Justin Appel

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today’s Gospel lesson includes the story of Jesus meeting Nicodemus in John chapter 3.

Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus regarding the Kingdom of God illumines our understanding of salvation, spiritual life, and development — themes which we especially contemplate during the season of Lent.

In this story, Jesus clearly frames our entrance into God’s eternal Kingdom as a spiritual Rebirth: the water of the baptismal font serves as the amniotic sea through which we journey to a new mode of existence.

To be reborn implies a sense of nurturing, of protecting and of forming in this new instantiation of life. With such a metaphor in play, we thus understand baptism to be formational in some sense. But if the womb is a place of safety, we also recognize it’s birth pangs as the harbingers of a sudden transformation, with the violent natural imagery associated with birth:

‘Like blood, like breaking,
As the earth writhes to toss him free.’ (Rowan Williams, Advent Calendar)

Indeed, the presence of the Spirit confirms the startling nature of that birth:

‘The Dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror.’ (T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets)

To be ‘born again’ involves, perplexingly, both the cleansing bath of the baptismal font, and the purging, enlivening fire of the Spirit. This cleansing birth launches the new Christian on a path of spiritual growth, as ‘children of God’ sealed by his Spirit, and united to Christ through his death and resurrection (Romans 6).

If the metaphor of rebirth by water and the Spirit marks our entrance into the Kingdom of God, our unity with Christ in this sacrament means that our spiritual vocation is one of  martyrdom, both in the metaphorical death of self-sacrifice, and possibly in the actual sacrifice of our lives.

Yours in Christ,
Justin