"Starting Over" (John 3:1-17)

 Nicodemus had been doing “church” for a long time. He was a Pharisee, a leader of the Jews. That’s the first thing the scripture tells us about him.

Which means that he had been studying the scripture, studying the Torah, studying the prophets, for a very long time. It means that he had been interpreting the scriptures, and explaining to the people what they meant, and telling them how they should follow these teachings of God in their lives… for a very long time.

He’d been doing this for so long, that he didn’t really know how to do anything else. He’d been doing it a certain way for so long, he didn’t know how to do it any other way.

But at some point, he realized: this isn’t working. This way of doing things is no longer working.

It wasn’t working for him; and it wasn’t working for the people he was trying to lead.

A lot of people have that same feeling about church today. Many of the books I read and most of the few podcasts I listen to come from people who, at some point, became disillusioned with church, and with Christianity. 

Many of them went through a period sometimes called “deconstruction;” a period in which their eyes were opened to all the ways that the faith they had been taught was no longer working for them. 

They saw all the inconsistencies; they saw all the ways faith had been used to destroy life rather than nurture and sustain life.

But they didn’t dare bring such things up in conversation. If they did, their church would tell them that their faith was weak, that Satan was taking hold of them—even though all they were doing was trying to find the truth and follow Jesus more closely.

And after weeks, or months, or—in some cases, years—of going to church and sitting through sermons with clenched teeth and wounded hearts, they found they just couldn’t do it anymore.

So they stopped believing, or stopped attending, for a while at least.

But they still longed for a spiritual connection. So they started over. They set out on a new journey, to rebuild their faith, and rediscover what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

I think Nicodemus was going through something like that. He genuinely wanted to be a better person, to follow God more closely, to be more authentic, more honest and truthful in his understanding of God. He wanted a faith that was more authentic; something deeper and richer and more life-giving. But he didn’t see any other way of doing things—any other way of believing—than the way it had always been done.

So one day, he came to Jesus by night. In secret, as it were, because he didn’t want anyone to know that he had these doubts, these questions, these longings. He didn’t want anyone to think his faith was weak, or to know that he was searching for something more, when he, as a Pharisee, was supposed to have everything all figured out.

He just didn’t feel safe enough to ask those questions and voice those concerns publicly. And he wasn’t quite ready, yet, to admit that his own understanding of faith had been evolving.

So he came to Jesus, at night, and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God…”

Speaking at the Evolving Faith Conference in 2020—a conference specifically for people like Nicodemus whose faith is evolving—Bible scholar Peter Enns pointed out that the “we” in Nicodemus’ statement implies that there are more like him. “Rabbi, we know…”

Nicodemus, with his doubts, his questions, and his longing for a more authentic faith, is not alone. In the same way that you, perhaps—with your doubts, your questions, and your longing for a more authentic faith—are not alone.

There are others who are also trying to figure things out; others who are, perhaps, deconstructing and reconstructing their faith. Others who also want something more, something more life-giving, something more authentic, than what they have been getting from the church. Others who have questions and doubts, who want to be able to voice those questions and doubts, but who still long for a spiritual connection, to be connected to God.

You are not alone.

Often, when Christians read this story, they try to put some distance between themselves and Nicodemus. They want some distance between themselves and Nicodemus’ silly questions.

Because without that distance, they have to admit that Nicodemus’ questions aren’t that silly, and that they are, in fact, similar to the questions they themselves have. Questions that make them uncomfortable. Questions that would make their church leaders uncomfortable.

If we distance ourselves from Nicodemus and all his questions, we can more easily ignore the questions that dwell in our own hearts and minds.

Well. You know who asks lots of questions? Little children. Studies have been done that show that 4 year-olds ask between 200 and 300 questions per day. 

But as kids grow older, the number of questions they ask declines.

We know that Jesus once told his disciples to “let the little children come unto me.” Maybe one reason why children were not supposed to be present in public settings is that they ask too many questions. As people grow up, they’re taught to not question their teachers, not question what they’ve been taught. 

Which is unfortunate, because questions are how we grow. Eric Betzig won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014, and he said that his success as a scientist came about because he never stopped asking questions. He said: “Everyone is born a scientist. It’s just unfortunate that with a lot of people, it gets beat out of them. I’ve been lucky to be able to maintain that kid-like curiosity and enthusiasm for experimenting and learning.” 

A “kid-like curiosity” is certainly a curiosity that asks lots of questions.

What’s true for science is also true for faith. To grow in faith: maintain that “kid-like curiosity,” and ask lots of questions. 

Unfortunately, we often emphasize just the opposite. “Don’t question; just believe.” That’s what many Christians hear today. 

So the disciples try to shoo the children away from Jesus; but Jesus chastises the disciples. “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them! For it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who ask between 200 and 300 questions per day!

I think Jesus sensed this holy, childlike faith in Nicodemus; but Nicodemus just needed a push to go further in the direction he was already headed. So Jesus says: “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

To which Nicodemus replies, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

I used to enjoy making fun of Nicodemus. He seems so naive—stupid, even—asking such silly questions.

But Nicodemus is not stupid. He’s a very learned teacher of the faith. His question is simply his way of saying to Jesus, “Go on; I’m listening… Say more…” It’s his way of being an active listener, a part of the conversation, willing to let Jesus lead this conversation into even deeper waters.

Which Jesus does. Jesus talks some more about what it means to be born from above, or, born from the Spirit, and how radically the Spirit transforms one’s life. There are some allusions to baptism, a bold, public act of radical reorientation.

Then Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” And Jesus replies, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”

And I think that’s Jesus’ way of saying: trust what you know. Trust what you are feeling. 

And then Jesus starts explaining things, except that, in ancient Greek, there are no quotation marks, so it’s kinda hard to tell where the words of Jesus end and where the ideas and interpretation of John, who wrote this gospel, begin. 

But we do eventually come to that verse that we all know by heart: John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

And then, right after that, in verse 17: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

And, taken together, these two verses raise a lot more questions, since in verse 16 it says those who believe will have eternal life, but in verse 17 it says that the whole world will be saved, which raises many questions about just what is belief, anyway; and just how big is God’s love, anyway… Is God’s love so big that even those who don’t believe are included?

And some, who like to draw lines, say no, no, no; God’s love is not that big; while others, who like to erase those lines of division, say yes; yes, God’s love is that big—like in this drawing by David Hayward.

And it is good to question these things, and to compare them to other things we know about God. For example, that God is love, as we read in the first letter of John.

Anyway, at the end of this conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, the spotlight is on Jesus, and by the time Jesus is finished talking, we almost forget that it was Nicodemus’ questions that started this whole thing.

And maybe you think, well, he probably  just went back to being a Pharisee, back to doing religion the way he’d always done it, back to being a Pharisee the way he’d always been a Pharisee…

But surprisingly, Nicodemus does appear again in John’s gospel. Twice.

He appears in chapter 7, when a group of Pharisees is arguing with Jesus and trying to get him arrested; this group even argues that even though the crowds may be followers of Jesus—even though the riff raff may believe what he says—no Pharisee would ever believe the stuff Jesus says. 

Nicodemus, with a little more boldness than he had the first time we met him, intervenes and says, “Uh, guys: Our law does not allow us to judge anyone without giving them a fair hearing…” In other words, “Let’s listen to what he says.”

And it looks here like Nicodemus has ventured a little further down the path of deconstruction and reconstruction. He’s still wrestling with the questions, probably with Jesus’ help, and he’s doing so a little more openly now; not just at night, in secret, but in broad daylight.  

And then, at the end of Jesus’ life, Nicodemus appears again… he’s there at Jesus’ burial. He brings the myrrh and the aloe to help anoint Jesus’ body, and he helps place the body in the tomb.

And he does this, I think, because when he had questions, Jesus honored those questions. Jesus took them seriously, yet at the same time challenged Nicodemus to move into a new way of believing, a way filled with honesty and authenticity and, most of all, love. 

Jesus didn’t judge or criticize Nicodemus for the questions he had; instead, he encouraged Nicodemus to explore those questions further, and to follow them, and follow the path down which they led.

And that allowed Nicodemus’ faith to continue growing and evolving. And that brought Nicodemus life. It brought him wholeness. It helped him become a more authentic human.

And helping to bury Jesus’ body was Nicodemus’ way of saying “thank you.”

Born From Above (John 3)

1. Born From Above

Being a Christian means being “born from above.” Some older Bible translations say, “born again.” 

I think a way we could say it that might be helpful to us is to say that becoming a Christian means starting one’s life over again.

I’ve met some people whose life was headed in a certain direction, when suddenly, something changed. Maybe they had a realization. Maybe they started their recovery. Maybe an event took place that was so traumatic, that their life was forever divided into “before” and “after.”

And they would say something like, “that was the day my life began again. That was my second birth. That was the day I discovered my purpose.” 

Something like that.

What they are talking about is a radical change in their lives. Once, they looked at the world a certain way, but then, they look at the world in a whole new way.

For followers of Jesus, when we commit to the way he taught, and when we symbolize our commitment through baptism, we are declaring that though we may have looked at the world the way society looks at the world, now we look at the world through the eyes of God. We see as God sees. We see with new eyes. We hear with new ears. And everything looks different.

2. Nic at Night

One night, a Pharisee named Nicodemus goes to Jesus.

Pharisees were people who studied the scriptures and who strived for holiness in their daily living. 

They were widely respected. 

And because they devoted their lives to prayer and study, they knew well the teachings of God and what God demanded of them.

Nicodemus goes to Jesus at night. 

Why at night?

Maybe he is afraid of being seen, going to Jesus. After all, as a Pharisee, he is expected to know everything. He shouldn’t have to go seeking answers from some Galilean from the good-for-nothing town of Nazareth. 

What would it look like - how would it appear - to be seen seeking answers to the questions he was wrestling with from this uneducated, traveling preacher?

So he goes at night.

He greets Jesus, and Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” In other words, only with those new eyes I was talking about, can one see the kingdom of God. Only with those new ears can one hear the kingdom message.

But Nicodemus wants to know what it means to be “born from above.” To be “born again.”

He says to Jesus: “How can anyone be born again? I don’t get it. A person can’t be born twice…”

I’ve always assumed that Nicodemus misses the metaphor, that it goes right over his head… but perhaps I’m not giving Nicodemus enough credit. He is, after all, a Pharisee. He should know. 

And maybe he does know.

Maybe he knows exactly what Jesus is talking about, but just doesn’t like it. “What are you saying, Jesus?” 

“You know exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying that you live for this world, but you are called to live for another world, another kingdom…”

“But I don’t get it…” 

“Yes, you do. You get it perfectly. You understand perfectly well. You just don’t want to accept this teaching, or apply it to your life.”

“But how can these things be?” 

“You know. You’re a teacher of the law. You’ve studied the scriptures; you know what is required. No one can enter the kingdom without being born of water and the Spirit.”

3. Making Deals with the Devil

It’s not an easy thing, to be born from above. Our feet are planted in this world, but Jesus calls us to live in a new world. We have built lives for ourselves that depend on collaborating with so many of the world’s ways. Our lives are intertwined with so many of what we call, “necessary evils.” 

- fossil fuels, for example. A necessary evil.

- investments that depend on the financial success of corporations with questionable morals. 

- the endless consumption of goods, and the mountain of products we throw away, filling up landfills, and polluting the oceans with plastic.

- and the way we tolerate racism and prejudice and injustice in our society… 

- the way we look the other way when a six year-old black child is taken away in handcuffs for acting up in school… 

- the way we incarcerate more people than any other nation on earth… 

- the way we deny opportunities to people because of their gender, or their race, or their sexual orientation… 

- the way we ignore the poor, the millions of Americans who live in poverty… 

- and the way we rely on violence and shows of force for security...

Every day, we’re making deals with the devil!

We would not do this if we were truly born from above, born of water and Spirit.

Perhaps, like Nicodemus, we understand too well what Jesus is talking about, but we pretend that we don’t, because the change to our lifestyle that understanding would require is just too great.

It’s not easy to be born from above. It’s not easy to immerse yourself in God’s kingdom.

4. Kingdom Living

Who can truly be born from above? The challenge is too great. Even the apostle Paul said that all people sin and fall short. Even the apostle Paul said that he himself often does the very things that he does not want to do - the evil the he does not want, he finds himself doing.

That makes Paul, who was a Pharisee himself, no better than Nicodemus. And we’re all right there with him…

How can we respond?

Lent reminds us that there are two things we can do.

One, Lent reminds us to examine our lives, and repent from all the evil we are complicit with...in other words, it’s a time when we can focus on changing our hearts and our minds, a time when we can try to see with new eyes and hear with new ears and live fully in God’s kingdom, so that we can see how offensive to God every act of evil is, and so that we can rejoice with God at every sign of the kingdom in our midst.

And because living this way requires us to be nothing less than perfect, and perfection is impossible, Lent is also a time to ponder the grace of God, the love and forgiveness that is offered to all who fall short of God’s desire for their lives.

In baptism, we don’t just commit our lives to a new way of living; in baptism, we simultaneously accept the grace and forgiveness of God that reconciles us to God, keeps us in God’s favor, despite our many shortcomings.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus, hoping to find a loophole, a way out of the call to completely change his life. 

Jesus provides no such loophole. Jesus’ message remains consistent. Be born from above. Repent. Completely change your heart and your life, if you want to see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus knows what Jesus is talking about. He just kinda wishes that he doesn’t. 

Because change is hard.

5. Life & Salvation

But Jesus has some more teaching to do. Jesus says that “whoever believes in the Son of Man may have eternal life; for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 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.”

This is that grace that I was talking about. Being born from above involves that commitment, that decision to say “yes” to all things holy, to follow God and God’s ways completely… AND it is also the recognition that life in Jesus means no condemnation even when you fail at this. If you sincerely and whole-heartedly commit yourself to the way of Jesus, you will experience life in the kingdom - you will find healing, wholeness, and salvation - despite the difficulty, the impossibility, of living that life perfectly.

That’s what it means to be saved. 

You may recall that the Greek word sozo is often translated as “saved,” but it’s a complex word, and it is also sometimes translated as “make well” or “make whole.” In other words, salvation means healing and wholeness. 

And the “life” that Jesus talks about - that’s life in the kingdom of God. It’s the life of the ages, the eternal life, a life that we can start living right now, starting from the moment we are born from above, born from water and spirit, baptized into Christ. 

We can start living that eternal life right now, as soon as we learn to see with new eyes and hear with new ears. 

We can start living that life of healing, wholeness, and salvation, from the moment we commit ourselves to the way of love, the way of Christ, and work to spread that love and that healing and that wholeness to every neighbor we meet. No matter who they are.

We can start living that eternal life of healing, wholeness, and salvation by recommitting ourselves to the vows we made at our baptism, to renounce evil, to repent of our sins, and turn to Christ, and to celebrate the new life given to us by Christ, as members of God’s one, holy, universal church.

It’s not easy. But Nicodemus - he did it. He really did. He appears later in the gospel of John, first defending Jesus before his fellow Pharisees, and later, helping Joseph of Arimathea give Jesus a proper Jewish burial following his crucifixion. 

Nicodemus was a believer in Jesus, and I think he continued learning from Jesus, learning how to see with new eyes and hear with new ears - learning how to live that new, born-from-above life.

And by the grace of God, we can, too.

Sermon: "Look at the Snake" (John 3:14-21)

Today we get to talk about snakes. Snakes are never the good guys, are they? In stories - in movies and books - snakes almost always signify something bad.
Snakes are the only thing Indiana Jones is afraid of. He cries out: “Why does it have to be snakes?”
Voldemort had Nagini, a snake that was more of a companion than a pet. When Harry Potter discovered that he, too, had a connection to snakes, it was a troubling realization.
Ever since the Garden of Eden, snakes have been symbolic of evil.
Strangely enough, snakes have also been symbols of fertility and rebirth and everlasting life. Part of the reason for this is that snakes shed their skin and become new. Many ancient cultures revered snakes for this reason.
So snakes, we must say, have been both revered and feared; admired and abominated, a source of both blessing and curse.
In the book of Numbers, chapter 21, there is a story about snakes… The story takes place during the exodus, when God’s people - led by Moses - were journeying from Egypt, through the wilderness, on their way to the Promised Land. The story goes like this:
They marched from Mount Hor on the Reed Sea road around the land of Edom. The people became impatient on the road. The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us in the desert, where there is no food or water? And we detest this miserable bread!” So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people and they bit the people. Many of the Israelites died.
The people went to Moses and said, “We’ve sinned, for we spoke against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord so that he will send the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
And then the scripture says that God heard the prayer of Moses, and came up with a solution. What was that solution?
It was another snake...
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and place it on a pole. Whoever is bitten can look at it and live.” Moses made a bronze snake and placed it on a pole. If a snake bit someone, that person could look at the bronze snake and live. [Numbers 21:4-9]

Look at the snake. Look at the symbol of sin, the symbol of evil. Look at the source of your pain and misery.
The last thing the people wanted to do was look at another snake! “Geez! We're sick and tired of looking at snakes! We just want to turn our back on them, and look at something else!”
Yet that was the solution. That was the cure.
Look at the snake if you want to live. Confront your sin. Confront your weakness. Confront your temptation. This, you must do, if you want to live. This, you must do, if you want to be healed. This, you must do, if you want to be made whole.
We heard today from the gospel of John, chapter 3. There, John says that “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One [Son of Man] be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
John compares Jesus being lifted up on the cross to the snake that Moses made, mounted on a pole, and lifted up so that the Israelites could see it and live.
And just like the symbol of the snake, the cross is a symbol of evil, a symbol of sin,... but also, a symbol that represents healing, wholeness, and new life.
The cross was the Roman way of executing people who actively opposed the Empire of Rome. It symbolized Roman dominance and superiority. But the Empire of Rome was - in the biblical worldview - contrary to the Kingdom of God. The way of Caesar was against the way of God.
So the cross stood for oppression. The cross stood for violence. (Crucifixion was a very violent act.) The cross stood for inequality, since the kingdom that used the cross was rigged in favor of the few at the top, to the detriment of the people.
But followers of Jesus learned to see in the cross something else. They learned to see the symbol of a man, a savior, who would not let Roman oppression and intimidation stop him from proclaiming a new way of living, a new world in which all lived according to the ways of God and God’s teachings.
So the cross came to stand for new life: life oriented to God’s kingdom, rather than the kingdom of Rome.
“The kingdom of God is now,” Jesus said. “The kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is peace and equality and justice and harmony and love between all living things.”
Life in the kingdom of God is BIG. Do you know what I mean by that? Life in the kingdom of God is MORE...so much more. It is so much bigger than life in the kingdom of Rome, or life in any other human-made kingdom. Life in the kingdom of God is big because God is big. God is bigger than we can imagine. God is so much more than we can imagine.
And life in God’s kingdom is so much MORE than we can imagine.
Jesus called life in God’s kingdom the “life of the ages.” It is not tiny. It is not small. It is not insignificant.
It is everything.
It is life in abundance.
It is the life of the ages.
In the Bible, this phrase often gets translated as “the eternal life.” Usually, we hear this phrase - “eternal life” - and think only in terms of the length of life, that life will go on forever. But it also means the breadth of life, the depth of life, the richness of life.
A normal life varies in its breadth, but the eternal life, the life of the ages, is infinite. Infinitely rich. Infinitely meaningful. Infinitely abundant. Infinitely connected to God.

Jesus fully lived this life. As the Son of God, he was able to tap into this life like no other human. It enabled him to walk on water, to restore people to wholeness and to heal them. It enabled him to fully live out his identity as a beloved child of God. That, to him, was everything. It didn’t matter how popular he was with the people of the Roman Empire. His identity was not rooted in Rome. His sense of self-worth, his sense of wellbeing, his identity, was rooted in God.
And God affirmed him for who he was and who he was created to be.
In the same way, God affirms you for who you are and who you are created to be. So if you constantly seek affirmation from elsewhere, then you aren’t fully living in God’s kingdom. You aren’t fully living the eternal life.
So many things influence how we feel about ourselves. We feel good if we get a lot of likes on instagram. We feel good if someone compliments our clothing. We feel good if we have a lot of money in our bank account. We feel good if we get in to a good college. We feel good if can buy a new phone or a new car. We feel good if we get a promotion.
But if how you feel about yourself depends too much on any of these things, then you’re not fully living in the kingdom of God. You’re not fully living the eternal life, the life of the ages.
There was a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a good man. He sought understanding. He was part of a faith community that sought understanding. He sought out Jesus, hoping that Jesus could help him further understand how to live, how to increase the breadth and depth of the life he was living.
He saw in Jesus someone who was fully living the eternal life, someone who was fully living life in the kingdom of God. He went to Jesus, and said, “You must have come from God…”
And Jesus said: “Only if someone is born anew can they see the kingdom of God.”
And Nicodemus said: “How is that possible? How can someone enter their mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus said: “You have been born of the flesh; but to see the kingdom of God and live the eternal life, you must be born of the Spirit.”
Again, Nicodemus said: “How is that possible?”
And that’s when Jesus said what he said about the snake in the wilderness: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
...So that everyone who looks upon him there on the cross will look upon their own sin and the sin of society… will look upon that which separates them from the kingdom of God… and they will reorient their life to Jesus. They will be born anew. They will live the eternal life.

In Lent, our desire to live the eternal life, to live in the kingdom of God, intensifies. In Lent, our eyes are drawn to the cross, which helps us in this. In the cross, we see the sins of society, a society that chooses the kingdoms of this world over the kingdom of God. In the cross, we recognize the many times we have failed to find our identity in God, the many times we have instead sought our identity in the things of this world. In the cross, we see all that separates us from God’s kingdom. We look at it and see all that keeps us from the eternal life.
It’s not fun. We don’t want to do it. We don’t want to talk about sin. We don’t want to examine all the ways our lives move in the wrong direction, all the priorities we have wrong in our lives... In the cross, we see all our vain attempts at affirmation from the world. In the cross, we see all the powers and all the ways of thinking that lead to death.
We don’t want to look.
But looking is the path to healing and wholeness.
When we look at the cross, we see the one who lived fully for God… and we see the words and actions of those who put him there because their lives were not lived for God. Their lives were lived for the wrong kingdom.
We need to look at this and ponder this, because every day that choice presents itself to us: the choice of whose kingdom we choose to live in; the choice of whether we will live the eternal life that is offered to us by God, or a shallower, narrower version of life that we create for ourselves.
It sounds like an ordeal. It sounds like trudgery. It sounds… depressing.
But in truth, it is a great blessing. Because it allows us to rediscover that life of breadth and depth, and recommit ourselves to that life. It allows us reclaim our identity as children of God, beloved by God, affirmed by God. It allows us to extend blessing and affirmation to others in what we say, what we do, and how we live.
It allows us to find healing and wholeness, for ourselves and for the world.

Sermon: "Spiritual Boot Camp: Starting (Over)" (John 3:1-17)

When Abraham was 75 years old, God called on him to basically start his life over. God said to Abraham, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household, and go to the land that I will show you.”

God called on Abraham to be an immigrant.

So Abraham packed everything up, and set out for the land of Canaan.

Just like that.

And started over.

Starting over is hard. People do it. Many of you have done it. But it’s hard.

And to start over at the age of 75… I don’t know about you, but I’d be more inclined to just stay put. I’d be tempted to say to God, “No, thanks. I’ll just stay here. I’ve got my routines down, my daily routines, my weekly routines, I know my way to the grocery store and the bank, I’ve got my doctors here, and the people at my favorite restaurants know me by name. So if it’s all the same to you, God, I’ll just stay here.”

We do like our routines.

Last week, I challenged you to change your routine by carving ten minutes out of your day, every day, to pray. It was your first task in our Spiritual Boot Camp that we are experiencing in this season of Lent.

If spending time in prayer was not already a part of your routine, then I’m guessing this was a difficult challenge for you.

Maybe you spent time in prayer one or two or three days, but on the other days, time slipped away.

Maybe you only thought about praying this week. Maybe every day you thought, “I should pray today,” but it just never happened.

Changing our routine is hard.

If you thought about praying, well, I’m glad you at least thought about it.

But just thinking about it isn’t going to help you grow in faith. If Abraham only thought about moving to Canaan, but didn’t actually go, the Bible would be a very different book.

I assume you want to grow in faith, but just thinking about it, just wishing that you could grow in faith, isn’t going to give you the results you want. If you want to grow in faith, you need to practice. You need to engage in the spiritual disciplines. You have to participate. You won’t accomplish anything with a program of “just thinking about it.”

Remember, when it comes to prayer, you don’t have to use words. You can sit in silence. If you like, you can meditate on a single word, like “compassion,” “kindness,” or “thankful.”

You can go for a walk, pondering what it means to walk with Christ.

Some people pray while they knit, or while coloring. Coloring books for adults are growing in popularity. Chalice Press, the publishing company affiliated with our church, even publishes a Lenten coloring book for adults. An activity like that helps one remove the clutter and distractions from one’s mind that so often get in the way of prayer and meditation.

But still, starting a new routine like prayer if you’re not used to it is a challenge. We like our routines. It’s hard to change our routines. Our brains get addicted to routines - literally.

I’m not a scientist or doctor, so my technical language might not be correct here, but when you learn or do something new, new neural pathways in the brain are created. That’s a physical response. The brain actually creates these new connections.

When I first started learning how to play guitar, I could almost feel this happening inside my brain. Same thing when I started trying to learn a second language. Learning how to play an instrument or learning a second language is not easy. Not in the least. That’s why it takes lots and lots of practice. You are wiring your brain to think in new ways.

It’s so much easier to just do things you’ve done before. Stick to your routines. Stick with what you know. Your brain takes comfort in what is familiar. You can almost do these things without thinking. Have you ever driven down the freeway and gotten off at the offramp you always get off at, only to remember that, this time, that wasn’t where you wanted to go? For a moment, you forgot where you were going, and your brain just took you to where it always takes you.

Old habits die hard.

Doing something new, going a different route, changing up your routine - these things make your brain work harder. They really do. So, yes, something as simple as inserting ten minutes of prayer into your daily routine can be a challenge. It’s not going to happen unless you plan it out, set the time in advance, with some kind of reminder, and make it happen.

When Abraham was an old man, God called on him to do a lot more than change how he spent ten minutes of his day. God called on Abraham to start over. Completely.

Abraham was 75 years old when God called him to start over.

Our church is almost as old as Abraham was, and we’re starting to wonder, some of us, if God isn’t calling us to start over in some new way. It’s kind of scary to think about, because, as I said, starting over is not easy. But if that’s what God is calling us to do, what can we do but follow?

Abraham followed God’s call and started over. He was faithful. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, as numerous as the grains of sand, and that all families on earth would be blessed because of Abraham and his faith.

And it happened. Today, three great religions trace their beginnings to Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

But only because he was willing to start over, start something new.

Nicodemus was another person who was challenged to start over. When Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born anew,” Nicodemus thought Jesus was asking the impossible.

At first he took Jesus’s words literally. Do you know someone like that? Someone like Nicodemus? Someone like Drax - Drax the Destroyer - one of the Guardians of the Galaxy? Rocket Raccoon once complained that Drax was too literal,that he always took everything literally, and that metaphors always went over his head. Drax responded by saying, “Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.”

Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born anew. Nicodemus said, “How is that possible? It’s impossible for someone to enter their mother’s womb for a second time and be born again.”

But Jesus, of course, was talking about starting your life over in a different sort of way. Instead of living for yourself, you would start living for God. Instead of seeing yourself as separate from everyone and everything else, you would start allowing the Spirit of God to blow through you, and you would recognize your oneness with God and with all of life.

To start over like this - to start over in any significant way - means engaging in new practices and disciplines that will help you transition from your old life and your old way of thinking, to the new life and way of thinking that God is calling you to; and because it involves developing new routines, new ways of thinking… it’s not easy.

It requires practice. It requires discipline.

You ever wonder how some people who claim they are people of love and peace can be so mean and hurtful? I think most of these people really do want to be people of love and peace, and probably even think of themselves as people of love and peace, yet they haven’t been actively practicing the ways of love and peace.

Jesus once wept over Jerusalem, the city whose very name means, literally, “city of peace.” He wept over the city because the people who lived there did not know how to live lives of peace. The city that claimed to be a city of peace did not practice the ways of peace.

They thought about it, but the program of “thinking about it” didn’t get them anywhere.

You have to do more than “think about it.” You have to engage in practices and disciplines that will get you to where you want to be, and help make you the person you want to be.

I want to encourage you to pray ten minutes a day. At the very least, sit in silence for ten minutes a day. No phone. No TV or radio. This practice is an essential, ongoing part of the spiritual boot camp program.

I also want you to do something else this week. This second practice is just for this week. The praying is ongoing and should become a part of your permanent routine, but this new task is just for this week.

And that task is this: learn about or experience something new each day this week. It could be anything, as long as it gets you to do something new or learn something new.

You could talk to a friend or neighbor about their religion or culture, if it is different than yours.

You could try a new food or read an article about a culture that’s different than yours, or learn a few words in another language.

You could start learning how to play a musical instrument, or how to read music.

You could go grocery shopping at a store that isn’t the one you normally shop at. Not knowing where everything is will force your brain to work harder as it figures things out.

You could take a dance class, or any other kind of class in an activity or subject that is new to you.

You could research where your food comes from, and then change your diet so that the food you buy comes from responsible growers and distributors. Remember when we boycotted grapes because grape pickers were being treated unjustly? Find out which food and which restaurants exploit workers or the environment, and change your diet accordingly.

You could listen to a new piece of music. Don’t just have it on in the background; really listen to it, try to hear the individual instruments or voices.

And, of course, if you aren’t in the habit of praying every day, starting a habit of ten minutes of prayer would certainly count as doing something new.

The possibilities are endless, really. Almost anything that is new to you would count. Anything that shows it is possible for you to start over, and do something new, at least in something small.

And then, when God calls you to start over in a bigger, bolder way, you’ll be prepared to hear - and follow - that call.

The life of wholeness Nicodemus was seeking only comes to those who are willing to start over.

Like Abraham, we are called to leave behind the life we have known, and relocate ourselves to life in the kingdom of God.

But to do that, we need to prepare and practice and exercise those spiritual muscles. Day after day after day.