I want to spend a minute explaining to you this reading before I get to the point.

Transcription

1 Sermon 5Lent-March 22, 2015 The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. John 12:20-33 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. I want to spend a minute explaining to you this reading before I get to the point. First, it helps if you realize that the Gospel of John is basically in 2 parts-the first part is all about Jesus and the signs. The second part is the crucifixion and resurrection. This is chapter 12 in John, the hinge chapter that s going to tie the 2 parts together. Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11,which is going to cause the religious leaders to ask for Jesus death. Chapter 12 Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. And then he has this very odd teaching as people come up to greet him before the Passover.

2 Second, John the gospel writer has some big points to make, so a lot of times he uses people as props so Jesus can make a speech. Nicodemus in last weeks story was a prop. And so are the Greeks in this week. Their job is to set the stage so Jesus can give a sermon. (preachers do this all the time). There s no dialogue with them. Notice that the Greeks (these are probably Jews from a long ways away) never get to see Jesus-they are forgotten after Jesus begins teaching. They have served their purpose. Third, whenever John the gospel writer uses seeing he almost always means understanding or illumination. When these Greek speaking Jews say that they want to see Jesus, what John really means is that they want to follow Jesus. It almost never means in the Gospel of John that they want to observe him, what they want is to comprehend who he is-and believe in him. Ok, let me recap: this is the last real story before the passion story of Jesus in Jerusalem. Greek speaking Jews show up and are props for the sermon Jesus gives. And they say they want to see Jesus which is John s way of saying that they want to understand and be enlightened by him. One last thing, we heard this same point 3 weeks ago in the gospel of Mark: Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. And Jesus gives this odd teaching just before he goes off to be killed: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. One of my first dates with Deborah 35 years ago was taking her to see the movie Chariots of Fire. It is a powerful a movie. It takes place in 1924 and is basically the story of two men who run for Great Britain in the Olympics that year. One of the men is Eric Liddell, known as the "Flying Scotsman"(the other is Harold Abrahams). Part of the drama in the movie is that because of his faith, Liddell, a son of missionaries, refuses to run in races on Sundays. So he cannot compete in the 100 meter dash his specialty

3 on a Sunday. It is a great sacrifice on his part, but he feels strongly that he would dishonor God if he didn t keep the sabbath. At one point there is tremendous pressure put on Liddell to run by the Prince of Wales and his advisors, but still Liddell refuses. The Duke of Southerland later tells the men who tried to change Liddell s mind: [Liddell] is a true man of principles and a true athlete. His speed is a mere extension of his life, its force. We sought to sever his running from himself. After the Olympics Liddell joins his family in China and serves as a missionary there for the next 19 years. He taught, built churches, and mentored children in sports. In the 1930s the Japanese, who wanted to rule Asia, invaded China and began overrunning the Chinese army, killing millions of native Chinese. This next part is from Wikipedia: In 1941 life in China had become so dangerous because of Japanese aggressiveness that the British government advised British nationals to leave. Liddell sent his wife and daughters to Canada to stay with her family while Liddell accepted a position at a rural Chinese mission station which served the poor. He joined his brother, Rob, who was a doctor there. Liddell arrived at the station in time to relieve his brother, who was ill As fighting between the Chinese Eighth Route Army and invading Japanese reached the mission station where the Liddells were, they were taken prisoner and interned at a Japanese Internment (read concentration) Camp. Liddell became a leader and organiser at the camp, but food, medicine and other supplies were scarce. There were many cliques in the camp and when some rich businessmen managed to smuggle in some eggs, Liddell shamed them into sharing them. While fellow missionaries formed cliques, moralised and acted selfishly, Liddell busied himself by helping the elderly, teaching at the camp school Bible classes, arranging games and by teaching science to the children, who referred to him as Uncle Eric. It was also claimed that one Sunday Liddell refereed a hockey match to stop fighting amongst the players, as he was trusted not to take sides. Langdon Gilkey, who also survived the camp and became a prominent theologian in his native America and a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School 30 years later, said of Liddell:

4 "Often in an evening I would see him bent over a chessboard or a model boat, or directing some sort of square dance absorbed, weary and interested, pouring all of himself into this effort to capture the imagination of these penned-up youths. He was overflowing with good humour and love for life, and with enthusiasm and charm. It is rare indeed that a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known." In 1945 the war was nearing an end, but Liddell s heath had been deteriorating for some time. In his last letter to his wife, written on the day he died, Liddell wrote of suffering a nervous breakdown due to overwork, but in actuality unbeknownst to him, he was suffering from an inoperable brain tumour; overwork and malnourishment hastened his death. He died on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation. He was greatly mourned not only at the Internment Camp but also in Scotland. According to a fellow missionary, Liddell's last words were, "It's complete surrender", in reference to how he had given his life to his God. The children in the camp were bereft at his loss. Once every four years Edinburgh University holds a parade in Liddell's honour. In 2008 just before the Olympics in China, Chinese authorities revealed that Prime Minister Winston Churchill had arranged for Liddell to leave the camp and go back to Scotland-but that Liddell had given up his place of freedom to a young woman who was pregnant. In 2009, Eric Liddell was honoured with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on February 22. unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. Eric Liddell loved life. He did not want to die. But he had a mission, a purpose. And his greatest fear wasn t death, but not being true to himself.

5 Jesus goes to Jerusalem. He is an inconvenient man, a person who will speak and live the truth despite the cost. Death is not the worst thing, Jesus realizes. Eric Liddell understands this. Knowing the truth and not following it-that can be the worst thing. The disciples come to Jesus to tell him that foreigners want to talk to him. And Jesus responds, 23 The hour has come. We ve been waiting since the second chapter, since the wedding in Cana. All this time, Jesus has been preparing for this moment. His hour, his time, his destiny, has arrived. It s time for Jesus either to walk away-or complete his purpose. We don t get much of a sense of this in the gospel of John, but this has to be a terrible moment for Jesus. All of his life has been preparing for this moment, this hour, but how hard this had to be. I thought about this when Flight 1549 went down in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger spent 6 years in the air force and 27 years flying for US Air. He pulled off this one in a million crash landing on a river with no deaths, no injuries. And when asked about this amazing landing he said, that he believed all of his life was preparing him for that moment, that hour. When we hear the greater story of the gospel-not just the piece for a Sunday morning, but the whole story, it s somehow supposed to get through to us, that everything Jesus had been doing, going through, was preparation for this hour, this moment. From the birth in a barn, the baptism at the Jordan, the premature miracle at Cana, and the raising of his friend Lazarus. Everything he had been through and experienced was preparing Jesus for this trial and challenge. And the same is true for us. All of our lives, all of our prayers, all the sermons you put up, all the gospels you hear, everything about faith is preparing you for moments in life that challenge and test and try you. They are preparation for living a life of courage and hope.

6 This question will come up a lot the next 2 weeks, -when we start summing up our lives, we tend to list only the most important things, the high points. But what is important? I was in a store yesterday and the salesperson started telling me how blessed he was. His wife just faced cancer for the second time, and he was telling me that their faith was getting them through this. What if all my life had been preparing me for that conversation? What makes the list as we tell people about our lives? What are the moments we choose as most critical, most significant? Sir, we wish to see Jesus. And Jesus answers, now is my time, this is what I have been preparing my whole life for. He describes himself, the Son of God -as a grain of wheat. A small insignificant grain of wheat. Can you imagine? It would be like Barack Obama describing his purpose in life was to be a golfer. And Jesus says, this is what I have been preparing my whole life for, this is my hour. Don t think that just because we are finally at our moment, that it is easy or that it s joyous. Ask Sullenberger, boy, you must have been glad to finally reach this landing? Say to Jesus, well, it must be a great day for you, finally arriving at the crucifixion! When we reach our moments, our hours, it doesn t feel wonderful. I think it s the moment when we realize that this is what all of our life has been preparing us for. It is difficult-it is hard, and it is always, always, scary. Listen to Jesus words: 27 Now my soul is troubled. Listen to Sully s words In a CBS 60 Minutes interview, he was quoted as saying that the moments before the crash were "the worst sickening, pit-of-yourstomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling" that he had ever experienced. Speaking with news anchor Katie Couric, Sullenberger said: "One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training. And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal." [ It doesn t matter if we are 8 or 80, it doesn t matter if it is a recognizable huge moment or an anonymous small one, it doesn t matter if we have failed in the past at great moments or succeeded. All that matters is who we are

7 when our moments come. And I believe most of us have a whole lifetime of momentsnot just one. This is Jesus hour. This is his moment. This is when he has to walk away from all that he was meant for, or when he has to fulfill his purpose. It is not a glorious moment. It is not an easy one, and it is very inconvenient. It s just the moment that he has prepared all his life for. It s "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, fallingthrough-the-floor feeling" that he had ever experienced. Sir, we wish to see Jesus. And when he hears it Jesus knows what that means. His time has come, It's complete surrender". Amen.