Windmills and Unknowing

John 3: 1-17

It’s evening. The work of the day has been finished, or at least put away till tomorrow. The stars peacefully shine above you and the moon is just bright enough to light your steps. Most people are home tending to their own evening rituals. It's quiet. The silence settles in around you like a tonic for the day's busyness. You let out a slow breath. It’s a good time to go visit with Jesus. 

I’m jealous of Nicodemus to be honest. He gets to go and visit with the man Jesus face to face. He gets to look into the eyes that blaze with eternal love. He gets to hear Jesus’ voice. Sometimes sounding gentle, sometimes a little scolding, but always full of love.

We’ve always been a little hard on Nicodemus. Does he come at night because he doesn’t want others to see him? Maybe. But doesn’t Jesus tell us to go into our prayer closet alone and shut the door? To not pray where others can applaud you? And isn’t prayer merely a conversation with God, the Trinity, the three manifestations of God? 

How often have we heard a sermon telling us that Nicodemus walked away not saved, not a Christian, because he didn’t accept Jesus into his heart and get born again? We have a whole rhetoric built up around the one phrase Jesus uses only once and only in John’s gospel.

I recently finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s book “Holy Envy.” She asks us to rethink this encounter between Nick and Jesus. 

She suggests that Nick comes in and begins by telling Jesus what he knows about him. We know that…(I assume the “we” to be the royal we.) We know who you are…we know we see God in you. We know what God looks like.

And Jesus says, “You can’t possibly know anything about the Kingdom of God, the way of God, the works of God, unless you are born from above, or born again.”

Jesus doesn’t tell Nick to get down on his knees and confess his sins so he will be saved. I don’t think that is what this is about. Jesus says you must be born from above, born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus asks Jesus…How? How does one make this happen? What must I do?

Taylor points out that Jesus does not give Nicodemus a road map to how to get there. BTW…I like road maps! But Jesus says the Spirit will make it happen the way she sees fit. Simple. The wind blows where it will, don’t try to control it. God knows Iowans of all people should know how uncontrollable the wind can be. 

So how do windmills glean the power of the wind? Well, yes they are standing on firm foundations. A single pole that connects them to the ground, keeps them grounded if you will. But they harness the power through flexibility. They move and turn and sway with the wind. And if the wind is not blowing, they wait silently.

I want to be a windmill. I want to harness the power of the Spirit when she blows through. And more than that, I want to see the church become a great windmill. A windmill that harnesses power when the Spirit moves and waits and watches and remains prepared for when she does. And I want a road map for all the in between times. But the wind does not give roadmaps.

 

When I heard about the revival at Asbury College recently, I immediately wanted to find out what they did to get there. I wanted to see their road map to revival. Funny thing is that they didn’t know how they got there. They could make all kinds of suppositions like they had their theology right, or they knew how to pray or to preach. But truth is, the Spirit showed up and threw a wonderful surprise party! Hopefully, they aren’t like Peter who wants to build a permanent building on the mountain top. Sometimes the energy must be taken back down the mountain to those who need it.

You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

No Jesus, we are the church and we don’t understand. But please Lord may we be ready and available for the surprise party. Reminds me of the parable of those who were  invited to the wedding reception for the King’s son and weren’t available to come. 

So what is this born again anyway? As I read Taylor’s thoughts on Nicodemus and Jesus, I heard in my mind that call of John the Baptist’s and of Jesus’

Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent. Repent does not mean getting down on your knees and confessing your sins. Repent means to change your mind, to turn around. I’ve always thought of that in relation to sin but I wonder. I wonder if it isn’t more as Paul writes in Romans:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  (Then you will be born from above.)

We need to see life, see success, see hope through the eyes of God, through the Spirit, and then, with fresh understanding, born again minds, we can see what God is doing.

As difficult as this is for us as individuals, I mean we have our whole identity bound up in what we have learned from society, it seems nearly impossible for the corporate church. We are invested in what we understand, what we have been taught church to be. How do we let the Spirit blow in and change our minds? How do we let go of what we deem important to be available for the surprise party the Spirit wants to throw? How do we become windmills here where we are planted? What is our identity so invested in that we can’t give it away?

You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?

No Jesus, we are the church and we don’t understand. 

Taylor suggests “there is a place where human knowing runs out. Strong winds really do blow through people’s lives, and the Spirit does not hand out maps showing where the wind came from, where it is going, how you are supposed to handle it, and how everything will turn out in the end. Only the Weather Channel does that.”

I guess what we can know is this:

6 For God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

And without belief, without faith, we walk in a hell of our own making.

Early in my walk as a pastor, I learned that I was not here to have the answers but to help people walk with the questions. Not a place I like but the fact is that I am one of Christ's teachers and I do not understand these things.

All we can hope to do is surrender ourselves to the Spirit and be willing to let the wind blow where it may. Maybe that means being on the move and maybe that means waiting and listening. Either way….have faith that we are loved even in our unknowing.