401 Making it Fresh

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Making it Fresh”, originally shared on February 25, 2026. It was the 401^st  video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

    What is old and stale to the world is new and fresh to us. How can we make the gospel of Jesus Christ fresh for those in darkness? Today, we’re going to find out.

   The Milan/Cortina winter Olympics are over. They went out with a bang last Sunday, not with the closing ceremonies, which was a quasi worship service with pagan overtones, but with the men’s hockey game. What a firecracker!

   And now, we’re in Olympics withdrawal, except that we in the LA area have the World Cup to look forward to this year, the Super Bowl next year, and the LA Olympics coming the year after that, in 2028 That’s just two years from now!

   My wife Sally has many happy memories of the last time the Olympic Games were held in LA, in 1984, as she was a chaplain for the games. She still has her Olympics uniform and shoes and a variety of souvenirs. We were newlyweds then, and we remember her bringing home the box lunches they provided and sharing them together for dinner most days.

   We’ve thought of applying as a husband/wife team to be among the chaplains for LA28, because we’d be adorable, but, you know, we’re old people now, and they’ll probably be looking for a different demographic. 😊  

   This week’s reading from the Gospels that will be shared in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, John 3:1-17, contains the Olympics, the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and more, wrapped-up into one great, exciting, world-altering, mind-boggling, life-changing ball of Good News!

   And, for many of us, it’s just one big yawn! Why? Because it’s become background noise. It’s what 16^th century Church reformer Martin Luther called, “the Gospel in miniature”. It’s the verse of the Bible that, if you only knew one by heart, that’s the one you would know.

   It’s a verse that we’ve heard for as long as we’ve been Christians, and for some even before we became Christians. It seems so common to us that we would not be faulted if we believed that everyone knew it.

   They don’t. And the numbers that do are getting smaller every day.

   It’s John 3:16,

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

   It’s about hope, but so many people are filled with fear. Why don’t they turn to the living relationship with the one true living God for which they were created, and for which they can be saved? I think that the reason is “sin”, what Martin Luther called being “curved in upon oneself.”

   Most people in this world are focused on themselves, on their pleasures, on their material security. They are worried about the economy, that our country seems to be coming apart at the seams, that we are devolving into conflicting tribes, that we can’t talk with each other anymore, that their health or their health insurance coverage will fail, that the zombie apocalypse is inching closer and that they are powerless against what they fear is coming.

   They might remember the bumper sticker that said, “Even paranoids have real enemies.”  And they look at the world and they realize, “Yes. We have real enemies.”

   And today’s Gospel reading is focused on the answer to all those concerns.

   Here are four ways to make the Gospel fresh again, a bed sheet, a young woman losing her faith, signs of faith all around us, and the context of John 3:16 in today’s Gospel reading.

   First, be the bridge. Be the bridge to someone you know who is struggling or indifferent spiritually. You are believable to people who trust you. You have the ability to change lives forever, as Jesus did for Nicodemus.

   Sometimes, I have put a sheet over a chair before a worship service where I am preaching and placed it someplace where it can be seen. During the sermon, I ask for a volunteer to come forward. I say that I’m looking for someone who is willing to risk public humiliation and personal injury while getting no reward at all. A volunteer comes forward. I tell them that there is a chair under the sheet. I ask them to sit down without hesitation. Eventually, they do. They do so because I am a credible witness to them.

   Second, Jesus welcomed Nicodemus. Make your church a specifically Christian community,  focused on the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ for all people, and have a plan for bring people from Zero to Christian. Be strong in faith in order to support the weak in faith.

   Maybe you are struggling with belief yourself, or you want to believe but are not sure, or you know someone like Nicodemus who is.

   Pastor Will Willimon is a Methodist pastor, who has also been a seminary professor, a  university chaplain, the Methodist equivalent of a bishop and is a fine preacher. He tells the story of a young woman who was a member of a congregation he served who made an appointment to see him during the week. She came by his office and said, “Pastor Willimon, I just wanted to say that I won’t be coming to church anymore. I’ve been struggling with my faith for a while, and I just realized that I can’t do it anymore. I appreciate everything that you and the church members have done for me, and I didn’t want to just drift away. I just came to say goodbye.”

   Pastor Willimon tried to address her struggles and encourage her to continue, but she was having none of it. And the next Sunday she was back at worship. And the Sunday after that. And the Sunday after that.

   Finally, Pastor Willimon asked if she could stop by his office again, and she agreed. Pastor Willimon said, “Aren’t you the same person who came by and said that she no longer had faith and wouldn’t be coming to worship anymore?” She smiled and said, “Yes.” “Well then, I’m happy to see you, but could you tell me what happened?” he said.

   “Well,” she answered, “It came to me that sometimes, if you can’t believe for yourself, you have to be with people who will believe for you.”

   Sometimes, we just have to lean on the community when we are feeling weak. That’s why we are here.

   Third, point to the fact that we are not alone in our culture. Point to the presence of the Gospel all around us, like the wind, like God’s faithfulness to God’s people, Israel.

   Contemporary Country artist Jelly Roll gave a powerful testimony to the grace of God in his acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards this year. Savanah Gutherie has maintained a stalwart, explicitly Christian public faith in the unimaginable horror of her mother’s unexplained abduction.

   In-N-Out burger president Linsi Snyder has maintained the presence of Bible verses on 11 of their products, in spite of calls to make her products and packaging  more broadly community friendly. I once did a mid-week Lenten series on them. Turn over a soda cup, for example, and guess what’s printed on the inside rim? John 3:16.

   Finally, make the Gospel a lived reality. You can’t give away what you don’t have. Jesus marveled that Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, didn’t understand what it meant to be born again from the heart and to live the transformed life by God’s grace.

   Suppose you heard that Jesus was hanging out at a home in your neighborhood, and you went there, and they let you in? Suppose you got to see Jesus face-to-face, and you could ask him anything you wanted? What would you ask Him?

   We waited for the clouds to lift this week, and then they did. And we had a spectacular view of the snow up in the mountains. It was like being in Switzerland!

   There are times in life, too, when the clouds lift, and we see things as they are.

   Nicodemus had that experience because he asked questions.

   Nicodemus was “a Pharisee” and “a leader of the Jews,” a member of the ruling Sanhedrin. He appears two more times in the Gospel of John, once to appeal for due process for Jesus, and again to help prepare Jesus’ body for burial.

   He was a man who had earned the respect of his people. Jesus, on the other hand, was unknown to most of them, a poor itinerant teacher, a miracle worker who some were saying was the One, the Messiah, the deliverer for whom the Jews had been waiting for 1,000 years.

   Nicodemus was drawn to Jesus, but he had a reputation to protect, after all.

   So, he came to talk with Jesus at night. Yes, Nic at night! 😊

   The reading begins with verses 1 and 2,

¹Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” ³Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

   Have you ever seen any of the “Back to the Future” movies?

   O’Reilly Auto Parts sells, well, auto parts. If you go to their website (oreillyauto.com) and search for “121g” you’ll be taken to a page with a picture of a flux capacitor, some product information, and then this:

 

Detailed Description

• Time Travel at your own RISK!
• Plutonium is required to properly operate the flux capacitor
• Plutonium is used by the onboard nuclear reactor which then powers the flux capacitor to provide the needed 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power.
• Plutonium not available at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Please contact your local plutonium supplier.
• Flux capacitor requires the stainless steel body of a 1981-1983 DeLorean DMC-12 to properly function.
• Once the time machine travels at 88 mph (142 km/h), light coming from the flux capacitor pulses until it becomes a steady stream of light at which point time travel begins!

   Oh, the page also says, at the top, “This item is not available for purchase.”

   It’s kind of funny because we know it’s not real.

   That’s what Nicodemus wanted to know about Jesus. Is Jesus the Messiah or some kind of joke? Is he real, is he the One?

   He recognizes Jesus as “a teacher who comes from God” because of the signs he has done, which require the power of God.

   Jesus’ miracles are often referred to as “signs” in the gospel of John. Do you know what a sign is? It’s something that points to something else. Miracles in the Bible are signs that point backward, to the way God intended the world to be in Creation, and forward to the way things will be in the new heaven and the new earth that is to come.

   In this situation, Nicodemus thinks, they point to God in some way. But Nicodemus bases his respect for Jesus on what Jesus has done, not on who He is.

   Jesus rejects that explanation and takes the conversation in a totally different direction.

   He tells Nicodemus that no one can “see” the circumstances in which God reigns without being “born from above” or, in some translations, “born again,” or “born anew”. What is he talking about?

   The questions and replies continue in verses 4-8,

 ⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸The 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 responds with an image that I think must be a horror show to any mother (“Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”)

   Jesus describes the necessity of birth, but in terms of the transformational relationship with the one true living God that comes from the gift of faith, the new birth.

   Being born from above, or again, or anew is being born of the Spirit.

   It is the new birth that comes from God alone.

   Both the Greek language, in which the New Testament was written, and the Hebrew language, in which the Old Testament was written, have one word with the same three meanings.

   “Pneuma” in Greek (from which we get the words pneumonia and pneumatic) and “Ruach” in Hebrew can each mean “wind”, or “breath”, or “spirit”.

   The Spirit is like the wind. You can’t see it, but you can see its effect on things. You don’t see wind, you feel it when it hits you, you see the trees move and the dust in the air. When speaking of God, it’s important not to confuse one with the other, the effect with the essence.

   That’s what the Pharisees, like Nicodemus, had done. They had confused the letter of the religious law with the spirit of it. The Law had become an end in itself and not a means to an end. It had become something to be accomplished, not the belief, or “faith” that makes us a new creation in a new birth, born from above, that then produces what we do in life.

   The Christian faith is not achieved, it is received.

   Confused? So was Nicodemus. We see Nicodemus’ confusion and Jesus’ response in verses 9-15,

 ⁹Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹“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. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

   Here comes the main point. The people of Israel wandering in the wilderness after their liberation from Egypt had been experiencing a plague of poisonous snakes and were being bitten and many died as a consequence of their rebellion against God and then they repented. God told Moses to make a serpent out of bronze and fasten it to the top of a poll. The serpent was lifted up on the poll and everyone who looked at it was healed. It’s described in Numbers 21:4-9.

   In the same way, Jesus said, he, the Son of Man, must be lifted up. Healing hadn’t come to the children of Israel because they had been good. Healing came because the people had repented and trusted and been obedient to God, and God was merciful to his rebellious people.

   Jesus would be lifted up in the same way, on the cross, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. A symbol of death became a symbol of healing.

   Why?

   Nicodemus gets his answer in verses 16 and 17,

 ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. ¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

   John 3:16 is the one verse, if someone knows only one verse from the Bible by heart, that they know.

   It is what Martin Luther called the Gospel in miniature.

   But I think that the next verse, John 3:17 is almost as illuminating.

   God didn’t send Jesus into the world to condemn it, but so that the world might be saved through him.

   God’s desire is that the world might be saved.

   We make the Gospel fresh by its lived reality in us.

   So, don’t be afraid that someone might ask you uncomfortable or even hostile questions, or that you’d be embarrassed if you didn’t know the answers. You’re ready. The Holy Spirit has made you ready.

   And don’t be afraid to ask your own.

   If we can’t answer the technical questions, we carry all of the world’s knowledge right in our pockets on our phones, or we know someone we trust who we can ask.

   For the most important questions, God the Father lives within us. Jesus is present with us at worship. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes and ears to understanding.

   Look at the questions Nicodemus asks and the responses that come from Jesus.

   Jesus’ answer is about God’s character: love. It is the kind of love that is selfless. It is oriented to the world. It may sound kind of flakey, but that kind of love is the answer, it is the hope of the world in the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus is the answer to all our fears, and Jesus is trustworthy.

   One of the most important lessons that I learned in college was to be fearless in asking questions. God is real and, if you are honest, the answers to your questions will always take you back to God.

   Lent is a season to prepare for the impact of Easter, to anticipate what is coming while walking in the wilderness, to ask, to grow and to experience the love of God made plain to us on the cross. Don’t be afraid. Be like Nicodemus. Ask and listen. Even if you come to Jesus in your life’s dark places to do so, light overcomes darkness, and Jesus is the light of the world.