God of Grace

Second Sunday in Lent

Today's Readings: Genesis 12:1-4; Psalm 121; Romans 4:1-5, 13-17; John 3:1-17

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen.

Don’t you just love when people answer questions you never asked? It’s on your list of favorite things, I imagine. In this morning’s gospel, Jesus is that guy. Nicodemus states that Jesus must be more than a regular man, in fact he must be from God for him to be doing the ministry he has been doing, for he has shown them signs of God’s presence. Jesus could have replied, ‘Yes, as I’ve mentioned, I AM the Son of God,’ but instead Jesus embarks on this confusing tangent, answering questions Nicodemus never asked and the conversation that ensues is actually quite humorous.

But it was understandable for Jesus to react with such a snarky tone, as he had been saying for some time now (in the gospel of John at least) that he was the Son of God and performing ‘signs’ to prove it. Then along comes one of the Pharisees in the middle of the night (trying not to be seen by the other Pharisees) pondering if Jesus could actually be serious. By grace, Jesus explains to him again who he is and what that means for humanity.

Jesus could’ve walked away from Nicodemus and told him to come see him in the morning when the rest of the religious leaders could bare witness and possibly come to believe as well.. but he didn’t. Jesus had patience with the Pharisee who snuck around to meet him, because he too was a child of Abraham - blessed by God, encompassed by grace. For Jesus was grace incarnate. Grace came to life for us to see, hear, and feel. Jesus incarnated grace every time he healed someone, reconciled someone to their community, broke bread with sinners, answered questions from enemies.. Grace abounded. Not because of anything they said or did, but because of who GOD is.

We hear in our first lesson today Abraham’s blessing from God. It does not say anywhere in this story that Abraham earned God’s blessing. In our second lesson, Paul tells the ‘church’ (the followers of The Way) in Rome that Abraham’s blessing could have only been given out of God’s grace. Abraham didn’t ask for it, he didn’t work for it, he seemingly didn’t do anything but have a relationship with God. Abraham’s blessing was reckoned to him through faith and righteousness, righteousness being right relationship with God. This right relationship also is not said to come out of right theology or practices, but rather out of TRUST that God is the One “who justifies the ungodly,” and “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:5, 17).

Abraham did not boast that he was perfect, nor did he boast about having the Lord’s favor, rather he trusted that God, his Maker, could love even him, ungodly as he was. Trusted that God could bring life out of death, life out of a barren womb, existence out of nothing. That was it. A relationship built on WHO GOD IS. Abraham leaned into this relationship with the God of grace, acknowledged his dependence on the One who could love the unlovable and spring life from death. In this relationship, not only was Abraham blessed, but so were all the nations, all the peoples of the earth, including you and me.

These stories of grace: of the grace extended to Abraham in a blessing; of the grace extended to a

Pharisee secretly conversing with God in the flesh; of the grace we will see Jesus extend in the next few weeks to a Samaritan woman at the well, the healing a blind man, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.. all of these stories are less about Abraham, Nicodemus, Lazarus or the others and more about WHO GOD IS. God gives out blessings to the imperfect, exchanges words with the enemy, makes the blind see, and the dead rise! God is a God of miracles. God is a God of overwhelming, never-ending, unconditional, even reckless LOVE. Love that does not stop first to inquire whether or not you are worthy, but extends a blessing on the basis of your innate worth as God’s created.

God is a God who has all the riches in the world, but will turn a house upside down to find one lost, ungodly penny and rejoice as if it is everything. God is a God who leaves 99 faithful sheep to frantically find the one who has wondered off, as if it is the prize sheep, the one that cannot get away. God is a God who paces the front porch, agonizing day after day, straining to see over the horizon for any glimpse of the renegade son, not to scorn him when he returns, but to fall to God’s knees in jubilation demanding an extravagant party to be thrown!

This is who God is. This is who God has been revealed to be. This is what the scriptures tell us. This is what Jesus, God in the flesh tries to explain. “When Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born again by water and spirit, he is asking Nicodemus to let God work in his life,” (Deborah Kapp) Let God be God; full of grace and love, ‘who justifies the ungodly, gives life to the dead, and a calls into existence the things that do not exist!’ Nicodemus, like many of us, struggled to believe such audacious things could be true. How could a Pharisee, a man of the law, trust a God of unconditional love, mercy, and grace? To lean into such a God is what he thirsted for, but went against everything he had know, everything he had built his life on. Jesus tells us to be born in the water and the spirit and thirst no more.

Are there ways you deny the grace of God? Do you turn down the free and unconditional grace of God in fear God cannot love the ungodly? Do you sneak out in the middle of the night to meet God and inquire about your worth, your place in the kingdom? Do you question if it could really be true? That’s okay. God will never stop showing up to meet you. Jesus will never stop inviting you to let God work in your life; inviting you into righteous relationship with God. Not the perfect relationship we imagine, but the raw and real relationship we see exemplified between God and Abraham.

God offers you, offers all the nations of Abraham, a blessing, a promise.. of grace. This grace cannot be found anywhere else. The world will not offer you grace. Other religions may offer you ways to live, but no where else can you find the grace of God. “Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional,” (Philip Yancey). The world is thirsty for grace.

Come and be born in water and spirit.

Come and drink from the well of eternal life.

Lean into your Maker, who rejoices in you as if you were the most precious thing ever made..

because you are.

Amen.