Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
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Original Manuscript:
In today's Gospel, Nicodemus, a leader in the Jewish community, comes to talk to Jesus. And the first thing he says to Jesus is how impressed he is with His work, and how it is clear that God is working in Him.
Jesus' response to Nicodemus leads them through the rest of the conversation, because it confuses Nicodemus, and maybe, on first listen, it confuses us too.
Part of that is because we hear this passage with the ears of Nicodemus. The actual word for when Jesus says "born again" could also be "born from above". Nicodemus, like our translation, clearly hears "again" when he probably should have heard "from above".
So Jesus, in fact, is not telling Nicodemus how to go a second time into his mother's womb. Instead Jesus is telling Nicodemus who He really is, and He's telling him how he can come to do the work Jesus does too.
Jesus is able to do the signs He does because He does come directly from God. He was, quite literally "born from above". As God Himself made man, Jesus very much has divine heritage, and we can have that too.
Jesus says that to be part of Kingdom of God, we must be "born of water and Spirit." For us, that's Baptism. So everyone of us here tonight, every member of the church is also a member of the Kingdom of God. We too can do the works of God because we belong to that kingdom, the same kingdom Jesus came to us from.
Often times we think the work of the church is limited to her clergy. We do play an important part, but only because we have been set aside for a specific role. Each and everyone of you here is part of the church. You all have gifts; just look at the end of the Baptismal service and you'll see. We are all called to use those gifts to make God manifest in the world. We are all important. We all have a role.
So who does the work of God in the world? You do. You all do the work of God in the world. So go and do it. Go and do the work God has given each and everyone of you to do.