From the Vicar...
"How can anyone be born after having grown old?"
When I was little, the small country church I went to in rural Delaware had a big emphasis in Sunday School on memorizing Bible verses. Every week we'd spend some time going over verses, and in the older classes, we'd actually get a nickel for every verse we could memorize.
Today we don't focus so much on memorizing verses, which may be just as well. A single verse taken out of context can lead to wrong conclusions when you don't know the rest of what's happened in a passage. So we tend today to focus more on teaching whole stories, rather than memorizing single verses.
Nonetheless, you probably still know a verse we'll hear this coming Sunday 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." Now, even though we know that verse pretty well, here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about: do you know the context? How does Jesus come to say these words? As we continue our Lenten journey, this Sunday we meet up with a man named Nicodemus.
Nicodemus is a Pharisee, indeed, a leader among the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the scholars and interpreters of the law with whom Jesus was most often in conflict, because the Pharisees, Jesus argued, tried to put too many rules and regulations on the people for being "good Jews," while managing to miss the heart and soul of it - that is, being in a relationship with God.
Nicodemus starts his inquiry of Jesus by acknowledging Jesus' legitimacy: "no one can do these signs apart from the presence of God," he says. But Jesus pushes him: "Truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
Nicodemus can't seem to understand what Jesus is getting at: "How can anyone be born after having grown old?" he wonders. Can you enter the womb again and be born? But Jesus explains that he means that we have to be Spirit-born as well as born in flesh, and wonders how one who is a teacher of Israel can't get it.
I wonder sometimes if we, who can look upon this encounter in hindsight rather than the immediacy of that moment, still don't get it. Many Christians think being "born again" refers to some dramatic and emotional religious experience, a moment in time when the message of forgiveness first really dawned on them and they experienced a renewal or a resurgence of dedication to God. Now I do not want to belittle or diminish these experiences and when people do have a powerful spiritual awakening, I am thankful for it. But that is not the same thing as being born again and it is not necessarily what Jesus is referring to here.
So, if that's not it - what is? Jesus himself answers this question. He says no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he or she is born of water and the Spirit. Here you can see Jesus equates being "born again" with being "born of water and the Spirit." Recall that this encounter is not long after Jesus himself has been baptized. It would seem Jesus is making a baptismal reference here: We enter the Kingdom of God through baptism.
All well and good - but we have done something to baptism that Jesus likely never imagined or envisioned. We've turned it into a rite of passage - a ritual that we perform. We reduce it to the symbolic, rather than allow it to have the power in our lives it had for those who went to the Jordan River.
That places upon us the need to "translate" what Jesus is saying into our time and experience. We need to recall for ourselves that baptism is not merely symbolic. It is a miracle. In baptism, God is actively doing something. God is washing us in the blood of Jesus, cleansing us of all our sin, and filling us with the Holy Spirit.
The ancient Church looked upon Lent as a time of preparation for the baptisms that occurred at the Vigil of Easter. In some sense, we have lost that connection. We don't think of Lent in terms of baptism. But the fact is, that is what is meant by observing this season of penitence, prayer, and scripture study. It is a time for us to ask our own Nicodemus questions - and to have Jesus respond with his own reminder that God so loved the world, God wanted us to have eternal life. It is time for us to be re-steeped in the reality that, yes, we are born from above - and to reflect deeply upon what that means for us.
In Christ,
Fr. Chip
Our Shared Ministry Cycle of Prayer this week and next
Each week, in both of our churches, we pray for one ministry we share and one or two households in each church. About once every six weeks, we will instead using the Shared Ministry Collect we prayed throughout the opening months of our Shared Ministry.
In our prayers the next two weeks, we give God thanks for...
Mar. 16
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Pastoral Care ministries of both congregations; Leo & Lori Gagnon of Christ Church; Barbara Hall of Trinity Church
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Mar. 23
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Online Prayer Ministry of Trinity Church; Suzanne George, Daniel Paul, and Amanda Paul of Christ Church; Gordon Lane & Diana Jodoin of Trinity Church
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"Via Media" Lenten program continues
Via Media is a 6-week education series open to anyone who is curious or interested in the Episcopal/Anglican tradition. Each of the Via Media sessions begins with a meal and then a short video about some aspect of our faith. A portion of our time together is dedicated to open discussion and conversation as well. All people are encouraged to ask questions and to learn how to answer their own questions of faith.
At Trinity Church, Hampton... Sessions will be held Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. in Hobbs Hall, beginning with a simple soup and bread supper followed by the video and discussion.
At Christ Church, Portsmouth...
Sessions will be held Sundays at 12:00 noon. Each session will begin with a soup and bread lunch in the Marshall Room (the room where coffee hour is held), and will continue with video and discussion in the classroom next door.
This week and next...
Session 2:
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The Abundance of God's Goodness
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Mar. 12 in Hampton; Mar. 16 in Portsmouth
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Session 3:
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God in Jesus: An Incarnational Faith
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Mar. 19 in Hampton; Mar. 23 in Portsmouth
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Healing ministry
Each month, both of our churches offer the Laying on of Hands with Anointing for Healing. At Christ Church, this occurs at the conclusion of the Eucharist on the first Sunday of the month. At Trinity Church, it is an integral part of the Saturday evening liturgy the third weekend of the month. Our next such service is this Saturday at 5:00 at Trinity. The next healing liturgy at Christ Church will be on April 6th.
The Rite of Reconciliation - a Lenten opportunity
Lent is a time of seeking right relationships with God and other people. Some people find that it is a good time to use the Reconciliation of a Penitent (pp. 447-452 in the Book of Common Prayer) to let go of past hurts, or take an inventory of their lives and sort of get a fresh start. Although we regularly have a General Confession in our services, the opportunity to use this form of private confession, to speak out loud to a priest (or another person) the things we have been holding in our hearts and to hear words of counsel and absolution, can be a gift to renew us. You are assured that anything shared in this Rite of Reconciliation will always remain confidential. If you would like to learn more about the Rite of Reconciliation or would like to schedule a time to do the rite, please contact Fr. Chip at 926-5688.
"Road to Repeal" vigil set for Hampton on March 23