O is for Old,

which is what Nicodemus was. "How," he asked, "can anyone be born after having grown old?" (John 3:1-21, Gospel for Second Sunday in Lent.) Here is a "programming" of that text for the Old Nic in us all. As you ponder it, pause at key points and try the following Refrain on yourselves.

Q: What you see is what you get.

A: And what we get with Christ is life.

Q: But how do you see him so alive?

A: It takes one to see One.

Dia-gnosis (God "seeing through" us)

1. Initial Diagnosis. Nicodemus' (and our) external problem is this: he assumes he can spot the kind of inspired leadership that is needed in the new regime for Israel's liberation. Having now observed the "signs" Jesus does, he says in effect, Jesus, I know a good man when I see one and you show promise of being on the way up. Not so fast, says Jesus, without even saying thankyou for the "compliment." What makes you think you are capable of reading those signs, given your limited background? (Remember, this is a young hillbilly preacher speaking to the venerable leader of the Sanhedrin.) You, Nicodemus, are hardly the one to be sizing me up. Really, it's the other way around.

   Refrain

2. Advanced Diagnosis. Nicodemus' (and our) deeper, internal problem is this: the reason he cannot see who Jesus truly is and what kind of new regime he brings is that he (Nicodemus) cannot see how "evil" he himself is. And frankly, Jesus does not make it any easier for sinners to see themselves. So brilliant is the life he brings that we can't stand the comparison with our own lives. Sin is extremely sensitive to light. So resistive is our sin to being exposed. That resistance is called unbelief.

   
   One way Nicodemus seemed to manifest this resistance is that like his fellow Pharisees he refused John the Baptizer's baptism, especially water baptism. That was for Goys. A little extra booster shot from the Spirit? Fine. We can all use some of that. But to have one's whole religious tradition, one's very identity as a Jew washed away as something unclean, oh no. And we Lutherans, though we have been baptized, often feel little need of using our baptism -- especially the drowning downthrust of it. That resistance is called unbelief.

   Refrain

3. Final Diagnosis. The eternal dimension of Nicodemus' (and our) problem is called "condemnation," "perishing." It's terribly hard to say that, especially in connection with something so evangelical as John 3:16. (Is that why the editors omit the "condemnation" verses from the lectionary?) True, Jesus makes very clear that "condemnation" is not why God sent his Son into the world. Rather, he sent him to "save" the perishing. But not if they don't want him to save them. For all of us, perishing is still an option. It is true that "what you see is what you get." But by the same token, what you don't see is what you don't get.

   Refrain.

   Pro-gnosis (God "seeing us through")

4. Initial Prognosis. One would expect that the way to cure Nicodemus' (and our) problem is to concentrate on some internal solution, where unbelief festers -- for example, by means of pious, disciplined introspection or meditation or at least by praying for the Spirit. Maybe. But that is not Jesus' first response. Rather he directs Nicodemus (and us) to a new external sign: to the Son of Man out there, up there on the cross. "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." That very external, fleshly spectacle is God's way, God's eternal way of taking our eyes off our own snakebites. Jesus is on his "way up," all right, but not the way Nicodemus had supposed. And aren't we glad!

   Refrain

5. Advanced Prognosis. But now something truly internal does follow. Seeing this uplifted Jesus, which anyone with ordinary eyesight can do, Christian or non-Christian, and then seeing with one's ears what the Johannine Jesus there says of himself ("God so loved the world, etc."), a "seeing" which any believer can do, what happens? With this kind of double-seeing, "What you see is what you get." Faith is not just a kind of believing or even a kind of seeing. It is a kind of getting. The Son of Man whom we see is the Son of Man whom we get. Being drowned and "born anew" in baptism and in the Spirit (our Second Wind) we get the Son of Man, complete with death and resurrection, as our own death and resurrection.

   Refrain

6. Final Prognosis. But in seeing the Son of Man, and hence getting him, what we get as well is "life," an imperishable, eternal life. "Whoever has the Son has life." Of course, it isn't that believing is one thing and "life" is something else added onto the believing. Believing is already this new "life." But that isn't all there is to this new life. It isn't just believing. In other words, this eternal life isn't just internal. It's also very external, very bodily and very public -- as external as our "flesh" is. Still, isn't flesh perishable, biodegradable, terminal? Ordinarily, yes. But it is not perishable once the Son, the eternal Word takes on our flesh as his own and recycles it through his death and resurrection. Ever since he has done that, our flesh has been raised to sit at the right hand of God forever. One of our fellow fleshlings, Jesus Christ, has made it all the way back into the deity. And his enfleshed but imperishable life is the life we are given when we are given the Son. No wonder you all look like someone who's on the way up.

   Refrain

This programming of the Nicodemus pericope was one of four which the thirty-plus members of The Sebring Seminar, clergy and lay, worked through in their pre-Lent meeting in Florida, sponsored by The Order of Philippi. The same Nicodemus text Crossings president, Michael Hoy, in his Church and his Pastorate at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and his part-time deanship at Lutheran School of Theology, Saint Louis.

Pre-Lenting in Sebring (left)