• Think back to a time when you had a Peek Spiritual Experience of being born again from above, born of the Spirit. < pause >

• Remember a time when you particularly felt a Connection with the Divine, or union with Christ. < pause >

Doug Huneke:

Although I grew up in a staunchly evangelical church and still have some of the sawdust trail between my toes, I am very edgy with the stereotypic language of "born again" religions: the zealous fundamentalism and moral judgment; the guilt and fear used to bind souls rather than the love and awe that opens the human heart to new life in Christ.

Spiritual conversion means to "turn around," to live with a new orientation and compass, to reunite with the Divine Spirit that lives in our inmost being, and to then daily live new life out of the rebirth-from-above. Turn around, turn toward the Divine and choose to align your whole self with God.

Born again: a transforming moment akin to angioplasty that unclogs the spiritual artery between the human Soul and the Divine heart.

To be born again from above must inspire awe, liberate from fear, evoke grace not guilt, and uplift not beat down. People are born again from above for a variety of reasons:

• some decide to confront and change an inner demon or troubled behavior in order to have a new start in life;

• for some ‘born again’ is a long, slow labor and delivery with stops and starts, surprises and epiphanies, questions and doubts;

• others simply continue naturally growing into the faith they always had; and

• for others it is like falling in love, opening the heart to the Divine Lover, and choosing that love.

To be born from above can be dramatic or quiet, sudden or magically mystical. To be born from above involves the whole being: body and emotions, the senses and intellect. Regardless of the genesis or the form, to be born again from above is the essential, transforming Christian experience. But it is not a litmus test, nor is it a one-size-fits-all, once-in-a-lifetime experience. In my experience there are five markers when we are born again from above:

• living in complete openness to the Divine Spirit,

• deepening consciousness of spiritual union (of "Christ living in me"),

• an inner journey of intensifying self-awareness in which you are really paying attention to yourself; and to the awe of being created in the image of God (Psalm 139),

• meeting life with a sense of radical amazement and thankfulness,

• accepting the wideness of God’s welcome, mercy, grace, and love.

My Methodist maternal grandmother insisted that you only needed one baptism, and to be born again just once to be right with Jesus! With all due respect to her faithful soul, that’s not my experience. When I am living my faith each day, every time I am conscious of Christ living in me, I am born from above, again and again and again. When I lose mindfulness and turn around back to God, I realign myself: born again! Whenever I open my heart to Jesus’ love, or stand in awe before my Creator, or face a demon, or change a bad spot in my life, or inexplicably feel the Spirit filling me up, or give myself to the embrace of love, I am born again --- born again from above, again and again and again!

As Dr. Phil would ask, Ted, "So how is this born again thing working for you?"
 

Ted Scott’s response:

I echo many of the things Doug has said, since we have had many similar early-life experiences.

I approach the whole thing about being born again with two distinct responses. First, distaste with simplistic evangelical approaches: "are you born again, brother?" Have you got Jesus in your heart? Because if you’re not right with God you’re in the outer darkness." Personal confession: my parents took me to Bible conferences where just those questions were asked. And I agonized over whether to raise my hand and say yes or not. I didn’t want to go to hell. I also resented being manipulated and made afraid. Such approaches aren’t healthy from my point of view.

And yet there’s something about the notion of being born again which is exactly right, even if evangelicals can lay it on pretty crudely. There’s just no way to live seriously with Jesus teachings without being reborn or reworked from within in some fashion. Because it means being aware of and in dialogue with spirit, being an "open system"—open to grace, to spirit, to other human beings. It means becoming more concerned, compassionate, committed, less egotistical over time.

I had a seminary teacher who held that Christians and other people of faith were more radically in the world—rather than less-worldly—because of being born again. He said that being twice-born means that we are more sharply aware of the ways in which the world is messed up and cruel than people who are once-born. It means that we are more sensitized rather than desensitized. That we have less rationalization and denial about true conditions than do others who are not opened up and exposed by the dynamics of a spiritual life.

What we see in Jesus our teacher is someone who was radically present, noticing the human and social needs around him, as well as the religious posturing. That was why he was known as a healer as well as a teacher. He heals people, helps them look into their souls, feeds people’s bodies while talking about feeding their souls. But there’s a mystery in this born-again stuff. Zaccheus asks, "how is it that a grownup can be born again." On the face of it it’s strange, even stupid. It’s only not strange when we experience the power and urgings of the Spirit in our lives, or when we look at the example and being of Jesus, the extra dimension always present.

As we worship here today, my brother John is in the hospital, battling with non-Hodgins lymphoma and a non-functional esophagus. He’s been exposed in recent weeks to the full range of acute-care modern medicine: seen by radiologists, hematologists, internal medicine, oncologists, nutrition specialists, gastrointestinal experts and so on. As a physician he appreciates their technical expertise. As a human being he has been through the wringer and the roller coaster: the stark fear of feeling an aggressive tumor expanding daily and attacking his body, the relief of feeling it diminish from chemotherapy, the anguish of discovering a second major problem. As a Christian, he has often commented on the sense of grace he feels in the treatment he’s received: its quality of care, of serendipitous timing leading repeatedly to wise solutions, and the hidden presence of people who are praying for his recovery. Born-again-ness becomes part of us, especially when we are in the valley of the shadow.

Doug holds that born-again-ness is progressive, throughout life. I agree. There are certainly moments, even turning points, when we are more open to the Spirit than others. These are wonderful when they occur. And there is the slow, less dramatic process of day-to-day. You perhaps know the saying; freedom is having no choice. Certainly that’s true for us who are conscious of the Spirit in our lives. Spirit is as gentle as the lightest breeze and penetrating as a x-ray. It urges us to be deeper in ourselves, our gifts, our world. It honors us and goes beyond us. It’s a loving touch from the One whom we are part of. What could be finer in this life than progressive renewal and rebirth? So I express this hope: that you and I are being born again. That we are allowing God to work through us, touching us with water and the Spirit.