It was late, almost bedtime, when the Jewish leader came to Jesus' residence. Into Jesus' presence came Nicodemus, one of the best-known Jewish professors in all of Israel (a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin). Nicodemus finally reached the short ruddy-faced leader of the disciples, and he said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2)."

However, Jesus then said something very strange. It really amounted to a put-down of Nicodemus. It was a strange move on Jesus' part, because here he was, a common, ordinary, lower middle class preacher, being honored by a visit from the respected and well-known Nicodemus. On top of that, the eminent Nicodemus was even acknowledging that Jesus actually had something important to say. Now he was present, wanting to know more. The great master willing to sit at the lowly Jesus' feet!

What Jesus actually did was to tell Nicodemus that he did not really understand anything at all. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3)." In short, Jesus was really saying: "Nicodemus, unless you have been born again, you do not have the foggiest idea what I am saying. You don't know anything!" Quite a put-down. "Have you been born again, Nicodemus?"

It was an early spring/late winter Sunday afternoon, kind of like today. You had been to church in the morning and now were out for a stroll with the family. (Perhaps it happened on a Monday like tomorrow at the office.) On the other side of the park (or the office) you could see your neighbor/colleague Nora making her way in your direction. "Hi, friend," Nora calledout. "Oh no," you say to yourself. "I hope she isn't going to start talking to me about that church she attends. Every time we talk, it seems to be the same story."

Sure enough this encounter was not different. "You just would not have believed how meaningful our service was," Nora began. On and on she went, talking about the hymns, the healings, the speaking in tongues, and the altar calls that had happened that day. As she went on you tried to be polite and listened, but your boredom with the whole thing was obvious. Even Nora finally realized it.

"I guess this whole thing doesn't interest you much, does it?" Nora asked. "Well, I wouldn't say that," you fumbled back. "Oh, yes," Nora replied. "You're bored. I guess I should have realized it all along. The people who go to your congregation, they may go to church most every week just like you do, but you don't really know the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not really in your heart. You haven't been born again. And until you have been born again, you have nothing."

Have you been born again? Have you been born again? How many times have you been asked that question or at least heard about it being asked? What does it mean to be born again?

In the minds of most people, perhaps for most of us, being born again seems to have to do with a conversion to Christianity where the power of God becomes especially real. It has to do with that one moment in life where we break with the past and come to Christ. People who talk this way about being born again can usually tell you the exact day and how it happened. Consequently, someone like Billy Graham can tell you how he was born again in a meeting led by Mordecai Ham in 1934, and how he has never been the same.

All this talk about being born again seems calculated to make members of mainline denominational traditions feel guilty. At least I know it always made me feel guilty. The problem is that most of us have grown up in the church and lived with it our whole lives. Oh sure, some of us may have spent a few years away from the church. Yet just the same, we cannot seem to put our finger on any exact time when Christ came into our life.

Worse yet, even if we could pick out an exact time when we came to Christ, it does not seem like there is anything much different about our lives. To be sure we try to live like Christians. Yet we continue making mistakes: We are unkind and inconsiderate; we lose our temper; we gossip; we may even cheat and steal. And so we wonder and worry about just how good a Christian we are. The result is that texts like today's gospel lesson which talk about being born again make us feel awfully guilty.

Oh, but they need not. Such texts need not impose guilt, because when the Bible talks about being born again it means something quite different from what many Christians and the secular media think it is. In fact being born again has nothing to do with something we do. In addition, being born again certainly does not mean that you will never think or do anything wrong again. People who think this way simply have not read their Bibles closely enough.

For instance, consider again our gospel lesson for today. To be sure, it talks about being born again. But then it elaborates the theme a bit more. Yes, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Yet then Jesus gives him and us the answer - the answer to the question of what it means to be born again. "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5)." Unless you are baptized, born of water and Spirit. That is what it means to be born again: To be baptized and to receive God's love.

This emphasis on baptism as a born-again event is consistent with the teaching of scripture (see Titus 3:5).1 This often overlooked viewpoint makes it a whole new ball game with respect to what is important in the Christian faith. Since baptism comes at the beginning of life for most of us, then that means that we are born again at the very beginning of our Christian lives. Consequently being born again does not depend on our having any special feelings, special visions, or anything like that. To be born again, according to the Bible and the teachings of our church, is simply to focus on what God has done for us, not what we have done for God.

At first this line of thinking may sound a bit confusing, but not if you reflect on it for a time. For the church is committed to emphasizing God and his work, not what we do for him. Our salvation does not depend on the way we lead our lives; it does not depend on our having warm, glowing feelings about God which assure me that I am born again; salvation does not depend on us at all. Our salvation depends only on Jesus Christ, and that has long ago been accomplished (Romans 3:21ff; Galatians 2:16). Consequently, even in the times when my Christian life does not measure up, I still have the promise of God's love.

One of the crucial themes of the Lenten season, one of the disciplines of preparation for hearing the gospel of God's love, is that we not take ourselves too seriously. For the first step in hearing the Easter message properly is an awareness that, on the basis of the lives we lead or the depth of our spirituality, we do not have a chance for salvation. It all depends on God.

Martin Luther summarized the nature of Christian life, what it is like to be born again, very well in one of his lectures in 1535. He reported that his teacher, John von Staupitz, said to him: " 'It pleases me very much that this doctrine of ours gives glory and everything else solely to God and nothing at all to men; for it is as clear as day that it is impossible to ascribe too much glory, goodness, etc., to God.' ... And it is true that the doctrine of the gospel takes away all glory, wisdom, righteousness, etc., from men and gives it solely to the Creator, who makes all things out of nothing. Furthermore, it is far safer to ascribe too much to God than to man."2

"Christ must increase and we must decrease." The liturgy of the Roman Catholic mass conveys this theme very well. On receiving the sacrament, the congregation responds: "Lord, I am not worthy ..."

The message of today's gospel lesson is that we may best prepare ourselves for the new life of the Easter gospel by not placing too much emphasis on ourselves. Merely because we are active in the church or have lived good lives does not entail that we have earned God's love. Far from it. Nor should we imagine that a good tingly feeling about God or a sudden conversion is our ticket into heaven. We ought not to think this way, for salvation hinges on God.

There is a positive side to this denial of any human contribution to our salvation, to such a de-emphasizing of the emotional, experiential side of being born again. It may be that your Christian faith and lifestyle are deficient and you do not feel born again. That is the state of my all-too-deficient spiritual life. Yet it does not matter. Can you recite the creed? Do you believe it? Then you have faith, and you can be assured that God loves you. That is what Jesus says about himself in our gospel lesson: "Whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:15)."

God has always loved you. We really are all born-again Christians here this morning. We became born again the day we were baptized. We became born again on the cross at Calvary in 32 A.D., for on that day God proclaimed to the world that he loved us. Now nothing can separate us from that love (see Romans 8:38-39).

Have you been baptized? Then, my friends, you have been born again! You are brand new. All your short-comings, feelings of guilt - that is not the real you. Your baptism prepares you to struggle with them, prepares you to hear and believe the gospel. For the real you is loved by God already, and that is both a preparation for our struggles against insecurity and evil as well as an accomplished fact. In baptism, you have been born again!