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.

Today, we begin with FAQ, A chance to reset ourselves in the values that have grounded us for 9 years now. 1st of all, let's pray together. God of new beginnings, who makes every day new, who fills every season with potential, who invests every breath with possibility. Might you help us to see what you see for us in this new season, Pain to overcome and loss to bear, but also joy to celebrate and hope to discover. In all of this, might we come to know you as trusted guide who not only offers us wisdom, but who walks with us Gently and confidently ready for us to lean on you whenever we struggle to stand on our own.

And in that light, Right. We enter this new season brave and courageous and hopeful for what you will bring. For those of us here that find ourselves tired and weary, discouraged and fearful, we pray today brings joy. For those of us eager and ready, excited for new possibilities, may today bring new opportunities. For those of us today who are open for what may come, may today reassure us of your presence near us and your kindness extended to us always.

In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen. Alright. FAQ, frequently asked questions. And today, we are gonna talk about insider lingo, midnight meetings, personal perspective, and starting from the start.

But here's the intent with this series. It's a new season and a new start for all of us, but also for us together as commons. So let's ground ourselves once again in the kind of community we want to be and we continue to become. Today, we're gonna talk about being born again. Next week, we'll talk about the making that story our own.

After that, we'll talk about how that story becomes mission and purpose in our lives in the last week of this series, but today is all about being born again and being intellectually honest. And almost undoubtedly, even if church is very new to you, that is a phrase you have likely encountered somewhere along the line. In Fact, there are parts of the church that often refer to themselves as, quote, born again Christians, as if that's a special category of Jesus followers you can join. And this is one of those things. Right?

Every subculture has its own lingo, insider language that functions as shorthand But also as a status marker. My son watches a lot of YouTube. Too much YouTube. You hear that, buddy? Tone it down if you're watching this.

But he likes to watch people play video games, particularly a game called Among Us. Now he's never played that game before. We're still pretty strict about access to some of these things at his age, but he watches them play. And this game has its own lingo that he's picked up on. So last week, his mom said something, and he replied, that's sus.

And I heard her respond, excuse me? And right away, I could tell in her tone that she did not completely understand this response, but also did not like the sound of it. So I jumped in, and I said it's fine. He said Sus, it means suspect or suspicious. It's cool.

And now we say sus in our house like it's 2019, but That's how it goes. Right? Every new generation and culture and fandom and religion develops its own lingo. And the truth is we stan that high key energy. So take several seats of your salty and you think that's bougie.

They finna drag you anyway, and I have no idea what I just said, but I know that my son does. The point is born again somehow made the leap from a metaphor that Jesus uses once to a term that for many signifies an insider status, and that is a little bit sus. So let's take a closer look at this phrase and where it comes from. Now as I mentioned, Jesus uses this once. It does appear one other time in the New Testament, in the writings of Peter.

When Jesus uses the term, it appears as 2 Greek words, which means to be born, and anothen, which can be either again or from above depending on the context, and we'll talk about that a bit later. However, when Peter uses the image, he mashes those same 2 words together and makes a single Greek compound word, which when inflected properly, leaves you with anagega niminoi. And that is probably why the rest of the New Testament writers were like, forget that. That's Too hard to say, so we'll just talk about it in another way. Still, the idea is an incredibly beautiful one.

So let's look at how Jesus actually uses that. Now the famous passage comes from John 3. And Jesus has been talking to a man named Ademas, but we're gonna back up a wee bit to set the scene at the end of chapter 2. We read this at the end of the chapter. Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.

But Jesus Would not entrust himself to them for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind For he knew what was in each person. And then the next line is John 31 where we are introduced to Nicodemus. Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Now there's an old saying.

If you want people to read what you have written, don't write about humanity. Write about a human. And that's essentially what John is doing here. He's just told us that Jesus knows what is going on in the hearts of humans, and now he tells us a story about A particular human being. And that's important to understand because the entire approach the gospels generally take is show, not tell.

We read something like Jesus knew what was in each person, and then we think, what on earth does that mean? But instead of explaining themselves, the ghost bulls will often instead tell a story. And I think that's neat for a couple reasons. First, because it really leaves Jesus for us to discover on our own. The gospel writers really seem to want you to come along for the ride.

Right? They seed things And they tease things, but they really want you to discover things for yourself, and they like that. Jesus knows what's in your heart. What does that mean? Well, let's Find out together.

But second, this approach frames Jesus in pastoral, not Theological terms. Now take this statement. Jesus knows what's in your heart. What does that mean? Well, for John, It is not primarily a theological question about omniscience and divine cognition.

It's a question about whether Jesus is looking over your shoulder to do something naughty. That's not what he's asking. For John, it's actually a statement about Jesus' ability to be present to someone With a particular kindness and empathy. See, the gospels will take some of our biggest claims about Jesus, and they will shrink them down into very personal conversations. I think because for the writers of the gospels, the question is not whether Jesus can read minds.

That was less important to them than whether Jesus could find points of connection with every single person he encountered. I think often, if we could follow those cues and if we could reframe some of our large scale theological questions into more human scale encounters with the divine, we might actually find ourselves closer to the humanity that Jesus modeled for us. Because here at least, Jesus knows what's in your heart is not framed as a magic trick, But instead, as a simple kindness demonstrated in the willingness to shape a conversation just for Nicodemus. Okay. So how does that kindness unfold?

Well, chapter 3 verse 2. Nicodemus 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 were doing if god were not with him. Jesus replied, very Truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of god unless they are born again. There's our line. How can someone be born when they are old?

Nicodemus asked. Surely, they cannot enter a 2nd time into their mother's womb to be born. And Jesus answered, 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 wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, But you cannot tell where it's coming from or where it's going to, so it is with everyone born of spirit. How can this be? Nicodemus asked. You are Israel's teacher, and you do not understand these things? Asked Jesus.

Alright. A couple things here. 1st, Nicodemus is part of the Jewish ruling council, and second, he comes to Jesus at night. Now Ruling council here is the word archon, and it could signify that Nicodemus was part of what we call the Sanhedrin, Literally, the ruling council, the sort of highest legal court in the pharisaical religious tradition. More likely, though, This simply means that he was a very respected leader in the community.

Archon is not necessarily an official title in the Greek language. Although this does set Nicodemus apart as a respected Pharisee. Now we've talked about this many times before, but Pharisees are not the bad guys in the new testament. If you're going to put Jesus in a camp in the 1st century, he probably most closely aligns with the Pharisees. Now I happen to think part of the appeal of Jesus is that he doesn't quite fit anywhere, And that means he is able to both critique and celebrate without partisan commitments.

That's part of the appeal. But when you see Jesus interacting with Pharisees throughout the new testament, the best way to think about this is an intrareligious dialogue. Jesus sees himself as part of the community with these people, part of these people, not as someone who throws stones from the road. When you understand that, his critiques come across very differently. Right?

I mean, I've showed you my mean tweet collection before. People say terrible things about me online. It's fine. I've made my peace with that. It's part of the job.

But that's just anger and vitriol and frustration that has nowhere to go, and it's kind of Gross. Critique though that comes from you and from this community and from my partner or my kids or from the staff and the board here at commons, From those that I share life with, that is holy and sacred. So Jesus is not an Internet troll. He is an invested member of a community working for transformation from within. And that means that Nicodemus is, In some way, a colleague here.

Often, he'll come. You'll hear the story about Nicodemus hear that he comes at night because he doesn't want to be seen talking to Jesus. As if these 2 groups were set at odds with each other all the time. It's possible, But it also doesn't make a lot of sense given that many Pharisees talked to Jesus in public regularly, and one even had him over for dinner at his house. So the more likely scenario here is that Jesus is popular, really popular.

And Nicodemus wants some 1 on 1 time with him, and this is the only time he can get Jesus this alone. This is actually less about fear, and it's more about fascination. And you can see that in the way that he approaches Jesus, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from god. And by the way, notice the we there. There is an awareness and a respect Growing around Jesus at this point in the story.

Jesus, though, jumped straight to the heart of it. Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of god unless they are born again. And as I mentioned before, anothem, here read as again, has two meanings, A temporal meaning, again, and an adverbial meaning, from above. Now a couple things about this word, from above Automatically kinda sounds religious to us. Right?

Like, as in born from god or born from heaven. This word doesn't necessarily carry that connotation. In Mark, when he talks about the curtain in the temple being torn from the top to the bottom, it's from above to below. It's just what the word means. Second, though, it's helpful to understand that that is actually the primary most common usage of anothen.

From above is what you should expect to read when you see this word. So the best way to translate Jesus' words here are, Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of god unless they are born from above. That's the normal natural way to read the sentence. The problem is, for translators, the whole conversation here hinges on Nicodemus misinterpreting things. And so in English, we're kind of forced to mistranslate for the sake of the story, to read it as born again, which became a big thing for us and is not what Jesus said in the 1st place anyway.

So Nicodemus here is born again. That sounds sus. So he says, how on earth would that work? It's not like I can climb back in my mother's womb to which Jesus says, big yikes. If you know, you know because no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and spirit.

Yeah. I'm trying to work in all the phrases that I've learned from my son today. Anyway, Jesus continues. You should not be surprised at my saying this, that you must be born from above. The wind blows wherever it pleases.

You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with Everyone born of spirit. Okay. So Jesus' point here is that life for all of us is more than just breathing. And if you want to experience kingdom, there is another kind of beginning that involves a new awareness of Spirit and movement and divine presence in and around us all, it's like seeing the world for the very first time. It's beautiful.

But if this story is, as I've suggested, an example of what it means for Jesus to Know what is in each person. And if this story is a personal encounter shaped specifically for Nicodemus, What does this invitation offer particularly for him? Because if I'm right, that's really what the story hinges on. So let's think about that. Who is Nicodemus?

He's an archon and a Pharisee. He's a respected teacher and a leader, someone who has studied and excelled and been recognized by his community, someone that Jesus refers to as Israel's teacher. So this is someone that Jesus takes seriously as well. And yet, after hearing Jesus, Nicodemus slips away into the night. There's no dramatic change of heart.

He doesn't understand these things. He misinterprets Jesus' intent, and he fails the born again test and remains sus, or at least that's way the story is often read. Cards on the table, though, I think that might be missing the point. You see, If this man has been studying from childhood as any rabbi would have, and if he has excelled at every Stage of that journey as any archon would have if he has passed the test and jumped to the hoops and exceeded the trials all the way along throughout all of his life. Then sure, This invitation to start all over again sounds both ridiculous and daunting.

And imagine finishing all your schooling through your undergrad and your masters. You complete your PhD only to have your adviser say congratulations. Undergrad classes start tomorrow. So here's the thing. If we're to take Jesus seriously, though, Born again, born from above metaphor he offers to Nicodemus, then what he's asking for isn't a response.

It's curiosity. In fact, if you read through the chapter, Jesus never dismisses Nicodemus. Never says he's done anything wrong, the story simply moves on to a new character. Maybe we forget Nicodemus, but John, however, is not done with our friend. Because 4 chapters later in John 7, Jesus is teaching again this time to a crowd.

And as he talks about himself, they get angrier and angrier with him. He says things like this. You have misread the Sabbath. You've made it an idol and a rule to follow instead of something that was meant to help you. That's why I can heal someone even on this day of rest.

That's What it's for. He says, I'm only here for a very short time because eventually I will need to return to god and the source of all life. He says anyone who has need, anyone who is thirsty, regardless of appearance or priority or society, They can come to me, and I will give to them freely. In the crowd, they get angrier and angrier at this. He's obliterating these dividing lines that all of us love to hold on to so In fact, they get so angry, they wanna kill him.

But then John records that Nicodemus, Who had gone to Jesus earlier, he reminds us, and was one of their number asked, does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he's been doing? So he steps out from the anger cow, and he says, look. Why are you getting so upset here? Listen to him. Look at his life.

If it's nonsense, then forget it. But if it's not, Well, I mean, what if it's not nonsense? And then Nicodemus slips back into the crowd to listen. We don't see him again. Jesus continues teaching, and the Pharisees continue questioning him.

But once again, John has not forgotten Nicodemus. Because later, Jesus goes to the city of Jerusalem. And he enters on Palm Sunday, and he is crucified on Good Friday. And some 12 chapters later in John 19, Nicodemus shows up again. This time, we read that later a man named Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus to bury, But he was accompanied by Nicodemus, the same man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.

Callback. Don't forget. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about £75. And taking Jesus' body, the 2 of them wrapped it with the Spices in strips of linen, this in accordance with Jewish burial custom. Now this was an incredibly important process in Jewish custom.

The burial of the dead was very tightly prescribed, but the bringing of spices, 75 pounds of myrrh and aloe that are named here. This was a burial, as the scholar Raymond Brown says, that was fit for a king. This is an extravagant display of devotion. What are we watching here throughout the gospel of John as we see Nicodemus pop in and out of the story? We're watching someone who has started over.

We're watching someone who was willing to set aside Their presuppositions and everything they've been told, we're watching someone consider new possibilities and learn new things right in front of us. We're watching someone who has, in a very real way, taken Jesus seriously and being born again. But the thing is, That's not here at the end where it happens. It was all the way back there at the beginning in John 3, Back when Nicodemus heard Jesus' invitation and wondered to himself if it was worth opening his heart to a world of new possibilities that he had discarded. See, born again is not a destination or something you get view or a title you apply to yourself.

It is only ever the willingness to start over, To see the world with fresh eyes to consider possibilities you had once closed off. Born again is what happens every time you open yourself up to a relationship you thought was done Or a faith you thought had abandoned you or a future you were convinced had run out on us, Born again is nothing else than seeing the world as a child does with everything yet to learn. And so when I look at Nicodemus, I see someone who spent years listening And hours upon hours evaluating and thinking, who spent his choices testing Jesus' way in the world, deciding if this was really for him. Because of that, what he discovered was not an emotionally manipulated moment of weakness or a blind leap of faith. It was a Thoughtfully considered, discovered path that Nicodemus could choose for himself.

Sometimes born again means nothing more than the awareness that there is more to the universe than you think, And sometimes that is all god is asking for. You see, when we talk About being intellectually honest here at commons. Yes. Absolutely. We are talking about theological rigor And doing our contextual homework and looking at translation problems and understanding cultural sensitivity and everything that it takes To read an ancient collection of texts like the bible well, yes.

But more than that, intellectual honesty is an acknowledgment of the fact that we are, All of us still learning, and that posture is at the heart of what it means to follow the way of Jesus in the world because you are not who you were, And you are not right now who you will be, and Jesus is here for all of it. That's the point. So may you know today that some of the things you have written off are still yet possible, and some of the roads you think you missed can still be found and that no matter how much you have learned or experienced or been taught in your life, No matter how many walls have been built around you to stop you from exploring the boundaries, the divine is still all around you waiting to be discovered and Jesus is cheering you on every time you put another foot in front of a foot to explore a bit more. That's what it means to begin again. It's what it means to be born from above.

Let's pray. God, you have given us these incredible, beautiful images To be born again, to be born from above, to see the world with the fresh eyes of a child, everything yet still to learn. And yet often, in our pursuit of concrete ideas and clarity, In our pursuit of confidence, sometimes we turn even that into a title that we ascribe to ourself, a destination that we claim to have reached. Instead, might you soften our hearts to know that every day we can be born all over again, To see the world with wonder, to see our encounters with a posture of learning, To embrace the world around us as the beauty of mystery of your presence in and through all things, all the ways that spirit is there to teach us and guide us forward. And even as we learn, even as we make progress closer to you in the likeness of your son, Might you still always keep us fresh and soft to new beginnings, willing to head into new days, new Seasons, new hours, new encounters with fresh eyes to learn new things.

In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.