Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

 

March 29, 2009: Fifth Sunday in Lent

 

Gospel: John 12.20-33

 

[Note:  The following translation is from The New Testament by Professor Norman A. Beck of Texas Lutheran University.  It is “A new translation and redaction that dares to be sensitive to anti-Jewish polemic and to sexism, and dares to be innovative for our time by moving back into the past of early church development and forward into the future of the church that is still to come.”]

 

20 And there were some Greeks among those who had gone up to Jerusalem to worship God in the Passover festival. 21 These Greeks came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him where Jesus was and said, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus;’ 22 Philip went to Andrew and told him about this. Then Andrew and Philip went together and relayed the request to Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come in which the Son of Man will be glorified. 24 Truly I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat, having fallen into the ground, dies, it remains just a kernel of wheat. But if it dies, and the strength that is in it is consumed, it produces food for many people. 25 The person who selfishly wants to retain that person’s life is going to lose it, and the person who selflessly gives that person’s life to others in this world will actually retain it into life eternally. 26 If anyone wants to serve others with me, that person should follow where I am going. And where I am, there also the one who serves with me will be. If anyone, including those Greeks, serves people together with me, the Father will honor that person.

27 “Now I am overcome with emotion. And what shall I say? Shall I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? That would not be appropriate, because it was for this that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” At that moment a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again:’ 29 The crowd of people who were standing in that area and listening to Jesus said that there had been thunder. Others were saying, “An angel has spoken to him!” 30 Jesus answered and said, “This voice came not for me, but for you. 31 Now is the time for the judgment of this world. Now is the time when the Satanic Roman ruler of this world shall be cast out of this land. 32 And if I am lifted up from this land by the representatives of that Satanic Roman ruler to die on a Roman cross, I shall pull along, attract all people to myself.” 33 He said this to signify what kind of death he was going to experience.

 

Kai ti eipo?

(And What Shall I say?)

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

For the first two Sundays in Lent, our Gospel readings were from the Gospel According to Mark (the Gospel which dominates this Church Year). 

We heard the story of Jesus’ ritual washing in the Jordan River by John the Baptizer followed by his Temptation in the Wilderness … on the First Sunday in Lent.   And on the Second Sunday in Lent we found ourselves among the crowd of those who were following Jesus and heard Peter declare him to be the Christos, the Promised One, whereupon Jesus teaches the crowd of his followers that if they want to find abundant life, they must do that by living for others.

Then we changed Gospels.  We moved from the earliest Gospel Story of the life of Jesus that we find in our Bibles (Mark) to the latest, the Gospel According to John.  And we reminded ourselves that this story of the life of Jesus is told a little differently and comes into being in a different time (some 3 decades after Mark’s Gospel).  We have spent the previous two Sundays reading from John: in the 2^nd chapter of his Gospel … the story of Jesus coming into the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem and driving out the money changers and sellers of birds and animals for the ritual sacrifice in his day during Passover (two Sundays ago), and then last Sunday in the 3^rd chapter the final part of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus (one of the religious leaders of Jesus’ own people), a conversation about Light coming into Darkness including that often-quoted verse 16, where Jesus very liberal proclamation and teaching is that God does not hate what God has created, rather God’s agenda is to embrace all of creation, all creatures, especially the human ones!  ( … a good thing to remember in times of bigotry, prejudice, inequality, and narrow-mindedness).

And now we are in the Fifth Sunday in Lent and the final Lenten reading this year from John’s Gospel, because next Sunday is Palm Sunday and we will read again from the Gospel of Mark.  (Actually today’s account is the penultimate reading, as we will read from the Gospel of John on Good Friday … the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion at the hands of the Roman Government.)

But this morning we have jumped from the 2^nd and 3^rd chapters of this Gospel to the 12^th chapter.  We could entitle this chapter (as Eugene Peterson does in his fresh translation of the Bible called The Message) “A Grain of Wheat Must Die.”   Or, we could entitle it, as I have chosen to do … “And What Shall I Say?” or in the words in which this Gospel was written καὶ τί εἴπω (kai ti eipo?) ... the words Jesus speaks rhetorically as he is pressed to come to grips with his soon to take place arrest and trial.

It would help us to know what is going on in John’s telling of the story right before the portion of the Gospel we read this morning.  The scene is Jerusalem and the village of Bethany, located on the Mount of Olives facing Jerusalem, about two miles away.

It’s interesting to know, and if you have stood on the Mount of Olives you do know this, that from that Mount you can see across the valley to the city itself, and the Temple sitting on the large Temple Mount which King Herod had erected.  The whole business is constructed atop Mount Moriah.

The time is right before the Passover Festival, if our calendars are anywhere accurate, sometime around the year 33.  Jesus has just been with Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus, who had died (in this story) and who Jesus rescued from death.  That’s in the 11^th chapter of John. 

In the 12^th chapter three things take place: in the beginning, Jesus’ second visit to the home of Mary and Martha and the now very much alive Lazarus (this is the story where Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with costly perfume, drying them with her hair … causing Judas Iscariot to enter the story as the future betrayer of Jesus).  That’s the first part; secondly, there is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the events of Palm Sunday.  And thirdly, there is the teaching, the prophecy, the start of the anguish of Jesus, knowing that the end is coming, where he says all kinds of things that emphasize to the listener what it means to be a follower of Jesus … and that is our Gospel Reading today.

Listen to the part about the grain of wheat from Eugene Peterson’s translation:

 ^24-25 “Listen carefully [Jesus is speaking]: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.”

We could sit in silence every time we hear those sentences, pondering just what that means for us.  The liberal voice of Jesus calling in the wilderness of human greed and avarice and “me first” existence, brings an agenda that is so contrary to the inward life, barred with gates of fear and suspicion … it is the freedom that comes when we move beyond ourselves in love of neighbor.

And with this teaching comes an even stronger insight, we find ourselves participating in just what that agenda of freedom means … if we bind ourselves to God in Jesus.  We see inside the heart of the one who is the Light shining in the Darkness.  Here it is, again from Eugene Peterson’s translation:

 26 “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.

 27-28 “Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’”

If anyone wants to serve Jesus, then follow Jesus.  Because … then you will be where Jesus is, ready to serve at a moment’s notice.

And if we are following Jesus, then with him, what to say?  “Get me out of this?”

I don’t know how much more powerfully the Gospel of John could be in explaining not just the life of Jesus, but the meaning of Jesus.

He could have escaped, you know.  Jesus could have gone north back to the Galilee, walked away from the whole business, taken his followers along with him perhaps, or perhaps not, and hidden away.  It’s a position many take … hiding away from things, from life, from the world … from one’s self.

It’s what Life in the Darkness is all about.  It’s what comes out in often bullied remarks about the poor (why can’t they help themselves?), the sad and distressed (it must be all in their heads), the lonely (just get a life), the forgotten, the downtrodden, the abandoned (why should we bother  with them anyway?).

It’s what makes otherwise decent people turn ugly and nasty and cantankerous when faced with the choice of the freedom of welcoming hospitality versus the bondage of never opening one’s arms nor one’s heart to anyone who is different.

Yes, Jesus could have walked away from it all.   But he didn’t, and in the staying … in facing what was ahead, lay the Gospel, the Good News, the faith.

Here’s a little story to wrap this up.  It happened yesterday some time after the noon hour.  I had been in my office, getting things ready for this morning, I had just met with the Sacristans for about an hour, gone over some of the details for Palm Sunday and Holy Week with our Director of Music, and was getting ready to leave the Church. 

As I made ready to depart, a knock came on the office door.  When I opened it I found a young woman and two little boys.  This mother explained that they had just come to the city, found an apartment, moved in, paid the down payment and first and last month’s rent, and there was nothing left for groceries.  She had been driving around wondering what to do … for there were two older daughters as well in her family and they were back at the apartment.

I said, “Well, you’ve come to the right place, let’s go get some food.” 

And as we all walked to the pantry here in our church, she said to me with some tears welling up in her eyes, “I was at the end of knowing where to turn, and then I saw the sign, Follow Me, and I took it as a ‘sign’ and I followed it into your church driveway.”

And for a very long moment I could not fathom what she meant, and then I realized it was the Lenten Banner we have displayed on the corner of the church property which you can see when you are driving eastward on St. Michael’s drive, or stopped at the intersection down there.

It’s our Sign.  And it spoke.  And the young mother and her children followed it … here.

What is it the Teacher himself said?  “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice.”

It’s the Good News, my brothers and sisters, it’s the Gospel … and it comes to life when do not turn away, or inside ourselves, but follow Jesus as he walked into the world bringing Light into Darkness.

+ Deo Gratia.  Amen.

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III, Pastor