Is Faith A Tool Or A Weapon?

Reflections
June 7, 2009

John 3:1-17 deals with the topic of spiritual birth or rather rebirth. Nicodemus comes to Jesus seeking the true way of faith and is told one "must be born from above." The conversation becomes more of a debate than dialogue when Nicodemus begins to question what this might mean in literal terms.

In his book Whistling In The Dark An ABC Theologized, the Reverend Frederick Buechner makes some interesting observations on this passage and the meaning of the term born again. "Somewhat testily prodded by Nicodemus to make himself clearer, Jesus says 'that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' In other words, spiritual rebirth by the power of the Holy Spirit is what Jesus is talking about. The implication seems to be that the kind of rebirth Jesus has in mind is (a) elusive and mysterious and (b) entirely God's doing. There's no telling when it will happen or to whom."

Buechner goes on to write how difficult the term has become for modern witnesses to the word. "Some of those who refer to themselves as 'Born Again Christians,' however seem to use the term in a different sense. You get the feeling that to them it means Super Christians. They are apt to have the relentless cheerfulness of car salesmen. They tend to be a little too friendly a little too soon and the women to wear more make-up than they need. They speak about 'the Lord' as if they have him in their hip pocket and seem to feel that it's no harder to figure out what he wants them to do in any given situation than to look up in Fanny Farmer how to make brownies. The whole shadow side of human existence appears as absent from their view as litter from the streets of Disneyland."

The point that Reverend Buechner makes is quite straight forward. The truth of the Spirit of God is that it moves into lives and in love and forgiveness and in ways untold changes lives, creating new poeple of faith. The difficult part is that it can't be bought at a store, learned like a poem or made like a cake. The problem is who do we think we are when we begin to act as if we can create or command it when the absolute truth is we don't.

Dr. Joey K. McDonald
First United Methodist Church
4832 Tujunga Ave., No. Hollywood, CA 91601