Seeds of Love – sermon on March 22, 2015
Scripture Lesson: John 12: 20-33
Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
“Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to your name.” Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.” When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine. The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
Seeds of Love – sermon on March 22, 2015 by Rev. Doreen Oughton
I have to tell you about something that happened to my sister. I am so proud of her. She has been a support of the Pan Mass Challenge – a bike ride to raise money for cancer research – for at least a decade. Due to various knee and hip issues, she was only able to do the ride once, but she was an eager volunteer in supporting the riders in a number of ways. And then she heard about Kids PMC, and organized a kids ride in her town. The Kids Ride has grown leaps and bounds, and due to her hard work and leadership, over $200 K has been raised.
Has anyone heard of the Boston Celtics “Heroes Among Us” program? It is a community outreach program initiated by the franchise that honors individuals “who have made an overwhelming impact on the lives of others.” They choose a person for every home game, and a few weeks ago that person was my sister. A limousine picked her up and brought her to the Boston Garden. She and her guests were given a tour of the Boston Garden, and then, in a pre-game ceremony she was called out over the loud-speaker to the middle of that amazing parquet floor where she was presented with an award by some of the players, who then step away. She is center court, and looks up at the crowd and waves, and pivots around, including the whole cheering arena. Wow! Now that is what I would call a moment of glory!
I’ve also heard about the herculean tasks she has performed to pull off the Kid’s Ride PMC,and helped at one of the events. When she gives the wrap up speech she is elated – exhausted, but elated, overwhelmed with all that was accomplished and incredibly moved by all the people who contributed so much. That, too, seems a moment of glory.
Our Gospel reading from this morning is set in the last week of Jesus’ life. He has had some amazing times. Why just a day or so before, he entered Jerusalem to an adoring crowd waving palm branches and shouting out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel!” And the crowd has gathered because they have either witnessed or heard about some of the amazing things Jesus has done. He raised Lazarus from the dead – after 4 days in the tomb! He’s restored sight to a man who’d been blind since birth. He’s cast out demons and healed many. He’s turned water into wine. Amazing things, certainly things I would call moments of glory. But Jesus saves that word. He won’t use it for the things he has done, nor for the public recognition of the things he has done, but uses it to talk about what he is going to do. The pew bible states it: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” And he is not talking about another palm parade, but a death march. He’s not thinking about healing other bodies, but about sacrificing his own – allowing it to be beaten and battered, pierced and degraded.
But it is a paradox, for he knows that the healing of many will happen through his sacrifice – not the bodily healing as of blindness and leprosy – but healing of humanity, healing of the soul, restoration of the glory of beings created in God’s image. And I love that the tension is held here – Jesus knows it is for glory that he goes forward, but still his soul is troubled. Fully human, fully divine. And I love that though Jesus doesn’t refer to his ministry as part of his glory, the voice from heaven does. God says that God’s name has already been glorified and will be glorified again. In Jesus’ incarnation, in his vulnerability, in his teaching and preaching and healing and praying, God has been glorified. And the glory continues.
In the Gospel of John there is no story of the Garden of Gethsemane, no sweating of blood, no asking that this cup be taken from him. Jesus understands that even though his soul is troubled, he will go through with it. I don’t know the depth of his troubled soul. Is it like the jitters and anxiety that come before you do that big important thing – the job interview, the big game, the solo? But with those things, I think the disturbance comes in worrying about failure, where I believe Jesus knew he could not fail – that God had it covered. But I also remember how anxious I was when my labor started. I didn’t worry at all that something would go wrong – it was just that I knew it would hurt and that things would never be the same. His heart is troubled, but Jesus tells his followers, and reminds himself, that this was why he came. Of course he would not ask to be saved from it. He was made for it.
And I think he’s trying to tell us we were all made for it. Not for crucifixion, not to be beaten and battered, but, in a way, to be sacrificed. He talks about the grain of wheat that is meant to fall into the ground and die. Now when I plant seeds in the ground, I don’t ever think that I am killing the seeds, that they are in there to die. So to me, Jesus is clearly trying to tell us something about what we call death and our misunderstanding of it, and he is trying to tell us something about these mortal bodies.
So what is a seed? It is a shell, a container. And what it contains is an embryo, and often, some food reserves. The seed is a means to an end, not the end. When it falls into the ground, it is not death that results, but germination. The embryo breaks free and the container is no longer needed. The embryo develops into what it was meant to be. It bears fruit and creates more seeds, that germinate and grow and bear fruit and more seeds, and so on and so on. The container enables the embryo to travel, to be held until later, waiting for more favorable conditions that it may better thrive. The seed is amazing, wonderful, miraculous, but not so much when it is never planted. And there are some seeds that do not have embryos and so never germinate. Jesus may say they never die, but really, they never live. They never take nourishment, no processes of growth and change occur.
Jesus emphasizes that it is not just himself he is talking about here with the grain of wheat. He tells his followers that to serve him is to follow him, to follow him to table fellowship with sinners and Pharisees, to leper colonies, to crowds of lost and hurting and angry people, to follow him even to the cross. He is telling us that these mortal bodies, his and ours, are containers for an embryo, shells that are meant to take in nourishment that will begin a process of transformation and growth, and then released. They are not the end but a means. In fact there is no end, there is eternity, a cycle we are part of. And the embryo, the thing released, the thing pushing ever upward and bearing fruit? I believe it is love – love is our truest being, and as long as we are focused on the shell, seeing it as the end, the less love is released to blossom and bear fruit for all the world.
In talking this way, Jesus was preparing himself and his disciples not only for his death, but for his resurrection and ascension. He says that when he is lifted up from the earth he will draw all people to him. I used to think of the “lifting up” as either on the cross or up in the air to heaven, but after my study and contemplation this week I think literally of the earth, the ground, when that seed breaks and the plant breaks ground, when that embryo develops into fullest maturity. And the fullest maturity of our true Selves is unity – unity with God, with Christ, with All. That is what we are made for.
Know who and what you are. It doesn’t mean your soul won’t ever be troubled, that you won’t be afraid. But maybe you can lean into it, trust that God has it covered, reach for the nourishment that will allow for growth and transformation, and release. Our glory may not be awards and cheers at Boston Garden, nor even in the good works we might do. We glorify God’s name, Christ’s holy vibration, when we let the love break free, when we understand and embody as best we can the truth that there is only one of us. May it be so.
