Eastertide

May 22, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. –John:1-6

According to the Christian Calendar based on Acts 2, tomorrow is the anniversary of the day we now call Pentecost, where God shared the gift of the Holy Spirit with all Christ-followers. John 20:22 records Jesus giving his disciples the gift of the Spirit after the Resurrection. I think both instances are valid. The Spirit has always been with us throughout the story of God. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that.

God created us as sentient beings able to discern right from wrong. That characteristic is necessary if we are to understand and practice God’s righteousness. I think God wanted partners, not puppets. Partners must internalize God’s mission and intentionally choose to make it their own. God came to dwell among us in the person of Jesus and remains with us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We are never left alone without help as we strive to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Whoever wrote the book of John surely had access to Paul’s writing as that person, too, differentiated between the flesh and the Spirit. There is a purity about the Spirit that we can sometimes miss if our humanness, our flesh, gets in the way. I call them filters. From birth forward, humans create filters to simplify our lives. Children touch a hot object that burns them, and instantly their minds start building a filter that says do not touch hot things. Filters are necessary, but when our filters build up some messages, they can be dangerous to our lives and our connections to the Spirit. I think it was in David Wilkerson’s story recorded in The Cross and the Switchblade where he described learning not to call God father when working with children in the intercity. Fathers to many of them were undependable flashes in their lives.

We are called to love like Jesus, and that requires us to look for the dirty filters in ourselves that limit our ability to love others. We must retain our relationship with the Spirit to keep our filters clean. We are called to love one another, enabling others to form a relationship with the Spirit.

Prayer: Lord, search me and cleanse me of any wicked ways. Help my love to enable others to free their souls of clutter, too.  Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.