Text: John 3:1-17
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17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
The Medal of Honor was created in 1861, and it is awarded by the President of the United States, in the name of Congress at a ceremony attended by senior military personnel, members of Congress and other leaders.
It is, the highest honor for military valor and is awarded for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty" by a member of the U.S. Armed Forces during combat against an enemy.
On Sept. 29, 2006 in an extraordinary act of courage, Michael Anthony Monsoor 25, petty officer of the U.S. Navy's Special Operations Command, shielded three of his U.S colleagues and three other Iraqi soldiers from the imminent blast by throwing himself onto the grenade. The resultant blast killed him.
President Bush praised Monsoor for his valor and selfless service to the nation at the ceremony. "Michael had two options," said the president, "save his life or those who were with him, but he chose to lay down his life for them."
On this Memorial Day weekend we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice laying down their life for their fellow man and for the freedom we so cherish and enjoy.
I am reminded of what John says in his Gospel in chapter 15 verse 13:
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
And on this Trinity Sunday (Weekend) we look to our one true God who has revealed himself as one divine essence, but also as three unique and coequal persons … Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And to this divine essence Jesus claimed Sonship, for the work He came to do and was to accomplish, in only what God could do in Christ by taking on human flesh and laying down His life for the sins of the world, paying the price that you and I could never pay and to this work and revelation Jesus claimed:
Before Abraham was, “I AM”!
The name of God that Jesus proclaimed as the great I Am brought anger and the claim of blasphemy from the Jewish leaders.
Mixed reactions to God and his word have been around since the serpent questioned, “Did God really say?” In our gospel lesson for today another questioning occurs.
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night …
In the grey and black of the night a leader - a man of the Pharisees – comes to see Jesus. It is as if in and through the blackness of sin he sees the light in the distance and in this person, Jesus saying:
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” V2
Nicodemus sees in the signs that Jesus has been doing, and probably his teaching as well - proclaiming; “Repentant for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” God’s work, and it is through this work that God had brought Nicodemus to this place this night to be with Jesus.
Jesus’ reply that “… unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God …” comes as a bit of a surprise to Nicodemus. In a similar sense the words of our Bible that proclaims, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” also brings for some a questioning which causes some to think:
“It’s just a fable, it can’t be real. No one really believes this is how things came into existence, do they?”
Even Nicodemus asks,
“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”
Just as God and his creation brings many questions that we and others might wrestle with God’s word points us to the source of truth and understanding … his son, our Lord Jesus.
Genesis’s beginning and the Gospel of John’s beginning have one thing in common - and that is Jesus.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,
The heavens and the earth continue to inspire many to question and look into this blessed creation of God.
NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity, landed on Mars 20 years ago in 2004 with a hoped for, 90-day mission. Spirit lasted 6 years and Opportunity 15 years before succumbing to the Martian surface and climate.
The Curiosity and Perseverance rovers continue to operate on Mars giving us a continuous and vivid picture of this close planetary neighbor.
The heavens God created we still explore looking for answers …
in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
Jesus is connected in a real way to creation and to the answer.
“And God said,”
This word of God spoken in the beginning, and the word of God [Jesus] speaking to Nicodemus, is the same word of God proclaimed and heard by you now.
The word is not only connected to your hearing now, but it is also, as Jesus is making known to Nicodemus, connected to the washing away of sins in Holy Baptism.
Nicodemus asks Jesus,
“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”
In reality though, even if this were possible it would do Nicodemus and you or me no good;
- for being born again in the natural way only brings forth one who is born in sin and brought forth in iniquity.
One needs rebirth as Jesus tells him … to be born again which is a new birth that is born from above, born anew, or born of the Spirit.
Paul writes to the Corinthian church about the need to see with new eyes born from the Spirit when he writes:
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14
You too needed to be spiritually born and this came for you and me in our Baptisms.
God’s word connected to simple water and his command and promise by the working of the Holy Spirit brings as Luther’s Small Catechism makes clear about the benefits baptism gives:
“It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.”
As Jesus declared, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
And the Apostle Paul affirmed in 1 Corinthians 6 when he writes:
… that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Saying:
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Dear friends, we have been given the Spirit of our God and have been called you to faith so that, the Kingdom of God is yours.
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The fullness of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, continues to work!
As one washed in the waters of Holy Baptism you have been born from above and born anew by God, and that same God who, from the beginning spoke God’s creation into existence has breathed new life in you, and because of him eternity is yours.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen.
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