Acts 3:13-19
Psalm 4:1-8
1 John 2:1-5
Luke 24:35-48

Are You Born Again?

This morning our Gospel lesson confronts us with the question of belief, or more pointedly, unbelief. It is a most important question, and we must remember that belief is of one piece with repentance and baptism. As we read in the Gospel this morning, "Do you not yet believe?" He asked His Disciples. And then He turns immediately to repentance and forgiveness, which must be preached to the world. This is the seamless garment worn by a Christian:

Here at the Hermitage, we live out our baptismal promises with little resistance from the world. Let us recall that baptismal promises are promises of spiritual warfare, with the Kingdom of Heaven standing on one side and on the other side, the world, which is implacably opposed to Heaven. The Hermitage sits directly beneath Heaven, bathed in Heaven's light. The toxic culture no longer presses in daring us to dissent from its iron commandments. We have no television, no radio, no newspapers, and, Heaven help us, no children in the public schools. Through an Internet connection we manage our Franciscan websites and carry on godly conversation through email. Our daily atmosphere is prayer, an enclosed organic farm, and a library for spiritual and theological reading. We half-expect angels to appear in fellowship. One morning, a guest reported seeing an angel near our Altar during Mass.

From time to time we go out for supplies, to the post office (no mail to our home in this rural district), and delivery of our organic produce. You can see the Sisters going down the road in their white wagon. It is on these occasions when someone might walk up and ask me if we are "born again." And our daily readings this past week remind me of this ever-present question, so urgent on the minds of many, for "pop Christianity" is everywhere: on radio, television, and dominating the theology of locally ordained ministers.

I do not dodge the question. Of course, we are born again. Are we not baptized? The question is not whether any baptized person is born again; the question is, whether a baptized person has been faithful to his or her baptismal vows. The follow-on question usually is, "Have you made Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior?"

"Consider the Sisters," I reply. "They have laid down their lives at the feet of our Master. They have served the poor in this world's most dangerous and destitute places. How many who claim to be born again have burned down their whole world in order to take up their cross and follow Him? And they have laid it all down, as the Lord did, following the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They have given up all their future prospects and continue to work for no pay every single day in order to bring the Kingdom of God closer. You see, everyone who has been baptized is born again. Now, whether baptized Christians have been unfaithful to their baptismal vows .... that is another subject altogether."

Since baptism already constitutes a revolution of new life for the Christian, why has this "Born Again" question taken such deep root? Why has it become the central question of the Christian faith for so many millions of people? Let us go back to Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and the whole area between the Jordan River and Eastern coast of the Mediterranean in the early 30s A.D. A very great religious and cultural movement swept over this area, which has changed lives even down to the present day.

As we read in St. Mark's Gospel, "... all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem ... were baptized by [John] in the river Jordan." Picture yourself among these people. A native of Eden has wandered into your midst. He is remarkable for his natural character. Even the air around him has a fragrance of the world newly made, the morning of the earth. His garments are not finely woven nor dyed. His daily fare is simple: a kind of manna made with honey — ενκρισ (Mk 1:6). (As this word is only one letter away from the Greek word for locust, a story arose that this man of Eden, a vegetarian, eats insects!) He lives in the wilderness alone with God. That he is God's intimate and companion is only too obvious, and guesses as to his identity leap over the ordinary straight to the highest reaches: "Are you Isaiah or Elijah or the One-Who-is-coming-into-the-world, the Christ?" He claims nothing for himself yet is unlike and far beyond other men who pretend to the title holy. He only says that is "less than," never "more than." He says, "I am not worthy" (Jn 1:27). Jesus praised few people, but of this man, He said, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist" (Mt 11:11).

Quickly he is surrounded by disciples, and the people hang upon his every word. He tells them that in order to have life, they must repent of the way they have lived which has offended God. And to signify this new birth, this second chance at life, they must be baptized, cleansed, and marked as God's own. John's baptism was a tsunami washing over the entire Jewish lifeworld in the Eastern Mediterranean. St. Peter would later compare it to the Flood of Noah's time. To repeat St. Mark, "all Judea was baptized and all Jerusalem." We may be sure that this moment in the Jordan for the baptized was the most memorable day of one's life, the day one turned from eternal death to eternal life. People must have asked each other, when was the moment that you were born again?

Now, think of the colossal challenge the Apostles faced in persuading people that their baptism was not the greatest moment of their lives, that it was merely a first step. Converting a mind to any incommensurable is hard to do. Unconverting it is even harder. Perhaps sixty years later, the ancient Evangelist St. John is still hard at work in this great task of persuasion. Of the opening thirty-four verses of His Prologue, that greatest monument in sacred literature, more than half the verses is devoted to this, single question: "John was not that light, but a witness to that light." More than half! Indeed, the subject of John the Baptist, judging by its context in the Prologue, stands beside such weighty matters as the Creation of the World. Yes, the Apostles and their disciples faced a formidable challenge: their whole world had been baptized by John, yet this was not the moment when they were born again. No doubt, bumper stickers were printed for every donkey cart: "John Baptized by Water, Jesus by the Holy Spirit."

And now we are ready to understand the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. As so often happens in the Gospels, the most important theological points are set out as a drama. Nicodemus teases out this great point to the extreme:

For many centuries this new baptism of water and the Holy Spirit would receive the greatest reverence and honor within the Church. To aspire to it was understood to be a most serious thing, not to be taken lightly. St. Augustine famously got cold feet in the eleventh hour, for he durst not touch the Holy Mountain of God until he was certain he could keep his vows. His particular weakness was unwinding each night with a bottle of wine and having sex with various female acquaintances. He looked in his heart on the eve of his baptism, and he knew that he would not be faithful to his baptismal vows. It would be better to take no vow, than to lie in the face of God.

Yes, for centuries baptism was universally countenanced as being solemn, serious, and most holy. To aspire to it, one was interviewed extensively before being admitted to the catechumenate, as it was called. One sat in the back pews of the church during celebration of the Holy Eucharist listening to Scripture readings: the Letters of St. Paul, the Letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, the Four Gospels. The Creed was then said by everyone. But as the time drew closer to the Holy Mysteries, the deacons stood up and said, "The doors! The doors!" And all the unbaptized were escorted to the exits and then watched the great doors shut. Catechumens studied for months, perhaps years — not only intellectual studies but also spiritual and moral contemplation. This was real formation in readiness for these all-important vows. No one doubted the high dignity of baptism.

And when the big night came, you felt overwhelmed. You were taken to a secret place, a place no one knew nor might find — a woman led by other women or a man led by other men. The place was often surrounded by the graves of the faithful because this is the place where you came to die. You were stripped of all your clothing symbolizing that your old life had ended. And they were burned. The chill of the night air was upon you, and you felt vulnerable standing before others in your nakedness. You then were ushered into the cold waters of a pool. Certain prayers were said in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in particular, was invoked, and you were immersed and held down a very long time as if being drowned. And you were. You were being drowned that you might die with Christ and then emerge with Him in new life. And when you came up, you were a new creation, born again. A spotless garment of white was placed around you and tied with a white cincture. You were anointed with fragrant and costly oils. Then, you were brought into the Great Vigil of Easter midst general applause, soon to be present for the Holy Mysteries and to have a particle of God placed inside you by the priest, signifying that the rupture of your relationship with God had ended.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, when did we lose the magic? How could this most important rite devolve into the every-day and hum-drum? No wonder that pop Christianity, which was invented on the American frontier, looked for another and different magic, when one might say that he or she was born again. And no doubt the Wild West needed just such a boundary between whiskey, prostitutes, and murder on one side, and godly life on the other. Shall we gather at the river?

This morning Jesus exhorts His Disciples to believe. And now I hear among pop Christians that belief is all that is required for salvation. Have these people not heard that even the demons believe ... and tremble! (James 2:19). No, our Christian faith lies in three things: to repent of the life that is hateful to God; to open your eyes and see Him, your Lord and Master; and to be baptized by water and the Holy Spirit.

O baptized Christians, do not quibble over who is, or who is not, born again. That is not the question. All baptized Christians have been born again. The question is, will you be faithful to the vows you have given before God? Will you reclaim your Heavenly birthright? Remember, the Father does not follow the Prodigal Son from swine trough to swine trough, from brothel to brothel, from bar room to bar room "counseling" him or demonstrating his "radical compassion." He stands at a roadside and waits. He waits for the son's return. Take up your baptismal vows, good Christian, and return to Him. Burn down your whole world, and make Him your life! For such as these there is mirth among the angels of Heaven.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.