No Simple Answer

"How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter into their mother’s womb a second time to be born!" (John 3:4)

From Scott:

Kathy’s word on Wednesday opened me up to an entirely different way of thinking about being “born again.”  One of the many reasons I enjoy writing this blog with my good friend each year is the opportunity to stretch, to question, to challenge and to be challenged.  So it is, I believe, that we grow spiritually.

I wonder if Nicodemus really wanted to be challenged.  I suspect he went to Jesus expecting to hear the answer, the secret password, the essence of truth, in very simple terms.  We learn two things in John 3:4.  First, for all of his power and authority, Nicodemus was quite the “literal thinker.”  Second, Jesus wasn’t going to make this easy on the poor guy.

You can almost see the perplexed look on Nicodemus’ face as he responds to Jesus’ declaration that one must be born again.  Eyebrow raised, head cocked, he says, “How can someone be born when they are old?  Surely they cannot enter into their mother’s womb a second time to be born!”  almost as Gary Coleman would have said, “What you talkin’ about, Willis?” on TV’s Different Strokes.

The noted developmental psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that until a child is about eleven years of age, the ability to think in abstract terms is limited.  The child is simply not able developmentally to operate at higher levels of abstract thought until the child has progressed through the prerequisite developmental levels.  Intermediate and middle school educators are quite familiar with this phenomenon.  Could spiritual growth be similar?

Elsewhere in the Gospel, Jesus indicates that we are to come to him as little children.  A pastor many years ago helped me to understand the difference in having a childlike faith—trusting, yet curious and wondering—and a childish faith—undeveloped, narrow, and uninformed by experience.  The former invites stretching, questioning, and challenging.  The latter excludes and discourages new perspectives and the people who bring them by saying, “I know the answer,” as though spiritual development was akin to learning the multiplication tables.

We forget the mystical, mysterious, awe-inspiring nature of Christianity (or "spirituality," in general) when we reduce our search for understanding to that which can be expressed on a Hallmark card.  Jesus’ response to Nicodemus—confusing, unexpected, disarming as it was—provided the opportunity for Nicodemus to grow, to learn, to be transformed.  

The confusing, unexpected, challenging experiences we have throughout this earthly journey of life are the very things that shape our understanding of who God is, who we are, and how we are related.  For me, that understanding is most assuredly different at 56 years of age than it was a 46, at 36, and at 16.  I trust in God with a childlike faith, but I hope never to be so childish as to believe that I have “arrived,” one of those whose faith ceases to grow deeper and wider with the passage of time.

Were that the case, why would I—or anyone—celebrate Advent as anything more than a remembrance of something wholly in the past, completely irrelevant to my experience today, simply an anniversary?  No, let it be that we wait expectantly for Jesus to come, which He does…again and again…in new and often surprising ways!

My Advent prayer on this Gaudete (Joy) Sunday:  Infinite God, thank you for being big enough to allow me to grow into your space with my questions, my challenges, and my wonderings. Patiently guide me to a wider and deeper understanding of who You are, and who I am in You.