Deep In Our Hearts -- A Message for March 17, 2024

Scripture     John 12:20-33

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 

They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 

Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 

Very truly I tell you, 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. 

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 

Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 

The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 

Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince 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 show the kind of death he was going to die.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

Let us pray….

 

Message                              Deep In Our Hearts

 

            When Lucia was little, we planted a big garden in pots on our sunny back porch. Our yard had lots of critters – groundhogs, raccoons, squirrels and deer -- so the elevated porch seemed like a safer bet if we wanted to eat our produce and not have the animals eat it before we could get to it.  We started little seeds in trays in our kitchen first – Lucia thought they would instantly grow so she checked them multiple times a day. Finally, the seeds sprouted and it was warm enough to transplant our little seedlings into pots.  We were attentive waterers and our garden did indeed grow.   Lucia was excited to eat what we harvested, and I was excited the kid was finally eating veggies.

 

            There is something almost magical about watching plants grow from seeds. When you plant hard little seeds, they sometimes seem quite dead.  … They are so hard they seem like little rocks. But, in only a few days, after water and warm soil do their thing, seeds sprout and grow into a wholly new plant.

           

            In our scriptures, we read about Jesus’s sermons and the miracles. We read about his baptism and his time in the wilderness and the conservations he had with his disciples. Jesus’ years of ministry were brief, and he packed a lot into them. There seemed to be a shift about midway through those years when  Jesus began to prepare his disciples for what Jesus was destined to experience at the end of his human life on earth.  He knew he would be arrested, put on trial, and die. Jesus also knew that his death would not be the end of his ministry, but would be the moment salvation became attainable for all people.

           

            This morning’s scripture is out of sequence in the time-line of Jesus’ life. Next week, in worship, we will remember the first Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king five days before the start of the Jewish Passover. People waved palm branches and honored Jesus by welcoming him to the city. Our reading this morning comes immediately after the Palm Sunday events. In the beginning of our reading, some Jewish Greek people who were in Jerusalem for the Passover festival approached the disciples because they wanted to meet Jesus.  Their request triggered Jesus to tell his followers that the hour had come for Jesus to be glorified – to be killed.

 

            Jesus then gave the analogy about a kernel of wheat falling to the grown and being planted….the wheat kernel dies but the wheat plant that grows out of the former kernel produces many seeds. Jesus knew that he would die, but the events that would result from his death – the Easter resurrection, salvation for all people, and the spread of the Good News across the world to generations of people – these would be the kind of productive seeds the world needs.

 

            Sometimes, we have to let things die in order for things in our lives to grow in a better direction.  Most of us aren’t still friends with our best friend form kindergarten – at some point, we changed or moved away or were assigned to a different 2^nd grade classroom and our friendship died.  But, we made additional friends, better friends. We have known people who dreamed of becoming doctors, and then they got an F in Organic Chemistry, and they let go of their dream of practicing medicine and became something else and are happily living their lives. Some of us have experienced a depression or identity crisis after losing a job, and then found ourselves with a much better fit and much happier outlook in our next position.

 

            Jesus knew he was going to die. And, he told his friends and followers again and again that he must die to fulfill his destiny and make a difference in the lives of all the people of the earth. But, as we remember the events around the death of Jesus, we will recall that his friends and followers did not take it well when Jesus died. They freaked out. They were sad. They were terrified. They were overwhelmed by their fears. As the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday unfolded, Jesus’ followers were devastated.

           

            In the moment of their loss, they had trouble understanding that something good was coming out of their tragedy. They couldn’t anticipate the Easter miracle...they didn’t expect it even though Jesus gave them lots of clues it would happen.

 

            It is important to for us to remember that when bad things happen to us, they are not the end of our stories. As the yard signs we put up for our “It Get’s Better” campaign say – Your mistakes don’t define you.  Our faith holds the promise that each ending is also a new beginning. Yes, Jesus died, but the result of his death was the Easter miracle, salvation for all people, and the opportunity for the Christian message of God’s love and grace spreading to all the people of the world.   We can take heart in the promise of the Gospel….God loves us. Christ died for us. And, the most beautiful part of our lives is yet to come, new life with God and resurrection with Jesus.

Amen.