When I had my first child I knew nothing.  I had not attended any classes, I had read nothing, learnt nothing, been told nothing.  I didn’t have a clue what to expect.  What I did have was trust.  I trusted that the medical team and I trusted my Mum, a midwife, who was by my side.  I trusted them because they had done this before.

This morning Nicodemus knows nothing. His knowledge, his learning, his intellect will only take him so far.  When Jesus says: “are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” he is not mocking him for his lack of knowledge, he is pointing out that you cannot live a life of faith by knowing, only by doing.  We will never know what it is like to have a child until we have had one (and even then we only know what it is like to have that one child, the next one will be altogether different).      

A life of faith, like giving birth, is a risk, a leap into the unknown, you do not know what the outcome will be, you cannot know what it will demand of you, until you do it.  Nicodemus is unable to take the risk, he comes to Jesus in secret at night wanting reassurance but Jesus cannot tell him what his path will be.  He can only assure him that he, Jesus, has done this before.  He has descended from heaven, he will ascend to heaven.  Jesus does this not in knowledge but in trust, that God is love and perfect love casts out fear.

If we want a life of faith, a life of grace, a life of purpose we need to take the risk of trusting the spirit of God to lead us where it chooses, knowing only that it chooses love.

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