Do You Know My Story? Part 4 Nicodemus
Dr Iain Jamieson
March 28, 2024
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This Lent we are hearing from four biblical Leapers! Four people who took a leap of faith with their community. In this fourth and final part Iain Jamieson writes from the perspective of Nicodemus. (You can read more about Nicodemus, in the Bible in the Gospel of John!)
I guess the first thing for me was my rejection of the Greek way of belief — I mean seriously — a pantheon of voices, a pantheon of gods — conflicting voices — agendas — so much like the people around me — the divine but — you know — not quite divine.
Not quite other. Not quite harmony. But, all I really heard, when I’d walk beside the seashore, in the stillness of the night was the thrum, the powerful undercurrent in the waves of — well — one God. One love. One sound that brought into being the murmuring of the world and the screams and shouts quieted and distilled to a whole.
A whole of rest and peace, and love and the coming together of all things.
In my day job — Pharisee, exemplar, setter of rules — I felt my voice heard. The rules set. The way clear.
The way’s always clear until the ground falls away.
Until you just meet… God.
From an ideal to the real deal.
Isn’t that the beauty of being alive?
You can seek God and his will with all your heart and then sometimes he turns up.
And there he is.
Right there.
That minute.
And you know.
Look — honestly you just KNOW.
That there is God made flesh. Like he stepped out of these dusty old writings and stood in front of you.
When you know you know.
They say that about love.
They should say that about faith.
When it happens — and brothers believe me it will —
It happens.
He’s waiting there, waiting for all of us.
So look, this guy breezes in from Galilee — I mean Galilee right! It’s a nowhere fishing town in the middle of nowhere. But here he comes and the stories — it breaks your mind. He’s doing miracles, he’s speaking a truth I knew I knew but I didn’t understand until I heard it. This guy is not your average guy. There are healed people walking around saying he’s the cause and believe me, these are not the ‘deserving’, the rich and the mighty, these are ordinary folks and there they are just walking around like a miracle isn’t a miracle and I just don’t get how no-one gets this. It's the seashore thing, the thrum, the Spirit of God in the world.
I tested some of my pals out. They aren’t so convinced. So… I’m wondering if their eyes are closed and I’m thinking: I need to see this guy. Is this for real?
I sneak away, in the middle of the night, he’s not the most popular and I have a reputation to keep right?
Anyway, I get a chance to have a sit down and he starts off by telling me to be born again — seriously — how does that even happen and then, then, he tells me about the spirit: the essence of God and how embracing and becoming this, rises above the physical to where it’s real.
Right there — we’re naked — we can literally reset — rebirth — spiritually be born again.
This guy, this guy I’ve hardly met, sets me straight. Remember: he says your spiritual life, that eternal life: it’s your core, so: harmonise, clear away the rubbish and God will use you.
This isn’t rules and tablets and goodness knows the hoops we feel people need to jump through. It’s about the clarity and the freedom of letting go of those chains. Embracing that spiritual being and being set free. To soar. To be one with the creator.
I went back home, I looked at the dusty old books of rules and tables. Tore out each page, set it on the fire, watched the waves roll in.
Of course, the road for this guy wasn’t going to be smooth, not everyone was going to step out of the box. How could they, their very sense of themselves was in those dusty old tomes.
The law goes both ways right?
They bring him (drag him more like) before us — rules are rules.
I can use rules.
He speaks for the people I said, we must hear what he says.
In fairness this doesn’t go down well…
They talk a lot of smack about my home town of Galilee, but honestly, what do they really know.
Vested interests.
That’s what it seemed to me,
You cause too much trouble, you won’t be causing more, they did what they did. Petitioned the governor, I saw him crucified.
That’s what happens when your power exceeds your ability to experience. The blindness of righteousness, may we all be spared.
A good man died, I wonder if a piece of God died. Perhaps… his very son?
Joseph — a disciple of his — and folks I speak as one today. He had influence. In the right pockets. We got back his body.
The body of the greatest man I’d ever met. The body of the man who showed me the truth, the body of the man who changed my life…
It’s a funny thing.
Tonight, I haven’t slept.
Something is coming.
Something wonderful.
Here: a postscript.
What happened is impossible but I feel inevitable.
The world has changed its axis.
The sound of the sea and the wind and the air will forever change and I am in wonder and I am in awe.
This story doesn’t belong to me.
That’s God story in us.
Yours,
Nicodemus
Dr Iain Jamieson
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