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Chopin Nocturne Op37 #2.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NRSV)
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
John 12:20-33 (NRSV)
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.
Message
We have come to the fifth Sunday in Lent. Next Sunday it is Palm Sunday on April 5 followed by Easter on April 12. Yesterday as we pulled up plants and weeds from the memorial habitat garden, I thought about this God we know in Jesus Christ. I thought about this season of Lent and the practice of spiritually pulling out the weeds of our lives, those practices that become habits that get in the way of really living with God and one another.
Weeds suck up the energy from the soil and leave the plants that are meant for the garden without the nutrition they need. Working in the garden we found plants that are simply in the wrong place. They may be like tasks we have taken on that we think we should be able to do. In truth they may be good ideas, just not in this time and place. Then there are those things that simply have become wild and unmanageable. They needed clipping back, some even clipped to the stump in order to get the garden in a healthy and beautiful state so that it can be what it is meant to be.
Lent is that time when we are offered the opportunity to do the same with our lives. Pull out the weeds, cut away the dead stuff that no longer serves us, take out of our lives the good stuff that we simply cannot attend to, let more light and space be in our lives.
Reflection
Preparation
Correction and
Renewal.
On the second Sunday in Lent we heard the scripture that called us to deny ourselves. We were to then take up this cross of the Christian life, and we were asked to follow.
On the third Sunday in Lent, our Conference Minister the Reverend Dr. Mary Susan Gast brought us the message of the Divine Economy. The abundance of grace and love in Jesus Christ is given to all who will welcome this love into their lives. It is there for everyone - fully there. Anyone may drink of this grace of God and anyone may refuse this grace of God.
Last Sunday we were challenged to reflect deeply on what it means to be alive in Christ, really alive, eternally alive. You may remember in the letter to the Ephesians, the church was called to be alive in Christ now and the Gospel reminded us that God so loved this world, this very place, because God SO loved the world. This is not a holding spot on the way to heaven. This is a world so loved by God that God comes to be with us to show us the way to live with one another and with God. Like the Ephesians we are called to live in the world that God so loves as people alive in Christ. This is our mission and it is the foundation of our ministry.
You’ll remember I gave you three points to evaluate how we are living that mission and ministry in this world now. When we look at our life as a church does our mission and ministry
1. unite us?
2. build us up in numbers or/and in faith?
3. practice good stewardship of all the resources we have?
This morning, we take these deeper.
The reading from Jeremiah , there is a promise that the day will come where we will not need to memorize laws and have laws to protect laws in order to lead a godly life. It will be a day of a new covenant. A covenant where we life faithfully with God because we hold the way of God so deeply in our hearts that we know what God desires of us in relationship with God and with one another.
That day, we experience as coming in Jesus Christ. In him, we see that a human can indeed live by the way of God. Jesus did it. He showed us the way.
The writer of the Gospel of John wrote for a faith community had suffered greatly. So when the writers gives us this passage we heard this morning, we are given words of encouragement for the gathered believers in Jesus. This is the last of the Gospels to be written. The people who first heard these words were believers like us. They had never seen Jesus in person. The Gospel writer teaches that when we act as Jesus in the world, he is there. We do see him in the actions of one another.
Consider how we see Jesus in those hear worshipping with us. Perhaps, it is in Maxine’s drive for justice or Barton and Mei’s labors of compassion, or a kind word from Ina or words of concern from that person nearest you in the pews. There are many ways we live out this way of Jesus as individuals. Like a garden of many different flowers we each contribute to the beauty of the garden and a garden is something that works together as a whole. Just as our Memorial garden is not a vegetable garden, there are great ministries that we are not. And there are great ministries that we are.
To discern our ministry in this time and place, we need to think about what we do really well.
What are our gifts as a church, not just as individuals?
What are the needs of the community around us?
How shall we practice good stewardship our gifts to serve in this time and place?
Consider the statements in John’s Gospel where Jesus uses the word’s “I am” (*See below the statements used during the children’s time)
Now think of what “we are.” Our identity, our gifts, our ministry in this now.
These last two weeks of Lent are the most intense of the Christian Year. We have the chance to feel very deeply the change possible as we move ever closer to the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. This Jesus calls us to continue as his servants in the world. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus said, “where I am, there will my servant be also.” To be Christ in this time and place is our mission and our ministry. And in this way, Christ is walking upon this earth through us.
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* “I Am” statements in the Gospel of John
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 9:5 ”While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
John 10:7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.
John 10:9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
John 10:14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
John 18:37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king.
