Sunday Sermon 21st March 2021

JOHN 12:20-33 21 march ccm

I may have shared with you before about the very first funeral service I was asked to conduct; I was a very new deacon.  I had been caring for a lady in the parish with Parkinson’s disease, and when she died her family asked me to conduct the service.

I think you can imagine how nervous I was; I so wanted to get things right for this family.  After the service, one of their friends came to me and said “the funeral for a Christian is always a celebration”.  I must admit, I was quite shocked and I thought he was nuts.  I couldn’t see any reason to celebrate.

But I have learned that he was right – he was right and at the time I just didn’t get it.  Any priest will tell you that there really is a distinct difference between the funeral service for a Christian and for those who have no faith.

And the difference is because of Easter. 

As believers, we might not understand everything about Easter, we may have trouble getting our heads around the behaviour of the disciples, or the religious authorities, or even Jesus as he fulfils what he knows is his destiny.  But we believe in Jesus, we affirm that he is the son if God, and believe in his life and death and that is enough.

In today’s Gospel, some Greeks, perhaps Jewish converts or gentiles, wish to see Jesus. But they don’t approach him directly, they speak with Phillip, the disciple with the Greek name and who was from Bethsaida, a town with a Greek community.  They are obviously comfortable with Phillip, he speaks their language.

So Phillip speaks to Andrew and together they go to Jesus.  Quite clearly Jesus reputation is becoming so well-known, even outsiders want to meet him.

Everyone in Jerusalem knows what’s been happening: Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. He has been anointed by Mary and he has been acclaimed by the crowds as he entered Jerusalem.

This is trouble for the Pharisees. They and the rest of the religious establishment are powerless against this Galilean man who claims to have come from the Father in heaven.

Already many of the Jews are believing in him. Before too long, the Pharisees fear, everyone will follow after him, upsetting the fragile relationship with the Romans.  This would give the Romans cause to come and destroy their temple and the nation, and worse still for the Pharisees,  strip them of their authority. Their worst fears are confirmed when the crowds who had been at Lazarus’ tomb begin to testify.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus invites his disciples to “follow me”.  But no longer is it enough to come and see Jesus; from “this hour” forward his followers are invited to come and be with Jesus. 

Now is the time when followers must make a true commitment, just at the time when things are going to become very difficult. 

Following Jesus isn’t a spectator sport. It is a life to be lived. It’s about commitment: his commitment to us and our commitment to him. It’s being a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies so that it might bear much fruit.

Sometimes it is when we feel that a part of us has died, perhaps a loved one, or even plans we had made, that we feel that we can’t go on.  It might be  one of those times when we were the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died.  

But for believers, when we have had our good Friday moment, our faith assures us that resurrection will come, even if we can’t yet see it.  We know that Easter Sunday will come, perhaps not after 3 days or even 3 weeks, but our faith tells us that it will come.

We cannot know what harvest we will produce.  We cannot know how many people will be influenced by our faith and our witness.  It may not be our ministry to influence great crowds; it may be that we only need to tell one person about Jesus, about why we go to church.  It may be they notice the way in which we live our lives and in the way we treat others.  That is what Jesus means by bearing fruit

As I used to tell the students at school, I cannot prove that God exists: God is not a mathematical equation or a scientific formula.  Probably just as well, because I certainly wouldn’t understand God if that was what was required.

This Gospel passage isn’t easy for us to understand, but we need to think about in the context of the whole Lenten journey.  Each week we learn a little more about Jesus and about discipleship.  And each week we move ever closer to Jerusalem with Jesus and the disciples.

I leave you with a fabulous quote which I kept on the noticeboard in my office at school.  It is from Robert Louis Stevenson:

Do not judge each day by the harvest you reap,  but by the seeds that you sow.

Don’t worry about the harvest – that is God’s concern.  Just keep sowing the seeds

AMEN