Listen to the Sermon or the Entire Service
March 22:
Reading: "Lent" (268 as modified) Text: John 12: 20-33 Closing: Hebrews 5: 7-10 Serving Love When I began my time as your pastor nearly eight years ago One of the most thrilling things for me Was serving communion to Russell Clark A man whom I admired And whose friendship I treasured Even after his death a few years ago As you may have noticed: Russell Clark and I had a lot in common. And that extends well beyond the fact that we both have had the joy and the honor of pastoring this congregation. Russell went to college at Colgate As for me, I grew up not terribly far from that school And I often used their toothpaste Russell played the trombone quite well As for me I played the trombone Russell played tennis skillfully until he retired from it the game at 90 As for me, I played tennis w/o skill until I retired from the game at 20 It is that last "similarity" that comes to my mind today. For "serving love" sounds like a tennis term. But as used here this morning It is a term for what our text describes And both Russell and I would agree that it means something very different from its use in tennis. In tennis, "love" - for some reason - means "zero." In our scripture it means something so valuable and so important That no number or valuation can be placed on it. In our scripture and in our faith, Serving love is what Jesus did And serving love is what Jesus expects us to do. In the text, Jesus takes advantage of a request to meet him To talk about his death Which was to be a remarkable serving of love And he talks about the consequences to those of us Who respond to that love by following him, and by serving love - not just having it served to us [12: 20-26] Jesus is the grain Whose death and burial bear much fruit You and I and others across the years and the miles Are the fruit. But if you and I are going to be fruit We need to understand that likewise we will be seeds Who need to be buried And bear new fruit. And Jesus, knowing fully well, that it must seem odd For a man of 33 to talk about the death that awaits him, Turns and answers the unasked, but clearly present question "Why? Why would he accept such a fate?" He acknowledges that he is troubled by it, saying. [27 - 28a] He speaks first to those around him In words that may well be among the most revealing and informative statements that he is recorded as making: "I cannot ask to be spared what I know is coming For it is the very reason that I am here." Then he speaks to his father, "Father, though I know that it means my death, Glorify yourself through me." And, as happened at both his baptism and the transfiguration [28b - 33] And, of course, "lifted up" means lifted up on the cross. This story shows as clearly as anything in the gospels, The connection between Jesus' death And the subsequent life of the believing community. You and I are touched by his understanding and his accepting That his death for the glory of God was the very reason he was here. Having been so touched, let me ask, "What is the reason that you and I are here? Is it possible that we are also here for the glory of God? Or are we here for our own glory? Despite how we often make decisions that seem to demonstrate that it is the latter, we know and we need to show that it is the former. We too are here for the glory of God. We are the fruit of Jesus' seed And seeds from our fruit Must give birth to the fruit that will follow. William Barclay who wrote the NT portions of the multi volume "Daily Study Bible" observes in connection with this scripture, Something which should be obvious But I confess that until I read what he wrote, had not really occurred to me, "It is always because men have been prepared to die that great things have lived." And Barclay clarifies what he is saying by explaining, "It is when a man buries his own personal aims That he begins to be useful to God." This is what is meant when we speak of surrendering to God. There is no greater act of love Than to be willing to give up your life for another Actually there is one act even greater than that. "to be willing to even give up your child's life." In this scripture we see both For Jesus the Son was willing to gave up His own life And God the Father was willing to gave up His Son's life. And note that in their willingness Love was served to you and to me. Not all love that is served requires someone's physical life. Every day - in fact, every hour of every day - You and I are given the opportunity to serve love. We see an example in our text We see it in the actions of Philip and Andrew Who served love at the beginning of the passage By their willingness to take the gentile Greeks to Jesus. The Greeks appeared out of no where Seeking to meet this teacher about whom they had heard so much. And so Philip went to Andrew And together they both went to Jesus. From the time last fall which we spent together in the early church We learned there were many of Jesus' Jewish followers who had serious questions about gentiles following Christ. Thus, when Philip and Andrew went to Jesus What they were doing might well have caused other followers to become upset. But they knew it was the right thing. They seemed to grasp that in introducing those gentile visitors to Jesus They were serving love to others of God's children Even if some colleagues might have disagreed Or even gotten upset. This scripture makes us think long and hard About the way we lead our lives And about whether our lives serve love to others. If they do not, we are not leading lives that glorify God In our closing scripture from Hebrews, the author talks About how loud cries and tears Accompanied Jesus' prayers and requests; He talks about Jesus learning from what he suffered; And he talks about about Jesus being the source of eternal salvation. And then the writer adds - in the verse immediately following the stated scripture - "We have a lot to say about this topic and it is difficult to explain [and here if the words were oral rather than written we would detect a firmness - perhaps even a shout] "because you have been too lazy and you haven't been listening." Jesus' glorifying God by sacrificially serving love Was the very reason he was here. If we too are here to glorify God By also sacrificially serving love We cannot give others the chance to say That we have been too lazy and that we have not been listening Especially if it is true!