Risky Behavior
In many ways, the Gospel passage for this Sunday (John 3:1-17) is about risk. Nicodemus takes a risk because he is a man of stature in the community. Jesus is an itinerant rabbi from a backwater town. Going to visit Jesus poses a risk for Nicodemus, because the Pharisees are deeply distrustful of Jesus. But he is compelled by what he has heard from Jesus, and so he takes the risk, albeit going at night to mitigate the risk.
It’s good to hear these words of a real human being – Nicodemus – feeling like he wants to risk going to Jesus because he wants to learn more. Why? Because in this season of Lent, much of what we are supposed to do is about risk: risking trying something new and uncomfortable, risking looking at our own behavior to discern if we are truly following our Lord or if we are hedging a bit, risking looking at the world we inhabit to see how it does or does not align with what we know is right.
It’s so much easier to stay comfortable, to not take that risk. And yet there is something in Jesus’ words that entice us into risk-taking, for our own good, for the good of the community, for the good of the nation, for the good of the world.
As we consider our own lives, are we being honest? Are we showing a façade that looks pleasant while inside we are denying the truth about ourselves? If we avoid addressing the ways we think that are not true to Jesus, just so we can be comfortable and think we’re okay, we’re missing an opportunity to break away from the things that enslave us. The same is true for the world outside of our own heads.
Nicodemus went to see Jesus that, in the kind of language John uses, as a reaction to God’s spirit moving through him, moving him physically toward Jesus. We too can feel the Spirit moving us toward Jesus. We felt it on Wednesday when we had the first of our Lenten study gatherings in our series entitled “Becoming Beloved Community.” Once we’d had our fill of delicious food, we listened, prayed, talked and learned. There was much laughter, a few tears (that happens when you’re dancing with the Spirit), a sense of deep connection.
So today I encourage you to take a risk this Lent. Perhaps it’s joining us on Wednesday nights for the Lenten Series. Perhaps it’s taking advantage of a beautiful practice called the Reconciliation of a Penitent (BCP page 447), which is akin to the Catholic ritual of Confession. It is confidential, intimate, and can be tremendously healing if one is troubled and the Sunday corporate confession does not seem to suffice. You can schedule this with me by emailing me at mbthorpe52@gmail.com so we can come up with a mutually agreeable time for us to meet in private. Or perhaps the Spirit is moving you in another uncomfortable direction. Don’t be afraid to take that risk, and don’t be surprised when you feel the nudge of the Spirit taking you somewhere you never imagined you would go.
Be a blessing,
Mary Thorpe +
