June 3, 2018 - Second Sunday after Pentecost - Yesterday's Worship Journey, Meditations and Conversations

I sometimes prepare for Creator worship by reading and writing my reactions to the Gospel lesson. I did that in preparation for yesterday's service and ended up posting those reflections before the service to share in advance. Mary asked what I planned to do with the blog post and thought I should not update the post I already shared. So many things happened during and after worship yesterday my decision was to write this separate blog post.

Pastor Gary substituted for Pastor Ray this week who is in Alaska. His reflections on the Gospel were different from mine. He focused on the Sabbath and why keeping Sabbath holy was important. This was a different perspective than the one I wrote about and was based on Mark 2:27 "Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Pastor Gary basically provided the benefits of Sabbath for us. He actually opened the sermon by sharing that his granddaughter was raised in the faith as a child. From what he sees now she no longer goes to church or belongs to a community of faith.

This obviously bothered him as he preached that Sabbath keeping and daily prayer were as necessary to spiritual well-being as showering and tooth brushing is to physical hygiene. He warned that others knew if either is neglected. Pastor Gary also noted there was not much that he could do to help his granddaughter but pray for her. He said he is not unique in this concern and I know he is right. Many church members feel anxious about either their children or grandchildren no longer being members of any church.

Now people who have followed this blog may know my reason for beginning was to answer a question my son asked about why people worship every week. There may be an assumption that because of this that I may have the same concern about my son attending church or following past Lutheran family traditions. This is not true. I am neither anxious about his spiritual practices nor about his following traditions he has learned or not. I simply don't have a corner on the knowledge of how others determine how to keep the Sabbath holy.

There was something holy about worship yesterday for me that moved into the conversations and activities my family engaged in. It started with Mary shared a sermon she had found on YouTube about Nicodemus preached by Colin Smith (here is the link). She was exploring the Nicodemus story and being born again inspired by my Trinity Sunday post. She thought I would appreciate the ideas Smith expressed in this sermon and I did.

Smith first emphasized the life Nicodemus had led until his meeting with Jesus. His life was a reflection and a result of all he had done to follow a holy life. This was a man who knew how to keep the Sabbath holy. Smith asked those listening to his sermon to put themselves in his shoes and also to imagine they were master builders, like Nicodemus was in his faith life, of a house that could represent that life.

Nicodemus wanted to share this house he had built with his lifetime of faith. Nicodemus recognized Jesus as a master builder of faith and belief based on what he first says to him. Nicodemus wanted to share his life with Jesus, as one master builder might want to share with another, a house he has personally planned and built through his lifetime of attention and perserverance.

Nicodemus, perhaps, intended to ask, from one builder to another, the questions that would help to make this project of his lifetime of faith and belief even better. He did not expect the response he received. What Jesus essentially answered him was the equivalent of a master builder looking around and saying "You can't do anything further on this project from here except to tear it all down."

Smith feels we all eventually wind up in same the place Nicodemus finds himself in. We know that what springs from our best effort will not get us closer to God. This is another perspective to the Nicodemus story I didn't consider at all in my blog . Smith absolutely helped me to understand Nicodemus in a new light (where, by the way, the night in this night conversation is never emphasized).

Smith ended his sermon with a different take on Jesus tying the serpent on the pole Numbers story by saying the most important parallel and take away was to look to Jesus to be saved, just as the Israelites looked up to the serpent to be healed.

Mary commented on a post "Making connections seems to be part of human nature, and a part of spirituality - a part of me." Another connection that happened outside conversation was an activity our family did yesterday to relax. Turned out that playing this particular game was well timed with considering the Nicodemus story.

We played the Han Solo Card Game and had fun. There is a certain amount of strategy and bluffing in the play. One of the game mechanics that stood out was a somewhat unique rule about rolling dice at the end of a round. If the dice matched, every player's hand is discarded and all are dealt a replacement hand.

This provided both unusual opportunity and was simultaneously frustrating if the player's strategy and luck was paying off during the game's short rounds. I imagined what it would be like if they were longer and if a player's strategy had worked out well, only to find themselves with a replacement hand in the closing part of a round which was happening to us from the first rounds.

I could see an equivalent reaction in Nicodemus to when what he essentially heard Jesus "start over". Even as players were making the most out of the hands they were dealt, those hands certainly had a random element in them. However, discarding that previous strategy, effort and luck seemed to make success arbitrary.

The same is true of our spiritual lives. To explore previously unmade connections may force re-examination of values, faith and beliefs that were carefully worked out over years and abandoning old views that are dear to us. Jesus makes this clear to Nicodemus and simultaneously reassures us there is nothing to be afraid of in this re-examination.

As we discussed the sermon Mary and I did go into a deep conversation about another part of the sermon where Smith preached about the serpent on the pole and John 3:16-17.  Our conversation sent my mediations and prayers on John 3 down another very different path. However, I was not afraid.

I wrote about the serpent as an idol in my blog post. The story that came to Mary's mind about the snake was Medusa, cursed to be a Gorgon in Greek mythology who had the ability to turn beings into stone by just looking at them. We are both lovers of myth and she has read Jason and the Argonauts many times.

Mary pointed out the fact that Medusa has snakes instead of ordinary hair and those snakes and her eyes could petrify living beings. Obviously this brings with those facts a fair share of fear. When Mary associated this story with the Numbers account, her takeaway was that God's message to man was, "Don't be afraid to look at what is horrible and brings fear for that may be precisely what will save you."

Don't be afraid to confront either the Medusa / Gorgon or the crucifixion. God's intention is not to instill fear in us. I learned a lot from this association that I wouldn't have made had it not been for Mary. I learned something more about what is important to her at this moment as well.

Our John 3:16-17 discussion was more difficult. Mary said she felt sorry for me because she when reads John 3:16 and all her associations are purely of joy. When I read John 3:16 the whosoever believes appears to me to make eternal life conditional on belief in Jesus. We identified these different associations came from our different childhood memories of John 3.

For her Nicodemus and John 3:16 is was about Sunday School, song and happily memorizing and taking to heart God's infinite love. For me I heard it used in sermons to invoke fear and duty. The fear was that how much I, as an individual, believed in Jesus and what that it meant if that wasn't "enough" to qualify as true belief. The duty piece was working on the Great Commission and exposing everyone who didn't believe in Jesus the Gospel story so they could be saved.

I initially found it hard to accept Mary feeling sorry for me because of, or despite, knowing these differences in our associations and what experiences we bring to the story. In the end, however, I was brought back to Jesus said to Nicodemus "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit". We don't need to know why and how the Holy Spirit works in each of us or that we need to harmonize or agree in our understandings. I appreciated her feeling sorry about what had happened in my past.

Finally, our conversation brought me back to Pastor Gary's prayer for his granddaughter that opened his sermon. I thought as well about all who are anxious about others continuing an important tradition or belief. I wonder if their prayers get wrapped up in a tension that may not be resolved in the way they believe. The Holy Spirit may not work in their children or grandchildren to get them to attend church or to be moved by what tradition or old beliefs would dictate to them. They may have their own ways to keeping Sabbath holy.

Again, what Jesus said to Nicodemus, about everyone who is born again or from born from above, the Holy Spirit is blowing, and working, within everyone.