Worship March 18, 2012

Morning Prayers
Call to Reconciliation
In becoming one of us, God became poor so we could receive
the riches of mercy. In coming to us, God took on our death,
so we could be made alive together with Christ. Come, offer
your confessions, knowing that by grace you have been saved. Let us now confess our sin before God and one another:

Unison Prayer of Confession
The words we speak all too often do not show you in
our lives, God of our pilgrimage. We spend so much time
boasting to others, they imagine we have no need for you.
We grumble impatiently when you don't respond immediately
to our requests, but are slow to sing your praises. We
mutter under our breath about the behavior of those around
us, when we could be asking them if there is some way we
could serve them.
It is on our journey to the cross and the tomb that you
fill us with the riches of your mercy, O God, our Steadfast Love! You
do so, not because of any thing we have done, but because
of the compassion which flows from your heart wounded
by our failings. As we open our lives to receive your
forgiveness, may we turn to the Light which brings us
life, following Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, every
step of the way. Amen.

Silence is kept

Assurance of Pardon
How much does God love us?
Enough to become human and live as one of us;
not to condemn
us, but to save us.
Not by our speaking or doing, but by God's good and
precious grace are we saved. Thanks be to God! Amen.

The Pastoral Prayer
God of grace and God of glory, we pray that you will pour your power upon us. Give us the strength and courage to call your name boldly in thanks and praise. We come to you in thanksgiving for many things. We are thankful for a mild winter, and we look forward to seeing your beauty in a glorious spring. We thank you for the love of family and friends and all who remind us of your love. We thank you for this congregation and for the joy we share together in this place. We pray that you will bless us with the will to share the goodness of this church with others we may encounter in the rest of our lives. These are difficult times for your church, O God. Let us never forget that you are not far off, but that you are with us every day. Guide our steps and help us to take leaps of faith in serving your kingdom in this place and in the world.

We pray for our cities and townships, O Lord. We especially pray for those who serve and our own Russ. Bless them with wisdom, mercy, justice, and humility as they serve your people in Richland County.

We pray for the sick, both those whose names we have called and those about whom we are silent. Hear our prayers for them and for the concerns of our own hearts as we pray to you in silence.

We lift these prayers to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

John 3:1-17
1 ¶ Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."
3 Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."
4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?"
5 Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’
8 The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"
10 Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
11 "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
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.
17 "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.

“God so Loved This World”

It’s an election year and the words “born again” are being thrown about once more.
Jimmy Carter was our first President who used the term, “born again,” to describe himself. Reporters tried to find the term “born again” in dictionaries so that they could understand it.
Ronald Reagan, good Disciple that he was, had to be coached by his handlers on how to use the term “born again” when he was running for President in 1980 so that he could garner the evangelical Christian vote..
Bill Clinton considered himself “born again” and at times sounded like a Baptist preacher on the stump.
George W. Bush called himself “born again” and made no bones about how his faith had turned his life around.
President Obama, having come to faith in a UCC church (our partner denomination) isn’t really comfortable with the tern, “born again.”
And now, none of the three front runners in the race for the Republican nomination--a Mormon and two Catholics--consider themselves “born again,” though evangelical Christians are supporting all three!
Many Disciples aren’t sure what this “born again” idea is about. Well, we’re in good company. Nicodemus, the Rabbi and Pharisee who came to Jesus in secret at night didn’t understand it, either.
You must be born from above, Jesus tells him. But, how can you be born twice?
Jesus, repeats himself. Everyone is born of water--which I used to believe was about baptism, but now I understand to be about amniotic fluid. We are all born of water from our mothers’ wombs, but Jesus says, we must also be born of Spirit--from above. That’s trickier.
Being born from above is not some kind of secret-handshake-get-out-of-hell-card, but a radical reorienting of one’s self to try to understand the way God looks at the world.
Toward the end of the conversation, Jesus tells Nicodemus the key to being born from above--understanding God’s radical love for the world.
God so loved the world that he gave his son. Being born from above is beginning to understand grace--the idea that God’s love for us is greater than we can imagine.
God so loved the world--the(cosmos) that he gave a son to save it.
David Lose points out that that word cosmos
“everywhere else in the Gospel of John describes that entity [that cosmos] that is at complete enmity with God. Typical is this prayer by Jesus just before his crucifixion--reported in John 17: "I have given them [the Disciples] your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world"
This gives John 3:16 a bit more punch: "For God so loved the God-hating world that he sent his only Son ... ," we might accurately translate. Apparently, at least according to Jesus, God really, really, really loves the world.”

This world.
And that’s what this passage is all about. And that’s the difference between “born again” and “born from above.”
When I hear people say that they are born again, what I hear them saying is that they are in a personal, individual saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
But, being born from above, is seeing the world as God sees it--even a world that hates God. Being born from above is understanding that God is in a saving relationship with the world--the whole world--this world, which God loves so much that he became one of us. God so loved the world that he put on our skin and moved among to show us by his life, death, and life again how to really, really, really love the world.
This world.
Some of you might be perturbed that I use Ronald Reagan as an example of a Disciple. I’ve talked about President Reagan before as a Disciple and heard from some of you about it. Some of you are thrilled.
Is President Reagan the best example of a Christian? Maybe not.
But, that’s kind of the point. Being born from above is to see this world as God sees, and to love as God loves, and to understand that no one is beyond God’s grace.
I’ve told you this story of President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev before. At the peak of his Presidency, Ronald Reagan became friends with his counterpart in the Soviet Union. The two men genuinely liked each other, and they knew that the talks they had would have cosmic, if you will, consequences.
Reagan told his advisers that he believed Mikhail Gorbachev was a “closet Christian.” He was willing to look at the leader of the “evil empire” and see a child of God. That’s grace, church. That’s being born from above. Ronald Reagan may not have been born again, but I believe he was born from above.
Four years ago, this week, Mikhail Gorbachev visited the tomb of Saint Francis, in Assisi, Italy, and confirmed what Reagan had suspected twenty years earlier--that he was indeed a Christian--even though his position of power in the Soviet government precluded his confession of it.
In this season of Lent, we are encouraged to look inward to see ourselves as we truly are. Given the reality of this passage, maybe we should look around as well. What is God seeing in the world today? How are we to relate to this world that God loves--no matter what? How can we see the world as God sees it? How can we be “born from above?”
When we understand ourselves as being born from above, it’s Good News. Good News for us, Good News for Mansfield, and Good News for the world.

Offering
Invitation
We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,. How we “do good” is a personal matter between each of us and God, but it is why we are here. What is God calling you to give? When you present your offerings today, consider that this act of giving is why we were given the gift of Christ.
Prayer
God in heaven, thank you for creating our lives and our work. We know that we are your handiwork, with a purpose of doing, giving and sharing. Our relationship to you gives our lives meaning. Please use our gifts to further the work of the church, this congregation, and the community in which we live. Amen.


Benediction
God forth into the world in peace,
seeing this fragile and wonderful world as God sees it--from above.
Look on it in wonder.
Look on it with compassion.
Look on it and serve.
And may you be filled with the love of God,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the communion of the Spirit,
now, and in all your days to come. Amen.