Removing the Cataracts, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 6-3-2012

Removing the Cataracts By Rev Steven R Mitchell Mountain View United, Aurora, Co 6/3/2012 Based on John 3:1-17 and Isaiah 6:1-8 One of the phrases that would describe this multi-faceted person called, Steven Mitchell, would be “a propensity to compartmentalize.” For instance, I like to have certain spaces to do specific tasks. I like my office to do administrative jobs, I like to read in my living room, I like to watch T.V. in the family room, and I use Star Bucks to write my sermons. I use specific types of music to accompany tasks, such as when I iron, I like to listen to Big Band music. When I am cleaning house I like to use 70’s Disco. When I write my sermons, I prefer the coffee shop type of music normally found at Star Bucks, because the eclectic style stimulates my thought process. Even with the wide variety of music one can hear at Star Bucks, the last thing that I would have expected to hear playing this past Friday was Hank Williams and Johnny Cash! For me, country western music is beer drinking music, and not generally conducive for the consumption of caffeine. You can imagine how disturbed my MoJo was that morning. Instead of using the music as white noise, I found myself singing along and day dreaming about how much fun it would be right then to be out on a dance floor cutting a rug! As we look this morning at the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, we can see two differing types of individuals. Although we could say both men would consider themselves ‘men of God’, one was the type of man who experienced God in a more personal and in none traditional ways – always pushing the envelope, while the other man would experience God very traditionally, and following the perceived boundaries found within the book of Torah. I think it would be safe to say that Nicodemus’ tended to “compartmentalize”. Compartmentalization isn’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact for many of us it allows us to deal with the daily tasks of life smoothly and efficiently. As we grow and experience life, we learn what reactions or results to expect through certain behaviors. We are taught how to define objects, sounds, and odors. We are taught value systems of not only our family and community, but of other cultures (whether actual or perceived). So no matter what age we find ourselves, we approach life with a certain set of believes, and parameters, living with some degree of compartmentalization. Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, had a very developed understanding of the concept of God as defined by the Hebrew religious community, as well as how the coming Messiah would act. Most of us have a specific image of what God looks like when asked. (Please share some of those images with me.) This is one of the very first questions that confirmands are asked as they enter their confirmation studies. The reason for doing this is to them to start thinking about God in differing ways as an ongoing practice in their Spiritual journeys. When Jesus told Nicodemus that, “unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom”, Jesus was trying to get Nicodemus out of his comfort zone, of his learned understanding about God and life in general, so he could become open enough to “who” Jesus truly was. Think of a person who starts life out with two good eyes. They see everything with such clarity, cataloging every image. Then as they grow older their eyes start to cloud over, making it harder to see objects that are in front of them. The brain then takes over and uses those images previously made to compensate for the increasing inability to see clearly. Eventually these clouds develop into cataracts, which in essence make it virtually impossible to see without a glare. But once those cataracts are removed, clear vision is once again restored and the world virtually looks new, allowing for the awe and wonder of what’s in front of you, there is freshness to life once again. Too often, many of us who have grown up in a faith community have developed cataracts and are experiencing our spiritual life through memory instead of a fresh experience. We have grown up learning doctrine which tells us what is the right way and wrong way to believe, the right way and the wrong way to live. As we grow older, we start trusting in our old experiences and close the doors to new opportunities that make us feel alive again, because we are afraid of those new feelings. This morning’s lection reading has one of the most memorized verses of scripture and has been one of the most grossly misused, John 3:16-17, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” One reason for the misuse comes from a misunderstanding of the concepts of “eternal life” and what it means to be “saved.” Last week I shared that Salvation in most Christian circles has come to mean, Eternal life. Yet the root word of salvation is, salvus: meaning “whole,” “sound”, “healed,” “safe,” “well,” or “unharmed”. Modern Christianity has thus intermingled the understanding of Salvation with eternal life as meaning life after this present physical existence, sometimes identified as “heaven.” Rev Rob Bell, in his book Love Wins says, “When Jesus used the word “heaven,” he was simply referring to God, using the word as a substitute for the name of God. Sometimes when Jesus talked about heaven, he was talking about our present eternal, intense, real experiences of joy, peace, and love in this life, this side of death and the age to come. Eternal life is less about a kind of time that starts when we die, and more about a quality and vitality of life lived now in connection to God. Pg 58 Love Wins, by Rob Bell In order to begin to understand who Jesus is, Nicodemus first has to see and experience Jesus from other than his comfortable place and preconceived notions. Feasting on the Word Yr B, Vol. 3 When the gospel is understood primarily in terms of entrance rather than joyous participation, it can actually serve to cut people off from the explosive, liberating experience of the God who is an endless giving circle of joy and creativity. Life has never been about just “getting in.” It’s about thriving in God’s good world. It’s stillness, peace, and that feeling of your soul being at rest. Pg 179, Love Wins, by Rob Bell. If we have grown to understand and to experience Jesus through what we were taught as children and are not having any new experiences, then we like Nicodemus need to have our cataracts removed and be “born anew,” so we to can live in the promise of what Christ gives to us, the promise of eternal life within Gods Kindom. “For God so loved the world, that through Jesus, none should exist as the living dead, like zombies, but have eternal life!” Life filled with liberating experiences of the God who is an endless giving circle of joy, peace, and love. Amen