I’m not what you might call a “huge sports fan” but any time a Cleveland team makes the playoffs I suddenly become very into sports. I watch the games, I sit in suspense, cheer like crazy, talk about it the next day and even start paying a little bit of attention when my husband has Sports Center on tv. If you know much about Cleveland sports, then you know this doesn’t happen too often, but it is happening right now. The Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team just made it into the NBA finals. So after the kids go to bed my husband and I have been marveling at Lebron James, hoping Kyrie can stay healthy enough to play and celebrating at the unexpected success of Dellavedova.
I enjoy watching the game and seeing the incredible talent and skill of the players, but I also realize that we are merely talking about guys playing a game, bouncing a ball and throwing it into a basket… seems pretty simple. So why do I get emotional, hopeful and excited? Why does that commercial with the entire city putting their hands in with Lebron move so many people? Why do I feel like so much is riding on this simple game of catch and shoot? Because it is about more.
I grew up in a working-class suburb of Youngstown, Ohio. Perhaps you don’t know much about Youngstown, but I think you may find some similarities between Youngstown and Toledo. It is a great place with great people where things like family, hard work and faith are valued. But it’s economically depressed and has been since the steel mills shut down. It’s a place that has lost a lot of people. A “shrinking city” as they call it, where people leave to find jobs. It’s a place that for a long time was considered the “murder capital of the world” and always is at the top of the “worst place to live” lists. The winters are hard, the houses are cheap and the sports teams don’t win. Being so close to Cleveland, many of us consider Cleveland teams to be our teams and they don’t win. The last time Cleveland won a championship was with the Cleveland Browns in the 60s, before they had superbowls. The Cavs have never won.
It feels like the land of the underdogs, a place others mock. A place where some believe in new life and possibility, but many are hardened and pessimistic about the future. A place where many are searching for hope. So when Lebron James returned to Cleveland after playing for the Miami Heat it was exciting. Someone was choosing this place. Someone believed in the possibilities, was investing in the rust belt and the nation was watching with excitement rather than pity.
So when the men in Cavs uniforms take the court in the NBA finals there is this whole other level besides just guys bouncing a ball back and forth. It feels like there is pride, hope, renewal and new life on the line. Sure, it’s just a game, but some of us see something more going on.
In the Gospel reading today Nicodemus would be like the people who only see a simple game, who miss the other level happening. Nicodemus is a bit literal-minded. He sees Jesus as the man in front of him. He sees a guy who can do great things. He uses his logic- Jesus is doing things other people can’t do so he must come from God. But when Jesus tries to take things beyond logic, to show him a whole other level, he gets lost. Jesus explains that one must be born from above to experience the Kingdom of God, and Nicodemus can’t get past a literal understanding of birth. Of course it is ridiculous to think that someone can go back in the womb and be born again …but Jesus is talking on a different level, he is talking Spirit stuff. To some he may just seem like a man with a magic touch, a nice guy who can do good things but talks about strange things. But there is this whole other level happening, the Holy Spirit at work.
One time when I was teaching a confirmation class one of the young women who had been wrestling with some faith questions excitedly came to tell me about a break through she had. She said she was watching a ballet and she was moved by the talent, the music, and the beautiful movements. Then something in her connected the beauty she saw with the work of the Holy Spirit. She saw God at work on earth through beauty and it moved her very deeply. She felt that she was now able to understand where God is in the world. The things she had previously experienced at face-value, now seemed like something more, a different level. What seemed simple and matter of fact suddenly had much more meaning for her.
Perhaps this is a way of understanding that elusive, mysterious concept of the Holy Spirit. That part of the Holy Trinity that is hard to explain because we do not see it with our eyes. As Jesus says, it is like the wind, it blows where it chooses. We don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. It is unpredictable, unable to be pinned down and yet somehow all around us.
In the Church we have a lot of words for talking about this Spirit stuff. We have the Holy Trinity, Holy Mystery, 3 in 1 and 1 in 3. In the Church we use words all the time that require us to look past what is merely around us and explore a deeper level. Words like grace, mercy, sacrament, conversion, faith and belief. Words that to others may sound strange or lacking in logic, but to many of us speak to a different kind of reality that while not as visible as the person next to you, is just as real and felt.
The Holy Spirit moves us, compels us, challenges us, comforts us, names us and yet it is not something I can define. It’s more than what we see around us. And this is what Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about. Where he sees acts and physical birth, Jesus sees the work of God and spiritual birth.
At the end of the passage today we come to that very famous verse “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. 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.” So maybe this is why Jesus is trying to help Nicodemus understand this Spirit stuff. Maybe this is why the Church uses such mysterious Spirit language. Maybe this is why the Holy Spirit moves and works among us … to save the world.
The doors of our churches, the language we use, the beliefs we hold, the Scriptures we attest to are not so that we can sit in comfort and condemn others around us, but rather to save the world. “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Perhaps this is why the Spirit does not merely comfort and console us but also inspires and stirs us, compels us to action. Shows us this whole other level.
When we are born of the Spirit we have eyes to see the Spirit at work all around us. We see and are moved by the pains of the world. We see war, drought, flooding, tragedy, illness and despair. We hear about ISIS and children starving in Africa and we also see the pain on the faces of those around us. We watch loved ones decay and see children cry. But at the same time we know of this other work happening. We know there is more to it than just what we can see or explain with logic. The Spirit is at work. We know about hope, beauty, resurrection, eternal life, peace and unconditional love. That God our Creator does not leave us alone but moves in our lives, in our hearts and in our world.
We see and are moved by the joy of the world. We see peaceful reconciliations, rainbows, sunny days, babies born, healing and love expressed. We close our eyes to try to take in all the joy around us- the laughter of children, the sound of the birds, the goodness of those near. And we know that there is something going on here besides just the earth spinning, there is Spirit stuff.
You know when I was young I used to say that I wanted to save the world. People would laugh and remark on the innocence of youth or say things about how they felt the same way until they aged and became more aware of reality. It just made me feel more strongly. I wanted to make a difference, to make things better, to bring light to dark places and hope to desperation. I wanted to do things bigger than the economically depressed area I was in, be more than I was. And while I still desperately want to make a positive impact on the world and hope that my life is lived for good, my understanding of saving the world has changed.
I have realized that I don’t need to save the world because God already is. Spirit stuff is happening all around us, ushering in the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven. There is more happening beyond what we can see. In all of the places of the world, even the cities that top the lists of worst places to live … and maybe even in Cleveland sports teams.
So let us be compelled by the Spirit, moved to join in God’s saving work in the world. Let use see beyond what is around us, let us see the mysterious, unpredictable and beautiful work of the Holy Spirit.
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