Developing Discipleship: Liberate (wk2)

Theme:  Developing Discipleship:  Liberate   (Story of Nicodemus) 

Today is International Women’s Day (8th March) - a day where we celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of women.  And for many women today is just like any other day.  But for some it is a hugely important day because women are not recognised in the way men have traditionally been recognised.  For example, go around the statues in big cities and count up how many are for women and how many are for men? Are women remembered on Armistice Day, or their names inscribed on cenotaphs, yet they too gave their lives to serving Queen and country?  When I put my name in the ring for ministry, my minister at the time said God was calling women because men were no longer listening.  Women have been ordained for over 50 years in ministry of the Church of Scotland yet so far we have had 4 female Moderators of whom 2 have been parish ministers. Yet Jesus welcomed women, treated women with respect and listened to them.  He reshaped the rule that women were subordinate or lacking in intelligence.  He liberated women from the notion that they were second class citizens. 

As we continue our theme of developing discipleship, I want to encourage you to consider the basics of your faith and its journey.  Where are the areas where perhaps you have got locked into a certain way of thinking and need liberation? Perhaps you struggle with the notion that are you good enough for God.  Perhaps you struggle with the concept of unconditional love and forgiveness when someone has seriously hurt you or people you love.   To be honest, there are a whole host of ideas and doctrines that you need liberated from.  If your child died before being baptised it was widely believed they went straight to hell, yet the Psalmist says that babes at the breast sing his praise.  

Sometimes liberation is hard won - and no matter how many times I tell you that God loves you, you will have to let God do his work in your lift to help you experience that.  So please don’t think that I am making light of this.  I know fine well how hard it is to receive liberation from dodgy doctrine and built in narratives from childhood.  But it is possible to be free...and as Jesus says, live life in all its fullness.  

It is also important because the time of transition and change for the church nationally is upon us.  We are called to do things in a new way, because the old ways are now no longer working.  For those of us who are comfortable in this set up, we find it hard to liberate ourselves from it.  Why should we change our ways?  We push the onus onto others to fit into our ways, to understand our language, and to follow our rules. But if we are liberated, then we are free to consider other possibilities, that there might be something more.  

We also live in a world that shapes our thinking, that sets our expectations high and then drops us like a hot potato.  We are squeezed into moulds that crush our creativity, enhance our cynicism and often we become apathetic and listless.  Not exactly living life in all its fullness.  And then something comes along that spreads colour and curiosity, that wakes up that often dormant spirit that asks the big questions like ‘is this it or is there something more?’. The question for me is - are we spreading that something?  That something that liberates us from the grind and grime of life?

Let’s see what we can pull from the story of Nicodemus.  Now there are loads of big ideas in here, and perhaps some of these we need to tackle but for today I want to pick up discipleship building themes around the theme of liberation. 

Nicodemus is a Pharisee who goes to visit Jesus at night.  This is significant.  The fact it is at night suggests to the reader that Nicodemus wants to speak to Jesus privately.  Night time was often a dangerous time of night to be out, the time of bandits and robbers.  But Jesus has sparked something in Nicodemus and he wants to know more. We often think that people don’t want to know about the Christian faith, and often they will act as if they don’t.  Yet, if the right circumstances presented themselves they would ask questions and find out more.  

The question is - do we ever present the right circumstances?   Jesus is always present - the challenge is, are we brave enough, willing enough to ask him the burning question?  And how do we make it possible for others to come and ask the questions?  I think we will have to embrace the online world, the coffee shop and the street corner, like Jesus be available. There are those who want to ask of us, of God, but like Nicodemus have to do so in secret. 

Consider then the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus.  It is relevant to Nicodemus and his situation.  He comes as a student to a teacher, open to the possibilities of what he might learn.  He is not necessarily looking for faith, but he knows that Jesus is a man of God.  And a significant man of God given what he can do.  Our faith and how we live it is our message.  There is no other way that we can get the Gospel message out there with greater effect than how we live it.  Our lives can attract people to God and we don’t even need to have a theology degree. 

Nicodemus is an educated man of God.  He knows the rule books and he knows how to lead others.  What is interesting in the interaction is that Jesus doesn’t mollycoddle. He challenges Nicodemus, who as a Pharisee, would love a good challenge to a belief system.  Too often we sentimentalise God and lose his power to change and challenge.  God pushes us to think, to meditate, to grow in our faith.  Paul talks of it all the time.  

Jesus sparks his curiosity - how is that possible asks Nicodemus.  He stretches Nicodemus’ understanding to beyond the immediate.  He makes him puzzle and ponder, rather than give the answers.  He inspires him rather than convinces him.  The system of the day tried to cover all the bases.  Everything was potentially a sin was accounted for in the rule books of faith.  People had practices and rituals to be physically and spiritually clean.  Anything that might be a route to sin was surrounded in laws so precise that only Pharisees could truly know it all.  We know this from other Gospel stories.  So Jesus inspires Nicodemus to think beyond the rule book, beyond what he knows of life - be born again.  Ya what? It is still held with the bounds of God’s word, with the reference to Moses and the snake lifted in the desert.  Knowledge of Scripture, linking the past, the present and the future together is still a must, and there are no short cuts here. Context is so important and for Nicodemus, it would have given him much to ponder, especially when Jesus is raised on the cross. It is perhaps little wonder that Nicodemus goes with Joseph of Arimathea to take Jesus down from the cross and bury him. 

Jesus finishes his conversation with the hope of the Gospel, a verse we all know and could recite if we needed it to save our lives.  But look at its placement.  Jesus speaks of eternal life and salvation to a Jew, one of God’s chosen people and says he came for the whole world.  He came not just for the chosen few but for the whole world.  This would have been a mind blown moment for Nicodemus.  He probably left Jesus with his head spinning.  

We have the most amazing message of hope and life at our very fingerprints. Switchfoot, an alternative Christian rock band I love from the states, sang a song called Afterlife...

I've tasted fire I'm ready to come alive

I can't just shut it up and fake that I'm alright

I'm ready now

I'm not waiting for the afterlife

I'll Let it burn the way the sunlight burns my skin

The way I feel inside, the way the day begins

I'm ready now

I'm not waiting for the other side

I'm ready now, I'm ready now

Cause everyday the world is made

A chance to change But I feel the same

And I wonder

Why would I wait till I die to come alive?

I'm ready now

I'm not waiting for the afterlife

I still believe we could live forever

You and I we begin forever now

How do we liberate ourselves from the death that surrounds us? We don’t.  We don’t have the capability to liberate ourselves from death.  Jesus does - we need to be born again in him and through him.  Then we will know liberation.  And that liberation is for all, not just the chosen few.  We don’t have to be shaped by this world, forced into its model.  We can be liberated, and live lives full of love and generosity, compassion and forgiveness, grace and hope, joy in sorrow and peace in chaos.  We can be liberated from boring systems and depressing rules.  Being liberated doesn’t mean being liberal - it means to be free. 

What do you need to be liberated from?  And is there someone who wants you to help them meet Jesus?  Maybe, just maybe the unlikeliest person is still waiting for the right opportunity to meet Jesus through you.  

Take time this week to pray for those around you who might be closer to finding God than you have realised. Be open to God’s leading.  And if you are the one needing liberated, take time to focus on God’s word or that unedifying belief and invite him and indeed others you trust to help you unpick it.  With liberation comes hope and freedom. Amen.