Born Again - In Zion
Originally scheduled for May 18
The story as told to me went something like
this. In the 1930’s
Hitler’s persecution of the Jews drove the storyteller’s father to
announce to his family that they were emigrating to America.
The storyteller, being about ten years old at the time,
thought America to be
much too far away. There were plenty of other countries much closer.
Why America?
“Because,” his father answered, “We are Americans.
We were just born in the wrong country.”
Christians are like that.
We are all born into Satan’s world, born into the kingdom
which will someday be cast into hell.
But Christians don’t emigrate; they’re reborn.
They are reborn into God’s kingdom.
That’s us:
born again. How
do we do this?
·
There is the outward symbol of
rebirth: baptism.
It is a picture of death, burial and resurrection – and the
start of a new life.
·
Inwardly, we are born of the Holy
Spirit. When we allow
that new spirit in, we are reborn spiritually.
One songwriter put it this way.
He pictured Jesus at the last judgment, picking out one of
his children and saying,
“This one was born in Zion;
Make no mistake, this one is mine.”
That’s us: born in Zion.
There is no mistake; we belong to Christ.
He asks us to remember that rebirth
by remembering what He had to do to obtain it for us.
Think first of the tremendous humbling He went through:
born into our world, as a baby, just like us.
The Incarnation is indeed a supreme miracle, and without it
we could not be born again.
The price he asks us to remember is his
crucifixion. The bread
is his body; the cup is his blood.
Taken together they tell us the story of his agony on the
Cross. This is the price
– the nail scarred hands, the pierced feet, the wounded side – shown
to us each time we take communion.
Remember that you are indeed born again – and remember the
price he paid for it.
