Christ Church

Morningside

Lent II

Born again – born from above

“Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God,
unless she is born again.” (John 3:3)

Born again.”  I would suggest that, over the last four decades, this has been one of the most controversial phrases in the Western Christian world.  Born again.  It seems to have become one of those phrases that you either love or hate.  I don’t think you need me to spell out the details…

       Well, the truth is that whatever you think about this phrase, about what it means or what it means to you it is, clearly, found in the Bible.  It has a long pedigree.  Or does it?

       I have to confess that I am one of those people who finds the phrase, and its connotations, annoying.  So spurred on by my (probably) rather childish pique, I decided to do a little bit of research about – ‘born again’ - and this is what I found.  The word used in the New Testament is the Greek word (all of the New Testament was originally written in Greek) anothen.  And when I looked up the word ‘anothen’ in my Greek dictionary it gave me three possible translations:

‘Born from above’

‘Born from the beginning’

or ‘Born again’

        I then turned to one of my bible commentaries which suggested that the translation, ‘born from above,’ is likely the most accurate. 

      Having read this I was pleased, so much for ‘born again’.  “Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God , unless he is born from above.”

        I was pleased but then I felt guilty.  I felt guilty because of my lack of charity towards people for whom the phrase ‘born again’ is significant; guilty because I had lacked both charity and humility.  In my ‘enthusiasm’ (let us say) I had forgotten that there are, in fact, many paths, many ways to interpret the Bible, many ways to be faithful to the Christian traditions, many ways, indeed, to ‘love and serve the Lord’.  And by splitting hairs about the exact interpretation of words – in the hope that I might find some spiritual secret or special teaching – I was, actually, making the same mistake that Nicodemus does in the Gospel story.  “Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God , unless she is born from above.”  Nicodemus reply to Jesus’ assertion, you might remember was:

            “But how can anyone be born once they have grown old?” (John 3:4)

        By now, poor Nicodemus is clearly lost, and frankly, so I am!  “the wind blows where it wills…”  What has this got to do with being born again/from above?  I thought this debate was all about the need to convert from whatever religious practice you happen to have been following in the past (in the case of Nicodemus, Pharisaic Judaism) to Christianity.  ‘You can’t enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born of water and the Spirit’ – in other words, ‘you can’t be saved unless you are a Christian.’

 But now Jesus seems to introduce a completely different idea into the debate when he goes on to talk about the wind…

I did some more research.

It turns out that the Hebrew word for Spirit (God’s Spirit) is exactly the same as the word for wind (i.e. breeze) – ruach.  (Very onomatopoeic that – it really does sound like the wind!).  So what Jesus was actually saying was, “the [Spirit] blows where it wills…” 

In other words, God Spirit, God’s love, God’s salvation (if-you-like) isn’t conditional or constrained. 

God isn’t constrained by human ideas of morality, law, custom or religious practice. 

God’s love isn’t conditional on obeying a certain set of rules, religious observances or laws.  ‘The Spirit blows where it [She] wills.’  As I said earlier, there are many paths, many ways to interpret the Bible, many ways to be faithful to the Christian traditions, many ways, indeed, to ‘love and serve the Lord’. 

So, where are we then?  What does any of this mean?  The clue must be in the phrase itself, “born from above.”  But what does this mean?  Let me finish by giving you two examples of what I think ‘being born from above’ might mean, feel, look like:

‘The great Islamic mystic Hallaj spoke of his relationship with God like this: “He compared his love for God with that of a moth for the flame.  The moth plays about the lighted lamp till dawn, and, returning with battered wings to its friends, tells of the beautiful thing it found; then, desiring to be joined to it entirely, flying into the flame the next night, becomes one with it.”  “I and God are one”, Hallaj is quoted to have once said.’  (from Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell)  This echoes what Jesus once said, “I and the Father are one.”  Is this being ‘born from above’?  Finding you love God (or what God means) so much that you want to be with God, one with God?

The great Medieval theologian Peter Abelard once described his understanding of why Jesus was born and died on a cross.  He describe the ‘Jesus event’ this way:

“The purpose of the Incarnation was that Christ might illuminate the world by his wisdom, and excite the world to love of Himself.”  (Expositio in Epistolam ad Romanos, 2. [5.13] Peter Abelard)  Or put it another way, “The Son of God took our nature, and in it took upon Himself to teach us by both word and example even to the point of death, thus binding us to himself through love.”  (same, [5.22])  ‘Binding us to Himself through love’.  Loving us, so that we might know what true love is; loving us so that we might be able to experience and share true love in return.  Is this ‘being born from above’?

Of course, you may say, ‘yes that’s all very well and good, but I don’t think I love God that much or I’m not sure if I love God at all.’

Let me end (really end this time!) with this one last story.  There was a woman who went to her spiritual teacher and said, “I don’t really think I love God.”  To which the teacher replied, “Well, is there anything that you do love?”  To which the woman replied, “Yes, I love my nephew.”  The teacher said, “Then that is the love of God for you.  Start there.”

“Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God , unless she is born from above.” 

There are many paths, many ways to interpret the Bible, many ways to be faithful to the Christian traditions, many ways, indeed, to ‘love and serve the Lord’.  And we can start with what we love the most and find God’s love there, and then move on…