“It Is What It Is”

First UMC Fort Dodge

February 17, 2008

Mark Haverland

John 3:1‑17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He 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." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus 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?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The 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." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? 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. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 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. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might by saved through him."

Roger Clemons is in trouble. He denies taking performance enhancing drugs and his trainer asserts that he did. Deciding who is telling the truth, strangely enough, depends on the meaning of the expression “It is what it is.” Roger Clemons claims that his trainer did not admit to giving him steroids on a taped telephone conversation when asked directly if he did. The trainer maintains that he did confirm the steroid use when he said: “It is what it is.” This, as you might imagine, has set in motion a flurry of activity on the part of journalists and linguists to figure out what this increasingly common expression means. “It is what it is.” We hear this expression frequently even though many claim never to have heard it and not to know exactly what it means. My tax preparer used this expression this week to say that it would be okay if I left before he finished computing my taxes because my presence did not affect the outcome of his calculations because “it is what it is.” It turns out that depending on the context, this expression is a way to discourage further conversation by indicating that the truth is the truth and there is no way for us to affect the facts and no reason to argue about or even discuss it either.

Interestingly enough, this expression may well originate in the Bible when God answers Moses as to the name of the deity addressing him from the burning bush by saying, “I am who I am,” or words to that effect. Furthermore, if Jesus were having his famous conversation with Nicodemus today, instead of saying “very truly, I tell you,” he, being a hip, with it guy, would have sounded just like Roger Clemons’ trainer, Brian McNamee. When he spoke to Nicodemus about the unlikely nature of being born again, instead of the stilted “Verily, I tell you” he would have pronounced: “it is what it is. Get over it!”

Jesus says Very truly, I tell you,” (“It is what it is”) three times to Nicodemus, who is having a hard time grasping what Jesus is telling him about being born again. "How can these things be? Can a person climb back into the womb and be born a second time?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?” In other words, it is what it is so just trust me and get over it.

“It is what it is” is not always easy to hear. It’s a bit of a put down and asks for trust where little trust may exist. My wife and I have one of our tensest moments when I say such things to her. “Trust me, it is what it is” is my last resort when she won’t believe me that the car will run another few miles on empty, that the campsite is just around the next bend, that I know how to fix the lawnmower, patch drywall, lay floor tile, fix the leaky roof, get the car out of the garage and down the driveway in spite of a recent snowfall. She knows better, of course, than to believe me in such situations. “Trust me” never works. In fact, this expression seems to set her off to exactly the opposite reaction to the one I hope for. I don’t know why this expression seems such a threatening put down for her, but it is. She refuses to believe and feels attacked when I try to sidetrack her reasonable and reasoned, and usually correct, objections with my trump, “well, just trust me on this one. It is what it is.” Women are wise, I suppose, and most have learned the hard way not to trust a man who says, “trust me.” It’s like when the president says, “I will not send American boys to fight in Viet Nam,” or “I am not a crook” or “The next explosion will be a mushroom cloud.” All notorious presidential lies! And sadly, as a wise poet once said, “When our leaders lie, young men die.” Or, to cite just the latest lie from the financial community, “These new fangled mortgage instruments are all AAA rated even though you and we don’t really understand them.” Think how much money has been lost as a result of that lie! It’s a wonder we believe anybody anymore.

Jesus had slightly more luck with Nicodemus. To each stumbling objection that Nicodemus raises, Jesus reassures him, “Very truly, I tell you.” In other words, Jesus says to Nicodemus and us, “I know this doesn’t make sense, it’s not supposed to make sense, just trust me on this one. These wild and crazy notions I preach are all true! It is what it is!”

Nicodemus was an establishment type. He was educated. He was a part of the governing council of his community. He was a person of some affluence. He was part of the establishment, just like us, I suppose: educated, reasonably affluent, part of the social milieu from which the community leaders come. It is not very often that we in this congregation have real rebels in the pews. For good or ill, we are the establishment. We are the people who do the work and tend the professions and other endeavors that make the community function. We are not here to upset the world or turn things upside down. We are establishment types just like Nicodemus.

Also like Nicodemus, we are people who are curious about Jesus. You would not be here today if you did not have a certain pull, a certain curiosity, a certain desire to know and understand Jesus Christ. Nicodemus came to visit Jesus in the night, and that probably was much more than a matter of the time of day. Nicodemus came to visit Jesus while Nicodemus was in the dark. He was in the dark about Jesus but he was curious and interested. He had some sense that this rabbi was someone of great importance, and he came to visit and to try to understand. In so doing, he is like us. You are here because you felt that tug on your heart. You care about Jesus. You want to understand. You are at least open to the possibility of following him. We are like Nicodemus, and he is like us: in the dark, but wanting to understand.

In his confusion about Jesus, he tried to apply his intellect, his learning, and the values of his culture. But still he could not understand what in the world Jesus was talking about. Though we may not like to admit it, the same is true for us. When Nicodemus and Jesus talked, they talked past each other. Jesus and Nicodemus never really connected. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in his curiosity and his interest, and he says, "You must be someone from God." Jesus replied that if Nicodemus wanted to know the kingdom of God, he had to be born again or anew or from above. The conversation flew apart as each talked past the other.

Nicodemus must have felt like a character in an Abott and Costello routine. “Who’s On First,” comes to mind. The conversation just does not connect. It all made sense to Jesus, of course, but not to Nicodemus, nor perhaps to many of us, I suspect.

Nicodemus may have been one of the first people confused by Jesus and what he said, but he was not the last. We, too, think that the application of our intellect, our education and the values of our culture will get us to an understanding of Jesus, but we are kidding ourselves. Tell me what there is in our intellect, training, education or culture that helps us understand this statement by Jesus: "if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn and offer the left." Is that advice that really makes sense? Is that advice that fits the way in which we are trained and educated and the direction of our society? What kind of foreign policy would such thinking lead to? Does the president, as he said, really take his lead on foreign policy from a Jesus who says to turn the other cheek? Can it be that Jesus really does not want us to strike back when terrorists attack? Well, to paraphrase our Lord: It is what it is!

What about when Jesus said, "If you would follow me, you must take up your cross"? We have so much made the cross a work of art or a piece of jewelry that it is easy to forget that Jesus said, "Follow me and you will end up on the cross, too.” That is not something we easily comprehend, understand, assimilate nor do we want to. To which Jesus just responds, again: “it is what it is.”

Or what about when Jesus said, "If you would save your life, you must lose it"? There is not a single self-help book on the shelves of the bookstores that advises that life can become great by giving it away. The papers are full of self help seminars and advice columns advising us how to live life to the fullest, and how to marshal our resources to see that we can continue to spend forever. Saving for our retirement has spawned a whole new industry in financial advice. Save, save, save, advises one segment of the economy. Spend, spend, spend, of course, screams another part of our world: more convincingly from all appearances. Even our government is worried that we are not spending enough. Am I the only one who wonders why it is that the government wants us to spend more money to cure the economy when the current problems seem to be caused by spending too much money – money that it turns out we didn’t really have? Seldom does anyone tell us that in order to save our money, we should give it away. I believe money is like children. We just have our children on loan from God for a few years while they grow up. Our real job in life to turn our kids lose equipped to be Christian disciples. Money is like that. It finds its greatest value when we give it away. Talk about being counter culture, however. If we treated money as Jesus would have us treat life, and in many ways our money is our life, our economy, not to mention the entire banking and investment economy would crumble. In regard to our money and our lives, Jesus said, "Throw it away and then you will find it." That is not something we can easily understand. It just is what it is.

Perhaps most mysterious of all is Jesus' statement to Nicodemus and to us that we must be born anew. Too often people use this text to imply somehow that you can be born anew by a decision or by an act of the will. But we are not born originally by a decision or an act of will on our part. We did not use some sort of prenatal judgment to come to a decision or an intention to be born. It was a gift that was unwanted, unasked for, and unmerited. It is what it is. When Jesus says we must be born anew, he is talking about just that sort of thing. He says it is like the wind. The wind blows, and we really don't know where it comes from or where it is going, but we experience it nonetheless. If we are to know the Gospel, if we are to be born again we must open ourselves to this wind and let it blow us away.

In other words, one of these days, the wind of the love of God in Jesus Christ will sweep over you in such a way that it literally blows you away and you will experience what Jesus was talking about in these nonsensical teachings: Turn the other cheek. Take up the cross. Find life by losing it. Be born anew. The grace and love and mystery of God will sweep over you like a mighty wind and take you where you never imagined it possible to go.

“Trust me,” Jesus tells Nicodemus and us, there is a great mystery at the center of our faith where the wind of God blows us around. The mystery of new birth in Christ is an experience of the presence of God. It is what it is!

Offertory Sentence

Out of the abundance of our gifts, we give to God. As we have been blessed, we seek to be a blessing to the world.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We thank you, O God, for the community of believers who have gone before us, whose stories we recall today. Thank you for Abraham and Sarah who trusted in you in spite of the difficulties they faced. Thank you for Paul, the former enemy of yours who became your friend and disciple, who has taught us to know faith as a gift and not a product of our own hard work. And thank you for Nicodemus, a person with so many questions about you that he dared to come to Jesus only at night. Knowing that he, too, became a believer helps us to know we can boldly bring our questions to you also. Thank you for those other not-so-famous people who have encouraged us to believe in you - moms and dads, grandparents and teachers, pastors and friends. Thank you for those treasured and comforting words of the Bible that tell us so simply that "God so loved the world . . . " It is the assurance of that love that fills our hearts to overflowing. And thank you for all who worship you this day, all in this congregation, and all throughout the world. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Offertory Prayer

Receive our gifts, O God, in response to your great love. Use us to be a blessing to the world.

Amen.