March 1, 2026

Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 12:1-4

Psalm 121

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

John 3:1-17

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

 from the one who gives life to the dead

and calls into existence the things that do not exist Amen.

Today we begin our time with four gospel stories from John

 that the early church used to help prepare new Christians for baptism.

Today we start with the story of Nicodemus

coming to Jesus at night

where Jesus tells him, among other things

that to enter the kingdom of God

 one must be born from above (also translated as born again)

born of water and spirit.

Quite understandably

 this passage is associated with baptism,

 a rite of water and spirit,

understood as a new beginning

 a rebirth in Christ.

 And of course this passage includes the one verse

 that even those who have never opened a Bible in their lives

 are familiar with, John 3:16,

 which has become shorthand for what God did in Jesus.

Luther even called it “the gospel in miniature”

and while it is a good summary

when we try to condense something down so much

 we tend to lose some of the nuances

 and I think this has happened with John 3:16.

 Because sometimes the way it is used

makes it sound more like a threat

 than good news

 especially when taking the assumed negative of the verse

 that if you don’t believe in Jesus

then you will not have eternal life,

an implied believe or else…

which frankly doesn’t sound all that good

or even appealing to be a part of.

 Part of the problem

is that we humans are obsessed

with figuring out who is in and who is out.

 Who is one of us and who is one of them,

and of course implied in the designation

 is that it is good to be one of us

 and bad to be one of them,

and while this tendency can be used for the positive

 as in uniting people for a common good,

 it can also be used to vilify the others,

to justify war and violence

especially when identities are painted with broad strokes

and leave out the nuances.

Often the humanity of the other side is lost

when these divisions are created or highlighted

 and to be clear these divisions are the result of the brokenness of the world,

the very brokenness that Jesus came to address,

not with violence but with love.

But because the kingdom of God

that we pray for each time we say the Lord’s prayer

 has yet to come to its fullness,

we find ways of identifying who is in and who is out,

and for better or worse baptism has become one of those markers.

Now don’t get me wrong

 I fully believe that baptism is a still a good thing

and a gift from God

 (and actually in some ways is in response to our tendency to worry about who is in and who is out)

it’s just the I also believe that it is meant for inclusion rather than exclusion,

 and we find this when we take a closer look at Nicodemus’ conversation with Jesus.

Nicodemus comes from a perspective

 where who is in and who is out is overly emphasized.

There’s the chosen people,

the descendants of Abram,

and there’s everyone else.

 Now God is the one who first made that designation

 as we heard in our first reading

God reaching out to Abram

 offering protection and blessing,

 but not just for Abram, but so “that in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This was still true with the people of Israel

 the goal was that their relationship with God

would draw the other nations of the earth to God,

 no more us versus them as all gather around God’s holy mountain.

But a lot of time was spent,

especially by the leaders of the people

 trying to figure out who is in and who is out.

Nicodemus is one of these people.

 We are told he is a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews

which means he spends much of his time

 studying scripture and the law

and helps define who is in and who is out.

But along comes Jesus

and he comes to Nicodemus’ attention

 because on the one hand

Jesus is doing things that Nicodemus

 as a religious man can only attribute to God,

 but on the other hand

 Jesus doesn’t fit the mold of someone from God,

at least as Nicodemus understands.

so Nicodemus takes a risk

 he listens to his curiosity

 and goes to talk to Jesus

(at night when it is less noticeable but still)

essentially asking Jesus how he fits into the world.

And Jesus’ response is basically

that he has indeed come from God

and he’s creating a new identity,

one that doesn’t depend on ancestry

 but on relationship with God

a relationship not born of the flesh but born of water and spirit.  

and while this confuses Nicodemus even more

 Jesus goes on to try to explain to him

 in scriptural references that he knows

 what God is doing.

 First Jesus alludes to Moses and the bronze serpent,

 a story found in Numbers,

where the Israelites in the wilderness

 complain so violently against God

 that as a consequence of their lack of trust

 God sends poisonous serpents among the people,

 and when the people repent and cry to God to save them,

God has Moses fashion a serpent out of bronze

and put it on a pole in the center of camp

 and anytime anyone was bit by a serpent

 all they had to do was look at the bronze serpent

and they would live.

A time that demonstrates

that God is one who saves

even in the face of open rebellion

and that God’s salvation is available for everyone;

 the only requirement was to trust God’s promise of healing

 by looking at the bronze serpent.

 I am the new bronze serpent Jesus is telling Nicodemus,

 I have come for everyone,

the whole world.

 This is the way God loves the world:

 by giving his only Son-

 and here is the second scriptural reference that Nicodemus will pick up on

 the reference  to “story of Abraham and Isaac, in which God calls on Abraham to give his “only son” as a burnt offering (John 3:16; Gen 22:2,12,16). As it turns out, the instruction is a divine “test” to see whether Abraham’s fidelity and devotion to God are genuine or driven by self-interest (Gen 22:1). Abraham loves Isaac, of course, and in addition, since Isaac is Abraham’s only heir, his death would invalidate God’s promise that Abraham’s descendants will be “a great nation” (Gen 12:2; 15:3-6). God is asking, in effect, Are you truly devoted to me — or merely to the promise of a great legacy?  Thus the instruction to sacrifice Isaac “tests” whether Abraham’s devotion is a disguised transaction with strings attached — and indeed, in the end, the ordeal reveals that his devotion is extravagant and true. By alluding to this story, Jesus is signaling that God’s devotion to humankind is likewise extravagant and true (no strings!), and that Jesus’ mission — his life, death, and resurrection — should be understood accordingly.” (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2020/3/2/gospel-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-lent-2) 

This is relationship for the sake of relationship

Not a transaction to avoid punishment

Jesus has come to rebuild the relationship between God and humans,

just as God has desired this whole time,

and God proposes to do this through sacrificial love

offered freely,

 to all,

everyone,

 the whole world.

And this makes us uncomfortable

 because it opens up the possibility

 that everyone can be in,

 but if everyone is in and no one is out,

 how do we account for differences?

 A colleague has recently been conversing with someone

whose background is Baptist

 but who is exploring Lutheranism,

 and in one conversation about the expansiveness of God’s grace

 the person asked “but how do I know who isn’t saved?”

and of course the answer is that we don’t know,

 because that’s God’s job.

What we do know for sure

 is that Jesus has promised

that when we are baptized

 a relationship with God is established

that can never be broken,

and though baptism is a one-time event

 the relationship that it establishes is dynamic and continues on.

Nicodemus, coming to Jesus under the cover of night

with a whole lot of questions

is only the beginning of the relationship.

We see him twice more in the gospel of John

each time appearing bolder in his faith,

once when he advocates for a fair hearing for Jesus among his peers (John 7:50-52)

and finally at the burial of Jesus

 where he works with Joseph of Arimathea

to prepare Jesus’ body for the tomb.

His relationship with Jesus grew

 and in him he found abundant life.

This is God’s desire for us,

 all of us,

everyone

 abundant life now and into the future,

 life lived in relationship with God and one another,

 relationships guided by expansive love and care.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17). Amen