"The Wind"
by Rev. Tim Zingale
St.Olaf Lutheran Church
Fort Dodge, Iowa
3:1 ¶ Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 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.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 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?” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 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.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11 “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. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “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. 17 “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.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen.
Wind, wind, wind, it is something we feel, something we cannot see, but we can see the affects of it as it blows the trees, as we feel it blow our hair around, as it blows on a hot summer’s day giving us some relief from the heat.
I read a story from the Best Seller books of Reader’s Digest entitled, The Courtship of Peggy McCoy and it deals with wind. Let me explain.
Peggy is a retired navy nurse and lives on the coast of Maine. Her hobby, her obsession is sailing. Each day she takes her sailboat out for a sail. She loves it. She has learned how to read the wind, how to make her boat go so that it catches the wind just right. As I read about her sailing experiences, you could almost feel the wind coming out of the pages of the book as she sometimes fought with it, as she allowed it to catch her sails and take her out onto the water.
Jesus speaks about wind in our gospel lesson this morning.
He says, "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."
Jesus is describing the wind and using it to help Nicodemus understand the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is like the wind, we cannot see it, we don’t know where it goes, we cannot even explain how it works, but we know it is there. In the same way, the Holy spirit is there in our lives, we cannot see it, we don’t know where it goes, and we cannot even explain how it works, but it is there, period.
When we were Baptized, we received the Holy Spirit. When you were Baptized, the pastor said," I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. "
And then later on in the service, the pastor says "the child’s name, "child of God you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever", and while saying these words the pastor makes the sign of the cross on the baby’s forehead.
At that point, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we have the rest of our lives to live in that Spirit and allow it to do it's works.
Being born of the Spirit is not an act which we accomplish, but it is an act that God does on our behalf.
"Being born from above is not something we do. We are not the "actors". It is something done to us (by God). In a similar way, being born the first time was not something we did. Our physical births were caused by powers far beyond our infantile abilities and understanding. Being born is something that happens to us from powers outside of ourselves."
And then the fun part of being in Spirit is that the rest of our lives we will learn about the Spirit and how it has formed our lives. It is like the wind, we don’t know where it goes, we don’t know how it does it’s thing, but it does. The Spirit will lead us in the same way.
It is like the test in the following:
The president of a bank was talking to his old economics professor at an alumni reunion. The professor said, "Here’s something that might interest you--this year’s final exam."
The bank president scanned the exam, then said, "I could swear these are the same questions you asked my class 20 years ago."
"They are," said the professor. "I know the students pass the exams down from year to year."
"Then doesn’t everyone get an A on every exam?" asked the bank president.
"Not at all," said the professor. "In economics, the questions stay the same, year after year--but we keep changing the answers."
Jesus does the same thing, kinda, in today’s gospel. He promises to send us the Holy Spirit, who contains all truth. But it is the circumstances of our daily life that change. And the Spirit helps us apply truth to the circumstances of our daily life.
Our lives, our faith are not stagnate, but changing and evolving each day. So the work of the Spirit helps us in mysterious ways to keep the truths of Jesus alive in our lives each day.
We can either be like the big oak tree in the following or we can live by the Spirit and be like the Reeds
"A very large oak was uprooted by the wind and thrown across a stream. It fell among some Reeds, which it thus addressed: "I wonder how you, who are so light and weak, are not entirely crushed by these strong winds."We can give in to the power of the Spirit in our lives and bend with the "wind of it" as it leads us, or we can resist and break and become our own guide.
They replied, "You fight and contend with the wind, and consequently you are destroyed; while we on the contrary bend before the least breath of air, and therefore remain unbroken, and escape."
Jesus tells us that the Spirit will lead us in truth if we let it. And we must resist trying to figure out where the Spirit will lead, how it will lead, we must just let it.
It is like that Peggy at the beginning of our sermon. She turned the tiller of her sail boat to catch the wind and then rode with it. We must allow ourselves to be the tiller and go with the wind of the Holy Spirit. Let it guide us, nurture, lead us in God’s truth and then we will have a rich and full life.
Can we be like the monk in this closing story who trusted God to provide.
"I need oil," said an ancient monk; so he planted an olive sapling.
"Lord," he prayed, "it needs rain that its tender roots may drink and swell. Send gentle showers." And the Lord sent gentle showers.
"Lord," prayed the monk, "my tree needs sun. Send sun, I pray Thee."
And the sun shone, gilding the dripping clouds. "Now frost, my Lord, to brace its tissues," cried the monk. And behold, the little tree stood sparkling with frost, but at evening it died.
Then the monk sought the cell of a brother monk, and told his strange experience. "I, too, planted a little tree," he said, "and see! It thrives well. But I entrust my tree to its God. He who made it knows better what it needs than a man like me."
"I laid no condition. I fixed not ways or means. ’Lord, send what it needs,’ I prayed, ’storm or sunshine, wind, rain, or frost. Thou hast made it and Thou dost know.’"[1]
Can we be like that monk and pray, "Lord send what I need, allow the Spirit to guide me for Thou hast made me and Thou dost know what I need."
Jesus said, "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."
Let us pray: Breathe into us, Holy Spirit, that our thoughts may all be holy. Move in us, Holy Spirit, that our work, too, may be holy. Attract our heart, Holy Spirit, that we may love only what is holy. Strengthen us, Holy Spirit, that we may defend all that is holy. Protect us, Holy Spirit, that we may always be holy. Amen.
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1 Anonymous via Cracker Barrel Journal
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. Sermon written by Pastor Tim Zingale on June 9, 2003.
Jesus said, "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit."
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