We are in the 2nd Sunday in Lent and up to fairly recently, I had thought of Lent as a hard and slow descent into darkness. Those aren’t my words. That’s how the church understood Lent. How many here remember being asked, What are you giving up for Lent? In every one of the 40 days and 40 nights of Lent the church made me feel that I was supposed to obey some sort of self-imposed punishment. I was supposed to fast:

• fast from some really good looking food with the word chocolate
   somewhere in its name
• fast from all the little gods I spend all year building up and
  worshipping
• fast from bad habits like biting my nails
• Many churches remove the word Hallelujah from their songs
   during Lent. So does that make Lent a fasting from joy?
 
I join Dorothy Sayers who says that said she would prefer to give up church for Lent, if that is how Lent is understood!
 
In Lent it is common for congregations to gather for Lenten Studies. The Lutherans are studying in Emerson. Church signs all over Winnipeg are announcing their Lenten Studies. We’ll be gathering in houses on March 5th for our Lenten Study, which I’ve named The Highway to Holiness. We will be meeting for three weeks and all of the six topics include  Servanthood for week 1, Obedience for week 2, Ministry for week 3, Acknowledging Jesus for week 4, Darkness and pain for week 5, and The Ultimate Obedience for week 6.
 
So in week 2 we are exploring the theme of obedience. Next week (although St. Andrew’s will be having a special service at the New Horizons centre) the topic is ministry.
 
So today we are going to see what can be said about obedience which seems like a good “Lent” word. But it’s a word that has lost a lot of its original meaning over the years. We prefer not to obey but to be free and independent. But I think we lose too much if we let the word go completely. If we can think of obedience the way the Bible thinks of obedience we can reclaim the word and it can add richness to the way we speak about our faith.
 
How about thinking that obedience is not a must or an ought or a should as much as it is “the kind of delight whereby one delights in the opportunity to please the other.” We appreciate someone  therefore we aim to please the other. For example, my husband Jim is really quite easy to please but if I do one special thing as far as housework is concerned it makes him happy. And that is cleaning off the kitchen counter, and unloading or loading the dishwasher. Much of the time I do that piece of housework, not because I enjoy doing it (I don’t) or even because I enjoy a nicely organized kitchen counter (I do), but I do it more often because I love my husband and I know it will make him happy. 
 
The love comes first and then the obedience. Obedience cannot come first. Otherwise it’s just a duty. If you see someone being openly obedient they are acting out of love. If they are not, it’s something else. Obedience is love made visible. Obedience is what happens when we love. This is what the Bible means by obedience.
 
And so, after all this, we find out that we really don’t have to talk about obedience today at all do we? We really have to talk about love. Funny that Valentine’s day was just last week.
 
And that is what Jesus is trying so persistently to tell Nicodemus. It’s not obedience. You don’t have to follow rules just to follow rules. You have to be born-anew. You have to see something about love. What the whole thing boils down to, says Jesus to Nicodemus, is that unless you get born again, (unless you love) you might as well give up. And Nicodemus wonders how in blazes are you supposed to pull a thing like being born again off—when he was pushing 65 years old. How do you get born again when it was a challenge just to get our of bed in the morning? Jesus then tells Nicodemus that being born again was not something he did or anyone did, but it was something that the wind did. God’s Spirit did in love. It was something that happened for God’s sake. And Nicodemus kept saying, How can this be?
 
How can this be? How can this born again, love of God thing. How can God be here in this sanctuary with us? How can it be that bread and wine shared in a Eucharist meal will save us? How can it be that we die and rise to new life with Christ in baptism? How can it be? How can a human one hanging on a cross bring salvation to all? How? How? How?
 
Nicodemus doesn’t ‘get it’. And what he doesn’t get is......‘love’.
 
Let's not be too hard on Nicodemus. I have tremendous sympathy for him because he seems like such an honest man asking such honest questions. He really, really wants to hear some answers. And Jesus in fact does give him the answer, it’s just not the one he’s out looking for. The answer is love says Jesus. Love will seek you. Love will come riding on the wind and love will find you and bring new life to birth in you and make you 'born again'. What you are looking for Nicodemus is not found in the answer. It's found in staying with the question. It's found in the wind.
 
That is what Jesus is trying to tell Nicodemus. It's not about rules of physics. It's about wind and love. It's about being born into new life. This is how we 'see' the kingdom of heaven. This is how God becomes visible in our lives.
 
The first time God becomes visible in our lives is so important, but born-again is not a one-time happening. It happens again and again and again. I remember the first time I could consciously say I was 'born-again'. I went to see Bob the minister in my home church and I said to him, I have found God. I know now what you say in church. When I pray someone listens NOW. The words in the Bible are coming alive NOW. I get it!!! And Bob threw his arms up in the air and went “Oh!!!!!!!! Wow! Ahhhhh” You have made a breakthrough.  And I stayed talking to Bob for awhile and when I started to leave Bob said, You’ve reached a new level and you know there are many more levels. There are many more born agains. The wind will blow again and again.
 
On the Highway to Holiness we set out in the wilderness in uncertainty, and in a fragile trust that the wind of God will find us. Let us ready ourselves and prepare a receptive attitude, opening our hearts and allowing God's wind to do to us what it will.
 
  ... cleansing, invigorating, freshening
 the wind comes... and then ... it is gone!
 
Pay attention. A word is spoken ... a whisper ... a touch ... and then ... it is gone.
 
The wind comes ... a mighty gust of strength ... a gentle breeze ... and then ...
  all is quiet.
 
The wind blows ...
 The wind STILL and ALWAYS comes to us
 
and like Nicodemus, we can keep on asking (until the cows come home), “How can this be?” “How can this be?”
 
or we can open our hearts to the wind that sweeps among us, and brings new life to birth.
 
 
By the way it is serendipitous that Lesia entered the following in today's bulletin:
The Winds of Renewal
The strong, blustery winds of winter are hard to endure,
but let's think of these winds as indicators of the approaching spring
and forces of God's renewing work in our lives.
Let the winter wind blow away the physical sickness from your life,
along with the winter blahs, depression, and lethargy.
Let the wind of the Spirit lift the weight of sin and release you to a new peace and joy.
Blow, winter wind.
Push the storm clouds away.
Bring in spring--the reminder of the resurrection,
and God's renewing work in our lives.