May 31, 2015

Helen Jacobi

Trinity Sunday     Isaiah 6:1-8     Psalm 29     Romans 8:12-17     John 3:1-17

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In 1899 an African American artist Henry Tanner painted a picture called “Nicodemus visiting Jesus”. Nicodemus and Jesus are seated on the flat rooftop of a Palestinian house. It is night time, they are deep in discussion. Light comes up the stair way from the house, and light also seems to emanate from Jesus. As an African American, Tanner chooses this subject for his painting because the story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus by night was an inspiration to American slaves. They were not given the freedom to worship in the day but met secretly at night to hear the biblical stories of liberation. They were eager to hear God’s word, desperate for the message of hope and salvation they heard, and hanging on to the promise of a place in God’s kingdom, even for those enslaved by their fellow humans.

Nicodemus was also an inspiration because he did not understand what Jesus meant. And so he seemed like an ordinary person you could relate to. Jesus spoke about being born again, or born from above, of being born of water and the spirit, of the wind blowing where it will. Nicodemus had no idea what he was talking about. And Nicodemus was an educated teacher. One writer says “Nicodemus is cast as a character who can’t see in the dark” [1], he stumbles over the ideas Jesus presents to him.

The doctrine of the Trinity is something we often stumble over. How can God be three in one and one in three. We get confused by the concepts like Nicodemus was confused about being born again or being born from above.

Nicodemus wanted to understand the law written in books, he was a rabbi, a teacher and he wanted Jesus to explain how he was doing all these miracles which didn’t fit Nicodemus’ picture of the way things should be. But he overlooked the writings of the prophets who had written with passion about the nature of God. Like Isaiah who saw visions of angels and heard God calling. Like Jeremiah who said that God’s law is written in our hearts.

In our Christian life there is a place for learning and study, it is a joy to learn about our Bible, our heritage our traditions. There is also a much bigger place for living the Christian life for experiencing God the Trinity rather than studying doctrine. And one of the most important aspects of the Trinity is that it is about God in relationship – three beings in relationship (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The Trinity is dynamic, not static. The Trinity is the basis of our Christian community.

Like Nicodemus and Jesus meeting, as a Christian community we meet and ask questions of each other but it does not need to feel like stumbling in the dark as we are all part of God’s community. And because it is God’s kingdom / community and not our community; then we can allow the light of Christ to illuminate things for us. In the Tanner painting there is light emanating from Jesus to light up the darkness of the night, or to help with the confusion; or to give hope perhaps. Jesus invites us all to come sit with him on the rooftop and ponder together what our Christian life and calling is.

On that rooftop with Jesus as our guide we can come to know each other and to discover how it is we continue to build God’s community together here. And there will be times we will talk past each other, like Nicodemus did about the wind and the spirit and being born again. Then Jesus will set us back on the path of discovery and will remind us that it is God’s kingdom, not ours.

If we kept reading in John’s gospel we would find that this Nicodemus story is contrasted with the story which follows in the next chapter of John’s gospel – the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. She is a woman, a Samaritan (outsider); Nicodemus is a man and a Pharisee (insider). She meets Jesus in the heat of the noon day sun; Nicodemus meets Jesus at night; they have similar confused conversations about the spirit and worship and truth. The Samaritan woman tells everyone who will listen about Jesus who she proclaims as Messiah. Nicodemus slips away into the night. But we can be encouraged by Nicodemus because John in his gospel is good enough to mention Nicodemus again. Right at the end in chapter 19 (v39) we read that “Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.” Nicodemus came to assist at the burial of Jesus, and brought the expensive spices and assisted Joseph of Arimathea in his burial. So Nicodemus must have continued as a follower of Jesus, they must have continued their conversations and begun to understand each other. And Nicodemus stayed till the end, stayed to care for Jesus, his teacher.

We can come to Jesus quietly by night, or in the heat of the noon day sun; we can bring our questions and stumblings. And he will meet us and listen.

We have plenty of questions

• we have a reminder of the Chch earthquake on our walls in the photo exhibition; this can make us think of many “natural” disasters across our word; we come to Jesus on the roof top with the question – why?

• we see images daily of war and conflict in Iraq and the Ukraine and many other places; we come to Jesus on the rooftop with the question – how does humanity have the capacity to be so violent?

• we unlock the church every morning with people sleeping in the doorways; we come to Jesus on the rooftop with the question – what can we do?

• we sit powerless beside a loved one who is sick or dying or just fading away slowly – and we come to Jesus on the rooftop with the question – how do we cope?

• we listen to the news about the budget; the closing of Relationships Aotearoa Counselling Service; the building of the SkyCity Convention Centre; child poverty – and we come to Jesus on the rooftop with the question – how do we get involved and make our society a better place?

And we bring our questions to each other, on a Sunday morning and in our various conversations. We have our parish visioning day next Saturday; we have a dinner a couple of weeks later; we have morning teas; we have various committees and task groups; all places for conversations about our faith and our life together as a community.

We bring all of these things to the rooftop and we listen to Jesus’ answers: this is the way John puts it: For God loved the world in this way; he gave his only son, not to condemn the world but so that all might have eternal life. I come to bring light, to shed light on the darkness; not to magic it away, but to bring light and strength so you can build God’s realm on earth.

Think of yourselves as sitting on that rooftop with Jesus, asking questions and listening to stories. And you will find that you are not stumbling in the dark at all. For Jesus has promised us light.

[1] James D Brown sermon 17.2.08 www.marketsquarechurch.org