have forever to make up
our minds to do the right thing whatever the right thing might be. After a certain point, our time is up and
what we have sown, we must reap. Our chances to avoid consequences are gone. I
have come to appreciate the idea that the offer for redemption can and will expire.
I am no expert on heaven and hell, but I have seen enough to believe that
heaven is real and so is hell.
For all I know, Nicodemus
was on his way to hell. [slide
# 6
Nicodemus and Jesus].
Verse 3 says he came to Jesus at night. It may have been because he was living
in the dark. We all know what it is like to live in the dark. At times, we move
so gradually away from the light that we are surprised to find ourselves in
darkness. At times we grow accustomed to living without light until we
experience it as normal.
You have probably been
outside weeding or painting or playing in the evening and before you know it,
the sun has set, your eyes have adjusted to the night and you suddenly realize
you can barely see your hand in front of your face.
Nicodemus, like most of
us, came to adjust to things the way they were. He could not comprehend a
radical change such as being born again into the light of day. We too might
question whether a person who is so far gone can start new, can become good
after being so bad. He asked Jesus, “How can you be born again. Will you reenter
your mother’s womb?” A great thing about being born again, living in the light,
and being saved from the evils of the night is that what we have often rubs off
on others. All those around us are also subject to be born again, to live in
the light and to be saved from the evils of the night.
As that song says, it
only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up
to its glowing. That’s how it is with God’s love. You’ll spread his love to
everyone. You’ll want to pass it on.
Being born again takes us
back to a beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. Being born
again gives us pause to praise God for the heroes and heroines of this world.
Many were born again when the first stone of the Berlin Wall came crumbling
down. [slide # 7 Berlin Wall…] Freedom brings new life. Artists like Henry
Ossawa Tanner from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, renew our
spirits, with his portrayal of Jesus’ Visit with Nicodemus, [slide # 8 Nicodemus ..] and the Banjo
Lesson [ slide # 9 Banjo…] and a favorite, Be Thankful. [slide # 10 table…prayer]
Films like A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood encourage our hearts, [slide # 11 movie
studio] choirs like our Bethel choir inspire our lives, [slide # 12 Bethel
choir, etc.] and young preachers like Tyler Collins [slide # 13 Tyler]
revive our hopes. On the horizon we see new medical marvels with cures for
cancer and vaccines for coronavirus. [slide # 14 lab]
They will refresh our souls.
Yes, it’s true Nicodemus,
You must be born again, for we are eager to see the evil things pass away and all
things must become new. We are eager for
God to create something new in this world through us, in us, and for us again
and again and again. 14And just as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, for all to see - we can come face to face
with our enemy and watch God work to heal us - so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, and sacrificed until we come face to face with the love of Jesus. 15…
whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16“For
God so loved the world that [slide
# 15
for God so loved…] he gave his only Son, so that everyone who
believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Kenneth Sauer a United Methodist Preacher
from Tennessee told the story of wanting to be a rock star when he was in
college. He hooked up with a guitarist who asked him, “Are you a Christian?” He
answered, “Yes ” Although, he thought the question to be a bit odd. He had gone
to church all his life....and even planned on becoming a minister someday.
The two eventually became besties.
Shortly after, the preacher says, he realized that although he claimed to be a
Christian, he was really just a Christian in name only. He wasn’t living the
life. He wasn’t talking the talk and walking the walk. He knew the guitarist
for whom he was singing had something that he didn’t.
He said, “I started to do some really
heavy thinking.....I started thinking about God.....I started thinking about
the devil....I started thinking about the meaning of life.....And I started
talking about things--spiritual things--that I had never even thought of
before. One night, I was walking down the sidewalk all by myself and I felt
that I had come to a cross-road. Was I going to give my life completely over to
God....giving up on the world and everything that I had placed between myself
and a relationship with Jesus? I had to decide if I was going to continue down
the road I was already going? Seeking, but not finding....Looking but not
seeing....Listening, but not hearing....I decided to give all I had to
God....it was a big decision for me, but I made it... and it was the most
thrilling experience of my life....and the most important decision I have ever
made. My life has not been even close to the same since. I had been born again!”
Yes, we must be born again so we can face
our fears with faith. The corona virus helps us focus on our Lenten experience
because Lent is about matters of the heart. This week Pastor Nora Minassian
passed on the thought that the heart is surrounded by a corona or crown of
blood vessels giving the heart its own supply of blood flow or love flow. When
blood flow or love flow is stopped we get coronary heart disease….as we let the
love flow…[slide # 16 let love flow] we come face to face
with the love and sacrifice of Jesus and we are healed and made whole, and we
can lead others to the way they should go. May it be so today! [slide # 17 love flow] Amen.
[slide # 18 love]
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