Wheat
By User:Bluemoose - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=333105
I've officiated a lot of funerals since I began my ministry at Rehoboth Presbyterian Church. I've seen lots of flowers in funeral homes, and sometimes those floral arrangements include a spray of wheat. On Sunday, March 18th, we heard a story from the Gospel of John in which Jesus compares his death and resurrection to wheat being planted in the ground. This sermon also includes an important lesson that I learned from Rev. Dave Carver when I was in seminary.
Sermon
Good morning. Yesterday I officiated a memorial service for
Steve Verin. For those of you who don’t know, Steve was Kathy Smith’s
brother-in-law; we have raised him up in our Prayers of the People many times.
Last Monday, cancer claimed Steve’s life, but not his love, nor the love that
so many people have for Steve, and certainly God’s love shines through the
darkness.
I’m grateful that you folks allow me the opportunity to
remind people that God’s love shines in the midst of the darkness, even when I
officiate funerals for people who have no connection to Rehoboth Church. I’ve
officiated fourteen funerals since I started here in October of 2016. Only four
of those funerals were for members of this congregation. Another four were for
friends or relatives of mine. The remaining six funerals were for folks from
the Mon Valley who no longer had a close connection to any congregation.
My seminary education included a student internship with a
congregation; it’s kinda like student teaching for pastors. I still remember
the first time I went out hospital visits with my mentor, the Rev. Dave Carver.
After we finished our first visit, as we were walking down the hall at
Allegheny General, another patient waved to Pastor Dave from his room.
“Pastor, pastor, do you have a minute?” He must have seen
the Bible in Pastor Dave’s hand, or maybe he overheard our conversation before
we walked into the hospital room for the other patient that we visited.
“Of course!” said Pastor Dave.
I don’t remember the substance of that visit, but I
remember the discussion afterwards. Dave said that he would stop to pray with
anyone, and he’d stay for a short visit, if his schedule would allow it,
because that’s how he practices his faith and that’s how he lives into his
calling to ministry.
BUT!!!
He warned me that some congregations are very jealous of
their pastor’s time. Some congregations get upset when a pastor spends time—time
that they’re paying for—visiting with people who aren’t members, visiting with
outsiders! So, I’m grateful that you, the members of Rehoboth, offer me the
opportunity to practice ministry in this way, too. In this age of declining
participation in church, I think those distinctions between insiders and
outsiders do not serve us well.
In our Gospel lesson this morning, some Greeks approach the
disciple Philip and tell him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” The Greeks are
Gentiles, outsiders; they’re not members of the congregation of Israel. This is
really important. In our lesson last Sunday, we heard the very familiar words
of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” That is the entirety of the created
world, not just God’s chosen people,
but everyone. The Greeks in today’s reading represent the rest of the world
that God so loves.[1]
They’re not asking for proof of Jesus’ divinity. They’re
not asking for a deep theological discussion, or a clever sermon. They just
want to see. They’re not Jews, but they’re aware of Jesus; they know something
special is going on. According to one scholar:
The request of the
Greeks is critical for our time. They ask to see. They don’t request proof.
They don’t ask for an argument. They don’t need an apologetic. They just want
to see. They get what “come and see” is all about—an invitation to be. An
invitation to abide. An invitation to relationship.[2]
“An invitation to be.” I
love that description. Remember, the Gospel of John is the gospel of
relationship. Those Greeks are outsiders, foreigners, but they understand that
they don’t have to be anything other than who they are to experience relationship
with Jesus. We’re not always so good at doing relationship without imposing conditions.
About a year ago, I officiated a funeral for a young man
who died from a heroin overdose. I spent some time with his mother before the
funeral. She had been raised in a very traditional Presbyterian church.
Everyone in the church was polite, but distant; nice, but not overly familiar.
Every member was a good, upstanding member of the community—as far as everyone
else could tell. Everyone got along with everyone else—until they didn’t. And when
they didn’t, they stopped acting like Christians to one another.
That was in the 1960s and 70s, when our churches were still
full every Sunday. The woman who told this story saw hypocrisy everywhere she
turned. Then she said, “I’m done.” I’m sure she heard lots of sermons about
Jesus and about love. But it sounds to me like she didn’t see Jesus in the
people around her.
I think lots of people in her generation and in my generation
have similar stories. I think this has as much to do with the state of the
church today as youth sports or crazy work schedules. I would guess that a lot
of millennials feel this way, too—those who were raised in the church. Many
more were raised outside of the church. If you think that any of those people
are actively looking for a church, if you think they’re just waiting to see if
the people inside the church have changed, if you think that the next pastor
you call is going to bring all the young people into this sanctuary, then you’re
kidding yourself. If you think those things, you haven’t been listening very
closely. If we want to see more people, first we need to see Jesus, and then we
need to follow Jesus—even to the cross.
Our reading today from the Gospel of John anticipates Jesus’
death and resurrection. In verses 24-26, Jesus says:
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.
Jesus’ death will bear
fruit. More than that, these verses suggest that the disciples will continue to
bear fruit, continue to fulfill Jesus’ mission in the world, and even do
greater deeds in Jesus’ name.[3]
This is a story about discipleship. And like the grains of
wheat, the disciples must be planted in the ground; they must die to the lives
they knew. This path began when they walked away from the lives they knew to
follow Jesus. But following Jesus is not enough because Jesus is going to die.
So, the disciples have to abandon their identities as disciples, so that they
can live into their calling to be apostles, so that they can build the Church
and make more disciples.
I know you all love this church. I know that some of your
happiest memories are of baptisms and weddings in this sanctuary and pot-luck
meals in the Fellowship Hall. I know that some of your most fulfilling
relationships are with friends and relatives you see here at Rehoboth. But, if
you wish for this church to stay as it is, and if you aren’t willing to change,
you will lose this church. Yes, this church is wonderful, but if you sit here
waiting for people to find out how wonderful it is, then you will lose this
church. And if you think that a new pastor will draw people to this church, you
will lose this church.
If the people aren’t here, you need to go out and find
them. And then you need to show Jesus to them. I’m not asking you to raise
Lazarus from the dead or heal lepers; I don’t have those powers, either. The
power that we all have is the power of relationship. Relationship is the
antidote to so many of the hurts in our world, including the hurts that have
been inflicted by our churches.
We don’t practice relationship because we seek new members
for this congregation. We practice relationship because we’ve seen and experienced
Jesus, because we’ve felt the love of God and the movement of the Holy Spirit.
We practice relationship because that is how we are called to live as followers
of Jesus Christ—in relationships with all of our neighbors, those who are
members of this congregation and those who are outside our walls.
I do believe that if we live into this calling more fully,
the new relationships we form will bear fruit, and some of that fruit will
surely be more people in the pews. The changes that we need to make aren’t that
big. We need to meet people where they are, build relationships, and then invite
them into the places where we experience and share the love of God.
Certainly, that means we all need to invite people to come
to church. It also means that we need to be actively engaged in doing the work
of the Church: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and
the prisoners, welcoming the strangers, the outsiders, and the foreigners. And
I know that many of you are already busy doing these things. That’s great! But
if you’re already doing these things, that doesn’t get you off the hook! If you’re
busy doing these things, invite some of your friends from church to join you in
this work. Or better yet, invite some of your friends who don’t come to church
to join you. Then build a relationship around the work that you share. Relationship
is the method for making disciples. We are charged with going out into the
world and making disciples. If we live into that responsibility, we will
continue to live and thrive as a congregation. Thanks be to God. Amen!
Benediction
Now, beloved, as you depart from this place, remember that
we are called to be the Church, the body of Christ in the world today. We are
called to go forth and be instruments of God’s love and peace and love and reconciliation.
This is how we live into God’s covenants. Do not return evil for evil to any
person, but know that we are all loved by God, and that we are called to
reflect that love to everyone we meet. Go forth and be the salt of the earth
and the light of the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, let all
God’s children say, Amen!
[1] Karoline
Lewis, “Seeing Jesus,” retrieved from: http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5114
[2]
Lewis, “Seeing Jesus.”
[3]
Karoline Lewis. John: Fortress Biblical
Preaching Commentaries. Minneapolis: Fortress Press (2014), pp. 170-171.
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