The Second Sunday of Lent
Year A

By the Rev. Ann M. Smith

Based on the readings from
Genesis 12:1-4a and John 3:1-17

The word 'lent' although quite properly associated with fasting and penitence means literally 'spring'. When we consider the coming of spring we think in terms of growth and new life. Already around us are signs that say that spring is on its way. Daylight is coming earlier and staying longer. The earth is warming up and preparing for the growth that marks our spring weather. That is a good way also to think of Lent, for this is a time of spiritual re-awakening and growth. It is a season of great hope.

If Lent is a season of hope it is also a time to reflect on change and transition in our lives. When our lives change we are often faced with a new awareness of how attached we are to our old ways. We find it difficult to put down new roots and grow in new directions. To do so takes more trust than most of us can muster.

Abraham's story is an important one for us, for it is not only a story of the great faithfulness of God, but also of our human ability to put our trust in God.

God called Abraham to begin a new life in a new place. It was a call, not only for Abraham, but also for the people of Israel. It is the beginning of their history of salvation – a moment of transition in their lives. God calls Abraham to leave his homeland and set out to a strange place. God makes a seemingly impossible promise to Abraham that his descendants will become a great nation with a territory of their own. It is on the basis of God's promise that Abraham leaves the familiarity of his life and set out to live as an alien resident, far from his roots. It is a story which touches us as part of our human heritage. Being uprooted and displaced, whether by war, disaster or choice is the experience of millions of people in our own time.

The wonder of the story is not only that Abraham was obedient to the call of God. It is that he trusted so implicitly in God's ability to accomplish what was promised. Wouldn't our human tendency be to take control, to try to orchestrate things so that God's promise came about through our own efforts? Abraham didn't raise an army and march on the Canaanites. He didn't make laws and find people to enforce them. He didn't get himself a crown. For Abraham, faith was believing in God's promise and trusting that God would make it happen in God's own time, in God's own way.

Speaking for myself, I find that kind of faithfulness to God's promises very difficult. In my head I know the promises that God has made to us; in my heart I find it difficult to simply trust. I know that God's grace is free and abundant. Yet I find it impossible to give up my own need for control and let God work in my life.

That, I suspect, is the story of Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus by night, sneaking in the back way so that others won't see him. After all he is a devout and learned leader in the Jewish community. It would not be good for his reputation to be seen to be too interested in this upstart young revolutionary. He has witnessed some of Jesus' miracles. He wants to check them out. He has some faith, but his faith is based on wrong assumptions about what Jesus is about. His wrong assumptions leave him with some burning questions about Jesus, about who he is, about what he is about. He wants to understand, and yet when Jesus explains it to him, he keeps taking it literally. When it comes to faith, literal, concrete explanations simply won't do. Life abundant and eternal is a gift of God's grace. It is not attained by achievement, claim or proof. It is not a reward earned by our own merit.

And along with the transforming gift of God's grace freely given to the believer, comes the believer's acceptance of the gift. I suspect that Nicodemus came out of darkness into the light in a literal sense. His nightly journey led him to discover who Jesus was. He discovered what it meant to be born from above. He grew in faith. It became obvious in his life. He became a defender of Jesus against the Pharisees. He brought spices to the tomb to prepare Jesus' body for burial. Was he amongst the faithful who saw the resurrected Lord?

How do we, like Nicodemus, come out of the darkness into the light? How do we access the grace that God makes available to us in our lives? That is the ongoing and transformative process in one's life, which we usually refer to as "conversion". I know how 'unanglican' we think it is to speak in terms of conversion. It is part of the process by which the Christian comes to wholeness.

It happens in many different ways. For some people it is an earth shattering and dramatically sudden change in perspective. But for most of us it is an ongoing process during which we learn to live the life of grace. Grace puts great power at our disposal, but it remains dormant until we call on it, until God becomes real in our actions and in the actions of those around us. It may be sparked by our own actions or it may come about through the actions of others around us.

Some of us, like Paul, are met by God on the Damascus Road. Others are met in a more quiet way, through the beauty of our world, through prayer, through meditation, through a blessing, in a sermon, in a conversation, through a personal relationship. God even meets us at the least expected times when we think our lives are crumbling around us. God is there at times of loss in our lives. All of the ways in which God meets us are times of grace. Such times of grace meet particular needs at particular moments. They all answer God's command to "love one another even as I have loved you."

The grace of God accomplishes great things in our lives. Through the grace of God working in us, great things happen. Jesus said that if we have the faith of a grain of mustard seed we could move mountains – mountains of hatred, of indifference, of pride, of suffering. Through the grace of our efforts, through prayer, through the sacraments, through the word read, spoken and preached, we receive sufficient grace to move those mountains. Grace sufficient to our needs. We reach out, we touch, we use. Grace increases.

Let this Lent be a time to reflect on change and transition in our lives. Let it be an opportunity to grow in new directions, to come into a deeper awareness of God's grace at work in our lives and to know God's abiding presence in our lives and the life of the world. Let it be a time to move out of the darkness into God's own gracious light.