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ENCOUNTERS 2008

The Sunday Gospels with meditations on the theme of the week's Gospel

-- an encounter that defines and illuminates a step in our journey of faith

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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?”

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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.”

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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.”

What must we do to read the Gospels with faith? It surely isn’t enough to believe that everything written there actually happened once: we owe that much to any book of profane history by a reputable author. To read the Gospels with faith is to believe that everything in them is actually happening now, that they’re a book of revelation, a book of discovery, that, far more than a history, they’re a prophecy. They tell us who we are and what we’re doing. They tell us how God lived among men. But God continues to live with us. He’s always the same, and so are we. What the Gospels relate is still going on today. They show us our life, how God loves us and how we treat Him – how we mistreat Him, too. So we mustn’t read them like ancient history, a pious memoir, a sentimental pilgrimage, but like the revelation they are: a revelation of God and of our selves. We’re announced, foreseen and prophesied in them, and we’ve only to find the right place, the words that concern us and are spoken directly to us.            Louis Evely

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The Kingdom of Heaven,” said the Lord God, “is among you.” But what, precisely, is the Kingdom of Heaven? You cannot point to existing specimens, saying, “Lo, here!” or “Lo, there!” You can only experience it. But what is it like, so that when we experience it we may recognize it? Well, it is a change, like being born again and re-learning everything from the start. It is secret, living power—like yeast. It is something that grows, like seed. It is precious like buried treasure, like a rich pearl, and you have to pay for it. It is a sharp cleavage through the rich jumble of things which life presents: Like fish and rubbish in a draw-net, like wheat and tares, like wisdom and folly; and it carries with it a kind of menacing finality; it is new. Yet in a sense it was always there—like turning out a cupboard and finding there your own childhood as well as your present self; it makes demands; it is like an invitation to a royal banquet—gratifying, but not to be disregarded, and you have to live up to it; where it is equal, it seems unjust; where it is just it is clearly not equal—as with the single pound, the diverse talents, the laborers in the vineyard, you have what you bargained for; it knows no compromise between an uncalculating mercy and a terrible justice—like the unmerciful servant, you get what you give; it is helpless in your hands like the King’s son, but if you slay it, it will judge you; it was from the foundations of the world; it is to come; it is here and now; it is within you. It is recorded that the multitude sometimes failed to understand.           Dorothy Sayers