Thoughts for the Day

Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 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.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

‘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. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.... so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The first paragraph above repeats the scripture reading from yesterday as Jesus teaches Nicodemus the need to be born again and so to be open to the Holy Spirit. At this point it is worth reminding ourselves that most things in John's Gospel have symbolic meaning and Jesus is trying teach this leader of the people matters of great truth. As human beings we are all too prone to deal in hard facts and try to find rational explanations for everything in our world. If something goes wrong we want to know what happened and usually who was at fault, while we aim constantly to improve things, creating bigger and better versions of the original models, and putting our energies into improving technology.

We find it hard to give the same concern to anything that is less factual. But Jesus puts his finger on an inconsistency, and to do this he uses a Greek work pneuma which means 'wind' and also 'spirit'. We speak of the wind, he says, but we cannot see it, so how do we know it exists? The answer is that we see evidence of its existence - we can hear it; we can see that it can damage trees and buildings; and we can see the way it will blow fire or smoke! Similarly, we speak of love, but we cannot see love. We can however see evidence for love in the relationship for instance between say a man or woman, or a parent and their baby. So it is with the Holy Spirit, when someone is open to God's Spirit we can see evidence of this in the way that person lives their life.

We are God's people, born of the Spirit received at our Baptism, and the evidence of this new life will be shown in our lives as we draw upon Christ's help.

Lord Jesus Christ,
we cannot see the wind,
only observe its passing,
and we cannot see love,
only observe the results,
so may we acknowledge
evidence of Your Spirit
in those who believe in You.
May we too continue to show evidence
of this new life each day.
Amen.