Opening Joke:? WHEN I GOT TO HEAVEN

I was shocked, confused, bewildered as I entered Heaven’s door. Not by the beauty of it all

By the lights or its decor. But it was the folks in Heaven who made me sputter and gasp

The thieves, the liars, the sinners, the alcoholics, the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor who never said anything nice.

Uncle Bill, who I always thought was rotting away in hell was sitting pretty on cloud nine, looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal? I would love to hear Your take how’d all these sinners get up here? God must have made a mistake.”

“And why is everyone so quiet so somber? Please give me a clue.” “Hush, child,” said He. “They’re all in shock no one thought they’d see you!”

Genesis 4:1-4a

Now the Lord said to Abram, ?Go from your country and your kindred and your father?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 the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ?Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.? 3Jesus answered him, ?Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.? 4Nicodemus said to him, ?How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother?s womb and be born?? 5Jesus answered, ?Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ?You must be born from above.? 8The 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.? 9Nicodemus said to him, ?How can these things be?? 10Jesus answered him, ?Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 11?Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16?For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17?Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080300709.html

http://lifehacker.com/5977709/how-to-start-over-hint-its-never-too-late

Spiritual rebirth means a new start.

We are focusing on Lenten journey, the 40 days until Easter, on finding inspiration during challenging times. It is the a time of the year when we encouraged to reflect inwardly how our lives, on our relationships with others, and our relationship with God; which is all connected to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, fasting, giving, and service. It is a reminder that reflection and change take work, a lot of hard work. We are looking at a way to refocus and explore ways we restart our lives. As we walk through this season together, I hope you spend time thinking about how you want to live a life worth living, explore what demands you make of yourself, how you support others in your life, how you give of your time and your finances, and how you examine the areas of your life that aren?t working the way you hoped they would. ?It is a difficult journey with difficult work, especially when there are many other things causing us challenges in our lives. Life is hard work. Starting over can be even harder.

Have you every given up something over Lent or taken on something during Lent? Maybe either to stop a bad habit or to begin a new spiritual practice? Or maybe to get rid of things in your house? Or stop ordering all those special coffee drinks and give that money towards a charity? Well, the thing I decided to give up this Lent was spending time on Facebook. Not sure about yall, but for me, Facebook is a time waster. It is something that I just look at, read other posts, find out what is happening in peoples lives, and is a way I have a fake relationship with someone. So I decided to set up all of the ads and posts for the church before Lent began, so I wouldn?t really have to go on Facebook during Lent. I will go on occasionally to make sure things are okay on the Wintergarden page, but am only doing so for work. So far, it has been great, yet I am struggling with something that I didn?t think would be part of this journey. I don?t think I realized how much time I was spending on Facebook just ?checking things out? because now, I have a whole lot of free time in the afternoons and evenings. To the point that I actually was struggling the other night with what to do with my free time. And it caused me to think about, ?what are my hobbies? What do I enjoy? What do I do with my free time? What brings me joy? What can I spend my time doing that continues to enrich me and also brings contentment in my life?? As I was reflecting and talking with Lamont about this, I realized that I was in a little funk. Walking away from all this time on social media, is causing me to examine my life, yet again, and is forcing me to think about how God wants me to reset my life, my priorities, and find what brings me joy. Now, this is a small example about starting over and resetting life, yet, it is one that is necessary. Have you ever been in a place where you began to recognize that life needed to be reset, renewed, restarted? Or have you ever felt that little push that Beckie described to move in a new and different direction?

One of the things that I have always loved about the story about Abram and Sarai is that God called them to restart their lives when they were really young. They were vibrant, energetic, ready to take on the world, full of faith…Okay, so maybe they weren?t so young and energetic, but they were full of faith and trust in God. And when God said, Go! They went. They didn?t hem and holler with God about moving?They didn?t say, ?Um, God, we are in our 70s, we can?t do that! We are settled and we like our comfortable place. Our neighbors are so great, and we don?t want to leave our friends! We really like our house and our farm is amazing! Look how beautiful our animals are and our crops are perfect!? No, Abram heard from God, listened to the blessing that was promised, and went. At 75, they listened, obeyed, and trusted-and they reset and restarted their lives. Just like that.

THOUGHTS ON NICODEMUS

As I think about these two passages from scripture that involve starting fresh, resetting life, I am left with the following thoughts and questions for us today. As Christians our path includes this difficult truth. The journey of living is long and can be hard, and yet, we say, what we can see if not all that there is, and our end is no real end. Every ending has a new beginning. Abram reminds us that we are called to a journey that is always beginning again, and it isn?t always easy. And Nicodemus seeks out Jesus to ask questions that are life changing. Can a person begin again? In challenging times, sometimes we are asked to leave behind some of our old habits, prejudices, and weaknesses. Sometimes the gospel calls us to this kind of fresh start and be born again?to be reset for another purpose. In an understanding of being born again, can we crawl back into a place of innocence and openness where we are ultimately vulnerable and dependent and try to see the world anew? Can we be reformed, re-ordered, or rebuilt to love more, forgive more, and demand more? Are there wildernesses to step into with little more than faith?

Abram goes off alone into the unknown and becomes the great patriarch. Jesus tells us we will be reborn, maybe endlessly, as we move closer and closer to knowing ourselves in relationship to the One who has made us and find us lovable without condition.

As I think about what it means to reset our lives?