Nicodemus said to [Jesus], “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “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. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above,’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:4-8
Many years ago, I was forced to stay in bed for a week following minor surgery. This was well before the time of Netflix , Hulu, and Amazon Prime and the binge-watching options were greatly limited. Somehow, I happened upon a series on TLC called A Baby Story. Each episode followed a very pregnant mother up through childbirth. Somehow, I could not look away and watched for hours at a time. I have never experienced childbirth, having received the lovely gift of my (step) sons at ages 8 and 11 when I married their father. May I just say how much I respect you mother / warriors who carry out that fundamental, life-giving work?
During my binge-watching, I observed that on the part of the baby, the act of “being born” is largely a matter of submission to the process. So, perhaps “submission” becomes our role in the matter of the work of the spirit in our lives, that which connects us to being “born again.”
In The Wind is my Mother, Marcellus “Bear Heart” Williams, a traditionally trained shaman of the Muskogee Nation—Creek Tribe and an ordained American Baptist minister observed: “Someone once said to me, ‘I wish I had the same amount of spirit that you have.’ I turned to him and said, ‘We were all given the same amount of spirit. None more, none less. The difference between individuals is allowing the Spirit to have more of you.’” Williams goes on to say, “That’s where the difference is, yielding to that spirit more.” (Excerpted from Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship, Mikeal C. Parsons.)
Lenten practices can be for us a matter of yielding, if we in fact allow this time to take us to a place of greater submission to the work of the Spirit in our lives. May we put ourselves before God in just such a way during these 40 days—open, compliant, listening, receiving, moving as the Spirit leads.
Our prayer: Oh God, create in us receptive spirits, that during this time of fasting and penitence, our acts of self-denial and worship will move us to a place of greater possibility, flexibility and availability as your spirit leads. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Whatever it takes,
Laura
Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash
