April 2: Born Again from Above
♫ Music:
Tuesday, April 2
Born Again from Above
Scriptures: John 3:3-8, 13-15
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And 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.”
Poetry:
Baptism
by T. Crunk
The river is a wound in the earth.
The river is the clay-red blood of love
pulling its silence through us.
Hymnal of sunlight, black script of trees--
a hand passes over bereft of its shadow.
And the soul is a small glass boat setting out.
(A vine hangs down into the water:
a strand of lightning ossified.)
BORN AGAIN INTO GOD’S KINGDOM
The Kingdom of God is so holy, so other-than, that we cannot even perceive it through our earthly lenses. Nor can we enter into it by simply changing our dress, learning a new language, or training ourselves to think and act differently. To become a citizen of this wholly different place, we must undergo such a change that it will be like being birthed for the first time all over again. We must enter into His new world the way we came into this one: naked, knowing nothing, and ready to learn everything for the first time.
Like a natural birth, the spiritual rebirth is not something we can accomplish by ourselves. Just as no one can birth him or herself, no one can make him or herself into a citizen of God’s Kingdom. We can only submit ourselves to the process, led by someone who operates entirely outside of our control, of whom we have only the most rudimentary understanding.
Yet, unlike a natural birth, which occurs without our consent, the spiritual rebirth is one we must choose. In doing so, we must let go of all our preconceived notions of God’s Kingdom, which tend to be based on the cultural practices and beliefs we have absorbed from this world. We must be humble enough to learn from square one, to give up everything we thought we knew before, and embrace new ways of being that may be excruciating, or wondrous, or both. This sounds simple enough in theory, but how does one actually achieve such a level of humility and openness to this new way of being, especially one so different from all we have known and practiced until that point? The answer is, of course, by dying.
Before we can enter into God’s new life, we must leave our old one behind, and the only way to fully do so is to die. This, if we consider it seriously, is a terrifying thought—which is presumably why many refuse Jesus’s invitation to new life. New life sounds appealing, but death is what most of the world spends all of its energies trying to avoid. In reality, birth and death are both mysterious and incomprehensible in their own ways. Gor Soudan’s sculpture, “Resurrection Untitled XII,” is a powerful and visceral depiction of both. Hands and feet grip the cross in agony, as the mortal body is pulled apart, severed from itself. Yet, what is left looks strangely whole, like a brand-new being, formed from the very essence of the old one. Rather than looking merely broken, the body actually looks as though it has broken freeand is now ascending. Death and birth occur in the same moment: this is how we are born again.
Often, Christians speak of being born again as if it happens only once, at the “conversion moment.” Though this is true, it is perhaps more useful to think of the spiritual rebirth as something that happens on a seasonal basis, just as it does in nature. We are continually dying—shedding old patterns and ways of being—to receive new life from God: renewed relationships, renewed courage to take the next step of faith, renewed beliefs about God and ourselves, all leading to renewed love for Him, ourselves, and others. Take time today to thank God for this beautiful process, and ask Him for grace to surrender to it fully once again.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for the death that brings forth new life. Please increase my desire for rebirth and renewal in all areas of my life. I confess that I am sometimes still afraid to die to myself. Thank you that you do not despise me for that, but that you are a sympathetic and empathetic High Priest who has gone before me, paving the way with your own blood. Today I set my will to give You every part of myself, so that I may be transformed again and receive still more of Your abundant life.
Amen
Christina Gonzalez Ho
Writer, Co-founder of Estuaries
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Resurrection Untitled XII, 2013
Resurrection: The Fire Next Time Exhibition
Gor Soudan
Protest wire and Burmese teak
Overall installation: 300cm x 300cm
Resurrection Untitled XII was one of 13 protest-wire sculptures exhibited at the Nairobi National Museum at Resurrection: The Fire Next Time, an exhibition curated by Olutosin Onile-Ere Rotimi, founder of the Iroko Art Consultants. Resurrection Untitled XII is composed of protest-wire and railway sleepers from the Kenya-Uganda railway line. Soudan recovers what he calls “protest-wire” from car tires burnt during the riots that accompanied political party nominations before Kenya’s last general elections. He then renders the burnt strands in to a mesh by weaving the wire together – an arduous process, which has left his hands, scarred and almost took out an eye. Soudan uses these woven wire skins to produce abstract human bodies. His protest-wire sculptures have an ethereal, ephemeral feel that causes us to reflect on both the beauty of the human form but also its transient, impermanent and spiritual nature. For this work, several three-dimensional forms were hung together, producing an image of Christ on the cross. Although none of the parts touched, our minds work to fill in the gaps to construe the iconic image of Christ on the cross.
About the Artist:
Gor Soudan (b. 1983) is a conceptual artist living and working in Kisumu and Nairobi, Africa. Often subtly engaged with contemporary political and social issues, and embedded in urban culture, Soudan's artistic practice is an organic process through which everyday material is transformed into powerful work. He has worked with a variety of material including: pages of the Kenyan constitution, old cardboard boxes, garbage bags, empty cigarette packs, acrylics, and ‘protest wire’ - a tangled black mass of wire he salvaged from car tires burnt during civil unrests in Nairobi. His practice and the aesthetically captivating works he produces provide acute, often satirical observations and commentary on the rapid socio-political transformation Africa, and Kenya in particular, is undergoing.
About the Music:
“For” from the album Erased Tapes Collection IV
About the Composer and the Performer:
Nils Frahm (b. 1982) is a German musician, composer, and record producer based in Berlin, Germany. He is known for combining classical and electronic music and for his unconventional approach to the piano, in which he mixes a grand piano, upright piano, Roland Juno-60, Rhodes piano, drum machines, and Moog Taurus. Frahm had an early introduction to music, as his father, Klaus Frahm, was a photographer who also designed covers for ECM Records. He grew up near Hamburg, where he learned the musical styles of the classical pianists as well as contemporary composers. In addition to his solo work, Frahm has released collaborations with notable performers such as Anne Müller, Ólafur Arnalds, F. S. Blumm, and Woodkid. Together with Frederic Gmeiner and Sebastian Singwald, he records and performs as Nonkeen.
About the Poet:
T. (Tony) Crunk (b. 1956) is a poet whose debut collection, Living in the Resurrection, won the Yale Series of Younger Poets (1994). Other volumes of poetry by Crunk include Cumberland and New Covenant Bound.
About the Devotional Writer:
Christina Gonzalez Ho
Writer, Co-founder of Estuaries
Christina Gonzalez Ho holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 2018, Christina co-authored Los Angeles: Mestizo Archipelago (Pinatubo Press), the culmination of a yearlong research project on the complex and disparate nature of the L.A. art world and its relationship to faith and spirituality.