Lent 2

Lent 2 WONDERING 2/20/05

Thousands of years ago, people gathered at night around fires and gazed into the heavens. They questioned and wondered: “Why is there something, instead of nothing? Who created all of this? Why am I here? What is the meaning of it all?” Such wondering is the beginning of religion, an awareness that there is a power, a knowledge, a wisdom greater than our own…an awareness that there is a purpose in creation and there is value to our lives. Faith often begins with questions. Faith often begins with wonder. Faith often begins in the darkness of our doubts!

Most of Jesus’ ministry took place during the day, while it was light. But, Holy Scripture contains more than 300 references to “night.” In the darkness, Jesus reached out to people, and in the darkness, people reached out to Jesus. In our darkest days, when we can’t find our way, Jesus is there for us and there with us. The darkness is a fine time to “find” Jesus, but more accurately, dark days prove a fine opportunity for Jesus to “find” us! Many of our favorite Christmas hymns support these divine discoveries after dark: “O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by; Yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” and “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright” and another, “It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old.”

Do you ever “wonder”? What do you “wonder” about? When do you do most of your “wondering”? I’m reminded of yet another Christmas hymn: “I wonder as I wander, out under the sky, how Jesus the Savior did come for to die, for poor ord’n’ry people like you and like I. I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.” Most of my “wondering” occurs at night. Often as I lay in bed before drifting off, I wonder about the day’s encounters with the mundane and the miraculous. I wonder about such things as, “Did I lock the doors before I got in bed?” I wonder about such things as “With all this changing weather, what should I wear in the morning?” I wonder about such things as “Have I spent enough time with our children over the years?” and “What am I doing with my life?” and “Does Jill know how much I love her?” and finally I drift off to sleep, my mind, body, and soul exhausted. Do you ever wonder?

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night…”(Jn. 3:1) Evidently, Nicodemus and I have this much in common...we do most of our wondering at night. I wonder at night because that is the time when my mind and body slow down enough for God to actually gain my attention. Nicodemus wondered at night because he couldn’t risk being seen speaking with this carpenter from Nazareth. The Pharisees, you see, were seeking to kill Jesus, but Nicodemus had been wondering, so he dared approach Jesus under the darkness of night.

Nicodemus was wise enough to know that what he sought was more the correct answers to his questions. Nicodemus did not want to know more information. Nicodemus wanted to know God in a way he never had…more deeply, more personally, more fully. Nicodemus sought not more information, but a transformation, and he had come to the right place. God is not revealed to us in statements of propositional truth, but as one of us, a human being living among other human beings! “For God so loved the world that He gave” us Jesus (Jn.3:16). God is aware that some of our earthly days are, in fact, dark. For this reason, God sent to us “the light of the world”! This God-given “light” never shown more brightly that on that hill called “Golgotha” (the place of the skull)…a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem, when Jesus died for us and, for 3-hours, the mid-day sky turned as dark as night.

I don’t know if your life is “bright” or “dark” these days. I hope it is “bright”! If it is, rejoice and give thanks to God. If it is not, we can still rejoice. We rejoice because we have a Savior that keeps evening hours…a Savior who works the night shift! By night, in the darkness, is a great time to come to Jesus and let him talk with you, sit with you, love you, forgive you, teach you, guide you, correct you, comfort you, listen to you, and reveal his will and way to you. Rejoice in the opening verses of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn.1:1-5) And hear the words of St. Paul: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor.4:6) And for “good measure”, reading from 1 Peter: “But you are a…people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (2:9) May no one be left “in the dark” about Jesus! May all God’s people say, AMEN.

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