January 25, 2026

Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus

“Born Anew”

by Rev. Trip Porch

January 25, 2026 Based on John 3:1-21

On Election Day 2020, journalist Mónica Guzmán sat with her parents watching the returns come in. She is a liberal journalist living in Seattle, writing for progressive outlets, shaped by a political imagination very different from the ones her parents held. Her parents are Mexican immigrants who voted for Donald Trump. As the numbers flickered across the screen that night, her father said something that stopped her cold. He said he was afraid that because of their political differences, he might not get to see his grandchildren any more. Think about that for a moment.
A father, afraid that a vote might cost him his family. It’s the moment that made Monica lean forward, that made her want to stay in relationship, lean forward, and try to understand why her parents felt Mónica writes about this moment in her book I Never Thought of It That Way, a book about how people talk across differences that feel impossibly wide. She describes how she and her parents love each other deeply, share the same faith, want good things for the world, and yet see completely different paths for how the world should work. And still, somehow, they keep talking. They keep listening. They keep choos ing relationship over being right. But here is something crucial that Mónica names and that matters deeply for us today. Those conversa tions are only possible because everyone involved recognizes the basic dignity of the other. They are pos sible because no one in that living room is afraid for their life. Dialogue only works when all parties are treated as fully human. Which brings us to tonight.
And to a conversation that happens under the cover of darkness. Nicodemus, a leader among the Pharisees, comes to Jesus at night. Maybe he is afraid of what his col leagues would think. Maybe he wants privacy for an honest conversation. Maybe the darkness itself is part of the point. John loves a metaphor. Here is this man, powerful and educated, a teacher of Israel, coming to Jesus and saying something re markably humble. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.” This is a conversation that should not have happened. Nicodemus represents institutional power. Jesus has been disrupting the system, overturning tables, calling out exploitation, unsettling the religious au thorities. These two stand on opposite sides of real tension. And yet Nicodemus comes, because he be lieves Jesus is worth listening to. And Jesus receives him. That matters. Because dialogue only happens when dignity is assumed. Jesus does not humiliate Nicode mus. He does not dismiss him. He does not demand a confession or a loyalty oath. He engages him as a human being capable of growth and transformation. Jesus says, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Born again. Born anew. A second birth, not of flesh, but of water and Spirit. Nicodemus is baffled. “How can anyone be born after having grown old?” He takes it literally, because that is what learned people do. We want things to make sense. We want control. We want clarity before com mitment. But Jesus is talking about something deeper. A transformation so profound it feels like starting over. A new way of seeing the world. A reorientation of the heart. Then Jesus says the verse everyone knows. The one on billboards and bumper stickers. John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” We have heard this verse used as a threat. Believe or else. As if God’s love has conditions. As if faith is a transaction. But listen to what comes next. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Not to condemn.
To save. This is not a warning. It is an announcement. God so loved the world. This world. The one we are actually living in. The world of fear and division and violence and grief. And we have to name that today, because we are not preaching this text in a vacuum. Just yesterday, another unarmed protestor, someone observing ICE operations, was killed. A life taken by the state. A person whose dignity was not protected. A person whose presence was treated as a threat ra ther than as human. This is not abstract. This is not theoretical. We are living in a precarious and dangerous time. When people can be killed for watching. For bearing witness. For standing too close to power. And here is the hard truth that John 3 forces us to confront. The conversation between Jesus and Nicode mus only happens because both men are treated as human. Dialogue is impossible when violence enters the room. You cannot be born anew when your life is disposable. God did not send the Son to condemn the world. God entered the world to interrupt systems that crush life. To expose darkness. To insist that dignity is not optional. Jesus goes on to say that people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. But maybe the darkness is not only about evil. Maybe it is about fear. Fear of losing control. Fear of losing power. Fear of a world where we are accountable to one another. Light is dangerous when it reveals how much harm we have normalized. Mónica Guzmán talks about sorting, othering, and siloing. Sorting ourselves into safe groups. Othering those who scare us. Siloing ourselves inside echo chambers. We all do this. Every one of us. But Jesus does something else. Jesus enters the darkness, not to affirm it, but to transform it. He sits down with Nicodemus and invites him into a new way of seeing. Being born anew does not mean pretending everything is fine. It does not mean false balance. It does not mean dialogue at the expense of justice. Being born anew means refusing to accept a world where some lives are expendable. It means seeing clearly enough to say that state sanctioned violence is incompatible with the kingdom of God. It means understanding that love does not stand at a distance. Love shows up. Love grieves. Love resists. Nicodemus does not change overnight. But he changes. He speaks up when others want to silence Jesus. He shows up when Jesus is killed. He brings spices and care to a broken body. Transformation takes time. It happens through relationship. Through staying in the conversation. Through allowing the Spirit to blow where it will. So here is the invitation tonight. What if being born anew does not mean having the right answers, but having the courage to tell the truth about the world we are in. What if it means refusing to confuse peace with silence. What if it means stand ing with those whose dignity is under threat and saying their lives matter to God. God so loved the world. Not an ideal world. This one.
And that love does not condemn, but it also does not look away. May we have the courage of Nicodemus to come with our questions.
May we have the clarity of Jesus to name what destroys life.
And may we be born anew, again and again, into a love fierce enough to protect dignity, wide enough to hold grief, and strong enough to resist violence. Amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                                 “Will You Come and Follow Me?”                                                   arr. P.F. Tillen 

INTROIT                               “The Night Has Passed”                                  Emma Lou Diemer

WELCOME                                                                    Rev. Trip Porch

One: This is the day that the Lord has made

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

*CALL TO WORSHIP                                                                   

One: God calls us from many places into this moment.

Many: We come seeking light, truth, and new life.

One: The Spirit moves among us like wind, full of promise.

Many: We open our hearts to God’s renewing work.

All: Let us worship the God who brings life from above.

*HYMN 634                                    “To God Be the Glory”                          TO GOD BE THE GLORY 

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                               Dirk White  

Loving God, you know us completely and love us deeply. You see our careful striving, our desire to live well, and our longing for certainty. At times we hold tightly to what feels familiar and safe, even as your Spirit invites us into new life. We confess that we hesitate before change, resist vulnerability, and struggle to trust what we cannot control. Open our hearts to receive the life you offer. Breathe your Spirit into our fear and our hope, and shape us into people who live with trust, courage, and love. Amen.

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON                                                         Rev. Trip Porch 

*RESPONSE OF PARDON 583            “Gloria, Gloria” 2 times                                   GLORIA (TAIZE)

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                                                  

One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

All:      And also with you.

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD

ANTHEM                           "God So Loved the World”                                           Bob Chilcott        

GODLY PLAY 

  Congregation: May God be with you there   

    Children: May God be with you here.               

CHILDREN’S RECESSIONAL 175      “Seek Ye First” vs. 1

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION                                                                

SCRIPTURE      John 3:1-21         MSG

There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish leader. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we all know you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren’t in on it.”

Jesus said, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom.”

Nicodemus replied, “How can anyone, be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this ‘born-from-above’ talk?” 

Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering- over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.

“So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.”

Nicodemus asked, “What do you mean by this? How does this happen?”

Jesus said, “You’re a respected teacher of Israel and you don’t know these basics? Listen carefully… No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

“This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”

 One: Holy wisdom, Holy Word,
All: Thanks be to God

SERMON                                                                                Rev. Trip Porch

WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN                         “Like the Wind Song”                                                 WAIRUS TAPU

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE  followed by the Lord’s Prayer 

TIME OF OFFERING   online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

OFFERTORY                         “Daisies in the Wind”                               James Michael Stevens

*OFFERTORY RESPONSE 607       “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow”        OLD HUNDREDTH

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION 

Gracious God, receive these gifts as signs of our trust and gratitude. Use them to nurture life in this community, to bring light to our neighborhood, and to share your love throughout the world. May all that we offer be shaped by your Spirit and used for the flourishing of creation. Amen.

*HYMN 488                        “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry”                                                     WATERLIFE

TIME OF SHARING

CHARGE & BENEDICTION 

CHORAL RESPONSE                     “Go Forth for God”                                           Kenneth Dake

POSTLUDE                                   “To God Be the Glory”                      arr. Pamela M. Robertson