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 Gail
O’Day sees John using anothen as a double entendre that could mean either "from above" or
"again." Translators have dealt Bible readers disservice by not reflecting such
ambiguity. "Until we restore the intentional double meaning of anothen to this verse, we will be
unable to interpret Jesus’ words correctly."
• Nicodemus hits a dead-end because he
understands the word only at one level of meaning-literally. That does present problems
for someone pushing sixty-five.
• The proclaimer / listener / reader
needs to struggle with these two possibilities of meanings. In the meaning of this nearly
untranslatable Greek word lies the clue that becomes a stumbling block for Nicodemus and
for those Christians today who want simple answers.
• Jesus wants Nicodemus’ perplexity to
open up new possibilities of being born from above. "No one can enter the kingdom of
God without being born of water and Spirit," may be the writer’s personal plea
to his own community about baptism as the radical reshaping of existence from encountering
Jesus.
 Frederick Buechner
captures well Nicodemus’ "huh?" response to Jesus’ insistence on new
birth. "Maybe Nicodemus had six honorary doctorates and half a column in
Who’s Who, Jesus said, but if he couldn’t see something as plain as the nose on
his face, he’d better go back to kindergarten."
• God has already provided everything
necessary for our salvation and for our Christian journey. But each of us must say yes to
God’s grace-not just once, but again and again.
• Orthodox Theologian, Fr. Thomas
Hopko:
Continuous conversion is a process of continual dying:
to ourselves, to our opinions, to our power, to our understanding. As we do so, we are
constantly being born from above, constantly being raised from death into the newness of
life that Christ gives to us . . . we live out this continuous cycle of death and
resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 Sermon ideas-"Continuous
Conversion" / "Grace, Not Magic."
• Please see homily below for just one way to
block this passage to form a homily.
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