A Sermon
for the 5th Sunday in Lent (RCL B) 3-25-2012
Offered by
Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry
Texts: Jeremiah
31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33
Themes: sacrificial
love, the seed bearing fruit, the days of his flesh
Title: If It Dies
“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” (John 12:24).
For centuries, this Sunday in the Church
calendar was known as Passion Sunday. It is the last Sunday in Lent before we
launch the dramatic events of Holy Week which begin with Palm Sunday.
And so, on this Sunday, we read of the
beginning of the Lord’s Passion: his movement toward the cross.
We must remember that this death toward
which Jesus walked was not an inevitable one.
We claim that is was chosen, that it was
faced voluntarily solely because of love – as an act of self-sacrifice.
Some of you may have joined the rush of
the crowd which has gone out to see the new The Hunger Games movie this
weekend. My family and I are going out to see it this afternoon. And we are all
looking forward to this, because we all listened to it together as a family on
audio CD a few years ago. We all appreciated the story and have been excited
about the release of this film.
In case you do not know, the star of the
story is a 16 year old young woman named Katniss Everdeen.
She was not selected to be part of the
Hunger Games. Two names are pulled out of the lot of names each year to go as
tributes for the games. In the story, it was the name of Katniss’s younger
sister, Primrose, which was selected.
But for years now, since the death of
her father in an accident in a coal mine, Katniss has acted as the protector and
provider for her sister and her mother. She was not about to sit back and allow
her small, young sister to be taken to the Games and there to be killed. Death is the near-certain outcome, as 23 out
of the 24 children in the games each
year are killed. There is only one winner.
And so, out of love for her family, out
of love for her sister, Katniss offered herself as a living sacrifice to play and
to die in the Hunger Games in place of her sister.
This kind of self-sacrifice is rightly
to be praised and honored.
And it is right for our families to be
the primary place where we share the love of God in Christ.
God has intended for our households to
be most basic community where the gospel truth is proclaimed and embraced and
incarnated on a daily basis. Each household is a little church; it is the
primary Christian community.
However, this kind of sacrificial love is
not enough.
We know that it is instinctual for us to
love and protect the members of our own families. This is not Christian
morality; it is rather straightforward biology.
Scientists tell us that our common
genetic material is constructed in such a way that we will nurture and care for
one another within our families. This helps to ensure that our DNA is passed
along to the next generation. We are wired in the most fundamental way to make
sure that this transmission continues onward into the future.
So, from a Christian perspective, the
care and love which we share within the family is vital and important, but it
has hardly anything at all to do with the love which we see in Jesus Christ.
For a character like Katniss Everdeen to
offer herself as a sacrifice so that her younger sister might live is perhaps noble
and admirable, but it is not Christian love. It is simple biology. It is
instinct.
By contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ
continually calls us to move against our instinctual natures. Rather than
offering our sacrificial love solely on behalf of those within our own families
– as good as that is - , the gospel calls us to sacrifice on behalf of those
who have no biological claim upon our kindness at all.
Christ calls us to offer ourselves for
the sake of those with whom we share nothing in common, except for the fact
that we are members of the human family, all made in the image of God.
Our Lord calls us to sacrifice ourselves
even for the sake of our enemies.
This is exactly how the apostle Paul
describes the Lord’s own sacrifice in his letter to the Romans: “While we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10).
For more than 2000 years, people have
been struck to the heart by the realization that this man, this One we call
Jesus, willingly and freely walked forward to death on the cross.
And why? Out of love for you.
You know the words of invitation in the
Prayer Book, when I hold up the consecrated bread and wine and invite everyone
to the table:
“The gifts of God for the people of God.
Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you.”
That Christ died for you. Remember it.
Take it to heart.
That remembrance is intended to drive
you to your knees in humble gratitude for the sacrifice that Jesus made for you
and for me on the cross.
But what comes next? Not in the liturgy,
I mean, but in the course of our Christian lives.
What happens once we take this to heart,
once we remember and embrace that amazing grace which Jesus gives to us? What
then?
“Whoever serves me must follow me, and
where I am, there will my servant be also…
Those who love their life lose it, and
those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John
12:26 & 25).
Don’t misunderstand this text. I love my
life! And I hope that you love yours! Because it is a gift of grace from our
Creator. But, like every gift, it is given in order that we might give it back
in service.
What the Lord longs to see is a
community of people who have been so touched by his grace and love that they
are ready to sacrifice in service to others, even to those who are entirely
different and alien.
And what is true of the individual Christian
is also true for the Christian community.
Do you realize that this is also your
calling as a Christian community?
Not to guard and protect the life of
your parish! No! But rather to give it away in prodigal generosity so that
those out there who are lost, who are hopeless, who are hungry, who are
oppressed – so that they might experience the grace of God as well!
We might re-word this famous passage from
John’s gospel in this way:
“Unless a congregation falls into the
earth and dies, it remains just a single community; but if it dies in service
to others, it bears much fruit. Those congregations that love their special
buildings and liturgies – they will lose all of it. But those communities who
refuse to be distracted from the gospel, those gathered together in order to
become broken bread and poured out wine for the sake of others - they will keep
their life intact and in fact will multiply it!”
This is the relentless missionary
impulse of God. It is central to the gospel, like it or not.
Grace is given, not so that we can be at
peace and feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but in order that we might give it
away!
When we leave the Table of the Lord
today, we will be singing an old song, but a good song.
It’s a reminder that we must not be
distracted from the solitary reason for our existence, that we might be part of
the grand movement of the gospel as it spreads to touch the life of each and
every human being.
It is a stirring call to service, and it
goes like this: “Rise up, ye saints of God! Have done with lesser things; give
heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings.”
Will you do it, my friends? Will you
follow Jesus in this path of sacrificial love?
Maybe it will mean that you open your
home to a foster child who needs a safe place to live.
Maybe you will decide that you do not
have to pay an extra $50 a month for HD channels on your TV, and that $50 a
month is meant to go to Africa so that a child there can attend school and
become educated and have a future.
Maybe it will mean that you spend a few
hours a week tutoring elementary school students in Camden in basic spelling
and math so that they can move on in school and maybe even graduate one day.
Maybe the sacrificial love of Jesus will
inspire you to go out to eat one fewer time each month and then to use that $50
to buy mosquito nets so that we can stop the debilitating spread of malaria in
tropical countries.
I do not know precisely how God’s grace
will move you personally, and how this grace will inspire you as a community to
give your life away, but it will move and inspire – if you open your hearts
to Christ.
May it always be so among all of us who are
the fruit of his sacrificial love. Amen.
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