“What Is A Second
Life?”
John
3:1-17
June 7, 2009
This morning’s gospel reading presents what has certainly become one of the most
familiar stories about Jesus within contemporary American Christianity. Its
climactic verse, John 3:16, has been waved at sporting and other major public events for
decades. The passage has even given rise to a designation for a particular
understanding of being a follower of Christ, namely the “born-again Christians”.
But familiarity with the basics of the story does not always equate with understanding the
ways in which it represents the key aspects of how the Fourth Gospel desires for us to
comprehend Christianity.
Please listen for how the Spirit is addressing us through God’s word found on page 88
of your pew Bibles from the Gospel of John chapter three verses one through
seventeen….
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to
Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come
from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God
without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born
after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be
born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of
God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what
is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must
be born from above.’ 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is
born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand
these things?
11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what
we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly
things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of
Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man
be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
This is God’s word to us…
If you’re not smarter than a fifth-grader and have to ask your kid or grandchildren
how to work your cell phone, then something called “Second Life” will blow your
mind!
Created in 2003 by Linden Labs, Second Life is the Internet animated equivalent of
“playing make-believe” that most of us enjoyed as pre-internet-era
children. Second Life Residents create an avatar—or virtual 3D
character—that represents them “inworld” or “on the
grid”—that is, in the 3D Second Life world. Characters can teleport
anywhere around the Second Life universe, from stores to homes to vacation resorts to
entertainment venues. Second Life is not a game however, rather it is an alternate
reality where Residents live, play and in some cases work through their character’s
second life.
What may make your head spin even more is that this online virtual reality has its own
economy powered by Linden Dollars. 10,000 Linden Dollars can be purchased for use
in Second Life for about $45 in real-world currency through PayPal and all major credit
cards. It turns out that in this kind of second life they don’t take cash or
check. This virtual currency is used to purchase virtual goods like land, buildings,
vehicles and any number of consumer product, as well as character enhancements such as
clothing, hairstyles and jewelry.
Second Life may be the purest form of art imitating life. It has its own time zone
referent called SLT or Second Life Time so that everyone on the grid can be on the same
clock despite their varying locations around the planet earth. There are inworld
businesses turning real-world profits through the sale of virtual goods. Reuters
News Service even has its own virtual news bureau staffed by a real world journalist who
goes by the name Adam Reuters inworld.
Even Christianity has found a place in Second Life. LifeChurch is an evangelical,
multi-site church in Oklahoma with eleven different church sites. Their twelfth
congregation exists online and is called “Internet Campus” which creates an
online community including a Second Life location called “Experience
Island”—a church-meets-café environment.
While Linden Labs allows anyone to live out a Second Life by trying out an alternate
reality in a virtual world; John chapter three presents us with something surprisingly
similar and yet radically different. In this morning’s gospel we see Nicodemus
sneaking out at night to have a conversation with a character named Jesus. By way of
his secret rendezvous, Nicodemus might have found himself quite comfortable talking about
faith at LifeChurch’s “Experience Island” since his real-world day-job
prevented him from asking his questions out in the open.
Nicodemus is an intriguing character, who like many Residents of Linden Labs’ Second
Life, leads two lives. On the one hand, he’s a Pharisee of the Jews (v. 1),
meaning he has his doctrinal-eye on this Galilean named Jesus. Any Pharisee with
Israel’s-best in mind would be cautious toward Jesus at best, and would publicly
oppose him at worst. But, on the other hand, Nicodemus is privately curious about
the rabbi, recognizing that somehow his teachings and works grow out of Jesus’
relationship with God (v. 2).
Over time, we know that Nicodemus was changed by his relationship with Christ. In
John chapter seven, Nicodemus is still leading two lives, albeit with some change: while
he doesn’t publicly challenge the notion that a Pharisee could never believe in Jesus
(v. 49), he does defend Jesus’ right to be heard (vv. 50-51). But by the end of
Jesus’ life and by the end of John’s gospel, Nicodemus seems to have ended his
duplicity. No longer coming to Jesus at night, after the crucifixion, Nicodemus
anoints Jesus’ body and buries him in the full light of day (John 19:39-42).
He’s left the web of caution and uncertainty and has stepped into a true second life
as one who believes.
How did Nicodemus travel so far in his understanding of Jesus? How did he go from
secret rendezvous under the cover of darkness to publicly ministering to Jesus? What
could Jesus have done or said that would so radically change a person: in a word, Anothen.
In the Greek New Testament, Anothen appears three times in this morning’s gospel
reading and it refers each time to a spiritual life change. Anothen has three basic
meanings: 1) from above; 2) from the beginning or from the first; and 3) again or
anew. Many biblical scholars think that these various meanings of the same Greek
word are being word-played in Nicodemus’ confusion over Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born Anothen—from
above” (v. 3). To which Nicodemus wonders aloud about how anyone can be born
Anothen—again, or a second time (v. 4).
Although Nicodemus may be confused Jesus is not and is tracking with his conversation
partner’s interpretation of Anothen so Jesus answers him by emphasizing that the keys
to the kingdom involve life transformation. Here, Jesus is talking about an
invisible birth from above that creates visibly changed life. Jesus seemingly scolds
Nicodemus for not knowing what Jesus is saying (vv. 7, 10). And though we may want
to cheer Jesus on, if we are honest, we have to ask; how many of us scratch our heads a
bit when reading or hearing this familiar but cryptic nocturnal interaction?
Jesus scolds Nicodemus because he was probably appealing to any number of Old Testament
references to water and spirit together. Any teacher of the Law would have been
familiar with stories like Naaman and Elisha or the testing of the Baal prophets by
God’s prophet Elijah. Old Testament passages like these and many more
“signify cleansing from impurity” and “the transformation of the heart that
enables people to follow God wholly.” In other words, such passages of the Old
Testament represented a kind of regeneration; a new beginning; a second life originating
from God and for God.
Jesus was telling Nicodemus that the two lives he was leading were not going to cut
it. Jesus wanted him to know that he did not need a second life. Practically
speaking, perhaps it would be better to say that what Nicodemus needed most was a new
life. What Jesus wants Nicodemus to understand is that what he really needed most
was a new life. He needed to be born again by being born from above; born
Anothen.
The Gospel of John goes on to say that being born Anothen is as evident as the wind (v.
8). Jesus reminds Nicodemus and us that you can’t control the wind or see it,
but you know when the wind is at work. It’s as obvious as bent branches and
blowing leaves. Or as Billy Graham once put it, “I do not see the wind, but I
see the effects of the wind.”
The effects of the wind-of-God played a large part in one pastor’s conversation with
a friend over matters of faith. After discussing the gospel for hours over tea,
both pastor and friend came to a philosophical impasse. You see, the
clergyman’s friend was a 50-year-old science teacher and a naturalist and was quite
set in his ways. He said that he could believe only what he could see with his eyes
and touch with his hands. That is why he remained a committed agnostic—he
couldn’t see God.
Not knowing how to respond the pastor sat in silent prayer and looked out the
window. In the next moment a huge wind picked up, bending tree branches and rattling
the plate glass windows of the café in which they were sitting. Remembering
Jesus’ metaphor and Billy Graham’s observation, the pastor asked his friend what
he saw out the window.
“The wind,” he responded confidently. “Do you,” the pastor
asked, “or do you simply see the effects of the wind?” Two minutes of
silence passed. Then the friend spoke second-life words: “That very much makes
God a possibility.”
That is what Anothen is all about; it is a life born from above, it is a life
changed. It is as invisible as the wind and as obvious as its impact. Jesus
wants us to transform our lives while Linden Labs’ Second Life can only provide a way
to escape this life. The second life—the new life—that Jesus offers us all
is a deeper reality into which one’s life is lived here and now. The second
life offered by Jesus is a changed life, an inward and invisible reality with dramatic and
obvious consequences.
So, how has being born Anothen impacted you?
In what ways do you see your life being bent by the wind of God?
Are you ready to let the rest of the world see where your New Life in Christ is leading
you?
Amen.
SOURCES:
Carson, D.A. The Gospel According to John. Leicester, England:
InterVarsity Press, 1991.
http://secondlife.com
Affirmation of Faith The Nicene Creed
(top of page 15 in the hymnal)
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten
of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our
salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he
suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the
Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no
end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from
the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who
has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic
Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for
the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
