June 7, 2009

Sermon: "Are You Engaged for a Second Life?"

Scripture: John 3: 1-17

If you're not smarter than a fifth-grader and have to ask your child or gc. how your iPhone works then Second Life will stagger you. Web denizens are now offered a Second Life. It's a sham, but Jesus offers the real deal.

In SL, Second Life, you can use L$, Lindon Dollars, to trick out your avatar inworld and teleport them all over the grid.

No typos there. While gibberish to most of us, it is modus operandi to the one million plus Residents of Second Life (SL for short). This is nothing new. It has been around for nearly 9 years. Created in 2003 by Linden Labs, SL is the Internet animated equivalent of "playing make-believe" that most of us did as pre-Web kids.

SL Residents create an avatar -- or virtual 3D character -- that represents them "inworld" or "on the grid" -- the SL 3D world. Characters can teleport instantly all around the SL universe, from stores to homes to vacation resorts to entertainment venues. SL is not a game, it's an online environment in which Residents live, play and in some cases work through their avatar's second life.

The economy of SL is powered by Linden dollars (or L$). The last time I checked, 10,000 L$ could be purchased for use in SL for about $45 in real-world currency of course, payable electronically only through PayPal and all major credit cards, not cash or check. Those L$ are used to purchase virtual goods for use inworld, including land, buildings, vehicles and any manner of consumer products, as well as character enhancements such as custom animations, clothing, hairstyles and jewelry.

This is the purest instance of "art imitates life." SL has its own time zone referent called SLT so that everyone inworld can be on the same clock despite their location in the real world. There are inworld businesses turning real-world profits through the sale of virtual goods. Sweden, Estonia and Colombia have SL Embassies where visitors can talk to ambassador avatars about visas and trade issues. Reuters has a virtual news bureau staffed by journalist Adam Pasick  who disperses real-world newsfeeds into SL and writes articles on SL affairs such as economic trends and new land creations.

This may sound like gibberish to you, but, even Christianity has invaded SL. LifeChurch is an evangelical, multi-site church in Oklahoma with 11 campuses or congregations. The 12th is the Internet Campus, which creates an online community including an SL location called Experience Island -- a church-meets-café environment.

Their philosophy of ministry, or SL apologetic if you will, reads: "We desire to engage people right where they are (physically or virtually), and Second Life represents a new frontier in that effort. Because the Second Life environment uses avatars, people are able to remain relatively anonymous. We find that this creates a less threatening environment where people are much more willing to explore and discuss spiritual things."

While living like a rock star or having a Christian conversation might not be something an SL player would do in the real world, SL allows people to act out the character they'd love to be in the real world. The grid allows the "what if's" of the imagination to be played out virtually. The player can get so involved in the SL world that it can create real world disasters. SL can get one out of touch with reality.

Are you hinking that people inworld need to get outworld, and get a life and not a Second Life? Perhaps, but? 
 there's something real happening here. People seem to enjoy playing out alter identities that they can't live in real life. And that is where the danger lies. It becomes real!

I bring this up because on one level, this seems to be the case for Nicodemus in today's text, sneaking out at night to have a conversation with a countercultural avatar named Jesus. In fact, he might have found himself quite comfortable talking about faith at Experience Island, although he had questions that his real world day job prevented him from asking.

Nicodemus is an intriguing character who leads two lives. On one hand, he's a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews (v. 1), meaning he has his doctrinal eye on 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 stem from God (v. 2).

Like most people living two lives, Nicodemus pursues his more questionable ventures at night -- out of sight of the public audience. In his case, the racy behavior was merely spiritual intrigue.

Over time, we know that Nicodemus was changed by his relationship with Christ. In John 7, Nicodemus is still leading his two lives. He doesn't publicly challenge the notion that a Pharisee could never believe in Jesus (v. 49), but he does defend Jesus' right to be heard (vv. 50-51). But by the end of Jesus' life, Nicodemus seems to have ended his duplicity. No longer coming to Jesus at night, he joins Joseph of Arimathea for the preparation for burial. He anoints and buries Jesus in the full light of day (John 19:39-42). He's left the web, a web of caution and uncertainty, and has stepped into a true second life as one who believes.

There's something Jesus did that caused a skeptic on the sidelines to become a devoted mourner of his death. What could Jesus have said that would so radically change a person?

Jesus uses Anothen: from above, from the beginning, from the first, again, anew.

 It appears three times in this chapter to refer to spiritual life change. Consult any respectable Greek lexicon and you will find three basic meanings for anothen: 1) from above; 2) from the beginning, from the first; 3) again, anew.

Many scholars think these meanings are being word-played in Nicodemus' confusion of Jesus' statements. Jesus says, "No one can see the kingdom of God without being born anothen -- from above" (v. 3). Nicodemus wonders how you can be born again, or a second time (v. 4).

Jesus understands Nicodemus' take on anothen as part of his disbelief, so he answers him by emphasizing the keys to the kingdom -- life transformation. Jesus is talking about an invisible birth from above that creates visibly changed life.

Nicodemus should have known what Jesus was talking about (vv. 7, 10). But be honest. How many of us still scratch our heads a bit while reading this cryptic interaction?

Jesus was probably appealing to any number of Old Testament references to water and spirit together, such as Ezekiel 36. A teacher of the Law would have been familiar with them. According to biblical scholar D.A. Carson, these references, "signify cleansing from impurity" and "the transformation of the heart that will enable people to follow God wholly."

In other words, a regeneration. A new beginning. A second life ... from God and for God.

Jesus was telling Nicodemus that his two separate lives weren't going to cut it. But he did need a second life. Theologically, perhaps it would be better to say he needed a new life. He doesn't need a second life; he doesn't need to get a life. He needs a new life.

He needed to be born again: born from above, anew.

For Jesus, being born anew would be as evident as the wind (v. 8). You can't control it or see it, but you know it's at work. It's as obvious as bent branches and blowing leaves. As Billy Graham beautifully put it, "I do not see the wind, but I see the effects of the wind."

A pastor in Denver tells the story of an evangelistic relationship with his Ukrainian friend Anatole. After discussing the gospel for four hours with Anatole over tea, they had reached a philosophical impasse. Anatole, a 50-year-old science teacher, was a naturalist and quite set in his ways. He could believe only what he could see with his eyes and touch with his hands. That is what kept him agnostic -- he couldn't see God.

Not knowing how to respond, the pastor looked out the window and prayed. In the next moment, a huge wind kicked up, bending tree branches and rattling the thin glass windows of their flat. Remembering Jesus' metaphor and Graham's observation, the pastor asked Anatole what he saw out the window.

"The wind," he responded confidently. He "saw" the wind. He couldn't explain it any other way, so he "saw" the wind.

That is what anothen means. A life born from above. It's as invisible as the wind and as obvious as its impact.

Jesus wants to transform our lives. SL is a way to escape real life, but the Second-Life-Christ offers a deeper reality which governs one's first life. The second life is a changed life, an inward and invisible reality with dramatic and obvious outworkings.

There's a lost and lonely SL world that's escaping reality through the iPod instead of experiencing life. If we are born anew, we have the visibly changed real second life created by the invisible real Holy Spirit.

"Did you really see the wind," the pastor asked Anatole, "or did you see the effects of the wind?" Two minutes of silence passed. Then Anatole spoke his second-life words: "That very much makes God a possibility."

We break and eat of the loaf. We drink from the cup. We feel the presence of the Lord and are affected by that. We see the effect of His work. Than makes God very real.

Let us break bread together and let us drink from the cup that gives us the real Second Life. Let us be so transformed by partaking of the elements that the world will see the outward effect of our inward actions. Will the communion servers come forward?

Sources:

Carson, D.A. The Gospel According to John. Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 1991.

On Second Life:
http://internet.lifechurch.tv/second-life
http://secondlife.reuters.com/
and www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,451945,00.html.