Nicodemus & Pliers

Sermon preached at St John’s Bexley: 5^th March 2023: Second Sunday of Lent: Family Communion: Genesis 12:1-3, 3:1-7; John 3:1-17

We’ve just heard the story of Nicodemus.

Reveal effigy of Nicodemus, there are strips of paper sticking out of him which have ‘Big Questions On’

Nicodemus came to Jesus full of questions: Maybe that’s how we’ve come to church today.

The thing with questions, especially Big Questions is that sometimes we need work to draw them our of ourselves, to work out what we’re thinking of and find the confidence to begin exploring them… We really need to prise them out from deep down…

And so if all the children could come on down to the front and we’ll play a game that I like to call:

NICODEMUS & PLIERS!!!

Children take it in turns to use the pliers to extract a question from Nicodemus. Questions include:

• How can anyone be born after having grown old?
• Can anyone be born a second time?
• What is God like?
• Why do we believe in God?
• How does God answer our prayers?
• What happened before the Big Bang?
• What happens after we die?
• Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
• How do I know all this is real?
• Does the World look the same to other people as it does to me?
• How will the Universe end?
• Why do people suffer?
• What is a soul?
• What are God’s pronouns?
• Who does God want me to be?
• What is Love?
• How do I forgive someone?
• How can I be a ‘Good Christian’?

One of the things Christians try to do in Lent is learn: To study more about our faith. The adults might be attending Lent courses, some of you will be coming to Sunday School, we might be reading Lent books.

Learning begins when we ask questions: Especially big ones like these. That’s when our minds are opened to exploring more about God and the Universe. After Nicodemus asked his questions, he would turn up again in the Bible a few times, having grown as a disciple each time – and do we know what disciple means? It means learner.

The other thing about Nicodemus is that he doesn’t get straightforward answers from Jesus and he leaves with more questions than he started with: But that’s a good thing, because it gets the brain in gear to start thinking.

So take your questions away with you: Read over them, think about them, talk to people about them – and I’m looking forward to hearing what thought’s you’ve had as part of your Lent study when I see you next time!