i a .

2 fae " , a ae z Re ae ae

WHAT ABOUT CONVERSION?
John 3:1-15

May 26, 1968

John H.Buchanan hs,

The story of a man called Nicodemus coming to talk with Jesus ot night is a
very familiar one. Several weeks ago this same Nicodemis was within tho focus of our
attention as we discussed his courageous act of claiming the body of Josus for burial,
along with Joseph of Arimathea. He was apprently not lacking in courage, for the be,
third time he is mentioned in the Gospel record, is on the occasion of his lone defense
of Jesus before the Sanhedrin, the high court of Israel ~ of which he was 2 member.

(John 7:50-52)

But this morning we are concerned with the first phase of this remarkable man's
pilgrimage. The facts are familiar to most. Nicodemus came at night, in order to
avoid being seen. Jesus told him he must be "born again" if he wanted to sce the
Kingdom of God. This comment perplexed Nicodemus: he was an old man: how would it be
possible for him to be born again? Jesus explained that he didn't mean a physical '
birth. Rother he was talking about a regeneration, a :renewal, that occurred within
@mon, ond which had as its stimulating power the very Spirit of God. x

The Nicodemus story is also significant because it stands as the prolude to
the author's editorial comment in verse 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave i rt
his only son, that whoever belicves in him should not perish but have ctornal life." ;
But basically, this story is not as entertaining, not as interesting, as it is dis-
turbing. We ought to be bothered by this story - because of the content of the con=-
versation. .I suspect we, too, are a little perplexed by this " born anow" business.

But beyond that, the really disturbing thing is that the conversation took place.

After all, there was nothing obviously wrong with Nicodemus. He resemblos, in no way,

the classical image of an unregenerate sinner. As a matter of fact, Nicodemus was a

very good mane This is the brutal and disturbing relevance of his story for the }
contemporary Church of Jesus Christ. We know something about Nicodemus. lle was 3 man

of groent influence in both religious and political circles. His charactor would have |

had to have been impeccable. Robert Raines imagines Nicodemus musing to himself: "Why

do Inted to be converted? I believe in God; I work harder than most pcople to do

God's will. What's the matter with my present life? I'm a good man, © good husband,
a good churchman. I treat everybody right. Born anew, start all over again, be given nl
a new lifo? Why is conversion necessary?" (1) i

It's a question that might well be asked by the average "good Joc" today.
"Why is conversion necessary?" But before we attempt an answer, it will behelpful
to explore a little further what we mean, and don't mean; when we use tho word "con— }
version‘, "

Nicodemus is the best New Testament illustration that Christianity is more than ‘
living 2 good life. At the heart of the Gospel is the acknowledgment that there is
something radically wrong in the heart of cvery man. The Now Testament calls it sin, P
and it is defined os an autonomous force that effects the total being of cven the
"rood man. Time doesn't allow us to go much below the surface at this point, except
to point out that Christian Faith assumes that pride, self centeredness, cgotism,
warps cven our reason, even our noblest efforts, and that what is needed is a radical
reoricntation, a turning away - a conversion.

Of course, in our tradition it is fashionable to make light of any concept
of roligious conversion. But psychologists and psychiatrists don't. In an article
on tho impact of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kazin wrote these words: "The only kind of
change in life which means anything betauso it transforms everything in its path, is.

1 Pe “i

=2=

that . which changes people's thinking, their deepest convictions, that which makes them
see the world in a different way. This doesn't happen often." (2)

ind David Roberts, whose book on the inner-relatedness between psychiatry and
religion is required reading at any reputable school of theology: "Since the obstacles
to ethical and religious insight are not merely intellectual, but include those
emotioncl conflicts which prevent a person from living the truth that he seos, they can
be removed only by a dynamic transformation of the whole self and the conter of
motivation." (3)

Conversion to Jesus Christ, then, is the complete turning of the sclf, so
that Christ —- not self — becomes the motivator of life in its entirety. Poul said
it this way: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Onc lay woman
described hor own experince:"ThroughGod's grace that has been given to mo, I see that
all thet is past is dim, because it was not until three years ago... that I began to
dive. I have had many periods of turbulence and depression, and I know thot I will
have morc.... But through God's grace I am stopped and pulled up again. TI can never
sink too far; I can never turn back, because God has made me a new creniure in Christ
through the gift of his Son." (4)

This is one faltering attempt to define "conversion" in meaningful terms. There
is a beginning: there is both crisis and resolution: it is a process — 2 matter of
"hecoming" .

However wo feel about conversion, however we try to define and describe it,
one thing is clear. We can't claim to take the New Testament very seriously and go
on ignoring it.

the problem here is with a stereotype and a reaction to it. The word "conversion"
itself onbarasses us. If, someone were to ask us if we were Christians, we would
immediately say "Yes, of course." If, on the other hand, someone. asked if wo were con=
verted our first reaction would be to change the subject. It would not likoly occur too
us that tho two words - Christian and converted ~ are one and the samo.

We have tacitly delegated all responsibility for conversion to thc conserva-
tive/fumdamentalist branch of the Church, and they, in turn, have rigidly dcfinca
conversion in mechanistic terms. Conversion, for the zealous evangelicnrl, is something
that happens to a man, at a certain time. It is accompanied by a great omotional
upheaval: it is cultivated carefully by way of proper music, lighting and mood. An
urgent appeal is made, emotions are manipulated, reason begins to falter ond the in-
dividual focls himself compelled to go forward, raise his hand, or whatever, in an
act of abject surrender. It is a oncce-and-for-all event. That is the stcrootyped
image of conversion and it has a great deal of basis in fact.

Overything in us reacts negatively to this phenomenon: wedon't like to be
manipulaicd: we don't like emotions to rule over reason; we don't care for the superfi-
ciality of it all - the selling of Jesus like a. brand of soap. And so our reaction
has been both strong and deep. We have reached into our Reformed tradition for
answers and have come up with some good ones. In the first place, wo voead of nothing
like this in the New Testament. Furthermore we have been trained to understand the
transmission of Christian faith as a procedure that happens in the family and through
the Church School. Conversion, for us is a process that may not have 2 specific be-
ginning point.

that is sound theological reasoning. And yet even as I sketch it out before you,
it appears incomplete. Something is missing. Nicodemus, after all, would have thought
the same thoughts.

The fact is that "Christianity by Osmosis" just doesn't always work. The trans-—
mission of faith from generation to generation within theChurch and family breaks
down for a number of reasons, and besides it has nothing whatever to soy to the young
person or adult who has not lived his formative years in a Christian onvironment.

~3- 4s a

The result is that we, still reacting negatively to the cathartic, cxplosive,
conversion concept, have come up with our own tacitly accepted definition. For us, a
conversion is an intellectual process, through and through. Instead of asking men : -
to accept Jesus as their savior we urge them to adapt the Westminster Confession of
Faith as their guide. Our appeal is to the mind: we don't sell Jesus like soap powder,
we substitute theology - ideas about Jesus. And the result is much the same — except
the fundamentalists get a little more excited about it.

And again David Roberts stops us with his insights: "At the worst, the Churches
have acted as though Christianity could be transmittod by getting people to say "yes"
to dogmas." (5)

The sad truth is that no one gets very excited about doctrine. Nobody gives their
life away for nco-orthodox theology. Our tradition, therefore, is seriovsly woakened
because wo keep urging people to nurture something that was never begun. to keep
challenging people to go out into the world in the name of a man to whom thoy are not
particularly committed.

Somewhere the truth lies between the extremes of stereotype and nogative
reaction. And I don't think it is an over-statement to say that finding the truth,
in this matter, is one of the most urgent tasks facing the church today.

Gon't we say, without disparaging all emotional religious experionces, that
conversion is always a process, a becoming? Can't we say that conversion must have 2
beginning point somewhere in our lives, some time when we responded to something within
us and took that first, faltering step toward discipleship? Can't we say that without
conversion we have nothing - for ourselves, nothing to offer the world? Can't we
begin to understand that conversion, being a process, involves decision making — not
once ond for all — but daily, along with disciplined maturing and growing?

What about conversion? It is, first, the process through which you ond-I
continuclly becoming Christians.

It is, second, a changing of the whole person. Therein lies the greatest
weaknoss of the eotional approach, in which only the emotions are affoctod; and the
intellectual approach, in which only our theology is changed. In both cascs, only
one small portion of the whole man is touched, and life goes on pretty much as usual.
In both cases, the approach is entirely individualistic ~ and that aspoct of our lives
which is wrapped up in other people, remains unaffected. And of coursc, that aspect
of our lives consumes about 95% of our time.

Tho story is told of the Barbarian: tribes of Northern Europe that were con=
vertod to Christianity at the point of the sword. It was their custom, ac they
strode into the river to be baptized, to hold their battle axes high in tho air, » -
making cortain that these weapons, and the way of life they symbolized, woro not
changed. Well, that's exactly what happens in both the "instant conversion” and the
"osmosis conversion" of the contemporary Church. Some of the most bigoted racists
are born-again Baptists. Some of the most callous persons when it comon to poverty,
are afflucnt, life-long Presbyterians. Conversion hasn't "taken" in theso orcas at
all. Conversion has been the slight turning of one small aspect of life - nothing
more. And of course, it isn't really conversion at all.

Coming to grips with Jesus Christ, responding to Him in faith, involves
the wholc man - our money, our time, our attitudes, our politics, our cconomics. It
cannot be otherwise. The man who calls himself a Christian but secs no reintionship
between that and a starving child in the Mississippi Delta, or a Chicago Ghetto,
simply docen't know what Jesus Christ is all about. For his attitude toward that
child has overything in the world to do with his relationship to Jesus Christ.

Tot long ago, Billy Graham addressed the Dept. of Evangelism of the ational
Council of Churches. I+ was remarkable that these two protagonists evon sat down
togethor, but they did, and evon more remarkable were the evangelist's words on that

/

—_

<fn

occasion. He said ho had come to believe in conversion as a process of ‘wo stages.
First, a mon turned to Christ. And then, with Christ in his heart, he tums to the
world - to his fellow men. Those are, I believe, the wisest words Billy Graham ever
uttered. For too long now men have been turning to Christ and stopping, walling
with him “in the garden" - a garden conspicuously devoid of other humanity. For too
long men, on the other side, have been half-heartedly turning to the world, ond the
absence in their case has been in the heart. Christ was not really there, his place
taken by an obsolete, warmed-over humanism.

Conversion is of the whole man. Finally, and most importantly, conversion is
a two-way street, a dialogue, a thrust and response between God and man —- with the
initiative on God's side.

Hicodemus came to see Jesus. All things considered, that was . rather remarkable
thing for him to do. Intellectual curiosity? Guilt? Foar? We don't know what
motivated him to come. Something did. Something stirred deeply within hin and he came
and asked a question. That something was the Spirit of God.

Dishop James Pike, who has been up and down, and in .and out of the Church,
feels that today that divine initiative comes in the midst of oppressive boredom. (6)
Life becomes stale and tasteless. All the goals of affluence have becn attained, or
else it has become terribly obvious that they will never be attained, and drys turn
into ycars without significance. And something deep inside stirs, and 2 mon takes a
halting, first step - probably to the Church, or perhaps to. a friend. ‘hat stirring
is God, and it is the first step in "becoming" converted.

We are here - probably for as many different reasons as there arc different
individusls seated in the sanctuary. Something stirred once within us: somothing once
prompted us to ask a question. God began his long conversation with cach one of us
and we responded.

The important thing is that the conversation continues. God keeps moving in
and out of our lives, pushing us here, prodding us there, calling us up short over
here, filling us with frustration over there. And when we respond — when our lives
continue to be changed, now dramatically, then imperceptibly, we arc, in fact, in
the midst of conversion.

That is the miracle of grace. That is the really Good News of the Cospel — that
in Jesus Christ God can take your life and mine, and make something of valuc, some-—
thing of worth and significance out of it.

that about conversion? The really remarkable thing about it is that God
is, right now, in the process of converting you and me.

Amen.

Our Father, we have erected a hundred barriers to conversion. DUreak them
down. Cut through the status quo of our lives that we might live in joyful fellow-
ship with thee and with each other: Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Bon fifo in the Church, Robert A. Raines, Harper and Row, 1961, p. 25

New York Times Maresina. May 6, 1956

paleho thorn wy and A Christian oe of Man, David E. Roberts, Scribnor,1950, p. 68
Raines, op. cit. p. 22

Roborts., op. cit. p. 69

A Time for Christian Candor , James A. Pike, Harper and Row, 1964, p. OOff

OS
nw Bw he

a