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Message: "Mystery and Mercy:
Born of Spirit"
by Rev. Keith
Mozingo
A
CALL TO WORSHIP
ONE
Wind of God blow through us
And dislodge all that holds back your
Spirit from our lives. Fire of God burn through us
And cleanse us from all
that rages against your
Spirit in our lives.
Water of God wash us thoroughly And bring us again
to the waters of new life.
ALL God of mystery and mercy Grant us new life with
you as we draw near and receive your Spirit during this journey of
Lent. Amen.
Genesis 12:1-9 YAHWEH said to Abram, “Go from
your country and your kindred and your family’s house to the land that I
will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who
bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed.” 4So Abram went, as YAHWEH had told him;
and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from
Haran. 5Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the
possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in
Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to
the land of Canaan, 6Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to
the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7Then YAHWEH
appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this
land.” So Abram built there an altar to the One who had appeared to him.
8From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched
his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there Abram also
built an altar and invoked the name of YAHWEH. 9And Abram journeyed on by
stages toward the Negeb.
A CONTEMPORARY LESSON from The Heart of Christianity by Marcus
Borg, ©Harper San Francisco, 2003, pp. 117-120 The born-again experience
can be sudden and dramatic. It can involve a dramatic revelation, a
life-changing epiphany, as in the case of Saul on the road to Damascus, an
experience through which he became Paul. Such dramatic conversions continue to
this day; some people can name a day or even an hour when it happened. …
But for the majority of us, being born again is not a single intense
experience, but a gradual and incremental process. Dying to an old identity and
being born into a new identity, dying to an old way of being and living into a
new way of being, is a process that continues through a lifetime. The Christian
life as it matures is ever more deeply centered in the Spirit – that is,
centered in the Spirit of God as known in Jesus, the Spirit of Christ. Being
born again is the work of the Spirit. Whether it happens suddenly or gradually,
we can’t make it happen, either by strong desire and determination or by
learning and believing the right beliefs. But we can be intentional about being
born again. Though we can’t make it happen, we can midwife the process.
This the purpose of spirituality: to help birth the new self and nourish the
new life…. …In short, spirituality is about the process of being born
again (and again and again). It is at the heart of the Christian life.
A
CONFESSION Today we simply confess our limitations, O God. Our limitations in
understanding and perspective. The limits of our minds and our wills. Being
“born again” is an impossible human notion! We need your Wisdom and
your perspective so that we can really live this life in the beauty of the ways
you’ve offered to us. We confess, too, that we sometimes think that what
we can perceive with our senses is the only realty. Consequently, that’s
where we place our reliance. We confess that we need more – we need your
realm of possibilities! Show us those possibilities, O God, and create new ones
in us. Forgive and free us, we pray. Amen.
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