Feb. 25, 2024: Mapping the Journey

Old Testament Reading: Genesis 12: 1-4
The Gospel: John 3: 1-17                       

I do not know about you but I do not like being lost. I plan ahead so that does not happen. Whether it’s a map or atlas like this, printed directions from a friend or Mapquest, or the more modern GPS on my phone. I want to be plugged in to where I am going. 

However, despite the best planning, I still get lost. Not having the greatest sense of direction, I often read the map wrong. Trusting printed directions, what happens when there is an unplanned detour due to road construction? And despite the wisdom of satellites, I am sure that I am not the only one who has found myself led astray by a GPS. One time, on the way to one of my son’s college ski races in Maine, two pots of soup with duct-taped lids in the back, the GPS led me straight into someone’s driveway in some random town along the way. I later heard that the Colby Ski Team had the same problem. We all turned around and heard that infamous: “Rerouting” and prayed that this time it would work. 

Rerouting is exactly what God often does with us without a map, Mapquest, or a GPS; God asks us to have the faith that the Spirit will guide us towards the right path when we might have gone a different way. 

Abram (soon to be Abraham) was in Haran, which means “highway” or “crossroads” when God calls and says “Go from your country, and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” So the call begins with a command that is followed by a promise, “I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” 

And what did Abram do in answer to this call? He did not ask where this land was; he did not ask for a map; he did not ask how at the age of 75 with a barren wife, God could possibly make a great nation of him. He just went and his nephew Lot (and his wife Sarai, soon to be Sarah, and I am sure many others) went with him. 

Abram, led by his faith, rerouted his life at age 75, venturing out into the wilderness knowing that God would equip him with what he needed to find his way. He was answering God’s call and believing in God’s promise: the blessing of new land that would be a great nation and an heir to continue the work. God also says “I will make your name great” but this is not so Abraham can feel like an all-powerful leader who will rule over others, but instead so that he “will be a blessing.” Abraham will receive gifts that are meant to be shared. It is clear with God, that it is never all about the individual. God’s gifts or blessings are meant to be shared with all of God’s creation: the planet and all the creatures and people whom God created. 

Abraham did not need a map, faith was the map and God’s blessing provided the route. 

The Pharisee Nicodemus had faith, he knew that Jesus was a teacher who came from God based on what he had seen him do, but he was not prepared to admit this publicly; he went to Jesus in the night seeking a map. He was essentially saying to Jesus, “show me how a person can be reborn from above, from the Spirit? Map this out for me, will you?” 

Jesus tries. He says to him, “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 born of the Spirit.” 

This is not the map Nicodemus wants, it literally blows his mind but not with the Spirit as he asks, “How can these things be?” 

“How can these things be?” Seems like a good question for all of this but it illustrates Nicodemus’ lack of spirit. In asking the questions, in asking for the map, he is essentially blocking the Spirit. Being born of or accepting the spirit is a letting go of sorts. Through faith, we let go of having to have all of the answers. Instead, we listen for the Holy Spirit that, like the wind, comes blowing in, gently guiding, gently answering the questions we hold in our hearts: no map required. 

Letting go is hard, it might even feel irresponsible or frivolous at times. We need to plan, we need our maps - what happens if we get lost in the wilderness in the middle of winter? We have all heard the horror stories of those who did not survive. We think of the Donner Party trapped in the winter, forced to cannibalism to survive, but that is not the wilderness that God is inviting us to. God does want us to plan as best we can for our physical journeys and God provided Abraham and Sarah and Lot with what they needed for their journey, just as he did with Moses. 

However, it is in our faith journeys that we are called to let go and let God. If Nicodemus had been able to really listen, to hold the questions in his heart rather than his head, to just pause, then the Spirit would have come in like a gentle breeze providing the answers: the understanding of what Jesus was saying. Then he would have been able to listen and learn with his heart.

Part of being in the wilderness is pausing. It’s why many of us seek time in the woods. We put a pause on the busyness of life for a reset: a restorative walk in God’s creation without the distraction of the stuff of this world. Hearing the crunch of the leaves or snow under our feet, the birds calling above, feeling our hearts beating in our chests as we travel on a forest path, we can more easily listen and let the Spirit in. Holding our questions as we walk, we can sometimes feel the answers drift in map-like showing us the way our lives should go. The challenge is creating the time and place to let the spirit in. It could be on a literal walk in the woods, field, or beach but it also can be in a metaphoric one. A time carved out to just be and to listen, to come with our burdens, our prayers, our questions and sit with them or walk with them, making room for the spirit to come in maybe not with an exact answer but maybe a gentle nudge to do something or a feeling of acceptance or reassurance. 

Jesus spoke of being born of the water and the spirit. The very nature of our physical birth involves water. We float in amniotic fluid which supports our growth and development before we enter this world. We also have the water of Baptism where we are welcomed into the community of faith, often when we are babies, the choice made by our parents. 

Allowing the spirit in is a more adult choice. To be spiritual is to open to a sense beyond the physical world; it is where belief/faith resides. Some claim to be spiritual but not religious. They feel something beyond themselves but can’t put a name to it or consider it more cosmic than God. They are still on the journey. Those of us with a belief in God, can name the Spirit as Holy and know that it is of God. Being born of the Spirit is the acceptance of and belief in God in all forms: Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit even though there will always be more to learn. It means we are trying to make time to listen to and feel the Spirit’s guidance in our lives.

It is not by accident that Jesus goes from talking about being born of water and the Spirit and then foreshadows his resurrection. He takes advantage of every opportunity to teach knowing that if the listeners do not get the message now, it will make sense later. He grounds his teaching in what they know: Moses was directed by God to lift up a staff with a serpent on it to cure his people who were bitten by poisonous serpents in the wilderness. Jesus too will be lifted up to cure his people, so to speak. As Jesus says, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” 

And after this we get the scripture that is probably the most well known in the New Testament: 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 have eternal life.”  
For God so loved the world. Jesus is God’s gift of love to a world gone astray. He provided the model of how to love: unselfishly, even sacrificially, and whom to love: everyone, without exception, all are invited in. God brought a flood before when people went astray but left the rainbow as a promise that, that would never happen again. The second time people needed to be rerouted, God sent love into the world in human form. 

This is the Spirit that we need to be open to, to listen for and let blow through us and into us, the Spirit of Love. And guess what? It is already here: no map required. 

I want to conclude with a poem “The Wilderness is a Place of Mystery and the Unknown” by Sarah Are

It’s only in the wilderness that you can see the stars.
That’s what city living has taught me.
We can shine a light on the things we want to see–
Fluorescent and bright, lighting up dark alleys.
However, it’s only in the wilderness that you can see the stars. 

And it’s only in the dark of night that the questions come.
What is my purpose here? What does God have to say to me?
What does God have to say to suffering?
The sun falls and my doubt rises,
For it’s only in the dark that questions come.

So like Nicodemus in the night,
I will throw my big questions at the sky.
And my voice will reverberate among the stars,
And my questions will echo throughout the dark.
For there in the night, my words form constellations.
And there in the wilderness, my prayers form galaxies.
So there, in the unknown, I trust that I am found.

A light shines in the darkness, friend.
So if ever you’re in the wilderness,
Look up and find the stars.
Amen.

​Pastor Michelle Fountain

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