2nd Sunday in Lent
John 3:1-17
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 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?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 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.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “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. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “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. “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.
Window to the World
I made the mistake a few years ago of downloading TikTok onto my phone. For those who don’t know, TikTok is a social media platform where people post very short videos, usually less than a minute long. At first, I was kind of embarrassed about it, it seemed like something that mostly younger people did, you know, like high school kids, maybe people in college, not someone in their forties, like me. But, I quickly realized that there are lots of people of all ages using TikTok to post videos about whatever they’re into, whether it’s Jell-O salad, or woodworking, or raising chickens. There are so many cool things on there, but the reason I say it was a mistake is that it can very easily take over your life. I know, not really a surprise for a social media platform. It’s so easy to just sit there and scroll through video, after video, after video, especially ‘cause most of them are less than a minute long, so your brain just starts going, oh just one more, they’re so short, it’s that not a big deal. Just one more, just one more, and the next thing you know, a whole hour’s gone by and you haven’t done anything that you needed to do that day. I can actually feel my attention span getting shorter with every video that I watch. So yes, it’s a problem, but it does help me to keep up with current events.
I have a tendence to shy away from the news. It’s so hard, sometimes, to pay attention to everything that’s happening out there. I hate politics, I hate seeing how difficult it is for some people just trying to survive. There’s so much pettiness, so much greed, and so many people who have grown numb to the violence, the abuses of power, to the blatant injustice in the world. Watching all of that stuff just isn’t good for my anxiety or my blood pressure; so there have been times when I have avoided the news. And, I know that is an extremely privileged decision that I was able to make, because for the most part, none of that stuff affected me, at least not in a direct and obvious way. It was perhaps too easy for me to look away.
But now, I have TikTok! And, I made the conscious decision to follow creators who have their fingers on the pulse of what’s really going on out there. I follow a Black woman who talks about setting appropriate boundaries and using the proper language to talk about anti-racism. I follow a gay man who is constantly scouring the news for stories that affect the queer community, especially all of the bills that are making their way through our legal systems that will negatively impact us. I follow a Korean-American woman who shares recipes and stories about her family, but also calls people out for their racist behavior, which is so important right now because of how much violence against Asians has increased in this country over the last few years. I even follow another UCC pastor who talks about equity, and justice, and UCC theology. I’m a little in awe of her, and I just found out that she’s going to be at General Synod this year, and so am I, so I’m really hoping that I get the chance to meet her, ‘cause that would be so cool!
TikTok gives me a daily barrage of videos about how the world is consistently failing us, and how we are failing each other. I’ve learned that TikTok can sometimes be a window into all of the pain and suffering that’s happening in the world.
Now, I know I said it was a mistake to bring TikTok into my life, but of course I’m being a little facetious, because I do want to know what’s going on. I need to be informed, not just for me, but as a pastor. I need to know. I need to know because it’s the only way that I can be in relationship with the people around me. I can’t be fully present; I can’t understand or sympathize if I don’t know about the pain and suffering that the people around me are experiencing. God wants us, needs us, to know about these things.
As we continue to move through Lent, coming ever closer to Holy Week, when we remember the crucifixion and resurrection, we have to remember that all of this is about relationship. Relationship is at the very heart of our tradition. We believe in a God that exist as three persons: the Creator, the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. These are not the three forms of God, these are not the three metaphors for God. That is not what we mean when we talk about the Trinity. We’re talking about three individual persons, three entities, that together are God. It’s a difficult concept to grasp. For some people, it’s strange or confusing, but it reveals the nature of God. God exists in relationship with Godself. Our God is a God of relationship.
That’s the entire reason that Jesus came down to be with us, to teach us and love us, to die for us and come back to life for us. So that we would all be joined together for all of eternity, existing in the grace of our God.
We always have to remember that God is a God of relationship, because when we understand that, we understand ourselves. We are created in the image of God. And, if God exists in relationship, that means that we were created to be in relationship as well, in relationship with God and in relationship with each other.
I really love how in our gospel reading today, Jesus is sitting with Nicodemus and teaching him. It’s such a sweet and nurturing moment. For some reason, when I think back in my life to my earlier interactions with this text, I feel like I was always taught that Nicodemus was challenging Jesus with his questions, like he was trying to trick him or trap him. But, when I read this passage now, Nicodemus just seems so earnest, like he’s really curious about the questions that he’s asking. He really wants to know and he’s not quite getting it; he just doesn’t understand. And, Jesus is being so patient with him, listening to him and explaining things. He’s taking the time to be in relationship with Nicodemus, to hear him out, to take care of him, and to help him understand.
I think all this stuff that’s been going on with social media for the last 20 years or so, it’s just been our attempts as human beings to be in relationship with each other. It hasn’t been perfect, far from it; we still have a lot to learn about how social media affects us and how to use it safely. But, we are learning. We now know that these social media algorithms that control what we see can create these sort of echo chambers where we only hear and see things that we already agree with, and we start to lose sight of the fact that people who have different opinions than us are still people. And, we’re learning how dangerous anonymity can be on the Internet, with cyber bullying, and catfishing, and identity theft. There are a lot of changes that need to be made; in a lot of ways, you could say this technology is still in its infancy. I have no doubt that the future of social media is going to look very different from how it looks today.
But, even with our imperfect systems, there is still a lot of good that has come out of social media. We can use them to share our stories, to tell people about who we are and what we stand for. To start small businesses, and to organize causes for social justice. To stay in touch with friends and family that are far away.
I’m not saying that social media is the answer, but I’m also not going to demonize it like so many have tried to do. Social media is here to stay, and we need to learn how to use it responsibly, and in the way that it will do the most good. We have to remember that the whole point of social media is to build relationships with other people, and how we build relationships doesn’t matter as much as the relationships themselves. And, we have to remember that being in relationship means taking the bad along with the good. We need to keep our eyes out for who our needs help and then help them. That’s all God wants for us. To live into who we were created to be, images of the Triune God, existing in relationship and in love. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
