Second Sunday in Lent A

Look up! (point up)

My number one pet peeve about action and horror movies is that when people go into a room, 

concerned about the enemy jumping them, 

they never look up.

And so many times that is where the people are hiding, on the ceiling or up above the door or whatever. 

We don't look up. 

I've heard that Bishop Sean, when he was here, 

never noticed that the ceiling in the priest's office is sparkly.

Apparently, he never looked up.

When you go outside at night, do you ever look up 

and stay a moment in awe and wonder. 

Stars by day and stars by night, 

God provides us light.

Beyond our physical world, 

Even in the darkness of our own minds, 

we have a tendency to look down.

I see this psycho-somatically, 

when people are upset and troubled, 

they are always looking down. 

At the ground. 

While there are plenty of marvelous things on the ground,

that's not usually where the light is.

When we look to Jesus, 

we pretty much always have to look up.

Jesus on the cross, Jesus is up.

Jesus ascended into heaven, 

the light of the world is up. 

We don't tend to install light fixtures on the ground or near the floor,

we usually install them up above. 

Professor Dumbledore,

that paragon of confusing wisdom from the Harry Potter series said,

"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, 

if one only remembers to turn on the light."

As human beings, we need light. 

And we have a tendency to fumble around in the darkness. 

We fumble around in sin, in guilt, in confusion, in war, in trouble, in doubt, in sorrow, in times of uncertainty and change, 

we fumble around in the dark.

Just two chapters after the passage we heard from Genesis today,

God calls Abraham again and tells him to go outside and look up!

To look up at the night sky at the stars

And count them if he can.

None of us can count the stars in the sky.

God tells Abram that he is going to be the father of a nation as large as the stars in the sky.

Interestingly, in the blessings, Abraham receives from God,

Abram doesn't do anything. 

He is a blessing in how other people react to them. 

If people bless him, God will bless them. It doesn't matter whether Abram blesses them or even likes them.

Abraham takes a look at the night sky

and stands in awe at what God is doing.

Looking at the night sky usually evokes a sense of awe for people.

Imagine or remember a time as a teenager in which you stared into the night sky. 

The sense of awe at the huge nature of the universe which comes to you 

because you finally understand from science class what is going on when you look at the night sky. 

You are looking backwards in time at light coming from millions of millions of miles away 

and they show up crystal clear in a small backyard neighborhood. 

God created so much in the universe, 

so many galaxies and stars and planets and asteroids 

and we are a tiny portion of the universe 

and yet God cares for us. 

Sends us Light in the darkness.

Stars by day and stars by night,

God provides us light.

If only we look up to see it.

Nicodemus, the man, not the cat,

is fumbling around in the darkness.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night

and finds a light in the darkness.

Jesus, the light of the world. 

It was what he needed in that moment, he comes at night, 

but in some ways he must have been feeling out in the dark. 

Here he is, a leader of the Pharisees and something is changing his understanding. 

You know what that feels like, 

in the midst of large changes to your stability and understanding of your own life and work, 

its like fumbling around in the dark. 

Unsure of what is going to happen, uncertain of what is going on. 

That is where Nicodemus is. 

Wandering around in the dark. 

It was where Abraham was when God took him outside at night, to look at the stars. 

In both situations, God offers light.

Nicodemus is a leader among the Jews, a Pharisee, 

so he had a legalistic background. 

I think this might be the moment he starts to see further. 

He had probably guessed that there was more to it before, 

and once he started to hear about and perhaps even hear Jesus teach, 

there were questions rising up inside of him. 

Nicodemus probably had a question for Jesus, but he never got a chance to ask it 

because when he starts, Jesus chimes in and starts confusing him, taking him aback.

This is just the beginning for Nicodemus. 

In the gospel of John, he shows up again two more times,

at Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin, 

where Nicodemus questions why the Jewish leaders are trying to kill an innocent man,

and again at the tomb, this time in the full light of day, 

in helping the women and Joseph of Arimathea in placing Jesus in the tomb.

John's Gospel is the only one in which Nicodemus is mentioned 

and he is mentioned three times. 

In this scene of light in the darkness, 

when Jesus goes to trial and Nicodemus speaks to his innocence, 

and when Jesus is buried and Nicodemus helps Joseph of Arimathea. 

All moments when one of them is offering light in the midst of a dark moment. 

Jesus gives the light to Nicodemus today 

and then in the next two times, Nicodemus lets it shine.

We don't know how Nicodemus felt walking home that night, 

but I imagine that he felt lighter, probably not less confused, 

his conversation with Jesus is a little confusing, 

but I think there was a sense of something new, a new light in his life.

Lent is a time when the darkness of winter is fading into the light of spring. 

The days are lighter earlier and stay lighter longer. 

The light warms up the season and starts to allow new things to grow.

Sometimes when we feel like we are in a difficult moment in our lives,

we simply need to look up,

to look to the light

to find where Jesus is working in our lives. 

Like Nicodemus, Jesus gives us his light to shine in the world.

Like Abraham, we have been blessed by God's light,

not because we have done anything to deserve it,

but because God loves us and wants to bless us.

We have been given light to shine.

Like so many little stars walking around,

to be the stars in the darkness of the world. 

Among all the hardships and the changing scares in our world

the darkness, the sin and brokenness and fear

thinks it can rule.

Jesus is the light in our darkness

sometimes, all we need to do is look up! 

And let God's light fill us.

Stars by day and stars by night,

God provides us light.

Amen.