Life and Death

Sermon from Sunday March 25,2012

John 12:20-33

There is the story of a young boy walking on the beach saving baby turtles by putting them in the water… when a man walks by saying,

“Why are you doing this? You can’t possibly make a difference, there are too many, you can’t save them all.”

The boy responds, “It makes a difference to this one!”

And then there was this young boy who ran up to his grandpa on the beach, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore. There a sea gull lay dead in the sand.

"Grandpa, what happened to him?" the little boy asked.
"He died and went to heaven," the grandfather replied.

The boy thought for a moment, and then said, "And God threw him back down?"

Prayer

Our Lenten journey continues as Jesus continues to walk towards Jerusalem and the Cross. Along the way, Jesus is trying to prepare his friends for his departure. It’s a departure they are unaware of… one that they have failed to comprehend and fully understand. On their journeys Jesus has told them at various times, places, and ways that he was going to die, then be raised to new life. And as the Passover approaches, again Jesus talks about his life and death.

Jesus says, “If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up, you will be given life.”

I can imagine Jesus’ friends and others who heard this being just as confused as many of us are. Of course… we have 2000+ years of hindsight. “Love your life & Lose or Give it up & Win”

Frankly…. This is one of those difficult stories to preach on because…. Well… Life & Death is… well FINITE!!

-       We live with a certain amount of time and then die… its kind-of over isn’t it!!

Given the difficulty of this story I checked some commentaries and they tended to Over-Theologize about the meaning of Jesus’ statement and what it says to us. For the theologian this is a story about Jesus’ atonement for our sins. Have any of you heard of this term… Atonement? Not many… it’s a theological term for as their comments were; this is about Jesus’ atonement for our sins… Jesus is seen as a sacrifice, or as a ransom, or some morel behavior to warrant God’s love. While this is minor as theological terms go, but often big theology arguments tend to leave the average person scratching their heads.

So without over-theologizing, I asked myself a simple question; “What is God saying to me?”

Maybe this will resonate with you.

God is saying to me…. Life = Relationship

Last week we heard the story about Nicedemous and Jesus… and where Nic couldn’t understand rationally how one could be “Born Again.”  Jesus says in John 3:8… “Only God’s Spirit gives life.” This is still difficult to grasp…

Jesus says again in John 5:24… “Whoever hears my message and has faith in the one who sent me has life.” Now this makes a bit more sense. Having faith in God can give me a different perspective on life. The point here is that our life can only be life when we begin a relationship with God. God… who breathed life into us desires us to draw close to him… to believe… to have faith. God says, “If you want life, have a relationship with me.”

God is saying to me… Life = Loss

Our culture would want us to believe the cliché “Eat, Drink, and Be Happy” or “The Pursuit of Happiness begins with having it All.” Of course, many of us sitting here today know thru experience these clichés don’t bring happiness and if we are to be honest with ourselves, may be harbingers to loss. Most of us realize and know the world can’t sustain our lives in the long term… unlike what some Politian’s want us to believe… sorry for that! For the most part, we understand winning doesn’t always bring happiness… in fact, losing can mean winning.

My grandson played middle-school football last year and on the last game they played a cross-town rival. By this time in the season they all had big heads because they were undefeated to this point. They were pretty confident as this team hadn’t had the best of seasons. I said to the grandfather sitting next to me, “It would be good if they lost to this team and lost big.” He echoed this sentiment. Our grandsons team lost and big. In fact, the other team ran up the score… in my mind losing was winning.

God is saying to me… Life = Death = Life

This may sound strange to us… but Jesus uses an agriculture metaphor to illustrate what I believe God wants us to hear. Vs 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.

In order for a grain of wheat to be planted… it first was alive as a plant… a seed is produced… it dies, then produces more seed, and life continues. We are given life by our creator God… God desires that we choose to have a relationship with Him… we die… The cross looms large… though we die our relationship with God paves the way for new life through Jesus.

And we don’t have to die a physical death to experience and enjoy the fruit of a new life. You’ve experienced this… you’ve experienced loss and thought you couldn’t go forward in life… you couldn’t do without _____________ Yet you have survived and in many cases thrived. The same is true with this church… there have been times when you thought this might be the end, but your faith and relationship to God continues to give life.

The over-arching and the So What question of this story for you, me and this faith community is… Where is God in relationship to your life?

I will leave you with a prayer from Frances of Assisi…

Our Father, each day is a little life, each night a tiny death; help us to live with faith and hope and love. Lift our duty above drudgery; let not our strength fail, or the vision fade, in the heat and burden of the day.

O God, make us patient and pitiful, one with another in the fret and jar of life, remembering that each fights a hard fight and walks a lonely way.

Forgive us, Lord, if we hurt our fellow souls; teach us a gentler tone, a sweeter charity of words, and a more healing touch. Sustain us, O God, when we must face sorrow; give us courage for the day and hope for tomorrow. Day unto day may we lay hold of your hand and look up into your face, whatever befall us, until our work is finished and the day is done. Amen.--Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226.