Born Again

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Samuel Wells offers an interesting and challenging perspective on John 3:5 and Jesus exchange with Nicodemus.

Here's a quote:

"The most curious thing about this whole exchange is that a verse of John's gospel that contains enormous mystery, wonder, and to say the least, lack of clarity, has become arguably the single most important verse in the American church. I say that because around 40% of Americans describe themselves as 'born again Christians'.

The phrase 'born again' makes a lot of people, Christian and non-Christian alike, feel uncomfortable, I think for a number of reasons.

In the first place it's become associated in the last 30 years with a particular political agenda and a set of conservative stances on controversial social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. It's hard to believe that these issues were at the front of Jesus' mind when he struck up a conversation with Nicodemus. But such issues seem to be in the minds of those who see being born again as becoming a potential member of a political block vote. My sense is that this view is at best a caricature, and most of those among us who describe themselves as born again have a somewhat broader perspective on social issues. But there's no doubt that it's a caricature with a wide circulation.

In the second place the term 'born again' seems to be used to create a hierarchy among Christians. In certain circles its not considered good enough to believe in Christ, to be actively involved in the church, to be seeking to grow in faith and practice discipleship by searching out and standing among the people and issues closest to God's heart. All these are looked down upon unless one can narrate a conversion experience that fulfils the description 'born again'. The results is that most of the Christians feel second rate because they now faith is a matter of God's grace and can't be manufactured and so they can't make themselves have a dramatic experience while God seems to have no interest in giving them one. Again this is an exaggerated picture, but there's enough truth in it to shape many Christians live significantly.

In the third place the experience of being born again seems to displace everything else that's important about Christianity. What matters is not who Jesus is, or how Jesus lived, but not how Christians relate to one another in the church or to the neighbour or the stranger in the world. All that matters is my personal experience on a specific day in the past and my certainty that this experience gives me a passport to heaven when I die. In other words Christianity stops being about Jesus and the church and the new world breaking in, and instead becomes all about me.

That's a brief summary of why the term born again is the elephant in the room whenever the church gathers to read John chapter 3."


Samuel Wells, "Born Again" A sermon on John 3, Center for Excellence in Preaching)
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