Birth, rebirth, baptism, born again,
born of the spirit, renewed, restored.
Re-awakened, reconciled, reconciliation sorry, so sorry
So, so sorry.

This Wednesday we all witnessed a historic moment
in the life of our great southern land,
this Wednesday the Australian government, elected by the Australian people,
said Sorry to the stolen generations.
And this Wednesday, Australia was reborn.

Reborn, renewed, restored, born, born again,
Baptised with the Holy Spirit who reconciles all life into herself.
This Wednesday we were as a country, born again, of the spirit.
And today's encounter with the Nicodemus text invites us into the
perennial challenge: can we, as individuals, be born again?
Can we look deep into our own hearts and pasts and passion
and allow ourselves to be as children, full of hope and wonder,
and can we enter ever more fully into the mystery of divine revelation
and claim anew our identity as disciples?

Can we, as theologian Sandra Sneider asks:
'Do the truth' which Christ asks Nicodemus to do?
The 'doing of the truth' is what Australia did last Wednesday,
When we looked the past squarely in the eye
and acknowledged that great wrong was done
and in this looking, in this naming, in this claiming of reality
we set ourselves and our indigenous brothers and sisters free.
Free to move forward together as one people, one body, one future.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaking before the apology took place said
that the parliamentary apology to the stolen generations will remove
a:
"blight on the nation's soul" and has the overwhelming support of Australians.
The word blight implies blot, stain, scar, dis-ease,
it implies ruination and severe damage.

To have such a shadow removed, cleansed wiped clean is a profound act.
In the early days of Christian life baptism was understood to be a
ritual cleansing which symbolized admission into a new family, a new
life.

It was, as we know, only later around the 4th century that baptism
came to be associated with the stain, the blot, the scar of original
sin.
And although we, in the progressive tradition, have let go of such
destructive theologies, there are many in our faith who still fear
this association.

The power of any act, any ritual or word
rests in the intention, which lies within.
Thus the power of baptism rests in the intention
of the Christian community in relationship with Christ
Just as the power of the apology rests
in the intention of the Australian people
in relationship with a shared compassionate understanding
of what it means to be human.

In our reading today Nicodemus does not understand
how you can possibly be born again.
He is thinking only with his practical mind,
only with his rationalist brain.

As UCA theologian William Loader writes:
Nicodemus serves as a stereotype of people who remain stuck with one
level of thinking and can't see beyond it. Nicodemus needs to become a
different kind of person to be able to see.'
He is,
(like those who still maintain that that an apology for the stolen generation
was unnecessary)
not seeing the power of the symbolic action and not realising that
until this symbolic action, be it baptism or apology
has taken place
new life, true life cannot begin.

In the words of Loader again:
Jesus confronts Nicodemus with the need for a totally new beginning,
radically portrayed as starting life all over again:
'Unless you are born from above you cannot see the kingdom of God'.
Reflecting on a recent radio interview with the indigenous musician
Archie Roach journalist Tracie Hutchinson wrote:
Archie sat opposite me in a radio studio
and told me how much it mattered
that one of the first priorities of PM Rudd
would be an apology to the stolen generations — an apology to people
like him and his partner Ruby Hunter,
who was also taken away from her family as a child.

Outside the studio, Ruby Hunter listened attentively to Archie's words.
Never looking up but never missing a word.
And inside, as Archie retold his story of being taken away by
protective services officers from Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve,
something very heavy was beginning to shift.

There was something in the song man's face that even he didn't recognise.
A dark cloud was lifting.
Loader writes of how today's passage from John
'is ultimately about love and that the focus is on God
and our relationship with God.
This ongoing relationship is what matters most.
This relationship is modelled and embodied in Jesus
(and it is)
a relationship of love,
love flowing in all directions - including out into the world to all people.'
Before he made his historic apology our prime minister met with an
elderly indigenous woman.

This woman spoke of hiding in the riverbank to escape the welfare.
She spoke of her mother running alongside the truck
that carried the children away, she spoke of how she never saw her mother again
and of how her brothers and she believed that her mother died of broken heart.
Because you would wouldn't you?
You just would.

Rudd then asked this woman what she would like him to say to the
Australian people
and she said, amongst other things:
'Just tell them that all mothers should be respected.'
We have many beautiful mothers and grandmothers here with us today.
And we have many beautiful mothers and grandmothers
who are present in our hearts.
And we have especially our lovely Melinda mother of our baptised girls
and her glowing godmothers.
None of us would disagree with this elderly woman's words.
God too can be understood as a metaphor of mother god
The mother who give birth to us again and again
and who rebirths us in baptism with the spirit.
In saying sorry to our indigenous people
we are also saying sorry to God
for the terrible mistakes that our church, in generations past,
carried out in Gods name.
Wednesday was a good day my friends,
On Wednesday we were born again.

So lets grow up strong and true this time, lets grow up with respect and love,
Lets grow up together.