Where is the Pneuma blowing?

A cold blustery as the season of Lent begins. The residents of the small French village are shuffling into the Cathedral just off the town square. The mayor stands at the door of the church welcoming them. He clearly is in control. Everyone knows their place. The people look the other way rather than see what is right in front of them. The grieving widow still grieves, even after 42 years. A boy is not allowed to be a boy and run and play with the others, he is protected by his mother. A woman is an abused wife, but stays with her husband. She remarks that if you don’t fall in line with the town traditions then you are crazy. They all have their place. The town believes in order.

Just as the town portrayed in the 2001 movie, Chocolat, I think we all seek order. We like life to follow predictable patterns. Morning routines, Sunday morning worship, we like to know what to expect, to know what comes next. We are content to go about our daily lives having an idea of where life will lead us today, of what tomorrow could bring. I think Nicodemus sought that too.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he was a ruler among his people. He stood on generations of wisdom and education. He liked the predictable. He liked the expected. Like the mayor of the small French village, he liked everyone in their place. The problem is, that things do not always stay predictable, orderly.

In the French village, the worship service starts, the congregation sings “come Holy Ghost, creator come, and take possession of our souls and make them thine own…” A strange wind begins to blow. Candles flicker. The scene changes to two figures cloaked in red, walking along the outskirts of the city blown in by a stiff wind. A woman, Vianne, and her daughter. They have come to rent the local patisserie just across the square from the church. They complete the deal with the landlady as the worship service continues.

The young priest mounts the pulpit speaking about the Season of Lent. A time for abstinence, reflection and penitence, the mayor quotes along. The priest continues the wind whistles through the church. “Where will we find truth?” asks the priest. The church doors blow wide open with a strong gust of wind. The mayor rises and quickly moves to close the doors, but only after a bit of a struggle.

The chocolatrie is something new The mayor does not want change. Not while he is in control. He writes the sermons for the young priest, he controls what the people hear. He protects the traditions and the generations of the way of life of the small town. He leads through is own example and watches over his village. He trusts the wisdom of past generations.

How many doors do we shut to keep out the winds of change? I, for one, am not a fan of the daylight savings time as it messes with my routines. We resist having to change our driving patterns for construction or special events. We argue that “we’ve always done it that way” to prevent changes to traditions. We seek truth, but are we willing to let it change us?

Jesus had been performing signs during the Passover. Many people came to faith because of what they saw. The Pharisees had seen the signs too. But what Nicodemus and others had witnessed during the Passover was anything but predictable. Nicodemus trusted the wisdom of generations and was a believer in tradition as well. Nicodemus was well versed in Hebrew Scripture, but he could sense something new was blowing into town. Nicodemus seeks out Jesus. He comes by night. We are not given any clues as to why Nicodemus comes by night. Maybe the fear of being found out? Maybe it was the only time for uninterrupted conversation? Maybe his questions about Jesus and the signs he has been performing have kept him awake?

As we listen in on the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, Nicodemus respectfully addresses Jesus as “Rabbi.” He seems to have come honestly seeking to gain understanding into what he and others have witnessed. Even though he comes seeking, Nicodemus is unprepared for what he finds.

The encounter with Jesus does nothing to restore order it only confuses the Pharisee further. Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. This can be translated 2 ways in Greek. Born again or born from above. Nicodemus takes the literal meaning, puzzled by how a grown person can be physically born again. Jesus answers him with another play on words. Jesus tells him again he must be born from above, be born of the Spirit, Pneuma. In the verses that follow Jesus speaks of the wind, pneuma, blowing where it chooses and that one knows neither where it comes from nor where it goes. At this point, Nicodemus asks “How can this be?”

So what is this born again/ born from above thing? How do we hear this today? Growing up in the Bible belt I hear the phrase and think of all my friends who came from traditions that practiced a believers baptism. For them, being born again was about a specific event that was when they accepted Christ. In my own understanding, I don’t really point to one event, I was baptized as an infant and I have always been on a journey of faith. I think the key is that we start on this journey of faith and that we open ourselves to the Spirit moving in our lives.

Too often, whether we come to faith at birth or later in life, we become complacent in our faith and we stick to the predictable routines. They are comfortable. It is like taking the same path to work everyday, it is familiar.

Just as Nicodemus is stumped by the born again/born from above thing, he is further confused by the play on Pneuma, the Greek word for both Spirit and wind. I can imagine Nicodemus thinking to himself, “what on Earth is Jesus talking about? I have read and studied the Hebrew Scritpures but I have never heard of anything like this.”

Just like Nicodemus, the Mayor encounters something he did not expect. As the movie Chocolat continues to unfold, the community begins to slowly change. They begin to live into the breath of fresh air that has blown in with Vianne and her chocolate. The changes occur slowly and often outside of the sight of Vianne. She becomes discouraged.

As she is set to leave, she hears laughter in the kitchen. She is surprised and touched to find members of the community finishing preparations for the Easter day celebration. The mayor watches from his office window and is distraught as he watches members of the community whom he trusts, going in and out of the chocolatrie. He can take no more and under the cover of night, he breaks in and destroys the window display and in doing so gets chocolate on his lip. He is overcome with the taste and is discovered the next morning asleep among the chocolate.

He finally gives into the encounter with Vianne. He finally gives into the encounter he has with this woman who came with the wind. There is a lightening of the spirit in the town. A freedom from complacency, from predictable order.

Nicodemus is offered this same freedom. He has encountered the living God. He is given the opportunity to be open to the movement of the Spirit. His spiritual rebirth is nothing he can do on his own as the Spirit will blow where it will. We see Nicodemus briefly later in the Gospel of John, once to defend Jesus and at the end as he brings the burial spices after Jesus’ crucifixion. We do not know much about this man, but his actions speak to the beginnings of letting the Spirit blow as it will and perhaps blow Nicodemus beyond his predictable life.

We too encounter the living Word. We too can experience a spiritual rebirth. The Holy Spirit blows where she wants and to have been born of the Spirit is to surrender to her movements, to follow where we are led. We do not know what old parts of our lives will be blown away or what new experiences will blow into our lives.

Where are the places in our lives that we experience the winds of change? Where are there places that we need to seek the leadings of the Spirit to guide us to something new? This breath of fresh air blows not only into our lives individually, but into our life together as well. Where do we as a church need to seek change? Where is the Spirit blowing new life into Westminster Presbyterian Church?

If we are willing to be open to encountering Jesus, willing to be born again, willing to follow as the spirit leads us, where might the freedom from predictable order take us? May we be willing to follow where the pneuma may blow.