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vi-sion (noun): sight; the anticipation of what will come to be; a vivid, imaginative concept
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
What I can say is that this appears to be a man who has been willing to reevaluate everything he thought he once knew. Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Good morning. Welcome today. My name is Jeremy. I'm one of the people who hang out around here at Commons. And if you happen to be here because you joined us for Easter, and then you decided to come back, then we really do want to extend an extra welcome today.
Speaker 1:We don't take it for granted that you would join us for worship, and so we are glad to have you here with us. Now that said, last week was Easter, and that means today is the beginning of Eastertide. And if you've never heard of Eastertide, this is part of the Christian liturgical tradition. I just happen to have a helpful graphic prepared for us that I'll throw up on the screen here. And if you notice on the left side, we have just moved from Lent through Holy Week and now into what we call Eastertide.
Speaker 1:And this is a fifty day celebration of resurrection. And so all through the spring, as life is emerging and green is returning and the sun is at least theoretically warming our skin, we are reminding ourselves about and celebrating new life in the world. And so this is really one of the beautiful things of the liturgical year, that life is about rhythms. And we can't stay in one note. Just as we move through seasons of the year, we need to move through seasons of grief and anticipation and celebration in our lives.
Speaker 1:And so in Advent, we anticipate. Lent, we experience lack and loss. During Holy Week, we move from the depths of Good Friday to the mountaintop of resurrection. And now in Eastertide, we settle into a season of celebration. And I do want to say this before we move on.
Speaker 1:If you personally are not in a mood to celebrate right now, that's okay. The Christian calendar is not about forcing you to feel what you don't. It is about that subtle reminder that there will be seasons of celebration again. So hold on because life is about those rhythms. Now, of our tradition and rhythm here at Commons Church is also that as we begin Eastertide together, we start with something we call Vision Sunday.
Speaker 1:And this is simply our chance to look forward at the coming year as we start our planning for the fall, but also this is our chance to look forward as individuals to reflect on our vision for our lives in the light of the Easter story. Easter can be one of those moments where the story of God just seems so incredibly vibrant and alive. And if you were able to join us, either here in Kensington or in Inglewood last week, I hope you had a sense of that. But we don't want that tangibility to slip away too quickly. And so maybe you are dreaming of resurrection in your life, a return to health, or a new vibrancy in your marriage, that new breath in a relationship that has grown cold, or maybe simply just new trust in the story of Jesus, and a renewed excitement for your journey of faith.
Speaker 1:All of these are worthy visions of resurrection this Eastertide. And so we want to encourage you that before you leave today, you take your journal. If you don't have one, then go to the connection center, pick one up for free before you leave. Turn to that Vision Sunday page and take some time to write down some imagination of what you want to see and feel and experience in this coming season that lies ahead for you. Now, there is nothing magical about writing things down.
Speaker 1:It won't make your dreams come true. But as one of the early Christians, a man named Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure and lovely and admirable, if anything is excellent and praiseworthy, reflect on such things. And there is something significant about where we invest our mental energy. And aligning a vision for your next season with the goodness and the life and the resurrection that is present in this season, that may be part of what helps you encounter Christ in ways you can't even imagine yet. Now, today, wanna talk a bit about our experience as a community, now spread across five services in two parishes.
Speaker 1:And then, I wanna spend most of our time today revisiting our vision for a church where there is room for your personal story. But first, let's pray together. God of resurrection, of life returned and hope renewed, God of open arms and big dreams, would you help us to grasp just how significant your love for us really is as we imagine our vision for what may come? Might our dreams come from being immersed in your story? Might be they be kind that pulls us into the future you hope for us.
Speaker 1:The kind that invites us to become the people you created us to be. And so, where our priorities need to be flexed or fixed or reinvented, where we have goals and ideas, aspirations that need to be reoriented, would you grant us wisdom that inspires us to see what is truly possible in you? Lord of life, do more than resuscitate us to the life that we had been living, but instead, enliven us into something new, and beautiful, and profoundly true. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay. Today, I want to talk a little bit about church, and then we want to talk about first encounters, second guesses, and lasting transformations. But let's start with church. Because every September, we print a journal that outlines information about commons and gives you, I think, pretty good rundown of who we are and what we're trying to be about. And then it outlines our entire teaching for the year.
Speaker 1:So twelve months, fifty two Sundays, space to take notes, and a write up describing the series that we are about to embark on together. And that is a lot of work to put together. We are just going into the season where we're now collecting ideas for the fall. But it really is worth it for us because it helps us stay on track together as a community throughout the year. And that's especially important now as we have a parish here in Kensington and another in Inglewood and a vision for more across the city.
Speaker 1:The journal is one of those ways that we are linking these different communities together. But it's actually been really interesting this year to work through the journal and to teach alongside our team this year. Every time we get to a new series, we take that series and we tackle it, but then we go and we write our own sermons and our own voices to communicate. And this is actually something that is really important for us as a community as we move forward. Right now, I'm obviously here in Kensington with you, but I'm actually speaking in Inglewood by video right now, because we do want to have a couple times a year where we make sure we're all on the same page.
Speaker 1:By giving expression to different voices and perspectives, encouraging our parishes to take on their own life, and their own flavor, and character, this is an integral part of what Commons has been aiming at since we launched. Last Sunday, 1,188 people joined us for Easter. And I sat at the back of the room as Scott and Bobby preached the story. And I have never been more full of joy over what this community has grown into in four short years. Like, I could not And those of us who were part of the launch of Commons three and a half years ago in 2014, could not have imagined what God has given us today.
Speaker 1:Because last week, every service, everywhere we gathered was packed. But more than that, there was this palpable sense of this community's desire to reach into an encounter with the divine. And look, I get it. It was Easter, and everybody goes to church on Easter. I know.
Speaker 1:But the truth is, if we want to continue to facilitate that kind of an encounter, and if we want to continue to invite more people into an intellectually honest, spiritually passionate engagement with Jesus, then we will need to continue to find ways to get smaller. That means more parishes, more dinner parties, more home groups, more chances for more people to experience the real heartbeat of community. And as fun as it is, that is never going to be those huge moments with hundreds upon hundreds of people. It's as fun as all that is, where it really takes hold for us is when it turns into local hospitality. And where resurrection really comes alive in us is when we sit together, And we eat together, and we learn each other's names, and we share each other's stories, and we invite each other to encounter the risen Christ within us.
Speaker 1:And so I hope that you loved the party of Easter, and I hope you experienced something of resurrection last week. But what I really hope is that you would find ways to take that and turn that into some unique expression of local hospitality in your life. Because home groups and dinner parties and volunteer opportunities and parishes that spring up around the city, this is everything that we are attempting to make this community smaller. Because we do want more people to encounter the risen Christ. But dinner parties will always be more powerful than sermons.
Speaker 1:Now, I promised today that we would talk about first encounters, second guesses, and lasting transformations. And, that's because all of this is really about that same journey of making Jesus personal in our lives. So let's start with John three. Verse one, we read, there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.
Speaker 1:Now, before we move on here, we have to ask what this Jewish ruling council is all about. And the truth is, it's actually a bit of speculation. You may have heard that Nicodemus was part of the Sanhedrin, if you've heard this story before, which is sort of like the Jewish Supreme Court. Sort of a religious slash political council that held a great deal of power around the time of Jesus. But the text here doesn't actually say that.
Speaker 1:All it says is that Nicodemus was an Arkon of the Jews or a ruler among the Jews. Now, that could mean an official designation like the ruling council, but it could also simply mean that he was simply a very influential respected leader in the community. And while the NIV has stuck with the more traditional rendering, newer translations like the ESV have just been more straightforward and said he was a ruler among the Jews. Now, we do know that Nicodemus was a Pharisee. But this is important here.
Speaker 1:Because as Christians, we need to be very careful about how we imagine and use some of these terms. The Pharisees are not the bad guys. Now, yes, some of the Pharisees were. And the ruling council certainly were when they called for Jesus' death. But the Pharisees are the precursors to the modern rabbinical movement.
Speaker 1:And so, the rabbis that you meet and encounter here in the city, they will consider themselves Pharisees. And this is important because when we use that term and we automatically think in our heads hypocrites or villains, there's a very myopic way of understanding a Jewish faith that is much more diverse and beautiful than we sometimes imagine it to be. And indeed, some of the Pharisees, as we see here, were quite taken with Jesus. Now, he does come at night, and so that suggests that Nicodemus is not quite ready to be seen with Jesus. But he is certainly intrigued by this man.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus says, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. And Nicodemus asked, how can someone be born again when they are old? Surely, they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born. And everyone said, gross. It's a metaphor, my friend.
Speaker 1:Tranquilo. Jesus responds, very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and of spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases.
Speaker 1:You hear its sound, but you cannot know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of spirit. How can this be? Asked Nicodemus. Now, what's really interesting here is that even if we are new to church, and even if we didn't grow up around faith, the idea of being born again has come to dominate a lot of, at least, evangelical Christianity.
Speaker 1:That's not necessarily a bad thing. I happen to think this is an incredibly beautiful metaphor. But this here is actually the only time that Jesus ever uses this image. In fact, Peter picks up on it, and he uses a slightly different construction, but essentially the same idea in first Peter. But that is the only non Jesus reference to being born again.
Speaker 1:So Jesus uses it once, and Peter uses it once, and that's it. Now, just for fun here, When Jesus uses the term, he says, born again, using two Greek words, genao, which is to be born, and then anothen, which can be either again or from above, depending on the context. And we'll talk about that in a bit because that's actually an important part of the pun that Jesus is making. But when Peter uses this same idea, he just mashes the two words together and makes up a compound word. The thing is, when you put together ganao and anophen and you inflect it in the Greek, you end up with anagagenomenoi, which is just really hard to say, which is probably why the rest of the New Testament writers are like, forget that.
Speaker 1:That is just too much. We'll find another way to talk about this. Anagega Nominei is just too much of a mouthful. Regardless, as rare as this metaphor is, and as hard as it is to say, the reason it has found so much purchase in our collective imagination is because it is such a beautiful image. And despite Nicodemus doing his best to ruin it for us, by picturing himself climbing back into his mother's womb, there is just something about second birth, and new life and being born all over again that resonates deeply with our experience of the world.
Speaker 1:Especially, would suggest, coming out of this season of resurrection and into this season of spring, where life is emerging all around us, or at least it will be eventually. So, we need to ask what this encounter, and then a second and a third, are all about before we leave today. Now, part of what I love about the Gospels is that Jesus tends to teach in these type of personal encounters. When we read Paul's letters, which we are going to dive back into next week, we can guess a bit about his audience. But often, we are left constructing a conversation with only one side of it in front of us.
Speaker 1:Often, with Jesus, we get to see who he's talking to and why he's talking to them. We get to see what motivates that person and what it is that it means for them when Jesus speaks to them. In other words, we get to see the ways in which Jesus' words are personal. And I love this about Jesus, that he is not primarily a guru moving through ancient Palestine with pithy sayings. Jesus is, first and foremost, a man who encounters and engages the people who live near him.
Speaker 1:And that should be formative for our faith. Jesus is not primarily a source of wisdom. He is the avenue through which we encounter and converse with the divine. And that's important. Especially for someone like me, who can very easily start to turn Jesus into a source of answers instead of a place of conversation.
Speaker 1:But here, what it means is that you must be born again is not just a random idea. It's a very specific message for this particular man named Nicodemus. Now, that doesn't mean it's not for us, but it does mean that we have to ask what it meant for Nicodemus. K. So Jesus says, you must must be born again.
Speaker 1:And as mentioned earlier, technically, that could be either born again or born from above. Anothin has both a temporal, again, and an adverbial, from above, meaning. And in fact, the adverbial meaning, from above, is more common in Greek. If you wanted to say born again, you would normally say the way that Peter does. Except that the whole reason this is so hard to translate into English is because the whole conversation hinges on Nicodemus misinterpreting Jesus.
Speaker 1:Jesus says, you must be born from above. Nicodemus thinks he means born again. He says, well, how's that gonna work? To which Jesus says, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born from above.
Speaker 1:The wind blows wherever it wants. You hear it, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going, so it is with everything born of spirit. In other words, Nicodemus, everything is much more mysterious than you think. So it's actually pretty clear here that Jesus has meant all along born from above, and Nicodemus just misses it. But if that's what the story hinges on, then we have to ask ourselves what this understanding meant specifically for Nicodemus.
Speaker 1:And as we've already talked about, Nicodemus may or may not be part of the religious ruling council of the day. But either way, his designation as an archon signals that he is a very well respected, learned man who carries a lot of weight in this community. So, this is someone with education, someone with experience, someone who has earned the right to speak with a certain authority. This is someone who knows how the world works. And I don't know if this resonates with you, but the more that I think I know, the harder it is for me to second guess myself.
Speaker 1:So I don't know much about cars. Like, know where the gas goes, and I know what pedals to push. But if you tried to tell me something about what was wrong with my car, I would likely just trust you and take that at face value. I don't know what I'm talking about. If you, on the other hand, tried to tell me some new fact that I had never heard about Pearl Jam, I would likely be a little skeptical, and I would want to see some evidence to back that up because that's an area where I happen to know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:And this one is personal for me because I tend to be quite confident in myself. And what that means is quite regularly, my wife will be forced to remind me that there are things that I will gladly speak very confidently about, even though I know nothing of what I speak. I don't know if that's you, but that's me. They say that in your undergrad, you learn a little about everything. In your master's, you learn a lot about something.
Speaker 1:And in your PhD, you learn everything about nothing. My apologies to Scott, is working on his PhD right now. But that's kind of the situation here in John. Nicodemus has learned everything about nothing. And maybe that's why when Jesus says, take everything you think that you know and start again.
Speaker 1:That sounds to Nicodemus as absurd as being born all over again. And so, Nicodemus leaves. And he walks away, and he is not born again, and he does not leave his life behind to follow Jesus, and Jesus' words fall on deaf ears. Or do they? Because you see, four chapters later in John seven, Jesus is teaching in front of a crowd again.
Speaker 1:And this time, he's talking about himself and the unique way that he images the divine in the world, and they get upset with him. Jesus says things like, you guys have misread the Sabbath, and you've made it into something to worship instead of something that was designed to be good for you. He says, look, I'm only here for a short time, And eventually, I'll need to return to God and the source of all things. And that's why anyone who is thirsty and anyone who is looking for something more than this, regardless of their appearance or propriety or society. They are more than welcome to come to me, and I will give everything of myself to them.
Speaker 1:And this sort of upsets the religious system, and the crowd gets angrier and angrier to the point that they actually want to kill him. And a mob forms, and the temple guard gets involved. But then in John seven verse 50, we read that Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier so just in case we've forgotten him, the writer's like, hey, hey, hey. Remember this guy? He steps up, and he asks, do our laws allow us to condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?
Speaker 1:Like, at least hear what he has to say. And if it's nonsense, then forget it. But what if it's not? And so, the crowd settles down, and Nicodemus slips into the background to listen quietly away from our sight, and Jesus continues to teach. And this sets up this really profound moment where then the religious leaders try to catch Jesus, and they bring this woman, and they try to get Jesus to condemn her.
Speaker 1:And Jesus says, guys, that's your game, not mine. And in the back, Nicodemus is watching and listening and wondering and imagining what all of this could mean. Now, Jesus, of course, continues to preach. And he goes on to Palm Sunday and Holy Week. He engages his disciples in this conversation that we explored during Lent.
Speaker 1:He experiences the persecution and the torture and the death of Good Friday. And in all of this, we lose sight of Nicodemus. But what's amazing is that a writer doesn't. Because another 12 chapters later, in the third last chapter of the book, which is a really beautiful coincidence since Nicodemus was introduced in the third chapter of John, we read that later Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who had earlier visited Jesus at night.
Speaker 1:And this is not random. The writer clearly does not want you to miss this moment. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes and about 75 pounds. And taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it with spices in strips of linen according to Jewish burial customs. Now, does this mean that Nicodemus has now finally come to acknowledge Christ?
Speaker 1:Jesus as king and lord, the messiah that he had been waiting for. I don't know. And, I'm not sure we can really say that with certainty, and the gospel doesn't seem to want to wrap it up with a nice bow for us either. But, what I can say is that this appears to be a man who has been willing to reevaluate everything he thought he once knew. It's a man who saw the world one way, who was confident and sure, and who has put his world together in a way that made sense to him, but was now due to an encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Opened up to a new and mysterious world of possibilities where the spirit blows in all kinds of unexpected ways. And if that's not born again, then I don't know what would be. You see, when I look at the life of Nicodemus, and the way that the writer of John has woven it all throughout his gospel, what I see is a picture of what Jesus had in mind all those years ago in chapter three. A man who understood exactly what Jesus was asking from him and took it very seriously. See, that night with Jesus in John three is where Nicodemus started all over again.
Speaker 1:And that meant he spent a lifetime watching, and listening, and learning, and reflecting, becoming aware of a world he had never noticed all around him. And it wasn't quick. And it wasn't easy. And it took years. And Jesus didn't even get to see it happen in his lifetime.
Speaker 1:But sometimes, this is how it goes when we make room for the spirit to blow. And this is what we mean when we talk about a vision for a common church that is intellectually honest and spiritually passionate with Jesus at the center. Because we are not here to convert you any more than Jesus was on that night in John three. And if God was ready to entertain Nicodemus questions for a lifetime, then perhaps that gestation is an integral part of the journey. You see, faith is more than a moment.
Speaker 1:It is questions and answers. And it's learning and unlearning. It's listening and speaking and breathing and being together. It's dinner tables and conversations and shared stories, and all the surprising ways in which we discover Jesus in the conversation when we let the spirit blow. Because being born again is not about having it all figured out.
Speaker 1:It is about realizing you have everything yet to discover. Now, Origen, one of the first Christian writers once said, come first and share our life, then you may come to understand our faith. And this is what the Christian story is about. As we begin to prepare for our fifth year together as Commons, And as Inglewood takes its place as part of the heartbeat that drives this community, as we continue to explore new ways to invite new people into the Jesus story, we are committed to your journey. No matter how long that takes.
Speaker 1:Because all of you is welcome here, and getting to walk that long road with you, that is the greatest honor that a faith community can have. And so, if you are ready to begin that story and to start all over again, then we would love to walk beside you one small conversation at a time. Because that's what faith is meant to look like. Let's pray. God, thank you for all the ways that you are more gracious and patient than we imagine.
Speaker 1:So when we move slowly, one timid step after another timid step, we pray that we would understand your gracious embrace. That you are not trying to rush us along or move us faster than we need to go. That you embrace that gestation of what it means to grow and change and become something new. Lord, where we, as your followers, have tried to push someone faster than they needed to go, we repent. And we ask instead that your spirit would bring us grace and peace and patience for the long journey.
Speaker 1:And that as we walk with each other, through conversations and dinners, through stories and shared experiences, we would always have grace and patience for each other, trusting that you are always there with open arms when we are ready. Lord, for those of us who are perhaps ready to take a first step into a new journey and a new way of imagining the world, would you be present to us, reminding us that one step is okay, because you will be there to meet us and walk the rest of the way. May we, as a community, have that same grace for each other. In the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen.