Spiritual Lamaze
John 3:1-17 - Rev. Gary Shoemaker
Bellingham First Christian Church
What does it mean to be a
follower of Jesus? How
would you explain it to
someone who has never been
to church or even heard of
Jesus? That’s a difficult
question to answer, and yet I
think that for those of us who
count ourselves among Jesus’
followers, we ought to have
an answer. We ought to be
able to articulate it well
enough for others to
understand.
To be honest, I don’t think
even I have a great answer to
the question. I could take a
stab at it, but the more I
think about it, the more
complex the answer becomes.
The simple answers like, just
accept him as your lord and
savior, seem incredibly
inadequate and really only
lead to about a hundred other
questions.
It’s not easy to explain even
the most basic parts of the
story. In his book Me Talk
Pretty One Day, David Sedaris
recalls enrolling in a
beginning French language
class that was attended by
people from all over the
world. One day the
conversation turned toward
Christianity. A Moroccan
woman wanted to know what
the word Easter meant. A
Polish woman took a stab at
explaining resurrection
theology: “He call his self
Jesus and then he die one
1 of 9
day on two . . . morsels of . . .
lumber.” Sedaris reports:
“The rest of the class jumped
in, offering bits of
information that would have
given the pope an aneurysm.”
That may be why, when
Nicodemus comes to Jesus
looking for some answers
about what Jesus is about,
the conversation moves into
some pretty abstract areas.
“Very truly I tell you, no one
can see the kingdom of God
without being born from
above (or born anew).”
Jesus is truly attempting to
explain what it means to open
yourself to the realm of God,
to become a follower of the
Way that Jesus is
proclaiming. And poor
Nicodemus is doing about as
well as any of us could do
when he starts to ask the
obvious questions. What does
that even mean Jesus?
And Jesus goes on to talk
about the wind and not
knowing where it comes
from. And Nicodemus is
probably thinking, we’ve just
jumped from being born to
not knowing where the wind
comes from, I think Jesus
may have lost it.
But Jesus is persistent in
explaining that in order to
become a follower, something
very radical has to take place.
It’s like being born
completely new, and you
don’t really have a lot of
control over it, it just
2 of 9
happens, like the wind, it just
happens.
I chose to call my sermon
“Spiritual Lamaze” because I
think Jesus is trying to help
us along in this new birth.
Just like those couples who
show up at the training
center with their pillows, we
need help understanding just
how this birth process is
going to happen and what we
can do to make it go
smoothly.
But just like those new
parents, we don’t have much
control over the
transformation to new life.
Jesus is telling us about a
realm that is different from
anything we experience on a
normal day, a realm where
the priorities are shifted
towards compassion and
caring. A realm where God
loves the world so much that
God gives a gift of new hope,
new life, new reality.
What does it mean to be a
follower of Jesus? It means
that you have opened
yourself to a very different
way of living and viewing the
world. You open up to a
transformation that is so
radically different and
complete that it’s like being
born all over again. Only this
time you are born of the
spirit. Born of that which you
cannot see or measure. Born
of love. Born of a new way of
being human.
3 of 9
And if you have a difficult
time understanding just what
that means, Jesus tells us
stories about this new way of
being. Stories that stretch our
understandings of grace, like
the grace offered by the
parent who runs to meet and
welcome the scoundrel of a
son who has made a mess of
everyone’s life. Stories that
stretch our understandings of
who we consider our
neighbor, like the generosity
shown by a Samaritan, a
person we’ve been taught to
hate, who turns around and
acts with extreme compassion
to care for a man who was
left dead by the side of the
road.
Jesus does his best to explain
what it means to be born
again in the spirit of God. It
means that we start living in
a new reality where we look
for the best in others, where
we go against conventional
wisdom and build bridges
where others want to build
walls.
Jesus does his best to show
us what it means by spending
time and energy among the
people that others have
shunned. He does this so
much and so often that he
develops a reputation of
hanging out with the wrong
sort of people. Jesus turns
around and says, “Excuse
me, these are absolutely the
right sort of people if you are
born of God’s spirit.”
4 of 9
Nicodemus comes in the
darkness. I don’t think that
the author of this gospel
accidentally has Nicodemus
emerging from the darkness
to talk with Jesus. Light and
Dark are key components in
John’s gospel. In the first few
verses John writes, “The
light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not
overcome it.”
How do we emerge from
darkness into the light? We
know darkness when we see
it, don’t we. A few days ago
there was another shooting at
another school, this time a
middle school in Noblesville,
Indiana. Near where Mary
Ann lives. Watching the
coverage, there was a
comment that gave me pause.
Someone said, “These sorts of
things are supposed to
happen at high schools, not
middle schools.”
Take a moment to let that
sink in... these sorts of things
are supposed to happen at
high schools. That’s darkness.
It’s the fourth school shooting
this month, the seventeenth
this year. That’s darkness.
That’s a society that has
become so warped that gun
violence in our schools has
become a normal part of our
existence. Time for a new
birth, a new way, a new light
to emerge from the darkness
and show us the way.
On that same newscast, I saw
a glimpse of what that light
5 of 9
might look like. It came at the
end.
At Mountain Heritage High
School in Burnsville, North
Carolina, Rachel Newberry
caught Ben Robinson
completely off guard. He was
a little surprised, a little
shocked.
Ben, who has Down
syndrome, had no idea
Rachel was going to ask him
to senior prom.
Every year we see stories like
this -- a typical kid inviting a
special needs kid to prom.
Stories of kindness. But what
makes this so different is that
Rachel wasn't trying to be
kind.
In fact, when she posted the
video and strangers started
commenting that she was this
amazing, incredible young
lady with a very good heart,
Rachel was a little put off.
"Yeah, it's not that at all. I
don't think that me asking
my friend to prom makes me
a good person," Rachel said.
To understand how Rachel
became so wonderfully
oblivious to her own grace,
you need go back to where
this all started.
Rachel and Ben have known
each other their entire lives.
They were little kids in
Sunday school together and
immediately took to one
another. Rachel was always
6 of 9
the one person who could get
Ben to calm down. And Ben
was always the one person
Rachel could count on. Their
friendship is so unconditional
that for the longest time
Rachel didn't even know Ben
had Down syndrome.
"I guess someone told me
eventually and explained it,"
Rachel said. But it didn't
change anything
“No, no, he's still just my best
friend after that," Rachel
said.
"When you say best friend,
you mean best friend," I said.
"I mean best friend, yeah,"
Rachel said emotionally.
This is what people didn't
understand when they saw
her video.
Fifty years ago, back when a
lot of special needs kids were
still being institutionalized,
few people could have ever
imagined a utopian moment
such as this -- a time and
place where differences melt
away and kids like Ben are
recognized less for their
Down syndrome, and more
for their ability to get down
on the dance floor.
To move from a world where
violence is the norm and our
school children are being
sacrificed on a weekly basis
to a world where they can
just be a child enjoying the
innocence and joy of
7 of 9
childhood, is to be born
again. To move from a world
where differences make us
the enemy to a world where
differences are what make us
more interesting is to be born
again. To move from a world
where hunger is an accepted
part of human existence to a
world where everyone has
enough is to be born again.
To move from viewing the
other with fear and suspicion
to viewing the other as family
is to be born again.
To be a follower of Jesus
means that we are born into a
new reality. A reality of
grace, radical hospitality,
generosity and love. To
follow Jesus is to step into a
whole new way of being.
Nicodemus stepped out of
the darkness on that night
long ago. After experiencing
Jesus he was a changed
person. Much later in the
story he stands up in the
middle of the governing
religious body that is rushing
to judgement and
condemnation of Jesus and
asks that they at least listen
to him. And even later, this
same Nicodemus, steps out
with hundreds of dollars
worth of spices to help with
the burial of Jesus.
Nicodemus may have walked
away from his first encounter
with Jesus confused and
shaking his head, but the
light made an impact on his
darkness.
8 of 9
To be a follower of Jesus
means that we take a bit of
the light that we find deep
within us and we use it to
shatter the darkness that
surrounds us.

9 of 9