Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Mirrors are all around us. A mirror reflects back light, shapes and color when we are gazing into its smooth glassy form. They help us to see more. See if our lipstick is on properly and how we can comb our hair to look presentable. Mirrors extend our vision beyond our line of sight like when we can see a car in our blind spot using our rear-view or side-view mirror. Mirrors can reflect into another mirror, think of your medicine cabinet mirror when you open it just a bit, seeming to create infinite reflections. Mirrors make a room feel bigger and bring in more light. A reflective pool of water or a darkened window can act like mirrors casting back our images. People can be mirrors for us as well. One commentator wrote, “Abram is called by God to serve as a mirror. Instead of images, Abram will reflect blessings and curses on the land where he will sojourn… Abram will turn his mirror self so that the blessing that God shines on him shines on the nations as well” (Feasting on the Word, A2, p.51). Abram as you know will be renamed Abraham which means Father of many nations. His barren wife Sarah will bear him a son Isaac all part of God’s covenant with Abram of land, children and blessing. But the very first glimpse we get of him is as a mirror of God’s blessings. God says to Abram, “I will bless you… so that you will be a blessing” (v2). Mirrors help us see and Abram helps us see God’s blessings. God blessed Abram with a son. God blessed Abram with land. God blessed Abram with long life and more descendants than all the stars in the heavens. Abram blessed the nation of Israel as a forefather. Abram blessed the nation of Islam through Ishmael. Abraham blessed the Gentiles with his righteousness. God declared, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Through Abram and Isaac, Ishmael, David and Jesus, God has blessed many nations.
Of course, Abram also reflects back curses to those who curse him because a mirror does not discriminate about what it reflects. That’s lucky for us. Our mirror does not say, “Hey there you are not looking so good this morning.” Rather a mirror simply reflects back the light and images and lets us worry about giving them value.
I’m sure you have noticed you can’t see in a mirror when it is dark, because mirrors are dependent upon light. Did you also notice that Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of darkness? He did not come to reflect light; he came to ask questions and avoid scrutiny. This Pharisee sought out Jesus because he could see Jesus came from God, but that’s where his vision ends. He couldn’t see Jesus as a King with a kingdom because he can only see him as a teacher, a rabbi. He couldn’t see a metaphor like “being born from above,” because he was so attached to concrete thought. Isn’t that true for us. We can get so sure of what we believe that we can’t see anything else. So sure, that God is our father that we can’t see the Holy Spirit as our Mother. So sure, our political position is right we can’t see a way to more forward through mutual compromise. But what might we see if Jesus held a mirror up for us? Maybe the light of Jesus could help us see more clearly, see our need for change, our growth areas. Isn’t that what a mirror does? It helps us to see the things we cannot see.
Jesus’ first words to Nicodemus are, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” No one can see the kingdom. Jesus is talking about seeing the kingdom and them he talks about entering it. He is a mirror held up in front of Nicodemus asking him, “Are you willing to see me as the Son of God?” Jesus is a mirror of God’s love and light.
But Jesus is not only a mirror reflecting God’s love and light, Jesus also helps us to see ourselves for who we truly are. When you look in the mirror Christ holds up to you, do you see a caring neighbor, one who willingly apologies when wrong, a person who shares her faith freely, a person of honesty and integrity? Jesus is holding a mirror up to you, inviting you to enter God’s kingdom here on earth, being of service and sharing in fellowship with God’s beloved community.
Jesus is a mirror of God’s love and light, the incarnation of the divine. Jesus as God’s Son not only reflects God’s love but refracts it like a prism. Refracted light is light that is redirected from one medium to another. Think of the pencil in the cup of water. Refracted light passing through the water makes it look broken. Better yet think of white light, which is the fullness of all colors, passing through a prism separating the colors into a radiant rainbow. Refracted light changes how we see things, how we enter into things. Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus helps us see that Jesus is like a prism, Jesus changes how we see things. When God’s love and light comes to us through Jesus it is changed, refracted, so we can see and experience it. In the gospel of John, everyday items like bread and water can be simply bread and water. Or they can be so much more. Nicodemus helps us to see that bread can be bread seen through reflected light or bread can be the Bread of Life refracted by the light of Jesus. Water can be water, or it can be Living Water when refracted through the light of Jesus. So it is with being born from above.
Nicodemus struggled with thinking about being born again, reentering mother’s womb. If we think about this literally much like light reflected back, then it is impossible to understand. How could one be born a second time? But if we think about it metaphorically like light refracted through Jesus, through the divine, then there are wondrous possibilities.
Barbara Brown Taylor writes, “This birth Jesus is talking about, then, is not plain birth. It has nothing to do with talking your mother into letting you back in, so she can push you out again. The second time around, Jesus tells Nicodemus, the mother is the Spirit. Everyone who is born of her is made of her. No one can enter the kingdom without this Birth…. If I am born of her, she is my mother” (Holy Envy p. 165, 170). Wow, having the Spirit as my mother changes how I see being born again. It gives wings to how the Spirit moves. Now being born from above is filled with possibilities instead of prescribed definition. I think of all the ways I am like my mother and the ways I strive to be like her. Expand that 100 fold as God’s Spirit moves through us like the wind. Taylor writes, “As scary as the Spirit may sometimes be, I can let her blow me around. When she flings me into other people, she is trying to tell me something. When she drops me off in unfamiliar places, I need to pay attention. She is completely trustworthy, even when I cannot explain a single thing she is up to. She comes. She goes. She gives life to all creation” (p. 170).
Nicodemus came to Jesus in the dark, yet he is a light to us. We do not truly know how God shares God’s love and blessing, but we like Nicodemus know Jesus is the key. We come with our questions sometimes in the dark, hiding and embarrassed, seeking to see and experience God more fully. Jesus responds to us by changing how we see God’s kingdom- letting us know that the Spirit is our mother and she will blow where she chooses.
Having Spirit as my mother also changes how I see the defining declaration- God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Now the three persons of the Trinity feel more like a family unit than a divine mystery. The fullness of God’s love and blessing come to us through our relationship with Jesus and our being born anew by the Spirit. When we can see Jesus, resurrected and risen, and believe in him then our life becomes more than life, it becomes eternal life and a reflection of God’s love to all the world. Amen.
