Merely to Remind Myself John 3:1-17

After I lost my sight for the first time, my mom bought me a number of record albums of musicals. You might remember albums, they were those 12 inch diameter vinyl discs. You put them on a thing called a record player, and then you had to take the needle arm and place it on the record album. I know, it was primitive, but that was the way we did things in those days.

One of the albums was the Hans Christian Andersen musical with Danny Kaye, and one of the songs I liked the best was a song that Hans Christian Andersen sings while he is walking down the road one day. Here are the words as I remember them:

“I write myself a note each day, and I put it in my hat./ The wind comes by, the hat blows high, but that’s not the end of that./ For ‘round and ‘round the world it goes./ It lands here right behind myself./ I pick it up, and I read the note/ which is merely to remind myself/ I’m Hans Christian Anderson.”

There are times in our lives when we need to be reminded of who and whose we are. Today’s text is one of those reminders. In the midst of the darkness of our world, as we long to see the light of truth, as we wander through the testings of our lives, we need to know who and whose we are and what value we have.

In the searching, we discover that who we are has little to do with what we do, but everything to do with whose we are and what God is doing for us each and every day. We need to be reminded that it is not what we do, it is what God has done and is doing today.

How many times have we seen the signs at sporting events that say 3:16? The first time I saw one of those signs, I thought, “Wow! What a great testimony.” And then I saw it more and more. I even heard it announced on the radio stations that broadcasted the games.

In an interview after one of the games, one reporter asked a sign bearer what it meant to them? The woman’s response made me cringe. She said something like, “It means so much to me that God loves the world this much and unless people believe in God’s love, they will all be damned.” This woman had found the perfect way to makes God’s amazing gift of love and caring into a club to beat people with. This is because we have all learned this verse and carry it with us in so many ways, but we have forgotten the verse that goes along with it: “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” Not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

In these few words, we are reminded that we are not the ones who save people. It is Jesus who saves—Jesus, the only son of God, in the communion of the Holy Spirit. We can assure one another of the forgiveness of our sins, but it is God who does the forgiving. On Sunday mornings, when we confess our sins and I make the declaration of forgiveness, it is not me that is forgiving you. It is God who forgives you; I am only the vehicle of transmission.

Yes, we claim that we have sinned in thought, word and deed; by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have declared before God and one another that, by ourselves, we are hopeless sinners, and so we turn to God, justified by Christ’s death and resurrection, for that forgiveness and hope that we need for the future. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we receive what we need.

Now any Christian can hear the confession of another Christian and assure them of God’s love and forgiveness absolving them of their sins, but, in our public worship, it is the privilege of the pastor to give that public assurance. So it is that I can say, “In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake, God forgives our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the Church of Christ and by Christ’s authority—by Christ’s authority—, I declare to you the forgiveness of all of your sins.” And when that declaration is made, I seal you in God’s love, not in my name, but in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It isn’t me, it is the continuing work of Christ in the Holy Spirit that continues to forgive and hold us in that right relationship with God and one another. Indeed, “God so loves the world that God gave his only son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

This everlasting life is something that is given to us in Baptism. In those waters, with God’s Word, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we die and are raised up into new life. We hear those words that Jesus commanded his disciples to do at the end of Matthew, “Go into all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Baptize them into that new relationship of love and caring.

So it is that we come today to witness Nicodemus coming to Jesus in the night, in the darkness of his world, in that most creative time of God--the night—remembering that in the darkness God creates the light; in the darkness of night God speaks all of the cosmos into being, that in the darkness of the world, even we were brought into being and invited to share in the benefits of creation; and, in the darkness of the night and our world, Christ’s light of hope continues to shine. This light shines in a way that does not condemn the world but lights the way forward in hope and forgiveness in and through the work of Christ.

I write myself a note each day, and I put it in my hat. The wind of the Spirit comes by, the hat blows high, but that is not the end of that. For ‘round and ‘round and ‘round and ‘round the world, the Spirit blows, and it drops my hat behind myself. I pick it up, and I read the note, which is merely to remind myself that I am Peter Todd Heide, a child of God, baptized in the waters of Baptism, and claimed by God.

As the serpent is lifted up in the wilderness so the Son of Man will be lifted up that all the world will see and know of God’s desire for the healing wholeness that only comes from Godself.

May you always walk in the assurance of God’s love for you.