2023.03.05 | Born From Above
“Born From Above”
Rev. Pepper Swanson
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Mar 5, 2023
As a 12-year old, I became a Christian on the basis of today’s reading from the third chapter of the Gospel of John. Or rather more specifically, I became a Christian on the basis of John 3:16, which I was taught and memorized as:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
That specific wording is from the King James Version of the Bible and my childhood understanding was elementary. I was taught that if I believed that Jesus died for my sins, then I would live forever after death. Conversely, I was taught that if I didn’t believe that Jesus died for my sins, then I would not live forever after death.
My understanding was elementary because I came to it at Church camp, where it was pretty obvious that it mattered to the camp counselors whether we campers believed Jesus died for our sins or not. I remember a mini-sorting ceremony in our tent where I resisted being categorized as “unsaved.” I also remember nightly testimonials around the campfire by the “saved” kids. I absorbed it all (both the pejorative of being unsaved and the accolades lavished on the saved) and sometime that summer made a personal decision that I wanted to be “saved,” which I came to envision as a guaranteed and permanent entry pass to heaven.
The terminology “born again” didn’t enter into my thinking at that time, which was the mid-1970s. I’m not sure when I first heard that phrase and its basis in today’s scripture reading, but it’s possible that I wasn’t aware of “born again” Christians until the rise of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority in the early 1980s, by which time I had advanced into college and began questioning a lot of things, including my faith.
If you remember how the 1980s unfolded, you will recall that “born again” became virtually synonymous with the Religious Right and their political action against equal rights for women and gay people, abortion, divorce, and non-traditional families. As a liberal and a feminist, as well as a political science major interested in government and law, I disagreed with just about everything the “born again” crowd trumpeted.
Despite the dissonance I felt like a clanging bell in my head, deep in my heart I knew that because of my decision as a 12-year old, I was and always would be, if not “born again,” then “saved,” but sadly I lacked any other understanding or teaching of Christianity to support my liberal politics, feminist views, and inclusive instincts. The focus on personal salvation had rather dominated the theology of both the Church School and Camp I attended.
That’s how powerful — and how very specific — today’s scripture can be. You may have had a similar experience, especially if you were raised in a religious family, attended an evangelical church or went to a church camp or youth group. To help those of us who were influenced in one way or another by today’s scripture, I want to spend a little time today talking about how this passage has been translated from the original Greek and what it might mean to us if different word choices had been made or if a slightly broader context for John 3:16 had been offered to us.
Consider, for example, the Greek word “anothen:” Jesus says: You must be born “anothen.” Anothen means simultaneously “from above” and “again” and “anew.” In English, we don’t have many words that carry three meanings, and in this situation and in others, our Bible versions typically chose one meaning and footnoted the others. When Jesus speaks of a birth that would enable one to see or enter the kingdom of God, he speaks of a birth that is from above or anew, rather than simply again.
Jesus further described this birth “anothen” as of water and “pneuma.” The Greek word “pneuma,” also carries two meanings, of wind and spirit. The birth Jesus describes is not only from above and anew, it is also a mystery like the wind that eludes our understanding. The spiritual birth needed to see or enter the kingdom of God is beyond our knowledge and control.
In my reading, Jesus is speaking not of how Nicodemus can see or access the kingdom of God but about his own credentials and his mission. He claims that origin — from heaven— for himself. And he says, using another Greek word with two meanings that he, like the snake Moses lifted in the wilderness, will be “hupsoo”, which means to be lifted up and exalted.
And then specifically in verse 16 and 17, Jesus speaks of what God does for the world and how believing achieves eternal life. According to Bible scholar Gail R. O’Day, the Greek word for world is kosmos and in John it most often refers to human beings who are at odds with Jesus and God, but not entirely separate owing to the fact the world is part of God’s creation. (1) Eternal life is the translation of one of John’s dominant metaphors, zoen atonion, which describes change in human existence. For O’Day, eternal life does not mean endless duration of human existence but life lived in the unending presence of God in the present.
In sum, paying attention to both the underlying Greek and the Gospel of John’s context, our scripture reading, including John 3:16, could be understood as Jesus saying he was born from above, sent to speak and act in a created order at odds with God, fully intended to die and be exalted, and that our belief in his origin and his mission saves us by bringing us closer to God in our lifetime.
And, in the very stark terms of this particular Gospel, the alternative to belief and life with God, according to most Bibles, is to perish. While perish is used in most Bibles, the underlying Greek word is apólitai, which could also be translated as to be lost or to lose life. If we cannot be close to God, we may feel or be lost for most of our lives.
As someone who studies the Bible, I am always intrigued by the word choices we inherit from both our Bibles and the context in which we live. Whether we think of John 3:16 with the words and meanings we learned as children in the second half of the 20th century or as it may have been understood in the late first century, it is important to recognize that there is, in this scripture reading, an invitation to think about what’s saving your life now.
The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book An Altar in the World, recounts how she was once asked to speak to a church in Alabama. When she queried the inviting priest on what she should talk about, he replied: “Come tell us what is saving your life now.” (2)
Rev. Taylor, who is the author of many accessible books about Christianity and faith, found it a radical request and said, “All I had to do was figure out what my life depended on.” Years later, writing An Altar in the World, she revisited the question and decided that: “What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.”(3)
I believe we could spend hours talking about what is saving us now. For some, it may be the affirmation that they are a beloved child of God. For others, it may be the certainty of God’s forgiveness for past errors and transgressions. For still others, it may be the practice of daily moving toward the light, even as the world pulls one toward darkness. And for still others, it may be living a life of kindness toward others or devoted to seeking justice.
But like birth anothen, birth of pneuma, what saves us is sometimes a mystery even to we who are being saved. I do believe, even if I can’t tell you how it works, that you could save yourself by simply sitting and talking with someone who comes with questions in the dark of the night, someone like Nicodemus.
Nicodemus is a leader of the Pharisees when he comes in the darkness of night to talk to Jesus. We don’t know why he comes or what he learned listening to Jesus. We also know that he appears twice more in the Gospel of John: first, after Jesus’ arrest at which time he says to the Sanhedrin (the high court of the Jewish people) that Jesus should be allowed to speak in his own defense. And then after Jesus’ death Nicodemus comes with 100 pounds of burial spices and assists Joseph of Arimathea with the burial of Jesus’ body. Many call Nicodemus an ambiguous character and claim we don’t know if ever came to accept who Jesus was. But it does appear that night, that conversation, changed the course of his life and moved him closer to the light as reflected in his kindness to Jesus.
My friends, in this season of Lent, I invite you to spend some time reflecting on what is saving you now. Chart when the spirit moves you away from the darkness and toward the light. Note what words, what actions, what conversations lift your spirits and strengthen your faith. May you find a faith that reminds you everyday that God so loved the world that he sent us Jesus, our teacher. And may you find a way to share that faith with the world that dearly needs to be saved. Amen.
O’Day, Gail R., “The Gospel of John: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1995, vol. 9, page 552-553.
Taylor, Barbara Brown, “An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith,” New York, NY, HarperOne, 2010, p.xvii.
Ibid, p.xvii