Journey, that's the word for today, journey. What do you think of when you hear the word? A trip, going away, heading into the unknown, traveling to a well loved place from your past, leaving the familiar and challenging ourselves to experience a culture, a language, a people and food that are foreign?
What do we do when we contemplate a journey? First we decide that we should go, then we decide where. Based on the place we choose, we begin to make plans. Do we take a bus, a train, a plane or do we drive? What do we take with us? How do we pack? Warm weather clothes or hats, gloves and jackets? Do we bring the coffee maker or will there be one where we are going? What about the dogs, kennel or in-home dog sitter? Do we need an atlas or will we trust google maps on our phones? When will we leave, will we travel at night so the kids can sleep through or in the daytime so we can really see where we're going and appreciate the sights along the way? Who's going with us? Just our partner, the children, a few close friends? There's a lot to decide before we actually close and lock the door and begin our journey.
Unless of course you're Abram...in that case, God says go and you just go. Abram hears Gods promises, you will be a great nation, your name will be great, I will bless you, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. And, based on nothing more than these promises Abram leaves all that he has known to journey into new and foreign lands.
He is following God on a journey without a map, a journey about which he knows nothing. We know what he cannot yet know; his journey will be long, much longer than perhaps he thought. It will have many ups and downs, many joys and sorrows. But, it is a journey filled with promise, most importantly God's promise to lead the way.
He believes God and goes without question. Likewise Nicodemus, in all innocence, he begins a quest that will lead him to people, places and ideas he cannot imagine.
Nicodemus, a respected leader of the Pharisees comes to Jesus in "hesitant curiosity". He is kind of sneaking around, coming to Jesus under cover of darkness. After all, what would his friends, neighbors and relatives think about him coming to see this itinerant preacher, a known collector of the rabble, the sinners, the great unwashed? Margaret Hess calls Nicodemus the "Patron Saint of the Curious". If they knew, his colleagues would have called him "nuts"! What could this wandering Aramean possibly have to teach the learned and sophisticated Pharisee? Nicodemus is not there to buy anything, he doesn't want to be convinced, or to sell all that he has and follow Jesus. He comes at night to ask a few questions. Nicodemus wants to see this miracle worker for himself and to form his own opinion.
He comes at night so that no one knows what he is doing. It is very possible that Nicodemus himself isn't sure that he wants to be doing what he is doing. But he is curious. He wants to know more. And so he goes.
He says " you know Jesus, were all pretty impressed with your signs and miracles". And then Jesus begins a conversation with him about being born from above. Suddenly, Nicodemus the teacher, the well educated Pharisee, becomes the student. He is baffled and confused. He wants to know how someone can be born again. Jesus corrects Nicodemus. Jesus isn't talking about a birth involving flesh and blood, no, He is talking about being born of the water and the spirit, being born from above. Jesus tells Nicodemus to get over this born again idea and instead to be born into God"s life. He says you don't need God to come into your life, God offers us God's own life as a gift and wants us to enter in. You need to be in the life of God Nicodemus. This is your journey Nicodemus, to come into God's life. To ride the wind of the spirit, to get your hands and feet busy working in God's kingdom, to get your hands and feet dirty doing the work of God.
That Nicodemus begins his journey at night is fitting. He will travel over time from this darkness into a place of light. We don't know anything about the particulars of his journey. We don't know the conversations he may have had with any of the disciples, or of any further conversations with Jesus. We don't know if he went home and pored over the Torah, stayed up late in the evening pondering what Jesus said to him. We don't know if he was awakened by dreams from God or was troubled by voices and visions about Jesus when awake. We do know that later in the Gospel of John when Jesus is arrested, Nicodemus comes to his defense. Nicodemus advises his colleagues to hear and investigate for themselves before making a final judgement against Jesus. He invites them to take their own journey into the truth. After the crucifixion Nicodemus risks the wrath of both the Jewish and the Roman powers to assist Joseph of Arimathea in preparing Jesus' body for burial.
Nicodemus has taken quite a trip! From a learned and respected member of the religious elite to a servant body washer. It's a trip we are all expected to make in our own way, in our own context. No, we cannot prepare the physical body of Jesus for burial, that's over and done with. But we can walk our own journey of discovery, our own journey into God's life. Nicodemus arrived at journey's end when he was able to risk everything to work with Joseph of Arimathea. We will arrive at journey's end when we are able to embody Psalm 121; when we are able to be one another's keepers, able to be one another's shade, to guard one another's going out and coming in. The result of our Lenten journey, indeed the end result of our travels into God's life, the proof of our being born from above, is that we have allowed the wind to blow us out of here into the world that desperately needs hope and care. Thanks to the incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus, thanks to the gift of grace through the Holy Spirit, we are the hands and feet of God. We journey into the light, and bring light into the world, with our witness and our service. Amen.
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