March 29, 2009
Jayne Slawson
Lent 5
Scripture Reading: John 12:20–33
May 5, 1961: In the predawn darkness, a 59 foot (18meter) tall redstone missle stood in the glare of flood lights. Vapor sprewed from the rocket's side as it's tanks were pressurized with fuel and super cold liquid oxygen. Not far away, in a trailer that served as a suiting-up room, Alan Shepard, the first American in space prepared to ride that rocket. When he emerged, clad in a silvery space suit and carrying a portable ventilator, he paused to look up at the gleaming rocket. Minutes later, he was squeezed into the tiny cabin of his Mercury space craft, which he had christened Freedom 7. Lying on his back in a form fitting couch, Shepard watched as the technicians finally left sealing the space craft's side hatch. His first thoughts were: "Okay, buster", he tells himself, " you volunteered for this thing". You can't go back now. Next was: "Please, dear God, don't let me screw up!"- better known as Shepard's Prayer.
When my family and I were at the Kennedy Space Center two weeks ago, we got to experience the sights and sounds and anxious moments of what it is like to be strapped in and awaiting a shuttle launch. All along the way I and probably every person who has ever entered a space craft about to launch was asking the same question: At what point do you get to before you realize there is no going back? Is it when they read out the restrictions to the ride — "can't be pregnant, must be over 48 inches tall" — or when they lock you into your seat, or do the final lowering of the outside hatch? Is it when you feel the shuttle move and tilt or when you see flames passing over the capsules window? Is it when the count down starts: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6... Can you call quits before or just after the shuttle leaves the ground?
I am sure you have all experienced at some time or another, the phenomenon described as the point of no return. That point in time at which it is too late to turn around and start back at the beginning, when you need to draw deep within yourself in order to persevere to the finish. You are in too deep and you must follow through to the finish- turning back is no longer an option. Whether it was during a long 20 mile hike in those new unbroken in shoes that looked cool at the start of the hike but are killing your feet half way along the way; taking on an impossible difficult Philosophy class that you did not drop in time or agreeing to ride on the enormously high double ferris wheel; or the drop of doom roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall and just as you are at the top and you are now looking down... you want to get off.
The point of no return often coincides with the moment we are considering giving up and often the knowledge that we cannot turn back originates in the desire to actually want to turn back- when going through cancer treatments, dealing with the death of a love one, overcoming a particular addiction.
The disciples and followers of Jesus had many opportunities along the way to hear the Good News that Jesus taught and lived and often we hear how they just didn't quite seem to get the message. In the beginning of Jesus' ministry he is patient and spends much time and energy engaging with them but towards the end of Jesus' ministry, Jesus knows his death is imminent, and time needed to get his disciples and followers to see him — to actually SEE him becomes more immediate and critical. For you see the response to Jesus' ministry has stirred up two powerful reactions: some want to crown Him and others want to kill Him. These reactions are starting to get more visible and audible and in John's Gospel we see Jesus zigzaging in and out of the spot light, because as John says, "his hour has not yet come".
Jesus feeds the 5,000 and people want to crown him, so he withdraws to the countryside; he teaches in the Temple and some want to stone Him, and he manages to slip away; he raises Lazarus and they fear Him, so he stays amongst friends; he enters Jerusalem and they hail Him, and his fate is sealed. Jesus knows that he cannot avoid a collision of these two reactions much longer and so when he hears that some Greeks want to see him the phenomenon of the point of no return is triggered. What Jesus has been doing is no longer just a story for the hometown newspapers, it is now international news. Some Greeks coming signals just how far the word has spread. Those that want him eliminted know this and Jesus knows it as well.
That is why Jesus does not take the time to address the Greeks in a normal formal introduction but rather they become immediately involved and listen in on the conversation that Jesus starts to have with the disciples on what it means for all of us to actually SEE Him. His hour had come.
I remember once when I was talking to someone how in the middle of the conversation my son who was three years old at the time and sitting on my lap wanted me to look at something important. Knowing he wasn't getting my full attention, and the moment of attention was immediate, he took my face in his hands and pointed it in the direction of what he wanted me to look at and at the same time yelled, "Look Mom, Look!" He knew that if I didn't look then I wasn't going to see what he wanted me to see. The moment would be gone.
When you look at Jesus, what do you see? Remember the nursery rhyme that goes like this:
When it comes to looking at Jesus, what do we see? Possibly a miracle worker, teacher, savior, healer?
But how does Jesus want you to view him? It must be more than simply seeing Jesus in a visual way. The Greeks who came to the passover in Jerusalem came for more than the chance to just get a "glimpse" of Jesus. They wanted to see Jesus in the sense of seeing what Jesus might mean to their lives, who Jesus really is and what his mission and ministry are all about. It is seeing in the sense we mean when we want someone to understand something and we say, "Do you see what I mean?"
Johns passage gives a wonderful opportunity to learn what it means to see Jesus since it is Jesus himself who answers the question. When Philip and Andrew come to Jesus to tell him that some Greeks want to see him, Jesus did not say, "Here I am, take a look." He answers with some profound comments. Listen as Jesus himself tells us what it means to see Him:
The hour has come — in code means Jesus' death; To be Glorified means the time has come for the Son of man to recieve honor---to be magnified, to see the true nature of his being, of what he is about, what he really is. In his death, Jesus is glorified and honored. Through Jesus death, God opens a window to the fact that death is not final after all, it is not the last word anymore. When a seed is planted in the ground, it appears to be gone — to die — but in fact the seed germinates and leads to more life.
Jesus is not defeated by death, but rather is the One who comes to have victory over death. The worst hour of his life and seeming worst hour of human history (Good Friday) is turned into the greatest hour ever for the kingdom of God (Easter). Death is necessary for life. Dying is important for living.
In late August, early September, we go out to Kookenay Lake Park to see the kokanee fish spawn. For some of us who fish we are amazed at the size of the kokanee as they travel up steam — the ones who got away!. They fight their way up the rocks and logs to their death but before their death they lay the eggs for the next years life.
There is a parallel between the seed and the kokanee. That is, in both, death is necessary for life. Dying is important for living. I would like to venture further and say that there is a parallel with the kokanee, the seed and each one of us: that it is only by first dying that a person ever begins to live.
This will mean something different for each of us here today. It could be dying to selfishness, self-centeredness, addictions, wants, abuses, prejudices, you name it. Dying so that we are free to live a more compassionate and loving life. To see Jesus is to see that only in dying can you really begin living.
To see Jesus means to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus. People who are so invested in the things of this life lose sight of what life is really about. They wind up defeated by death. People who follow Jesus, on the other hand, go through death as he goes through death, but they are also with Jesus forever. They share his fate, but they will also share his future. Being truly found in Christ is not just showing up to church on Sunday mornings — being a follower of Jesus requires that we go where He goes. It requires that we take a good hard look at our lives and start cutting things that come between us and our ability to serve God and serve others. It means living lives of hospitality, sharing our resources with others, breaking down walls that divide us and embracing life, generousity and hope for all God's creation where our lives are transformed, where this recognition of our common humanity changes how we see ourselves and one another.
To see Jesus is to understand the purpose of his death. What God expected Christ to do was not an easy task; what God calls us to do will not be easy either. As Christ was troubled by the magnitude of the sacrifice required of Him, we too need to push through fear and trepidation to do what is required of us to follow Him. Following Christ into Life requires that we persevere through difficult stretches.
There is no courage in not admitting fear, there is courage in acknowledging fear and moving forward.
It is when we cut through the fear that keeps us from giving our lives over to God, that we are able to see the glory of God in new and amazing ways.
911 showed us that, and in Rev. Debra Metzgar Shew's words, "[We] discovered that what all that destruction outside had torn down was not simply the walls of the World Trade Center but the walls of division that we created between ourselves. In the face of death we recognized the real truth of our lives and existence: that we are all one. That what we have in common is our mortality. That it is precisely at the point of our deaths that we reach the point of our oneness. That when our vulnerability and finiteness is faced, an invulnerable and infinite love emerges. That life emerges. That amidst the grief and despair and exhaustion, amidst the tangible proof of the cost of human hatreds and religious discontents was the most palpable experience of community and love that we had ever known. That somehow in the recognition of our mortality we were given life.
For many Christian's Lent can be that point of no return on their way to understanding what Jesus means in their lives. It is also the time that Jesus wants us to really see him! When he takes our face in his hands and turns it, so that we actually see him. For when we really see Jesus we are transformed to go out into the world and do good.
Pussy cat, Pussy cat where have you been?
This cat goes all the way to London, but instead of seeing the Queen in all her royalty, this poor cat sees only a mouse. Basically, it missed what it went to London to see.
I've been to London to see the Queen.
Pussy cat Pussy cat what did you there?
I frightened a little mouse from under her chair!
"The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.....unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."( John 12 vs 23-24)
"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honour him."(John 12, vs25-26)
"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour... and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (John 12,vs 27 & 32)
That the explosion outside had become the occasion for an explosion inside, an explosion not of steel and hatred and despair but of life and generousity and hope. We arrived with a sense of helplessness, arrived with our limits, arrived with a sense of dread and death. And what we found was each other. What we found was life.
What we found were police and firefighters working as one, iron workers and crane operators forgetting unions and creating teams. Chiropractors and restaurant owners and Holocaust survivers and Juilliard students ladling out soup and restoring tired backs and stringing violin music into the air. We found that the hospitality of God gave birth to the hospitality in others. That death was no longer the enemy to be feared, but the commonality that brought us together. That in facing death, in dying to our fear of it, we emerged more alive. That the freedom to live without divisions we humans create was an enormous life-giving gift. That we now wanted the rest of our lives to exhibit, somehow, the truth that we had discovered there. That standing humbly in the presence of those who quite literally gave their lives so that others could live was an experience that changed and transformed us forever."Pilgrim, pilgrim, where have you been?
I've been to Jeruselem to see the man, Jesus.
Pilgrim, pilgrim, what saw you there?... (Walter W. Harms)