Sermon - John 3:14-21

<p>As we come to the middle of March, I am loving the smell and feel of spring in the air and the increasing sunlight with which we are gifted each passing day.  But, I am so tired of this pandemic experience, and my entire being is hungry.  This is <strong>not</strong> a hunger for food.  It is a deep hunger within my very spirit. My entire being is increasingly hungry and yearning for life-giving, in-person relationships with people, with all of you, for in-person relationships with the community of the body of Christ.  And, I am especially hungry for those in-person times I relish with our kids and grandkids.  I know the time is coming closer when this will again happen, but the hunger for those special moments is just gnawing away within me. </p> <p>The context for today’s gospel reading is the story of Nicodemus, a man who comes to Jesus under the cover of darkness, and <strong>he</strong> is hungry.  He comes to Jesus during the night, and he has a deep <strong>spiritual hunger</strong> that is gnawing away at him.  He has a hunger deep within, a hunger he cannot fully identify. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, so he comes during the night when he will <strong>not</strong> be seen.  Yet, he comes wanting to find out more about this person called Jesus and what he is teaching. </p> <p>Spiritually hungry Nicodemus does not understand the things Jesus tells him, so Jesus turns to a strange Old Testament story to make his point.  By the way, this old story would have been very familiar to Nicodemus, good Pharisee that he was.  Jesus reminds him of the Israelites who, during their forty-year wilderness wanderings, had sinned.  You see, after wandering in the wilderness for so long, after they <strong>also</strong> had at times experienced hunger, their seemingly endless journey was leading to considerable dissension within the community. In fact, dissension began growing in the ranks and the “Let’s Go Back to Egypt Committee” got wound up yet once again. (You know, that is like the “But We Have Always Done It That Way C