“How can anyone be born after having grown old?” --Nicodemus (vs. 4)
My dog, Melbie, has a sensitive stomach. She gets carsick driving to the end of the block. It doesn’t seem to take much to get her to throw up. Still, she has the infuriating habit of nibbling on anything and everything she can get her mouth on. When we go out for a walk she’s like a vacuum cleaner, sucking in grass and sticks and leaves and rocks and the little “snacks” the neighborhood rabbits leave behind (if you know what I mean). We have done everything we can think of to discourage this behavior, but it seems inbred. Dogs don’t have a great grasp of cause and effect, so she doesn’t understand when we say, in an exasperated voice, “You know, if you eat that, you’re going to throw up!” as she nibbles her way across the front yard. We keep hoping that, as she grows out of puppyhood, her sensitive constitution will grow up too.
We human beings are not much different than my dog. We can be very slow to learn. Cause and effect can elude us. We have a very annoying habit of doing the same (often very unhealthy) things over and over again, expecting different results and then act surprised when again and again things don’t go well. That has certainly been the experience of God’s people down through the centuries. The bible is full of stories of how God’s people just don’t seem to get it. In spite of God’s guidance, warnings, discipline, and a parade of prophets, God’s people just keep nibbling on things that aren’t good for them. The consequences of idolatry and disobedience are two of the most common, recurring themes in the scriptures. And it’s not just in the Old Testament. Jesus’ disciples could be pretty obtuse at times. The history of the Christian Church is littered with stories of God’s people gone awry. I could tell you stories of churches I have known that just don’t seem to get it… and of the times I’ve completely missed the point too. But I won’t.
The point here is not to recriminate Melbie, poor Nicodemus or any of the rest of us. The point is to see him, and the whole, long, messy, often ugly history of God and God’s people as the most enduring sign of God’s grace, mercy and love.
It doesn’t matter how many times I have to clean up Melbie’s barf. I still love her completely. Even if she never grows out of this annoying propensity, I will still love her completely. And if I, a fallible, imperfect human being, am capable of that kind of love, I can only begin to imagine how much greater God’s love must be for God’s world.
God is an amazingly patient parent. God never gives up on us. God has gone to amazingly great lengths, even to the point of sending his Son to die, to heal a world that, so often, refuses to be healed. A world that, frequently, doesn’t even know it needs to be healed. Jesus invites Nicodemus, you and me to trust in that love, to live in that love and to share that love with the world. Jesus promises that when we trust in that love our lives will be renewed by God’s Spirit and that we will discover an abundance of life that begins now and extends beyond death itself. Eventually, Nicodemus appeared to get that (see John 19:39) and some days, when I stop nibbling for a moment, so do I.
Peace,
Bishop Mike
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment