Good Morning Heretics,
Let’s talk about being “born again” this morning, shall we? Fun fact: did you know that the phrase “born again” only appears in the Bible ONE TIME where Jesus said it to ONE PERSON (a religious teacher, mind you) and yet we’ve built an ENTIRE theology out of it?
Hm.
Buckle up and pour another cup!
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
"I'm a born again Christian."
That's how I used to define myself, label myself. Being "born again" is a (mostly) Evangelical idea that comes from the story of Nicodemus (the only time, mind you, that the phrase "born again" is used in the entire Bible ... and yet, oddly, we've built an entire theology around it to the point where we insist that everyone must be "born again") where Jesus told him that ...
"Unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God."
... and so the interpretation that I was given and the way I was taught to understand those words and that phrase is that unless you are "born again" then you have no hope of ever seeing heaven when you die.
Unless you ...
"Put your faith in Jesus."
Say "the Sinner's Prayer."
"Invite Jesus into your heart."
"Walk the Roman Road."
... and receive "new life" from heaven, you will never see the Kingdom of God ... you will never see heaven.
But.
I mean.
Is that what those words mean? Was that Jesus' point to Nicodemus? That he had to "believe in Jesus" and "say a prayer" and "invite Jesus into his heart" so that he could "go to heaven when he died"? Can we be that confident that THIS was Jesus' point? Especially when he never once said anything like this to anyone else?
I used to think so, but these days I tend to think that Jesus' challenge to Nicodemus (who was a Pharisee, mind you) to be "born again" was a challenge to deconstruct the Pharisaic traditions he had been given so that he could reconstruct them into a more viable faith that would more closely align with the world-changing work of Jesus ... AND THEN discover that those world-changing ideas and that world-changing work had been inside of him all along, since the moment he was conceived (more on that in a moment).
And the Kingdom of God? It has nothing to do with heaven or going to heaven when we die; instead, it refers to the work of God or the power of God and the hope of that work and power coming to earth so that "God's will may be done on earth, as it is in heaven" (just like the Lord's Prayer says).
(** NOTE: look up William Barclay, NT Wright, or Ched Myers to read some good stuff on the Kingdom of God and what that phrase would have meant to Jesus, his listeners, and the Gospel writers.)
Let's summarize ...
"You must be born again", Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, "so that the baggage you've picked up on earth and the traditions you've aligned yourself with and the ways in which you've chosen to live and run your life can be rethought ...
Taken apart.
Deconstructed.
Blown to pieces.
Reconstructed.
Put back together.
... to more closely resemble what I'm here to show you, what is ALREADY within you, buried beneath all of the stuff and baggage and theologies and doctrines that you've picked up during your life ... and this, Nicodemus, choosing to do this and to enter into these very scary waters and being willing to take the heat that will most certainly come from your tribe of Pharisees - this, my friend, will ultimately allow you to see the Kingdom of God because living your life in the footsteps of my own will bring the work and power of God to earth in ways you never, ever imagined."
Hm.
And so perhaps Nicodemus had to be born again not because he needed to believe the right things about Jesus and say a special prayer to get into heaven, but because he had to peel back the many layers of problematic thoughts and beliefs about God and life, with all of the knowledge and theologies and doctrines that he had picked up during his many years of life and schooling and church-going not so that he could learn anything new.
BUT.
So that after the many layers were peeled back and tossed aside he could get back to the core of who he was, the spark that is at the core of each and every one of us - the awareness that we are connected to something much larger than ourselves and are here to live lives of love and grace and inclusion and peace and joy, that we are here to build tables as opposed to walls, that we are here to make peace instead of war, that we are here to take a stand against those that exclude and weaponize their theology, that we are to live lives that make room for more as opposed to build country clubs for a select few.
Yes.
After deconstructing it all and peeling back all the layers, he would no longer see Christ standing in front of him, but he would find Christ at home within him - the place where Christ has always been.
What I'm trying to say is that there's no reason for you and me to be born again in the Evangelical sense because there was nothing wrong with us the first time we were born. That whole theology is built on the belief that there is something wrong with you, that at the core of your being is a "sin nature" that you need to be "saved from", and that that sin nature is repulsive to God and that he demands blood to be shed by you or on your behalf.
It's all a lie that has been bred from (what I think is) terrible and harmful interpretations of the Bible.
The reality is that ...
You were born perfect.
You were born without blemish.
AND.
That perfection.
That blemish-free you.
... is STILL INSIDE OF YOU.
YES - it hasn't gone anywhere! Your innocence, your goodness ... it's still there. And wired into that innocence and goodness and perfection is the knowledge and awareness of how to live as a full and complete human being overflowing with love and grace and inclusion, the kind of human being that Jesus The Christ showed us how to be.
YES.
What Jesus came to show us is already wired into us from the moment of our conception, it's wired into you, deep inside of you ... you don't need to look any further than yourself in order to find it.
Again: there's no reason for you to be born again in the Evangelical sense of the phrase because there was nothing wrong with you the first time you born.
BUT.
There is a need for all of us to be born again in the sense of ...
Peeling back the layers of tradition and theologies and doctrines that we've picked up about God and life.
Deconstructing the crap we've picked up from the world and the church.
Dismantling theologies of exclusion.
Taking apart doctrines that shame.
Erasing teachings that draw lines and walls.
... so that we can recover that truest part of ourselves that is buried deep within us, so that we can reconstruct our lives into lives that more closely resemble the love and grace and mercy and inclusion of Christ that he came to remind us and show us and help us find and rediscover within ourselves, at the very core of our being.
As we've said before - Jesus didn't come to show us anything new, he came to help us uncover the things he was teaching within ourselves so that we (like him) could live as the full and complete human beings that we were created to be.
Lots to chew on here.