A Sermon for St. John’s Episcopal Church
Charlestown, Massachusetts
March 12, 2017
by the Rev. Lyn G. Brakeman

Genesis 12:1-4a     Psalm 121     Romans 4: 1-5, 13-17     John 3: 1-17

May I speak to you in the name of God who rebirths us—again and again and again—to BE a blessing.

It’s born-again Sunday! To be born again is a laughable idea, in ancient times and maybe for some today. But born-again is an idea with such creative depth and oddness that even Jesus might have laughed. To be born again means to be baptized, blessed and born into Wonder day after day. It’s laughably remarkable AND it’s how we can BE a blessing—day after day after day.

BE a blessing is what God tells Abraham. Abraham and Sarah, laugh their fool heads off many times at God’s ideas.

And when Nicodemus questioned the rationality of this insane idea, I bet Jesus laughed.

“No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above……” Very truly, Jesus told them. Yes, we all heard it, didn’t we?  And we all very truly understood it, right?

“But, but,” said Nicodemus a respected leader in Jesus’s time: “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus laughed.

But, but ….. it’s not written that way, you say. I say: Just because something is not written does not mean it didn’t happen. Just because something is not written doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

It has always struck me as very strange that, with everything that scripture so diligently records, no one ever wrote that Jesus laughed. But of course he laughed. He as human. Dear Nicodemus’s question is so sincere and so silly it’s hilarious!! Someone can crawl back into the womb and come out again?  It’s funny!  Picture it. (I bet children, if not hushed, would giggle uncontrollably—and children are the best prophets anyway.)

Jesus’s laughter was never mocking or sarcastic, but loving, connective, the way you laugh with joy at some bizarre new idea or discovery, some twist of the usual. Jesus’s laughter, like ours, helps us break through tension and make space for a brand new idea to break in. And so it did: born again. And wouldn’t Nicodemus be surprised to know that, thanks to the vigor of God’s Holy Spirit, we are not born again only once—but again and again and again. Nor is born-again a particular brand of Christianity, exclusive to some like a brand….no, it’s for all of us. How else do you imagine that we could BE a blessing as God desires—for Abraham, Jesus, and for us???

Abraham, blessedly, was pretty down-to-earth about his faith—Jewish. He laughed a lot at God.

How preposterous, for example, for God to say: Go! Leave your home. Take all your stuff (cattle, household staff, all your goods) abandon the land of Ur (pronounced short U and rolled R…) and we’ll go to a new land and make a great nation together. Really! And Abraham laughed, something he does a lot—with God and at God. God then tells him to BE a blessing—not be blessed, or count your blessings every day ad infinitum till you’re quite bored and boring—but to BE a blessing. Think about that. Me, a blessing? You? What a laugh! Yes, be a blessing.

Later God suggests to the poor old chosen couple of ancient story another side-splitting idea: sex with procreation when Abraham and Sarah were about 79. And both of them fall on their faces laughing. God further instructs that the child be named Isaac which means “he laugheth.”

I have here two small statues figures, sculpted by Barbara Hughes. They could be Mary and Joseph, Abraham and Sarah, Miriam and Moses—two ancient faith heroes, full of humor and uproar over preposterous unbelievable good news—and even funnier that God turns out to be right!

When I read scripture I first look at what kind of God these stories, we tell over and over, portray. Many other things matter like context, history, author agenda, interpretative history, and such, but what matters first and foremost to me is: who is God here? Theology, in other words.

In these texts I find a God with a sense of quirky humor—not a prankster, teaser, or a mocker, but a Creator God who does strenuously bizarre things. A God who genuinely delights in every tiny critter and the whole shebang. A God who cares enough to dwell within us, in our flesh. A God with a womb—able to house, bless, and birth oner and over the life of another, the Life of a cosmos. Laughable, huh?

This God has a sense of humor and a sense of Wonder. This God does weird funny things.

According to a third-century B.C. (or BCE) Egyptian papyrus: “When [God] burst out laughing there was light.  . . .When [God] burst out laughing the second time the waters were born; at the seventh burst of laughter the soul was born.”  We are the height of divine laughter. That might explain a lot.  LOL.

Laughing is a refreshing and humbling experience—and image. We can make God too serious, too sober, too almighty, yes, too masculine, and frankly, much too above it all. Then we decide that our own spiritual piety should be the same. Ick!

In this business of religion, there are times when ya gotta laugh—especially at ourselves. Lighten up! Practice laughing more. (Imitate Matt Hast!)  Fall on your face laughing. Lent is a time for spiritual reflection and transformation. Nothing does that better than hearty laughter. Nothing rebirths us for life better than genuine shared laughter. It’s how to BE a blessing, collective or individual.

When I think about all this rebirthing, I wonder how many times a day I get born again—and again. Baptized and blessed by watching young children scoot down the slides in the playground shrieking with joy every time—over and over. They laugh. I laugh. Baptized, blessed and born again into Wonder. I can be a blessing.

I feel this way when I see older people hold hands and walk slowly, often chatting and laughing along the way. Every day over and over. Baptized, blessed and born again into Wonder.

I watched a grandmother run, well beyond her capacity to do so, to secure her grandson who has taken a spill on his brand new two wheeler. To him it was an obvious affront, not to mention a surprise. He howled to the universe!  He’s not hurt, only his pride. It takes 3 mins of hugs and soothing and he’s healed—born again. He rides off laughing joyfully just at the fact he can pedal and has his equivalent of a car, his freedom. I am born again into laughing Wonder.

A patient at the alcohol/drug rehab center where I was a chaplain once said to me: Hey, don’t give me any of that Christ died for me stuff. I don’t need anyone dying for me. I got enough problems. And we burst out laughing together. Born again into Wondrous laughter.

And finally, let me tell you about Dylan, our youngest grandson, aged 2 2/3 exactly. We all gathered at Christmas and Dylan, being the youngest and the smallest, had no one to play with. He tried to chase the pug who was racing around too fast for  him. He tried looking up and all he saw was adults with big mouths talking nonsense. No place of Dylan. He tried the door of the bedroom but was scared off by two sets of red eyes gleaming in the dark—the Siamese cats on the bed.

Finally, Dylan found something wonderful. He began to call for our attention. “I found a door!” he kept calling, and then came up to tug at someone’s clothing. “I found a door!” At last, we noticed, and looked, and followed Dylan. He went to the back door, the one that goes out into the stable. “I found a door,” he said again. Then he did a demo. His door was the pet door. Dylan delightedly crawled in and out of that door many times. No one else could fit. Dylan was thrilled with his discovery and he laughed and laughed. We all laughed and laughed with him, sharing his delight—just as Jesus did with Nicodemus, or Abraham with God, or God with all of us. In laughter we were born again.

To laugh is to be baptized, blessed, born again into Wonder…… that you may BE a blessing day after precious day—again and again and again.