Message 10-30-05

Series: Going Deep
Scripture: John 3:1-17

Title:    An Unpredictable Life

Intro:
 About 300 years before Jesus lived on the planet the Jews were living in a Greek culture.  The Greek culture had permeated much of the Mediterranean world and that meant that people had to know how to speak Greek.  Some Jews began to forget how to speak or read Hebrew and in response to that, and probably other prompts, the Jews began to translate what we call the Old Testament into Greek.  So, believing Jews who were growing up in this new culture, distant from their homeland could still understand their heritage and faith.  This work of translation was called “the Septuagint.”  It is probably legendary, but the story is that some 70 scholars worked to get this translation work done and that’s where we get the name Septuagint means “the work of the 70.”  And the work was done at some point between 300 years before Jesus and 300 years after Jesus lived on the planet.

 Regardless of who did it and how it was done and how long it took, it was an immensely helpful tool.  It was helpful not only to Greek speaking Jews but as the Gospel was spread by Christians it became very helpful to Greek speaking Gentiles as well.

 I’m telling you all this because I want you to consider what a big job the translating of the Old Testament might be.  Now, I don’t know if you’ve spent any time doing translations of ancient languages.  I imagine only a small number of people in this room have done that kind of work.  So, I want you to think about it.  I want you to think about how much time and effort goes into translating a book from an ancient language – a language that isn’t used any more, You can’t go to someone to have them explain how a certain word is used.  Ancient words like words today have lots of meanings.  I was always amused to learn that the word for anger in the Old Testament is also the word for nose.  When you’re translating something you want to get it right.

 In the movie “The Interpreter” the main characters – whose job is translating – makes the point that there is a big difference between the words “dead” and “gone”.  And you want to get it right.  If you’re saying that someone’s anger burned… you may not mean their nose caught on fire.  If you’re saying someone’s gone… you may not mean they are dead.

 So, one of the useful tools of translators is what is called a Lexicon.  A Lexicon is similar to a dictionary because it gives you the basic meaning or meanings of words, but then it also tells you every place where you can find the word used in all the manuscripts of ancient texts that we have.  This is a book that tells you where to find the word you want to understand in all sorts of different sentences so that you can compare how the word is used and come to an understanding of what it means.  What a helpful tool.

 Now, I’ve told you all that because I want you to think of a man who spends an immense portion of his life creating a Lexicon of the Septuagint.  At the same time that he is doing this he is writing articles about particular words and how they are used, new meanings or shades of meanings that he’s discovered.  He’s also writing books and articles on theology – explaining among other things what he understands about how the Greek civilization influenced the understanding of the Jewish God.  Think of a man who has all that going on in his head.  How would that kind of man express anything about knowing God?  Would that kind of man be able to say something about God that could be understood by other people?

 The man I’m speaking about is Edwin Hatch who is the author of the words we sing in “Breathe on Me Breath of God.”  I think there’s a chance he knew what he was talking about.

Study:
 Hatch was clearly a brilliant man who wrote books of theology that are still studied today, to say nothing of a Lexicon of the Septuagint that is still in Libraries around the world.  But he was also a man who loved God and could express the truth of God in pretty plain English – even in poetry.

 One of the questions that people have discussed for years and years is what exactly does it mean to say we are “in Christ.”  Paul, the apostle, used the phrase lots of times in his letters.  Jesus is quoted as saying, at various moments, that we need to be “in him” and he needs to be “in us.”  Describing that so that it makes sense is tough.  There are lots of discussions and lots of disagreements.
 “Breathe on Me Breath of God” is Edwin Hatch’s answer to the discussion.  Instead of describing it he turns it into an intimate prayer.
 This is one of the hymns that I sing that makes me think how careful I have to be about what I’m saying in songs.  We really need to be careful because we are repeating a prayer… and so we are actually saying a prayer and you have to ask – do you mean it?

 A lot of years ago, Whitney Houston sang a song that was real popular called “Saving All My Love for You.”  It was a catchy song and real easy to sing along with, but one day I listened to the words.  The singer is singing about adultery.  The woman is saving all her love for the husband of another woman.  And I realized that I wasn’t real interested in singing that kind of song.  I was at a Christian youth retreat once and one of the songs they played was “Red, red wine” – another catchy fun song that seems to be saying that you shouldn’t worry about life so much, but what it was really talking about is numbing yourself through alcohol.  There are all sorts of directions that you can take this.  When you start to see the subtle influence that culture has on you, you really need to make sure it is the influence you want.  Before you show a movie to a group of 10 year old girls, don’t you want to decide whether you think 10 year olds should be dealing with the feelings particular movies lift up or excite?  That was one of the troubling moments that Beckie and I walked into when our girls were 10 and 11.  Before you just play the radio in your car, don’t you want to make sure that you’re confident of what the little CD burners in your kids heads are going to record?

 You should just forget that idea when you walk into church either?  Do you want this kind of intimacy with God that’s talked about in this song?  When you sing this song you are put into the position of being the person who is praying this prayer.

Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

 Before you just say the words are you sure you want this?  In each verse you are speaking to the Holy Spirit.  Spirit, wind and breath are all the same word in Greek – an in some other languages as well.  You aren’t just speaking to God and saying “wash over me.”  In Scripture God breaths into Adam and Adam becomes a living soul.  Jesus breaths on his disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t just come on his disciples, wouldn’t just walk with his disciples but would indwell his disciples.  When you sing these words you are speaking directly to the Holy Spirit and the picture is not just let me fill your Breath on me, but let your breath permeate my soul.

 Remember the movie “Death Becomes Her”?  Meryl Streep drinks the potion that will make her young and beautiful always and just after she drinks it the “witchy” woman she got it from says, “And now a warning!”  And Meryl Streep says, “Now a warning?!”

 You may be feeling like that.  You may be saying, “Kohler… I already sang the words.  Now you’re telling me I should have thought about them?”

 Yeah, I probably should have said something earlier.  Oh well.  But the point is that you do need to think about the words you are singing.  Do you want to be “born again?”  Some people get real bothered by the whole idea of “being born again.”  But that’s the next line isn’t it?  Fill me with life anew.  These words were written by a man who knew what he was saying.  He knew the images and ideas of Scripture and he knew that what he wanted was what Jesus told Nicodemus was necessary to enter the kingdom of God.

 You may not want to join a political community that claims that everyone who is part of it is “born again.”  But you may still want to be in the kingdom of God.  The good news is that being born again doesn’t have anything to do with politics and the people who claim that kind of thing will have a lot of explaining to do to Jesus some day.  Being born again does not align you with a political party or ideology.  Being born again – filled with life anew – means entering into the kingdom of God as a person who is changed by God to see life as he sees it, who lives life as God would live it.  Jesus promised his disciples that the Spirit would guide us into all truth and would help us live with him and for him.

 This song continues as a prayer that becomes more and more intimate.  It asks for our will to be burned into us – where we are purified into strength that can live through any trouble.  It comes to God and asks him to reveal the depth of God’s image within us – so that our whole selves, our souls will radiate the passion of God’s heart and presence in our lives.  The words request the Holy Spirit to fill us so completely and intentionally that we are ready for eternal life.   Jesus tells us that eternal life is knowing God and him.  That’s the work of the Holy Spirit – teaching us, teaching our souls intimately, the knowledge, heart and mind of God so we walk into eternity confident in him.  The Spirit will just be welling up inside you, more like springs of living water than like air, but leading you right into eternal life.

 What does it mean to be “in Christ” and do you want it?  Is this the kind of life you want?

 Jesus says people who are born of the Spirit – you can’t tell where they’re coming from or where they’re going.  All you see is their effect.  I like that.  I believe in that.  It is an unpredictable life, one that you can’t always project out in charts or calendars or retirement plans, one where God will come into your life and say, I want you to give your life to a group of teenagers, one where God is going to challenge you on the way your parents did things, the way your friends make their choices, the way the government says life should run.  Christians have had to walk away from family, friends and governments since Jesus was on the planet.  It’s not going to change now.

 Is that the kind of life you want?  Those are the words you sang.  That is the prayer you made.  You might be saying, man, good thing I can’t sing and I kept my mouth shut, but that doesn’t get you out of answering the question.  Jesus said you can’t get into the kingdom of heaven unless you’re born again.  Unless you’re born by Spirit and water you can’t get in.  Do you want to get in?

 There are plenty of churches that will tell you that God has a wonderful plan for your life, that God wants you prosperous and healthy and living on an excellent income for the rest of your life.  There are places that will tell you that you don’t ever have to change or do anything you find hard.  The Bible tells you that God wants what God wants and if you become a servant of Jesus Christ then you want what God wants – whatever that might be.  The Bible says that in order to get that kind of attitude you need to be changed from within, radically altered so that the Holy Spirit fills you to overflowing.

 The question is do you want God on God’s terms?  This song says yes.