Born Again?

"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." --  Jesus Christ

The guy he was speaking to, Nicodemus, had no category of religion or spirituality that explained what Jesus meant.

 

Most of us don't either. Some minimize the idea of being "born again" as an act of baptism in water. Some make it ethereal by saying it is a strictly of the "other world" and not something seen and felt in this one. Some doctrinalize it and preach the exact words very loudly, hoping volume will make up for lack of understanding. Some do all three of these, and it is still a far cry from whatever Jesus was saying.

 

Our Master said, "You are Israel's teacher and do you not understand these things?"

Humbly, we must respond, yes. We are the teachers we do not understand. We have a general intellectual agreement with the fact that it is true, and most of us have experienced some-sort-of-something, but yes, we do not understand these things.

 

Our Teacher tries to explain, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Spirit birthing spirit? Rebirth that is like the wind? Wow. Thanks for clearing that up, Jesus.

 

I think a key for both Nicodemus and us is to stop trying to "categorize" and instead try to "romanticize". We must embrace (as author Peter Block puts it) idealism, intimacy and depth over efficiency, methodology, and organization. It is quite counter-cultural. But it would be a mistake to dismiss it as unrealistic.

 

Idealism and realism are often set as opposites (I may have done as much, in this old post:  http://brianmashburn.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_archive.html - you'll have to scroll down to the one entitled 'The Realist's Satisfaction vs. The Idealist's Amazement"). But what if they are not? What if "being idealistic" is a realistic thing to do and be?

 

The idealism I pursue is Christlikeness in every relationship. This work is by default intimate work. And it can not be done on the surface...it requires depth. Every-increasing depth.

 

So...Re-birth...it's the thing that Jesus (and therefore, we as a church) are offering to the world. And it is oftentimes as mysterious to us as to the beloved one's that we are peddling it to.

 

We need to shut off our minds and chunk our structures and allow our heart to come up with new categories with which to explain things. As we go, it will require art (pictures, analogies, visuals, metaphors, poetry) in some form to communicate about it. Sorry, left-brainers, but you have a right-brain, too (underdeveloped and underutilized as they may be)...and you will need to exercise it to grasp the re-birth that Christ wants every human to have. THEN, we want to use your left-brain to organize social structures that have half-a-chance of delivering it to more people.

 

If we refuse to open our minds to new categories of thinking, how will we understand teachers who say things like, "Rebirth is like the wind"?

The work of rebirth is intimate...and we have a tendency towards being private.

The work of rebirth is continual...and we have a tendency to do something and be done.

The work of rebirth is found communally in dialogue with God and others...but we hate long meetings (be it with God himself or with others).

 

The work of rebirth... The whole world is set against it. The people of God don't have time to experience it. And even though it is trying to happen to each person in every moment, we are conditioned to miss it, pursuing other "worthy" things. And God help us, those of us who are leaders and teachers in the church are trying to deliver this mysterious, real, life-giving "wind" to others when we don't understand it. Seriously, God help us.

 

Seriously, God will. God is. We must only be willing. Here is a piece of art that has long captured my imagination while explaining my experience of re-birth. Guess I'll just have to leave it with this for now.

 

With passion in our hearts, and with ever-increasing understanding, God is having a group of us "leaders and teachers" in Amarillo become social architects, if you will, organizing our "church" into a community of believers who live and deliver re-birth to as many people as will accept.

 

May God help us.