How Is It Possible?

How Is It Possible?

John 3:1-17

This is a story about a boy named Paul. He lived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest many years ago. He was just a little boy when his family became the proud owners of one of the first telephones in the neighborhood. It was one of those wooden boxes attached to the wall with the shiny receiver hanging on the side of the box, and the mouthpiece attached to the front. Young Paul listened with fascination as his mom and dad used the phone, and he came to believe that somewhere inside that wonderful device lived an amazing person.
Her name was "Information Please" and there wasn’t anything she did not know. “Information Please” could supply anyone's telephone number, as well as the correct time. Paul's first personal experience with "Information Please" came one day when he was home alone and he whacked his finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible and he didn't know what to do. And then he thought of the telephone.

Quickly, he pulled a footstool up to the phone, climbed up, unhooked the receiver, held it to his ear and said: "Information Please" into the mouthpiece. There was a click or two and then a small clear voice spoke: "Information."

"I hurt my finger," Paul wailed into the phone. "Isn't your mother home?" "Nobody's home but me," Paul cried. "Are you bleeding?" "No," Paul said. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts." "Can you open your ice-box?" "Yes." "Then go get some ice and hold it to yourfinger." Paul did and it helped a lot.
After that day, Paul called "Information Please” for everything. She helped him with his geography and his math. She taught him how to spell the word "fix." She told him what to feed his pet chipmunk. And when Paul's pet canary died, she listened to his grief. She told him, "Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in, other worlds that we cannot see." Somehow that helped, and Paul felt better.
When Paul was nine years old, he moved with his family to Boston. As the years passed he missed "Information Please" very much. When Paul was on his way out west to go to college, his plane landed in Seattle. He dialed his hometown operator and said, "Information Please." Miraculously, he heard that same small clear voice that he knew so well. "Information." Paul hadn't planned this, but suddenly he blurted out: "Could you please tell me how to spell the word "fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft answer: "I guess your finger must be all healed by now." Paul laughed. "So it's really still you. Do you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time when I was a little boy?" "I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your calls meant to me! I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls so much."
Paul told her how much he had missed her over the years and asked her if he could call her again when he was back in the area. "Please do," she said, "just ask for Sally."

Three months later, Paul was back in Seattle. This time a different voice answered. He asked for Sally. "Are you a friend?" the operator asked. "Yes, a very old friend." Paul answered. "Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you this," she said. "Sally had been working part time the last few years because she was sick. She died 5 weeks ago." Before he could hang up, the operator said: "Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Paul?" "Yes." "Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you. It says: 'When Paul calls, tell him that I still say: there are other worlds to sing in.' He will know what I mean."
"There are other worlds to sing in." And that is precisely what John 3 is all about. "There are other worlds to sing in," worlds that can’t be seen by this world. There are worlds that only the faithful can see. When we are born again, born anew, born of water and the Spirit, we will be given new eyes. We will see the gate into the kingdom. We will see Jesus as that gate. And we will know that there are other worlds to sing in, and we will lift our voices in the song of the kingdom of God, and we will sing until that day comes when the song is sung everywhere on earth as it is in heaven.

For the rationalists and realists of the world, that makes no sense at all. Where do these new senses come from? How do we get them? For them, it is clear that if we can’t see it, hear it, or measure it, then it doesn’t exist except as a wish or fantasy. For the rationalists, this is a story about Paul wasting the time of Information Please Sally. For the realists, Sally was simply being sentimental in claiming there are other worlds to sing in, when clearly this is the only world there is.

Most of us, most of the time, are realists and rationalists. We believe what we can see, what we can touch, what we can measure and verify. For example, I don’t believe in Sasquatch, or Nessie, or Area 51 aliens because I have never seen any credible proof that they exist. I haven’t been to Europe, either, but I know people who have and I trust their reports and pictures. And most of the time, for much of what we need to do, that serves us well.

In this life, we have five senses to help us interpret and understand the world around us. But these five senses are not enough for us to believe in another world to sing in. Our eyes can see the beauty of the creation, but they cannot see the Creator. Our ears can hear the beauty of children singing, but they cannot hear the choirs of angels around the throne of God.

Our skin can feel the wind blowing around us, but it cannot feel the touch of the Holy Spirit to bless us. Our tongue can taste the many wonderful flavors of food, but it cannot give us a foretaste of the eternal banquet table in heaven. Our nose can smell the marvelous bouquet of nature in full bloom, but it cannot perceive the incense of heaven.

In our reading, Nicodemus was a realist and a rationalist. Yes, he was a leader in the Sanhedrin, the religious council that decided the conflicts in life with the laws of Moses. He knew about the measurable things of the faith – giving a tithe, measuring the fringes on his robe, counting the steps taken on the Sabbath. He knew about the observable things of the faith – doing the right things and avoiding doing the wrong things. He knew about the practical in the faith – how much it cost to atone for particular sins, and how much it cost to be in good standing before God.

But Nicodemus had never experienced the burning bush that was not consumed. He had never heard the still small voice speaking to him in the midst of the chaos and fury of the world. He had never had his heart strangely warmed by someone he could not see, someone assuring him that there are other worlds to sing in.

This other world can’t be perceived, Jesus said to Nicodemus, and to us, unless we are born again, unless we are born from above. Nicodemus hears this and responds like a good rationalist and realist would – how can someone be born again? It is hard enough for a woman to give birth to a baby, but it is clearly absurd to think that a woman could give birth to a full grown man. Nicodemus would fit right in with all the people today who attack Christianity as being delusional, superstitious, and magical, simply because they cannot see it, hear it, or measure it by the standards of the world.

I confess it makes me cringe a little every time someone in the church tries to justify the practices of the church by the standards of the world. You know – going to worship can create a circle of friends to support you; praying can lower your blood pressure; volunteering to help others can boost your self-esteem. While those are all measurable outcomes, they are inadequate reasons to believe. While those are all verifiable results, they have nothing to do with the sacrifice and victory of Jesus, who alone can give us the kingdom of God.

It makes me cringe because it says that even the church can’t testify about this other world to sing in. It says we don’t know that the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross to reveal to us this other world. It says that we are not born from above. It says we do not believe that God so loved the world that God gave us Jesus, so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.

John Wesley, in his sermon “The Marks of the New Birth,” listed how you can tell if someone has been reborn, to tell if someone has received this new way of seeing another world to sing in. You may want to take notes, or to memorize them, for without these marks we will continue to cringe before the world.

Are you ready? There are three marks of the new birth – faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. It is that simple. This world doesn’t have any way to measure and verify faith, or hope, or love, yet we know them to be real and true when we have been born into the kingdom of God revealed in Jesus Christ, as we are enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Wesley wrote, “What is it to be born of God? . . . It is, so to believe in God, through Christ, as "not to commit sin," and to enjoy at all times, and in all places, that "peace of God which passes all understanding." It is, so to hope in God through the Son of his love, as to have not only the "testimony of a good conscience," but also the Spirit of God "bearing witness with your spirits, that ye are the children of God;" whence cannot but spring the rejoicing in Him, through whom ye "have received the atonement." It is, so to love God, who hath thus loved you, as you never did love any creature: So that ye are constrained to love all men as yourselves; with a love not only ever burning in your hearts, but flaming out in all your actions and conversations, and making your whole life one "labor of love," one continued obedience to those commands, "Be ye merciful, as God is merciful;" "Be ye holy, as I the Lord am holy:" "Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

So how do we become born from above? How is it possible to receive this new life? It is by the justifying grace of God that we may have a relationship with God – this is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The new birth is the result of that relationship, and it is a sign of what God has done in us. So to receive this new life, we only need to accept our relationship with God made possible for us through Jesus Christ. We need to believe in Jesus, which goes so far beyond simply accepting facts and truths about Jesus. We believe in Jesus when we spend our lives with Jesus – through prayer, worship, service, and holy conferencing.

Sometimes, that belief comes in a moment of clarity and calling, and the gift comes to us dramatically. We can point to a moment in time when we know and confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and accept the grace of Jesus Christ in our lives. Sometimes, that belief comes over the course of a lifetime, present and evident in us, but we may not be aware of it until we intentionally look at our lives and what God has done in and through us. And then we see how God has blessed us all along.

If you insist on applying rationalist and realist expectations to the faith, then nothing I have said this morning will make any sense to you. It’s the same problem we face when we try to explain the Trinity, our belief in one God in three persons, which a lot of preachers will try to do today, since it is Trinity Sunday. But if we have been born again, born from above, then we know there is another world to sing in. And in this world, the Gloria Patri, and the Doxology, and our next hymn, make complete sense to us as an affirmation of our dependence on God, our conformity to Jesus Christ, and our confidence in the Holy Spirit.

As those who are born from above, we live in both worlds – in this world and in the next. It is our calling as disciples to help persons prepare for their birth by telling them about how God is at work in our lives. So let us stand and sing in this world the faith, hope, and love we have in the next!

UMH 64 “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty”