The Wind Blows Where It Will A sermon for Lent 2A, based on John 3:8 Rev. Peter K. Perry, First UMC Olympia March 8, 2020 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. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 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.” (John 3:1–8, NRSV)

I love Jeopardy. I’m pretty good at it, too, but I would never try out to be on the show because I am not a follower of popular culture, especially music. Science, geography, religion, history, languages, even literature... I got those things covered pretty well, but throw a pop culture question at me, especially about Rap music and you will surely stump me. Culturally, ethnically, generationally, it is not a genre that I get. I confess to some preconceptions and biases about the music, that I hopefully harbor because of my lack of cultural familiarity and not because of racism or classism. For example, if Kanye West walked through the doors of the sanctuary today, I wouldn’t recognize him. If it weren’t for ubiquitous references on the media I consume, I wouldn’t even know the name Kanye West. But because of his widespread popularity, his name has surfaced enough in my consciousness that I recognize it. Did you know that Kanye West is a Christian and the album he released in October of last year, Jesus Is King, rose through the charts rapidly and was the first album to ever top the Billboard 200, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Top Rap Albums, Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums categories at the same time? I never would have put Kanye West and Christianity together in my head. When I did, I caught myself thinking, “Huh. That’s surprising to me.” But why? Why should I be surprised that the Holy Spirit moves among rap stars? Admitting to my white privilege and middle-class suburban upbringing, I must confront the places of implicit bias in my heart and mind that cause me to put God in a box... a too-tiny box that heretofore never included rappers. Mind blown... consciousness expanded, stereotypes shattered! So, when I learned that Kanye had this awesome new album, I decided I should listen to it. I listened to several tracks from “Jesus Is King.” Rap doesn’t do much for me, but the experience was a great reminder that the Spirit of God is always free of the limitations that I or anyone else would put on her. She moves among us all. She touches the hearts and minds of people who listen to all kinds of music... people who come from all walks of life... young and old, black and white, rich and poor, straight and gay. She changes us no matter who we are. She moves us, no matter where we started, to a new place. The Spirit of God blows where it will! In the Gospel reading this week, we hear the story of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night. He was an elite, a member of the Sanhedrin, a mover and shaker, a powerbroker, part of the 1%. It’s hard to believe that Nicodemus could be interested in this uneducated itinerant preacher from a back-water village who surrounds himself with the riffraff, ragamuffins, outcasts, and untouchables. We’ve been taught that Nicodemus comes at night because it would be scandalous to be seen with Jesus. There’s less risk if he comes under the cover of darkness. So he comes, and he comes with a startling admission on his lips: “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 doesn’t seem surprised to see Nicodemus. He doesn’t ask, “Why are YOU here?” You see, Jesus knows about he Spirit of God. He’s never surprised when the Spirit does her thing in the world. Jesus knows that the Spirit is what brought Nicodemus to see him that night, but I think he also knows that Nicodemus doesn’t really understand that yet. John’s Gospel has many such conversations, in which Jesus takes time to talk face to face with the curious who have come, uncertain of why they are there, seeking something to fill an emptiness they sense in their hearts. Jesus engages the stranger and the foreigner, the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, and he creates a relationship with the one who has come into his presence. And the conversations that follow ultimately lead to changes in the lives of those he encounters. Again and again, it happens. Behavioral economist Jonathan Haidt writes in The Righteous Mind that one of the most potent and effective ways to enact personal change is through relationship. Conversion is made possible when affection forces us to entertain thoughts that are dissonant with our own opinions. For most humans, the only way we change our mind about an issue or a person is because we lean toward someone we love who thinks differently. In looking to them, we suspend our own opinions and see the world through their eyes. (quoted in Christian Century, March 5, 2020, Amy Zeitlow, A Spot for Lent.) In this story, Nicodemus leans toward Jesus and entertains a new way of thinking about God. It must have changed him, this conversation, this relationship, for a few weeks later, it is Nicodemus who shows up with his friend Joseph of Arimethea to help bury the body of this one he visited by night. Did Nicodemus know the Spirit was there in the dark as he spoke with Jesus? Are any of us aware when the Spirit is here, with us? Most of the time when we read these verses from the third chapter of John we concentrate on the conversation about being born again, about being born, as Jesus says, “from above.” The Greek work anothen means both again and above. This important idea is built on a word play. These verses are important for many Christians, as entire traditions build their doctrines around the idea of being born again. The words are important, whether you read them as again or above, because they bring together the idea of physical birth and spiritual birth, physical life and spiritual life, the flesh and the soul, the body and the spirit. The fullness of our humanity includes the idea of our divinity. In the ancient creation legends of the Hebrew people, into the clay of the earth God breathed spirit and that is what completes us. Yes! I am born again. I am born from above. Yes! I am flesh and Yes! I am spirit. I am not one or the other, but both! It is not enough to be born. Our completeness comes in being born again, being born from above, being born of the Spirit! These are important ideas, but it has often seemed to me that these great verses (as well as the verses that follow this reading, especially the one that goes, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son), these verses, tend to overshadow and make us forget the simple verse from which my sermon title came today. 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.” You know, of course, that wind and spirit and breath are the same word in both Hebrew and Greek: In Hebrew, ruah, and in Greek pneuma. So there is some more word play going on in the conversation that Nicodemus and Jesus have on this night. It is possible to be born but not born again. It is possible to feel the wind blow, but not be moved by it. It is possible to know that the Spirit of God is at work, but to refuse to be a part of that work. Nicodemus saw the Spirit at work in Jesus and came at night to try and understand what God was doing and perhaps to be a part of it. Jesus says, in essence, that the wind of the Spirit comes from God and goes wherever God sends it. One writer I read this week calls this “the free will of the Spirit.” The spirit cannot be controlled. She goes where wherever she will. The question for us is this: will we allow the spirit to move us? The image of a sailboat comes to mind... anchored in the harbor, sails furled neatly on the booms. The wind blows about it continually, but it goes nowhere, for there is no interaction with the wind. It is only when the anchor is raised, and the sails unfurled, that the sailboat lives into its true purpose. The sailor at the helm sets the sails and tacks and jibs out of the harbor and onto the open sea, setting course for a destination beyond the horizon. The wind will blow, and the craft will move with the promptings of the wind and the position of the sail and the rudder. As a sailboat is not built to be moored, tied down with heavy ropes beside a wharf, but rather a sailboat is built to sail! And we are not created to stand still , unmoved by the spirit that is all around us. We are not just flesh. We are to be born of the Spirit, meant to be moved, influenced, and shaped by the Spirit. And so we should never be surprised that the Spirit is blowing among us, and among others. Nicodemus’ reluctance to commit is proof that being moved by the Spirit can be scary, or even dangerous. John Buchanan, former editor of Christian Century, once wrote about a Sunday service at which he baptized a two-year-old child. As he held the child, he read the words from the prayer book: “You are a child of God, sealed by the Spirit in your baptism, and you belong to Jesus Christ forever.” Unexpectedly, the child uttered directly into the microphone, “Uh-oh.” Buchanan wrote: “It was an appropriate response . . . a stunning theological affirmation.” When God moves in us, sometimes the best response we can make is “uh oh!” For the Spirit may lead us to where the waves are too high and the wind is too strong. We may not be able to see the shore and we may fear for our safety. But we are not adrift. We are powered by the spirit of God. Here’s what I know from many of years of experience of letting the Spirit blow in my life. The “Uh oh” moment of fear and anxiety when let go of the safety of our moorage, will soon fade and be replaced by an “Oh yeah!” moment. Oh yeah! Look what God and I can do together! Look what flesh and spirit united can do! It’s true what Jesus says. I may not know where the spirit came from. And I may not know where the spirit is taking me. But I do know this. I am created to be spiritual. And so are you, friends. So let the Spirit pick you up and move you! Trust God. In these days so filled with confusion, trust God. Trust the Spirit. “You see evidence of the Spirit at work,” said Jesus. “It is like the wind. You see what it can do, you hear the sound it makes when it blows by, but you don’t know from where it came or to where it goes. So it is with the Spirit of God.” I pray, not for the Spirit to come, for she is always present. Rather, I pray that God’s people will recognize the Spirit and allow the Spirit to move them. I pray that the Spirit will stir up our curiosity so that we will come to Jesus like Nicodemus long ago, that we will think again about what it means to be born of flesh and Spirit. I pray that Spirit led people will change the world for the better. I invite you to pray that with me. Come, Holy Spirit, come! Blow among us like a mighty wind and move us where you will. Amen.