TrinitySundayB, May 27, 2018 St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, by
Annette Fricke
Have you ever thought about what it was like when you were
born? Were you born in a hospital or at
home? Have you ever watched the series, “Call the Midwife?” It is true that what they pull out are not
real babies, but imitations. Seriously
though, just what happened? One thing is
for sure. We really didn’t have anything
to do with our own births. There is one
episode of “Call the Midwife” I have in mind when I read the gospel appointed
for today. It is from Season 6, Episode
9. A fairly new midwife listens to the
woman who is ready to give birth, about the concern she has that it isn’t her
boyfriend’s baby. She is worried that he
won’t love the baby because the baby isn’t his.
The baby is a still born and both parents are in deep agony and
sorrow. They are both grieved to their
cores. The baby is placed in the medical
bag after the midwife attempts to resuscitate to no avail. The father, in a loving gesture, asks the
midwife to put a hot water bottle in the bag with the baby saying, “Don’t seem
right, sending me baby out into the cold!”
The mother is still stunned and all she can do is cry.
Just before the midwife arrives back at Nonnatus House, her home
base, she hears the faint sound of a baby’s cry and soon realizes it’s the baby
she delivered in the medical bag. She
runs into the nunnery yelling, “Help! “and gathers the other nurses who take
his temperature, check his heart and his lungs. The midwife goes over and over
in her mind fretting over what detail she missed or did not do right. Sister
Monica Joan joins her at the dining table.
She is there expounding on God’s work in all this but the midwife states
firmly and clearly that she does not believe in God. At the end of the episode, the narrator
states, “There are always wounds that weep.
There is imperfection everywhere.”
In the same way that the people in this story are representative of
humanity and the interactions among different people, Nicodemus also represents
humanity – this is the world in which we live.
Those who believe in Jesus, those who don’t, and those somewhere in
between. We live in various degrees of darkness. We only see Nicodemus in a
couple of other places in the gospel of John.
He is much like the midwife who goes about her life practicing her
trade, yet in the midst of believers all around. Both seem to be unaware of
just who Jesus is or perhaps unable to accept the evidence before them. The
priest offered Baptism for the baby twice and the couple said, “No.” However, the second time, they still said
“no” to baptism but the mother said, “…We don’t want him christened or nothin’;
not yet. But we would like him blessed, because if you bless him, you bless the
three of us.”
In my studies, it is emphasized that we need to accept people where
they are, without imposing our values or ideas. Isn’t this what we see when we
read about Jesus? Isn’t that what Jesus
is all about? There is no St.
Nicodemus. He is not a major player in
the scheme of what was going on with Jesus. He was just a Jewish man, a
Pharisee who was curious about Jesus, enough to notice that Jesus is not an
ordinary man. Jesus is something
special. He listens to Jesus and figures
that Jesus is from God and that God is with him. Jesus tells him in very clear terms that he
must be born from above. But what does
that mean? Jesus is from Mary but Jesus is also from God above. It is this Jesus who tells us about the
working of the Spirit. Last Sunday, we
shared with each other after Eucharist what it is to be called. We compared the reading of the call of Samuel
to that of ourselves. In that reading,
we noticed that Samuel was quite young when called by God. Again, God accepts us where we are. We do not have to be an important person in
society for God to notice us and use us.
Doesn’t matter if we are Republican or Democrat, wealthy or poor, White,
Black, or Hispanic.
But in accepting us where we are, God expects us to be born again,
born from above. That means we listen
for that call from God, whether it be personal or in a group setting and we run
with it, we consult with other people, we help other people discern what that
call might mean. We are all individuals,
but we are meant for community and to follow where God leads our community, the
community or St. Martin’s. It means
offering to help others as well as leading.
It is critical that we recognize the subject of birth. Birth status
was the single, all-important factor in determining a person’s honor rating.
Ascribed honor, the honor derived from one’s status at birth, was simply a
given. It usually stayed with a person for life. To be born over again, born
for a second time, would change one’s ascribed honor status in a very
fundamental way. A newly ascribed honor status would come from a new birth. We
are all equally God’s children and therefore to each other, we are brothers and
sisters. To be born “from above” is to be of the realm or kingdom of God and to
belong to that realm, to become a veritable child of God. This, of course, is
to acquire an honor status of the very highest sort. Thus, whatever honor
status a person might have in Israelite society, being born “from above” would
re-create that person at a whole new level.[1]
With this in mind, “Hold each other, keep each other safe; for
there is imperfection everywhere. There
are always wounds that weep. The hands
of the Almighty are so often to be found at the ends of our own arms.[2] God never fails to go with us every step of
the way.
