God, you know the words that are going to be coming out of my mouth shortly.
God, keep my mind focused on your word.
Lord, help me not to get distracted with making dumb jokes that are unnecessary.
Lord God, make sure that my heart is focused on you and not on myself.
But also God, may the people who are here listen beyond my words and hear what it is that you're saying.
Because God, you're the one who is truly speaking by your spirit.
Thank you. Amen.
Howdy.
Well, as you may have guessed, I'm not Pastor Baddawi.
When the storm hit and everything was going through, the decision was made to go ahead and ask Pastor Baddawi,
our missionary up in the Dallas area, to come on a different day.
So for today, you have post-vacation Pastor Jason.
So it is what it is.
So where have I been?
Well, I decided to spend nine days and went up to Alaska.
So yes, it's beautiful and cold and beautiful and cold.
And it was good.
I went up to Denali.
So I took a train that was up to this area where a beautiful lookout.
Turns out the clouds were parted.
It was easy to see the mountain up there the way we needed to.
It was great.
Took a bus down to Seward.
Had a chance to go on this cruise for the day.
And I went off and saw one of the fjord areas that's over there.
They said that they saw more of the ice that was crumbling down off one of the glaciers than they had seen previously.
And apparently we saw more animals that day than they had seen.
Apparently hit all these different spots at these really great times.
And then went over and saw a friend of mine in Juneau right before he and his family are going to be moving down to San Diego.
So in a few months I have a trip planned for San Diego.
Now I'm just kidding. But with it though is having a chance to see them before they took off.
But also getting to see some of the local indigenous community and their artwork and more of the culture before coming back.
And the whole time it didn't feel real.
It felt like I was looking at Alaska somehow through a television screen.
Not because I was actually looking through a television screen. It was right in front of me.
But it felt like it wasn't quite real.
And to be honest why is that the case?
Because to be honest my heart was distracted.
Throughout the trip my heart was distracted.
I had my mind. I mean I leave Houston and what happens a tornado decides to swipe through my city.
Apparently I need to warn the city before I go anywhere.
And so there I am worried and I'm like billions of dollars of damage.
What's going to be happening? Let me at least check on people.
But also worried about my church.
You can't be lead pastor at a church and then you leave for more than a day or two and you're not worried about people.
But then on top of it is even just questions about the future.
What am I doing? What's happening next?
What are the plans? All these things in my head.
And then the whole time I'm like oh there's a bear.
And you're just kind of shaken.
You're literally from here to the lectern over there and you're just like there's a bear.
I'm glad I'm in a car. Okay let's go.
And just kind of doing this thing.
And this idea that we could be right there in front of the majesty of God.
And somehow our mind and our heart is just not there.
And in so many ways I feel like that's what we see with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus came to speak with Jesus.
But he just keep getting the feeling that he has no idea who he's truly speaking to at that moment.
He doesn't get who it is that he's actually speaking with.
He ends up having this whole thing where he comes up and says
Rabbi we know that you're a teacher from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
Talk about minimizing what had been going on.
Healing and hope and proclamation and joy and showing people who God is and forgiveness
and people are coming to repentance and what does Nicodemus do?
Well you must be a man of God.
God must be with him.
Talk about not getting it.
Because that's the thing is that there is Nicodemus putting Jesus in this box of what he's expecting.
But isn't that also where we find ourselves?
How often is it that we cannot see what God is doing right in front of us
because we are so distracted with everything else that is around us?
How easy is it for us to ignore things that God is doing?
How easy is it for us to see what God could possibly do through us
but then we find some reason, some excuse for why we need to cancel.
Why it is that we need to keep going about everything else that we thought was important.
Why is it that we cannot see the world through the eyes that God has given us by faith?
In it, it speaks about this phrase to be born again.
And I'm going to throw out there the idea that I don't think that any of us actually get what born again means anymore
because we've heard it so many times.
We have these preconceived notions about what faith is and we keep hearing it time and time again
and after a while we just tune out.
We even have the passage today with John 3.16.
And I'm afraid of focusing on that verse because does it even mean anything to us anymore?
Or is it just a placard that we see at a baseball game
and we're just glad that somebody must be a Christian in the crowd?
Have we gotten to a point that baptized by God and being claimed by His Spirit
that somehow we've learned how to just tune it out?
Is that you are here today in the presence of God
and I can't help but wonder how many of you even see God at this moment?
See, we had Nicodemus coming to Jesus and he is an educated man.
He is a man who is there with all this background and he is ready to go back and forth
and to debate and to try to learn something from this man Jesus
but he's ready for all the argumentation and everything.
But is he actually there to be with God?
Because that's the thing is that oftentimes that's what we're looking for when we're at church.
We're waiting for the pastor to say something new or different that we've never heard before.
We're like the Gnostics.
Is that we need some new knowledge, something that fascinates us,
something that we're just like, hey, this will be fun to know now.
And we completely missed the point.
Is that there in the presence of God is that God is there to change us.
And we are oftentimes spending so much time just trying to make sure that we added something new
that we're not asking the question of whether we're willing to change.
When I came back from Alaska and someone sends me a message and says,
hey, I'd really like to go dancing tonight. Does anybody want to go?
Now, you know me. I like dancing. I like karaoke. I like chocolate chip cookies.
And what was my automatic response in my head?
My automatic answer was no. That was my first response. Why?
Well, I wasn't expecting this. It's the same day.
I can't change my plans in the same day. How can you expect that of me?
What's wrong with you?
And then pause and realize, no, I've got the time.
I've been sitting on a train. I've got the energy to be up and moving around.
I'd like to go have some fun and these are my friends. Why not?
But that is so often what we end up doing is that we have so many assumptions already about ourselves and about life.
And we're not willing to ask any further questions.
I get really tired of whenever I ask someone a question and I automatically know what the talking heads have already told them they're supposed to answer.
I already know how many times is that we have been preconditioned to respond to things just because we already know certain trigger words or catchphrases.
But the same thing ends up happening at church too.
I've been here for about five years. Yes, it's only been about five years.
I know you feel like it's been longer, but it's only been five years.
But in being here, there have been a number of times when I've seen that something has either been fumbled or canceled.
Because people can't see outside of what they've been looking for all the time.
How many ways can God be saying, I need you to see things with a new pair of eyes.
I need you to see things the way I'm showing you.
But we're afraid.
We don't want to commit to things because we've never done it before.
We don't want to be open to the idea that maybe we need to make an effort beyond something that we're not used to.
Maybe we're afraid of putting our heart out there and saying maybe there's more to this.
Or even more so, how often are we willing to say I'm sorry?
And I don't mean the kind of sorry that we usually give.
I don't mean the yes, I know I'm a terrible person.
I know I mess up.
Come on, let's be honest.
How many times do we make apologies that are meant to just be blanket statements?
Just because we know we're supposed to apologize.
But we're kind of like, now please tell me that I'm really not that bad.
Because I don't want anybody to really make me feel like I'm that bad.
How many times we apologize because we're just waiting for the other person to say, no, it's okay.
Don't worry, you're really not that bad.
Okay, good.
Thanks.
I apologize.
I don't want to really have to change.
Because the thing is, is that the presence of God is not just about trying to be more knowledgeable.
It's about seeing why the serpent has been lifted up.
Have you ever wondered about that part?
You know, like we hear John 3.16, but we never go back one or two verses to see the context.
Why was there a serpent lifted up in the wilderness?
Because the people had been complaining so much that there were serpents that were stinging them,
that were biting them.
And when they looked up at it, they had to remember that it was their doing that caused them to need to come back to God.
And that's why it is that Jesus being on the cross is so convicting because of the reason why he had to be there.
You see, there is Nicodemus thinking, I'm going to come here and be all smart and knowledgeable,
and we're going to debate back and forth between prophets and everything else.
And yet, the woman at the well, she didn't need some educational background.
She sees her Messiah and her whole life has changed.
And Nicodemus couldn't see it yet.
There's reason to think that he does later.
But how often is it that we, who are baptized in Christ, who have already been washed with water,
the water that connects us to what God has done, and yet we can't take the time to ask what God's Spirit is showing us today?
See, that's the thing about the reality that's around us, is that Jesus is trying to say, we speak of what we know.
We're bearing witness to what we've seen.
And yet you can't understand why.
The signs that you do, God must be with him.
Really?
Is that all?
Is that really all that this comes down to?
You must be a godly person.
Because that's the thing with this, is that being washed to wipe away the old and to bring new life to us now,
is the question is, are you willing to see it from a different set of eyes?
Because I don't know that you do.
I don't know your hearts.
I don't know your minds.
I can't predict everything.
I can't see all.
I barely see well enough as it is.
But at the same time, you, with God right now, is he the one determining how you see things?
See, that's the thing about being up in Alaska, is that I did end up realizing something though.
Is that the whole time I'm trying to think, did I not plan a good enough trip?
Am I not going to all the best places?
Am I not spending enough time out here?
And then realize, no, it was me.
I was limiting myself.
I was putting a box around what God could be doing in my life right there.
I'm experiencing what God has done, and I had limited my mind and my head and my heart.
See, the thing is, is that I was spending my time asking, what am I supposed to do,
instead of letting God say, who am I called to be?
See, that's the thing about where God's spirit is working,
is that it's very easy to try to spend the time thinking,
what can I do right here and right now to make this better?
How am I somehow going to make everything fit?
And we realize that we've put a box around what God is doing,
because somehow we think that it comes back down to where we're at.
The thing is, is that, honestly, I haven't been as open to what God could be doing.
But I also can't help but wondering, is that also where you're starting with today?
Are you at a place right now where you're feeling frustrated with something
and you're constantly trying to make the same decisions,
or the same arguments, or the same choices, and you can't see any change,
and at what point have you paused and said, God, I'm here in your presence,
what are you doing?
What do you want in my life?
Because that's the thing that Jesus ends up bringing us down to,
is he ends up saying that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved.
Nicodemus came expecting this great teacher, and what does Jesus bring him to?
God sent his only Son, I'm here,
and I'm ready to bring you life.
So today, as we're looking at Trinity Sunday,
we're not just looking at a God who has made an amazing world around us
that keeps struggling time and time again.
And we're not just looking at there being some really, really great guy
who just happened to die, but rather the Son of God,
that every time we see him, marked by baptism and seeing it through his eyes,
that we know that he is our hope.
But now is to ask, what does this mean?
Because his spirit is leading you and guiding you,
but are you willing to see beyond what you've seen before?
And to ask how is it that being born again means you have a chance to see something
from a new set of eyes.
May God's view continue to change and to shape us
and everything that we see in our lives and in the world around us today.
Thanks be to God.