Thoughts at a Christmas Service and After

The phrase "born again" was used in a traditional song tonight, somewhere after a line implying a resurrection. The resurrection verse struck me, and as it was in my head, when I heard the phrase "born again" I started wondering if perhaps that could be one thing it means--resurrected.

As I began to think of the infamous verse, John 3:5, where it is written: "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit," I began I thought of the kingdom of God as a (fully?) renewed earth, though I do believe that all are resurrected, so I guess this "meaning" doesn't quite add up.

Perhaps, then, being "born again" means being baptized, and perhaps, as I like to think of it, that baptism is a rebirth into a new community, a new family, where not familial blood, but perhaps Jesus' blood, as entered into by water and spirit, is the binding factor. The kingdom of God, then, could be the work of the community of God, the Church, of the past, present, and future, in a kingdom that (I think?) will be restored when Jesus returns.

I think I like the idea of a new birth as an entrance into a new family, and I also think, though it may not line up "perfectly" and "logically," that I like the idea of being "born again" at least as a symbolic depiction of an entrance into a present family and a future (after resurrection) garden.

Amen.