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5 Lent Year B 3/17/2024
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Timing is an important thing.
Any one of us can have great ideas, new innovations,
fantastic leadership, skillful practice, amazing talent, influence…
You name it…
But if the timing fails…
If the timing is off…
It may just remain an idea or a talent.
Timing can make or break many things.
Timing can change the outcome of one’s goal…
Timing can mess up the building momentum.
It can take bold confidence to step forward…
Or patient resilience to wait until the moment is right.
Many things have gone by the wayside, simply because it just wasn’t the right time.
Our Gospel reading today speaks about the timing of Jesus.
Our Gospel comes from some of the final narratives of the life of Christ before his arrest, death on the cross, and resurrection.
Jesus was preparing for the festival…
That is the Feast of the Passover…
There were Greeks who went there as well and when they heard that Jesus was coming, they came to Jesus’ disciple Philip and asked to see him.
Philip went to Andrew and then they both went to Jesus.
Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus talks about his hour, a future hour, and that his time had not come… his hour had not come.
His hour was a metaphor for his death on the cross…
His passionate suffering for the sake of humankind.
His hour was kept for the perfect time.
So, naturally the Gospel of John points toward his hour not being at this time or that time of his life.
But here, in our story, Jesus answers differently…
He says:
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
This was the beginning of the final days of Jesus.
He knew it was time…
His hour had truly come.
Jesus goes on to say:
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.
There are two things going on here…
One, Jesus is speaking of himself…
He is describing the purpose of his own death…
His death will bear much fruit…
His death gives life to the world…
Jesus said:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
(Mark 10.45)
Jesus ultimate mission was to sacrifice his life…
To give up his life…
The perfect offering…
The sinless offering…
So that we might be saved from our sins and from eternal death.
As we hear in our offertory sentence each Sunday:
Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us,
an offering and sacrifice to God.
Christ came to die so that we would live.
Live by his grace through faith, believing that we are saved not by our own works, but by the work that Jesus did in his life, death, and resurrection.
The second thing that Jesus is speaking of is the path that his disciples are to take.
The path of giving up one’s life for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A life of service.
A life of humility.
Our Lenten proper preface in our liturgy highlights this call… It says:
Through Jesus Christ our Lord by whose grace we are able to live no longer unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again.
(BCP, 346)
To follow Christ Jesus is to learn to live for him in every part of who we are…
In our thinking…
In our emotions…
In our actions…
In our habits…
In our relations with other people.
I know that’s a hard one.
Jesus died for those that persecuted him, insulted him, hated him…
Yet, he still said from the cross:
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
(Luke 23.34)
We are called to live this out.
And only by his grace and mercy can we do such a thing…
As we are forgiven much, may we also forgive much too.
Today is also the feast day of St. Patrick.
It has become a cultural day in our world…
A national day…
Full of legends (like St. Patrick kicking all the snakes out of Ireland) …
But on this feast day…
Let us be remined of the humble person of St. Patrick…
the missionary Bishop.
Patrick was born into a Christian family somewhere on the northwest coast of Britain in about 390 AD.
His grandfather had been a Christian priest and his father a deacon.
When Patrick was about 16 years old, he was captured by a band of Irish slave-raiders…
And was carried off to Ireland and forced to serve as a shepherd.
After six years of slavery and being ripped from his family, he managed to escape and return to Britain.
He was educated on the European continent where he became a priest and then a bishop.
And it was in his early 40’s that he returned to Ireland as a missionary bishop…
To serve and love the very people that destroyed his childhood years and forced him into slavery.
He evangelized the people by walking throughout the island bringing men and women to a knowledge of Christ.
Although he faced fierce opposition and possible persecution, he continued to be a witness for God.
He founded churches and served the same people who once kidnapped him…
He was a servant of God to the people who made him a slave.
St. Patrick is an example of one who set his eyes on heavenly things and not on earthly things…
Rather serving God than the comforts of this world.
In one of his writings the Confession of Patrick…
He wrote:
It was the over-powering grace of God at work in me,
and no virtue of my own, which enabled all these things.
I came to the Irish heathen to preach the gospel.
I have had to endure insults from unbelievers;
I have heard my mission ridiculed;
I have experienced persecution to the point of imprisonment;
I have given up my free-born status for the good of others.
Should I be worthy, I am even ready to surrender my life, promptly and gladly, for his name;
and it is here in Ireland that I wish to spend my remaining days, if the Lord permits me.
St. Patrick is more than just a national hero or a legendary figure…
He was a missionary bishop in the church.
This is how the gospel works…
It transforms the world…
The culture…
Things turn right-side-up… as opposed to the way they are.
The things we think are impossible, become very possible.
They even become reality!
Another way of stating this perspective is by a thought-provoking message that was circulating on social media this last week.
It said:
The Apostle Paul entered heaven to the cheers of those he martyred.
Think about that!
Paul who killed Christians for their faith in the earliest stages of the church… has a conversion to Jesus Christ…
and is celebrated by the host of heaven when he entered into glory.
Friends,
We probably will never live up to the powerful life of the Apostle Paul or of St. Patrick…
But if we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are called to follow Him…
We are called to humble ourselves in our relationships with others…
Even those that have different political beliefs.
Even when it comes to forgiveness…
Even with our enemies.
Jesus does things differently than our world.
Listen to his words again:
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am,
there My servant will be also.
If anyone serves Me, …My Father will honor.
Next week, we enter Holy Week…
The week we walk along with Jesus his road to the cross…
As we walk this walk with him…
May we have ears to hear what he is saying…
Listening to his voice…
Obeying his voice…
Forgiving who we need to forgive…
Overlooking an offense that we need to overlook.
Loving on those that need love…
Strengthening those that are weak…
Sharing the mercy of God to those that need mercy.
This walk is not about how to make ourselves more powerful…
But it is a walk of humility…
This is the time…
This is the hour…
Prepare your hearts this week…
Prepare for Holy Week…
Prepare for the passion of our Lord.
Amen.