In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Professor Dumbledore and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge are having an argument about whether Lord Voldemort has truly returned. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I can arrange remedial lessons for you). Minister Fudge won’t accept that the baddies are really baddies and Dumbledore accuses of him of placing too much importance on so-called ‘purity of blood’. Finally Dumbledore explodes ‘You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!’
This is the kind of positive worldview that has made the Harry Potter universe so beloved and inspirational. It’s reminiscent of Dr King saying ‘I look to a day when people will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character’ or perhaps ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…’
The Abrahamic faiths are, in theory at least, founded on such principles. All people are made in the image of God and all of life is sacred. Although many of us would not want to embrace every aspect of the ideology, at its best the modern catholic concept of being ‘pro-life’ is not only about opposition to termination of pregnancy, but also about access to healthcare and education, the eradication of poverty and inequality, and the rejection of war and violence of any kind. Christianity is pro-life. We think that thriving, healthy, safe bodies in thriving, happy, safe communities are a good thing, and even though we often fail, at our best churches are about fostering the wellbeing of both bodies and communities.
So, even though Dumbledore did much for the wizarding world, I’m afraid he is wrong. The cold reality of human existence is that what you are born matters very much indeed, and what you grow to be is shaped significantly by what you are born. If you are born into poverty, you will almost certainly live in poverty. If you are born into violence or trauma or neglect, you will almost always be permanently disadvantaged as a result. And if you are born in comfort, in all likelihood your life will stay comfortable. Of course there are the small percentage of people who break their mould of their birth family. We all love a rags to riches tale, and we are probably aware of people who have slid from wealth into poverty. But for the most part, the family into which you are born will be a significant influence on every aspect of your life.
‘How can anyone be born after having grown old?’ asks Nicodemus ‘Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?’
The Jesus of John’s gospel has baldly declared that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born from above. Well, actually, to be fair to Nicodemus, the Jesus of John’s gospel uses a pun or play on words. Anōthen can mean from above, or from the beginning, or over again. We don’t get the wordplay in English (and, just quietly, the wordplay doesn’t exist in Aramaic, which one presumes the historical Jesus and Nicodemus must have been speaking). But basically Jesus says no one can enter the Kingdom of God with being born anōthen which Nicodemus takes to mean ‘over again’ but which Jesus clarifies by saying "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit… what is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ In saying this, John’s Jesus is indicating that those who enter the Kingdom of God do not have a second biological birth, but a new birth ‘from above’, by which he clearly means ‘the heavens’ or the realm of God.
Now, our tendency might be to consider this new birth a ‘spiritual’ rebirth. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what that means. But when I’ve heard others talk about it, they’ve talked about having a new or different sense of self, and a changed understanding of their identity, and a new vocation. For some people, the rebirth might be grounded in baptism (whether as an infant or later) and an ongoing discovery of their identity in the Kingdom of God. For others, there is a significant moment which marks a transition from the old self to the new. It became fashionable in the late twentieth century for people who had experienced a significant moment of spiritual awakening to refer to themselves as a ‘born again Christian’ to distinguish themselves from those whose spiritual awakening happened perhaps more gradually or incrementally. Even today, people will still refer to someone from an evangelical faith tradition as ‘one of them born-agains’.
But, I’m concerned that too much of how we perceive being born again or born from above is individualistic. It’s about me and my connection to God, and it gives rise to a privatised faith, where I am seeking personal enlightenment and individualised spiritual growth. Sometimes a personal relationship with Jesus is emphasised.
So I’d like to consider today what it means for us to be born from above as people who live in families and a society, and as people who do not practise a solo faith, but a faith expressed through belonging to an eclectic, gathered community like this church and others.
I can’t predict the outcome of this COVID19 situation, but the threat of a widespread pandemic is already bringing to consciousness some of the grave weaknesses in our community. So, for instance, with so many people employed as casual workers, there are lots of people who don’t have sick leave. So if they become ill or have to be quarantined, they have no income to draw on, and Centrelink typically takes 10-12 weeks to pay up, and then its not enough to live on, and the infrastructure leads to constant errors and miscalculations. Our health system is already overloaded, and it is unclear where we might source the personnel and resources to respond to widespread sickness. The decline of primary industries like farming, and of secondary industries like manufacturing, has left the Australian economy reliant on tertiary industries like tourism and education. We’ve been riding high on some of this income, but now these industries are seriously under threat. Misinformation has spread about people from East Asia, resulting in such absurdities as people refusing to eat in Chinese restaurants and, more tragically, the ostracisation and assault of people of east Asian appearance.
You may be wondering why this sermon has suddenly strayed into the realm of economics and public policy. But I think our identity as ‘born from above’ people, which manifests itself as love for neighbour, compels us not merely towards personal fulfilment, but towards a just society. It is precisely because we are born from above, that we recognise the injustice and inequality that exists for those who are constrained by circumstances of their biological birth. It is because (as Paul says in the letter to the Philippians) ‘our citizenship is in heaven’, that we are released from the pressures and expectations that come with being citizens of our sick society. Our faith begets an identity where we love our cherish our flesh parents, but rejoice most of all in our identity as those who were born (as St John says a couple of chapters earlier in this gospel) ‘not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God’.
The Christian response to the spread of this virus, and to the much more dangerous contagion of jealousy, fear and violence, must be founded on love of our neighbour. Love which perceives our neighbour as they truly are – made in the image of God, and imbued with inherent beauty and dignity.
What you are born will affect how you die. It will affect how much you earn, whether you can access education, and how you cope with stress and trauma. What you are born will affect the kind of job you get and the kind of people you are attracted to. What you are born will even affect the food you like, the kind of music you like and the kind of friends you make. Don’t get me wrong – people change. But even the act of changing is influenced by the circumstances of your birth. What you are born matters.
But to God, your birth identity is just the beginning. The God embodied by Jesus invites us to a new holy birth, which is not just a psychological rejuvenation, but a regeneration of our bodies, our relationships, our communities and our world. Being born from above is to come close to a life which is not transitory, but is eternal, and which frees us, or perhaps ‘saves’ us, from the world of death and degradation and draws us into the regenerated life of God’s new creation.
For God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but that that the world through him might be saved.
The Lord Be With You