TEXT: John 3:1-17
Dearly beloved of God, >From the time you are born, numbers play a big part in your life - length, >weight, birth date are recorded. You will acquire addresses, telephone numbers >for home, work and school. Social security number, clothes and shoe sizes, and >scores for such things as IQ and college placement tests will serve to >identify and categorize you. The very first test given to a newborn, is the Apgar scoring that occurs right after a baby's birth in the delivery or birthing room. The test was designed to quickly evaluate a newborn's physical condition after delivery and to determine any immediate need for extra medical or emergency care. Although the Apgar score bears the name of the anesthesiologist who developed it, Dr. Virginia Apgar, it is also an acronym for the qualities it measures: Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance, and Respiration. The Apgar test is usually given to a baby twice: once at 1 minute after birth, and again at 5 minutes after birth. Rarely, if there are serious problems with the baby's condition and the first two scores are low, the test may be scored for a third time at 10 minutes after birth. Five factors are used to evaluate the baby's condition and each factor is scored on a scale of 0 to 2: · heart rate (pulse) · breathing (rate and effort) · activity and muscle tone · grimace response (medically known as "reflex irritability") · appearance (skin coloration) Doctors, midwives, or nurses add these five factors together to calculate the Apgar score. Scores vary from 0-10, with 10 being the highest possible score. A baby who scores a 7 or above on the test at 1 minute after birth is generally considered in good health. However, a lower score doesn't necessarily mean that the baby is unhealthy or abnormal. For example, a score between 4 and 6 at 1 minute indicates that a baby simply needs some special immediate care, such as suctioning of the airways or oxygen to help him or her breathe, after which baby may improve. At 5 minutes after birth, the Apgar score is recalculated, and if a baby's score hasn't improved to 7 or greater, the doctors and nurses may continue any necessary medical care and will closely monitor the baby. Some babies are born with heart or lung conditions or other problems that require extra medical care; others just take a little longer than usual to adjust to life outside the womb. Most newborns with initial Apgar scores of less than 7 will eventually do just fine. In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus gives Nicodemus something of a spiritual Apgar test. His score? ZERO! Wondering how Jesus could do the miraculous things He had been doing, Nicodemus comes in the cover of night to find out. "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." As He so often does, Jesus, in His answer, redirects the question as if to say: "Do not wonder how I can do such things. If you truly knew me and where I come from, you would not ask such questions." To wit - Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." In something of a grimace response, showing a high reflex irritability score, Nicodemus responds: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" In the baby talk of the Apgar test, this response would rate high and indicate health and vitality. After all, Nicodemus is reacting to the words of Jesus. Yet his very reaction tells Jesus, and us, that he scores a zero for spiritual muscle tone. Of course this is not unusual, for because of sin we are all born dead without knowledge or a proper relationship with God. We all score zero on the spiritual Apgar test. Still, Nicodemus' reaction, or more accurately, Jesus presence and desire to carry on the conversation with Nicodemus gives hope to Nicodemus -- and all sinners. While Nicodemus' words reveal the lack of faith born of his sinfulness - his spiritual lifelessness -- Jesus continues to engage Him with the Word of God, indeed IS the Word of God made flesh come to breathe life into Nicodemus lifeless spirit, to bring him to faith and raise him into the heavenly places. Jesus answered, ""Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, 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 may have been asking the wrong questions, but he was asking the right person - the very Son of God, his Savior from sin and death. · The Father at the Transfiguration: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." Matthew 17:5 · As Simon Peter confesses to and about Jesus, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68 · Paul speaking of the work of the Holy Spirit: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"- these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts(T) except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. . . . The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 And of course, as we have recently learned from the Ascension of our Lord, it is Jesus, the Son of God from whom the Spirit proceeds Babies born with low Apgar scores because they lack the proper heart function, breathing, muscle activity, responsiveness and color of life can survive only with immediate medical care. So it was with Nicodemus and so it is with us. Our spiritual Apgar scores are not just low they are zero. We do not just need a little help getting going, we need to be born again of the Spirit of God. And, of course, being born is not something that we can accomplish, it is something that happens to us because of the love of another. With Nicodemus, we ask, "How can these things be?" With the disciples we are greatly astonished, saying among themselves, "Who then can be saved?" [and Jesus is here to tell us] "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible." Mark 10:26-27 With the father of the demon possessed boy, we beg the Lord, if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." [And Jesus Word tells us], "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Mark 9:22-23 For all of us, with Nicodemus, Jesus wants us to know our work is useless and nothing but vanity if we think or feel that work will somehow gain us access to heaven, because: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." So what are we to do? - We who are called and commanded only to believe, yet like Nicodemus so often get caught up in all the details of how- what are we to do? Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" Mark 9:24 And Jesus does. How? By doing everything we are incapable of doing - including trusting the Father and [being faithful unto death that we may receive the crown of life] (Revelation 2:10). "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." So here let us consider another number, a sacred number, a Biblical number, a Godly number - a number that is beyond understanding, a number that does not even exist in mathematics, a number that is called Trinity. This is the holy number that only exists in and with God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is the number into which you have been baptized; a number that is no human number at all, but became human for us; a number that is the only number that matters and by which you have eternal life. For it is the number of God - ever One, yet three persons for us. The Father who has created all things - for you. The Son, who has given His life into death - for you. The Holy Spirit, who has come by water and the Word - for you. In this Holy Trinity, those born dead and unbelieving like Nicodemus become, as we have sung in our Hymn of the Day: Children of a heavenly birth; One with God, with Jesus one; Glory is in them begun: With them numbered may we be Here and in eternity! Yes, as important as numbers are in our lives, there is one all important number for eternal life - that number we celebrate in the Feast today - the Holy Trinity. >From the Father and the Son you receive the Holy Spirit who comes again to you >this day--in the Word of Baptism that fills the Divine Service, and in the >body and blood of our Lord--to forgive you all of your sins and give you life >forever . . . in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. >Amen ____________________________________________________________ Penny Stock Jumping 2000% Sign up to the #1 voted penny stock newsletter for free today! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL3241/4c027fe1527251ad8eest02duc
