THE HOUR HAS COME. Jeremiah 31: Psalm 51. Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Transcription

1 THE HOUR HAS COME Jeremiah 31:27-34 Contemporary English Version (CEV) 27 Someday, Israel and Judah will be my field where my people and their livestock will grow. 28 In the past, I took care to uproot them, to tear them down, and to destroy them. But when that day comes, I will take care to plant them and help them grow. 29 No longer will anyone go around saying, "Sour grapes eaten by parents leave a sour taste in the mouths of their children." 30 When that day comes, only those who eat sour grapes will get the sour taste, and only those who sin will be put to death. The New Agreement with Israel and Judah 31 The LORD said: The time will surely come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 It will be different from the agreement I made with their ancestors when I led them out of Egypt. Although I was their God, they broke that agreement. 33 Here is the new agreement that I, the LORD, will make with the people of Israel: "I will write my laws on their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 "No longer will they have to teach one another to obey me. I, the LORD, promise that all of them will obey me, ordinary people and rulers alike. I will forgive their sins and forget the evil things they have done." Psalm 51 1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. 3 For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

2 4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. 7 Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me now let me rejoice. 9 Don t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do not banish me from your presence, and don t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. 13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. 14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness. 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you. 16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. 18 Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar. Hebrews 5: Every high priest is appointed to help others by offering gifts and sacrifices to God because of their sins. 2 A high priest has weaknesses of his own, and he feels sorry for foolish and sinful people. 3 That is why he must offer sacrifices for his own sins and for the sins of others. 4 But no one can have the honor of being a high priest simply by wanting to be one. Only God can choose a priest, and God is the one who chose Aaron. 5 That is how it was with Christ. He became a high priest, but not just because he wanted the honor of being one. It was God who told him, "You are my Son, because today I have become your Father!" 6 In another place, God says, "You are a priest forever just like Melchizedek." 7 God had the power to save Jesus from death. And while Jesus was on earth, he begged God with loud crying and tears to save him. He truly worshiped God, and God listened to his prayers. 8 Jesus is God's own Son, but still he had to suffer before he could learn what it really means to obey God. 9 Suffering made Jesus perfect, and now he can save forever all who obey him. 10 This is because God chose him to be a high priest like Melchizedek. John 12:20-36 Some Greeks Want To Meet Jesus

3 20 Some Greeks (Gentiles who worshiped with the Jews) had gone to Jerusalem to worship during Passover. 21 Philip from Bethsaida in Galilee was there too. So they went to him and said, "Sir, we would like to meet Jesus." 22 Philip told Andrew. Then the two of them went to Jesus and told him. The Son of Man Must Be Lifted Up 23 Jesus said: The time has come for the Son of Man to be given his glory. 24 I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. 25 If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life. 26 If you serve me, you must go with me. My servants will be with me wherever I am. If you serve me, my Father will honor you. 27 Now I am deeply troubled, and I don't know what to say. But I must not ask my Father to keep me from this time of suffering. In fact, I came into the world to suffer. 28 So Father, bring glory to yourself. A voice from heaven then said, "I have already brought glory to myself, and I will do it again!" 29 When the crowd heard the voice, some of them thought it was thunder. Others thought an angel had spoken to Jesus. 30 Then Jesus told the crowd, "That voice spoke to help you, not me. 31 This world's people are now being judged, and the ruler of this world is already being thrown out! 32 If I am lifted up above the earth, I will make everyone want to come to me." 33 Jesus was talking about the way he would be put to death. 34 The crowd said to Jesus, "The Scriptures teach that the Messiah will live forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" 35 Jesus answered, "The light will be with you for only a little longer. Walk in the light while you can. Then you won't be caught walking blindly in the dark. 36 Have faith in the light while it is with you, and you will be children of the light." After Jesus had said these things, he left and went into hiding It seems just yesterday, but it wasn t. I was on a mission trip to Alaska. I was there for the month of June, and it was during my time there that the salmon were going to run. They would leave the Bering Sea and begin to enter into the inlets, searching for the spawning grounds where they themselves were born. So, I obtained my fishing license, borrowed some gear, bought some bait, found a friend or two that was crazy enough to get up early on a cold morning to stand in cold water, and hope that we caught something.. The water flowed effortlessly into an inlet deep, green/blue water. Tired, cold and wondering if I weren t crazy, I put the bait on my line, cast it effortlessly into the water, and it wasn t more than 30 seconds before I

4 had my first bite, and less than a minute, before I hauled in my first salmon. I rejoiced. Then I measured it to make sure it was large enough to keep, or small enough to have to be let loose. Hurray! It far exceeded the length limit, and I fished until I met my daily limit of 6. There were so many salmon running, that all I had to do was put my line in the water, and I caught a fish. It was a glorious morning. We all took in our limit of fish. Then we packed up and headed back to the hostel we were staying in. I froze 3 of my fish solid and shipped them to my father for a Father s day treat. The other three I filleted and shared with the rest of the mission team. The two gentlemen who joined me in this excursion, did the same. We ate well for a few days, and my father got one of the best Father s Day gifts he can remember, as he also got to enjoy filleted salmon. The salmon we caught were just a drop in the bucket of how many millions are running, just in Alaska. Many run, but very few survive the arduous journey. Bears eat their fill. Fishermen catch their allotment. And some die just in the long and tiring trek. But isn t it amazing the instincts of salmon, which bring them back to the place of their birth. After spending a couple of years out in the ocean and swimming thousands of miles back up to the stream of their birth, the salmon are preparing to die. These salmon come back to the place of their hatching, being driven over rocks and dams and waterfalls. Then finally, at the end of their long journey, they dig a hole, lay their eggs, and die. And out of those eggs comes New Life. For it is ONLY through dying that there is new life among the salmon The story for today finds Jesus six days before he was going to die. How would you feel if you knew for sure you were going to die this coming Saturday, six days from now? Now if you knew that you were going to die this coming Saturday of cancer, heart attack or an accident, wouldn t you be preoccupied with death? Would you not be distracted by it? Would you not become philosophical about it?

5 In our passage for today, Jesus IS philosophical about death. He is thinking, He is contemplating; for it is only 6 days until he is going to die. The story for today is in the city of Jerusalem. It is Passover time, and literally hundreds of thousands of people are gathered in Jerusalem. Imagine, if you will, hundreds of thousands of people crammed into downtown Athens for an OU basketball championship game. (YEAH!) Jammed into Union Street, State Street, Richland Avenue, and onto the OU campus. Hundreds of thousands of people coming into Athens from everywhere. That s the way it was for Passover, with hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world crammed into the city walls of Jerusalem. In this wild mass of humanity, there were a few Greeks in the crowd. They came up to the disciples and wanted an audience with Jesus. These Greek travelers came up and listened into the conversation of the disciples, and they heard that one disciple in particular had a Greek accent -- Philip from Bethsaida. If you know anything about Bethsaida, it was a Greek-speaking city in Israel. The Greek travelers thought: That guy speaks Greek. He must be one of us. And so they approached Philip and asked him in Greek, Can we SEE Jesus? That s often the question in the Bible. That is often the question in the Gospel of John, Can we SEE Jesus? Philip went to Andrew and the Gentiles went to Jesus and said: There are Greeks who want to SEE you. Now you d think that Jesus would answer them directly, but He does not! Jesus was distracted preoccupied... thinking about his death in six days, But these Greeks seeking an appointment with Him, Greeks, from the other side of the empire helped Jesus to understand just how far the word had spread. It s no longer a story for the hometown newspapers, but now it s international news, what this man from Galilee has been doing. When these Greeks approach Jesus disciples, asking to see Him, He knows. He instinctively knows. So His first words to His disciples are, The hour has come. In other words... it s time.

6 The hour has come is a code word for Jesus death. He knows death is imminent, and He begins to talk about it more and more. He knows if He keeps on drawing attention to himself, He s going to get himself killed. The more the crowds acclaim Him, the more the religious leaders want to kill Him. There may be time to change course, but time is running out. He could pull back, try to smooth things over with the Pharisees, soften His message, and live. You can tell it s been heavy on His mind. His soul is troubled by the thought. He has considered His options. Should He call on the Father to save Him from this hour? Now that the hour has come, should Jesus pull back to avoid crucifixion? Jesus knows He has a choice to make. He can save His life, or He can be a Savior, but He cannot do both! And using a parable, which is His way, He declares His decision: Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The purpose of a savior is to give His life so others can find true life. The purpose of a grain of wheat is to die so more wheat can be produced. The full impact of the words may not strike us immediately because it just sounds like a 4H project, but He s talking about laying down His life. He is preparing to die. He is ready to go to the cross! The hour has come for Him to be glorified. He will be lifted up. And just so we don t mistake the real meaning of that phrase, John adds in vs. 33, He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The hour has come, He will be glorified, He will be lifted up they re all code words for the death, the crucifixion of Jesus. Now you think that Jesus would have answered them directly, but he didn't. Jesus was distracted preoccupied. He was thinking about his death in six days, and therefore He uses a parable. Isn t that a strange answer?! They were asking if the Greeks outsiders Gentiles...could have a few moments of His time, and he begins talking about grain and death, service and following Him. All the Greeks wanted to do was to see Jesus, but Jesus was preoccupied with his death, was distracted by death, was thinking about death.

7 Aahhhh, but maybe there is a connection. Maybe the connection is, that in order to see Jesus, is to see the importance of dying in order to live. You can almost see Jesus words -- they are so visually clear. If a seed is planted into the ground and it does not die, it remains a seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds and seedlings and those seeds and their seedlings produce much fruit. His words are vivid! And it all begins with the seed dying. Could it be that the key to life is death? Could it be that the key to living is in the dying? Could it be that dying is of utmost importance to living? Could it be the key to my life? Dying? Hmmmmm. Jesus said, Unless a seed dies, it remains a single seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds and then much fruit. And so there is a parallel, is there not, between the seed and the salmon. That is, in both the seed and the salmon, death is necessary for life. Dying is important for living. I would like to suggest to you that this is a fundamental law of life; that dying is important for living. This is a law of human psychology; it is a law of human sociology; it is a law of human relationships. It is a law of divine spirituality. And the law is this: it is in dying that you and I begin living. It is only by first dying of self, that we will ever begin truly living. St. Francis of Assisi knew this law well when he wrote in his famous prayer for peace; it is in giving that we receive; it is in dying that we are born again. The Apostle Paul knew this law well when he said: We will not be united with Christ in a resurrection like his, unless we are first united with Christ in a death like his. I like the poem, All through life I see a cross on which children give their breath; there is no gain except for loss; there is no life except by death.

8 I would like to suggest to you that there is a spiritual principle at work in this world: it is only in dying that a person begins to live. It is only when we are united with Christ in a death like his, that we are united with him in a Resurrection like his. So what does this mean? This fancy language about dying to begin living. If your dying hasn t been good this past week, well then, neither has your living. And if you haven t been dying thus far in lie, you haven t begun to live, yet! What does it mean to die? In the Bible, Jesus talks about dying to self. It means dying to selfishness. It means dying to "I," the old Adam, the attitude that I am going to live for me, the purpose of my life is myself, my fulfillment, my experiencing all that life can give ME. Life is preoccupied with ME and MY happiness; I am preoccupied with myself, my successes, my failures, and what other people are thinking about me. It think, as many children think when they are young, that I am the center of the universe. That s what an infant believes; that the infant is actually the center of the universe and everything revolves around their needs. And many people grow up, but still remain infants; still believing that they are the center of the universe. They never truly grow up, but rather become paralyzed by their self-centeredness. But when life revolves around me, I am not really living at all. When that childish selfcenteredness finally begins to die, it is only then that I finally begin to live. Jesus said, unless a seed dies, it remains only one seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds and seedlings seeds of love which then grow into great seedlings of love. It is not only our childish self-centeredness that needs to die, but also our sinfulness. Our sins that hurt us, and our sins that hurt others around us. So, not only do we have to die to self-centeredness, we also have to die to the flesh, to the sinful, to the worldly. It is when our sinfulness dies, that we are healthier and better and Christ-like disciples.

9 For example, I had a great conversation this week with a woman on the Emmaus walk years of marriage and he found another woman. She was hurt. She was still reeling from the blow. She was angry. She didn t know what to do next. She was lonely, and felt no one was supporting her, loving her, caring for her. I told her about Jesus love for her. I asked her if she had a relationship with Him. She said she wanted to, but hadn t FULLY given her life to Him. We spent an amazingly long time talking, and questioning and crying. At the end of the discussion I told her the decision was now hers, the ball was in her court. Jesus, like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son was on the drive, running towards her with arms outstretched, ready to draw her close, love her and care for her every need. But, she needed to meet Him halfway. She needed to run to Him as well. Jesus was standing with open arms was she ready to go to Him, kneel before Him, repent of her sins, and give her life to Him, FULLY give of herself to him? Thankfully she was. As were many woman that night and in subsequent nights. I personally witnessed 5 women give their lives to Christ, and there were many more. I can tell you story after story after story from this Emmaus weekend and other Emmaus weekends I have been a part of. I can tell you story after story about people who have died to self-centeredness, died to sin, died to sinful addictions, so that they were finally free to live a fruitful and loving life. So Jesus says it is a divine truth: Only in dying do you begin to live. Let me say that again, my friends, for I don t want you to miss it: ONLY IN DYING DO YOU BEGIN TO LIVE! Each one of us struggles with our own sinfulness. I have mine and you have yours. And it is only as your personal sinfulness dies daily that you truly begin to live.

10 I don t know what has to die in your life, but this much I do know: there are choices we all must make. When we think of life or death issues, we assume the right answer is always to choose life, of course! But Jesus says to reframe the question. Instead of seeing matters as life or death, see them as self-preservation OR life-giving sacrifice. For some of us, that may mean saying no to a career in order to say yes to a call. It may mean dying to self in order to save a marriage. Maybe it means forgoing first-class luxuries to give life in Third World areas. Sometimes we will have to suffer, we may even have to DIE. I would like to leave you with a life-changing question: What does a salmon, a seed, and you and I have in common? If you understand the answer to the question, then THE HOUR HAS COME, and your journey to the cross is now complete. Praise God! Amen OPEN SACRED SPACE Lectio Divina Lectio Divina is a way of praying meditatively with the Bible so that the Word of God can reach into our hearts and minds. It s a simple and natural practice from the early monks who followed God s call to a radical vocation of silence, prayer and love. This method can help us let go of our own agendas when we read scripture. Like other forms of meditation, Lection Divina silences the noise of the world around us, leading us to an inner silence where god is waiting for us. It helps us to see both our lives and the world around us through God s eyes and to love what we see, in the heart of God. It is both inner-directed (to the presence of God within) and outer-directed (to the world). Have mercy on me, O God / because of your unfailing love Psalm 51:1 I will be their God / and they will be my people Jeremiah 31:33c You are my Son / I have become your Father Hebrews 5:5c To be my disciple / you must follow me John 12:26 Walk in the light while you can / so the darkness will not overtake you Jn 12:35b