Within each of us, there is a longing that draws us beyond ourselves. We reach out to something that is calling us. There is a sense of belonging to something that is greater, something or someone that gives us a sense of meaning.

In our desperate attempts to identify what it is we desire to belong to, we call it God, Jehovah, Allah, Yahweh. We believe that this Divine being created us for a purpose, and we are a reflection or image of the Divine. This God is our Lord, and we are His people. We believe that this One God, the Creator of all that is good.

We are fortunate that we possess sacred writings, Scriptures, which unfold for us some of the mysteries of this God of ours. They tell us something about the relationship between our God and his people. The Scriptures are an essential part of our understanding of God. These holy books are not straightforward histories that can be read and understood as we would read the Fall and Rise of the Roman Empire. It is not something that can be made simple; it is not something that can be comprehended. This is where our search for the unknowable God, which we believe in, becomes difficult.

There is a danger in reading Scripture in a literalistic manner that was never intended. The fact that these holy books were written at a certain point in time places them within a different period of thought than our own. The most effective approach to reading Scripture is the fundamentalist approach. I believe this approach is easy because it is the unthinking approach to Scripture. It is also the safe way to read Scripture because we do not restrict the mystery of God to something we can comprehend. We confine the infiniteness within the limits of the books we hold as holy. But the God we discover is a God created in our image, not the God who is, was and will be.

In today’s passage from the Gospel of John, we discover a fascinating encounter between two teachers; or at least we discover the end of that encounter. In the preceding verses, we encounter a private conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. Nicodemus strives to understand what is behind the miracles that Jesus has performed. The darkness hides their conversation from those who would not understand. As a leading Pharisee, it would be foolish for him to be seen with Jesus, but as a searcher for the truth, he takes this opportunity.

Jesus tries to explain to him the mystery as one teacher to another, but Nicodemus cannot comprehend the secrets that have been revealed only to him who has descended from above. How can he possibly comprehend that which is not of this world unless he believes in the testimony of the One who has knowledge? Jesus contrasts life and light with darkness and evil. It is in the darkness that two men encounter, yet it is in the search for enlightenment that Nicodemus has come. It is by being enlightened by God that we are transformed beyond the confines of our mortal state. It is only then that we can emerge from the darkness of ignorance and the hidden repercussions of our lives where evil is present.

The path we take leads us from darkness to light, from evil and death to life. It leads us to a knowledge of the God who created us and transforms us from this life to the endless life. However, with this growing knowledge of God, there is a growing sense of self-awareness. This is the cause of rebirth, as we allow ourselves to be transformed by God. This is the difficult journey we are on, the road of uncertainty in the present. This is the struggle between understanding the God in whose image we are created rather than confining God to the image we desire to possess. It is the difference between the God of the fundamentalist reduced to pages of a Sacred text and the God who raises us beyond what our eyes can perceive, and our ears can hear.

As we read through the passage from 2 Chronicles, many images may emerge from our minds in these days. However, beware of taking the easy path. For God to be our God, we must first let God be our God. Only then can we dare summon his name and open ourselves up to his merciful judgement.