Sermon - January 25, 2026 (John 3:1-21)

Introduction

I know it goes without saying but it has been a catastrophically unhappy new year, amen? 

I am grateful for the many who have been reaching out and checking in with me, sending their love, sharing in my anger and sadness, encouraging my ministry and praying for my safety and warmth when marching on Friday etc. I had hoped we would have gotten a little more of a reprieve after that, with 50k showing up for our immigrant community to ”say it loud and say it clear that immigrants are welcome here” and that “this is what community looks like” but then tragedy struck again yesterday with the senseless killing of Alex Pretti weeks after Renee Good…. and so. Many. Unlawful. detentions and deportations…. so… this is how I am taking care: through prayer, music, scripture, friends and family time, personal study, activism, friends and family time, snuggling with my dog, friends and family time and last but not least, through writing—in my journal every day, and well—you know, sermons like this.  

On Thursday I went to the monthly synod wide prayer gathering—which is put on so that leaders like me can get some space to pray and be prayed for. It was so good for my soul and emotional health. We mostly cried together. One of the best things we did other than that was this meditation where we got to just breathe in God’s love, and breathe out God’s love for the world.

It helps to just breathe and remember the basics of our life together in Christ. That we are loved, that God loves us as God loves the world… if any of you confirmation students need to remember anything from all this chaos, I sincerely hope it’s John 3:16! Bonus points of you can name whom that verse was first spoken to…

Nicodemus

Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, he symbolized what a person with a moral life, and obedience to the Mosaic Law looked like. He was, for the rest of us not from the ancient world, the epitome of the first born, the teachers pet, the first of his class. Book smart. A PhD with a thousand other majors and minor degrees. A lot has changed over time, but back then, let’s just say that “Rabbi” was not a term the Jews used flippantly. Being a teacher was prestigious, the highest honored profession.

To earn a following as a rabbi was a huge responsibility and badge of honor. And the man known to us as Nicodemus wasn’t just any teacher, Jesus calls him The Teacher of an entire nation. It is only fitting then for The Teacher to receive The Ultimate Lesson from our Teacher, Jesus the Christ. And guess what? Nicodemus doesn’t get it. The last thing he says is a question. How can these things be? In other words, he is “left in the dark.” Unable or unwilling to see Jesus for he truly is and what he is about, that is the question of the year, isn’t it?

What is the hold up? Why is it so difficult for people to understand? In one word: Power. Like so many others who prefer darkness over light, evil over kindness, violence over peace, it all comes back to the allure of power. In Nicodemus’ case, he simply is unable or unwilling to see from Jesus’ perspective and to trust any narrative other than his own. He is a prisoner of his own making, actively “bound by the limits of his own mind…”

 Crisis of Willful Darkness

Anyone like that come to mind for you today?

Look, I am fresh out of answers other than to say that Evil exists. We just need to keep showing up for one another. To persevere in love, for ourselves and for the world God loves through us; Don’t keep showing up because of the rewards that come with it, on the contrary, but because love is right and good and true—and truth, not evil, will win.

Those wins feel few and far between and not as timely as we prefer, but the Truth just wins. And the truth is that it’s risky beyond belief to love right now. A mother of three. An ICU nurse. But Church, don’t give up. Don’t settle for anything less than what Jesus promises and envisions—that kindness for one another is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is so much bigger than Nicodemus or any of us can imagine. So breathe it in people of God. (Deep breaths)

The Realm of God

The kingdom Jesus is offering is not what you think. Look closer. Keep reading John’s Gospel and you will see it, too.

According to John Shelby Spong, a more accurate translation for this word “kingdom” is “the realm of God.”

Spong elaborates:

“A kingdom is a place. A realm is more of an experience. The kingdom of God was normally represented in spatial terms as existing above the sky in a three-tiered universe. A realm could be an experience of new levels of consciousness, the ability to see beyond the limits of physical vision.”

In other words, earthly wannabe kings envision something or someone to rule over, something or someone bound by time and space. But Jesus’ invitation to the kingdom of God is more expansive than a place or a power… It’s a realm to be experienced, here and now. Like breathe in God’s realm now. It’s what the ancient philosopher Anaximander described as an essence beyond the elements, a field of being he called the “boundless” or the “infinite.” 

Child of God, as often as you eat of this bread and drink of this cup and remember your baptism, that’s the realm of God you’re tasting and sensing. So breathe it in. You are the overflowing fullness, in At-one-ment with Christ—beyond time and space for as another ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus put it: all of life is one, an essence that is not of this world of power and riches---it is not any material “stuff” but perpetual change—movement. This oneness is not a noun but a verb.

All you need do is pay attention. To Look for it beyond the limits of our physical vision. It’s dark out there today, but light is breaking in as impossible a statement though that may feel, I felt it. I felt that Oneness on Friday, on the coldest day for a walk imaginable, I felt it through the numbness, through the sorrow and anger, and now, I want to see it and hear it again: So say it loud and say it clear: “immigrants are welcome here.”

Consciousness is All There Is

Now breathe in deep because we need to go a little deeper for just a second. It’ll probably never reach most of your shelves, but when leaning in feels this challenging, I go back to the realm of God in the form of mysticism—the kind I believe Spong rightly detects from The Fourth Gospel. The kind I believe science is starting to detect, too.

Dr. Tony Nader from “Consciousness is All There Is: How Understanding and Experiencing Consciousness Will Transform Your Life”:

“Most scientists today now believe there is such a thing as superunification… (or as we simply call, Oneness.) Because the more scientists deeply delve into the structure of the physical world, the more energy and unity they are finding there.”

We aren’t seeing it with our eyes right now, but stay open to new perspectives, ok? When oneness feels like an empty fantasy, when we would take a fraction of solidarity in a world increasingly becoming more divided than united, remember… you, me, we are born from above, from the realm of God, born again and again in love for ourselves and for the world through what Jesus offers freely to all willing to look beyond the limits of our physical vision, beyond the limits of our own minds.

Nicodemus couldn’t see it past the power he thought belonged to him. But you? Can you see and feel this “new dimension of humanity, this new consciousness, this new way of relating to the holy” that Jesus offers?

Conclusion

If not, don’t worry. We still have some work to do. But whether you see it or not, it’s there, at even the molecular level---lingering, building, being born into my nature and your nature, one lesson at a time. So take care, St. Luke, don’t quit showing up for each other, and above all, never, ever forget to just breathe. In Jesus’ loving name. Amen.