Are You Born Again?

Watch the sermon preached by Fr. Ernie on Sunday, March 5, 2023.

Are You Born Again? 

(by Ernest Boyer - written version)

Are you born again?

Has anyone ever asked you that? It’s happened to me. Many times, in fact. It’s a question that pops up often when talking to more evangelical Christian. Sometimes they will ask instead if I’ve been saved… but “saved” or “born again,” it amounts to the same thing. Both phrases come from today’s gospel.

In it, a man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. He clearly doesn’t want to be seen talking with Jesus — and for good reason: he’s a Pharisee. That means that he’s a member of a group that strongly disagrees with much of what Jesus is teaching. In fact, not only is he a Pharisee, but he’s one of their leaders. So, he really doesn’t want to be seen talking with Jesus — especially since he is going there to tell Jesus that’s it’s become obvious to him that Jesus is from God since, as he says, “no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Rather than acknowledging the compliment, though, Jesus responds with this: “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.”

Well, actually, that’s not quite what Jesus says, although it’s close. It is, however, how most English bibles translate what Jesus says. The problem is the phrase “born again.” In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the words used literally mean “born from heaven,” or “born from above,” which is how it’s translated in the version I read this morning. The thing is, Jesus is talking about the need for a second birth, but for him, that means a spiritual birth. He’s saying that when our mothers gave birth to us, that was only a physical birth. But now, if we truly want to see God’s kingdom we must be born, not just physically, but from heaven too. In other words, we’re already physical beings. Now we must be reborn as spiritual beings also.

And how do we do that? Well, to anyone familiar with evangelical Christianity the answer is obvious. It’s found in what some Christians consider the single most important verse in the bible, John 3:16. As a young child growing up in an evangelical church, this was the first bible verse I had to memorize. All children did. Even to this day I can recite it as easily as I can the Lord’s prayer. It goes like this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  

So, this is the answer. The way to be born again spiritually is to believe in Jesus. This is what it means to be “saved.” Being saved means to believe in Jesus.…Ok, but what does that mean?  

Well, let me tell you first what a lot of people think it means. They think it means accepting the ideathat Jesus is the son of God and that he saved each of us by dying on the cross. Of course, embracing this idea is a fine thing, but it’s not really what Jesus is talking about. It is at best just the first step. When Jesus says that in order to be reborn spiritually we must believe in him, he means something far, far deeper than just accepting an idea about what he is. It’s not the idea that’s important. It’s therelationship.  

Think of it this way. I know that my mother gave birth to me, but that’s not really what makes her my mother. It’s a basic fact. It’s something I know for certain. And yet, as basic as that is, it’s not really what’s most essential. I mean, think of women who adopt children. Aren’t they truly mothers too? And how many of us have those who have acted as loving second mothers to us? No, what is most important is that my mother stuck with me, so that now, when I think of my mother I almost never think about the fact that she gave birth to me. I think of her hugging me. I think of all the times that she was there for me. I think of how she loved me and supported me. In other words, I don’t think about what she was, but how much I could depend on her…how much I could trust her.

The thing is, it would be so much better if the Greek phrase, which is normally translated as “believein Jesus,” was translated as “trust in Jesus instead.” Trust is so much closer to what the Greek word actually meant when the gospels were written. It makes a difference too. I mean, don’t you hear it very differently if I say that the way to be saved is to trust in Jesus rather than if I say it is to believe in him? Perhaps it’s just me, but for me, to trust in Jesus means to put myself fully in the hands of God, knowing that in doing so I will be safe; I will be loved; I will be protected, and in the end, all will be well. How different this is from what the phrase “believing in Jesus” calls to mind. Belief involves ideas. But Jesus is far more than just an idea. He is part of who we are — a part of who we are meant to be. 

Trust…trust — it’s all about trust. Trust is at the heart of the Gospels. It’s core of the story of Jesus. It’s what made Jesus who he was. It was trust that did it — Jesus’ profound trust in God. He trusted God in everything so that now we can trust him too.  It’s because Jesus trusted God so fully that he was able to risk so much, risk his entire life, in fact. It’s what gave Jesus the courage to follow God’s call even to a point where all of his followers turned away in fear. They either betrayed him or denied him … or else they simply hid, so that in the end Jesus stood alone as he was humiliated, beaten, and finally tortured to death. There as a moment on the cross when he wavered: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” he cried out at one point. And yet even here his trust returned. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” he said at the end.  

Into your hands I commend my spirit.

Now that’s trust! Who of us has that degree of trust? Not many. Not many at all. And yet we can all work towards it, because this is what it means to be born from above ­— that is, to be spiritually reborn. It means to turn ourselves over to God as fully as we are able, to trust God with all the trust that we can manage — trusting God not only in the good times but in the hard times too — especially in the hard times, in fact. And the more we trust, the freer we become, the more we are released from fear. Because trust is the opposite of fear. And the more we are freed from fear the more we are released to live our life fully, richly, without hesitations, or self-doubt.

This is how we were meant to live: with freedom and without fear. Jesus not only shows us the way to do this, he is the way. Trust is never something we have once and for all time, though. It’s something we have to work at. It’s something we have to renew every minute of every day. With each passing moment we have a choice: fear or trust.  

Fear or trust — that’s the choice. As for me, I try to choose trust as often as I can. At times I fail and give in to fear, but then later my trust returns, and with it always comes a feeling of peace, of courage, of confidence, and hope.  

What this means is that when someone comes up to me and asks, “Are you born again?” I turn to them and smile. “Yes,” I say, “I’m born again … and again…and again … and again.” …

I wonder if they get it.

AMEN        

If you like this Sermon, feel free to leave a comment below or follow us on vimeo.