Preached by the Reverend Kati L. Houts at the Sunshine Cathedral at the 10:20 am service on Sunday, April 2, 2006, the Fifth Sunday in Lent.
The grace of our Master Teacher — the love of God in the unity of Spirit — be with you all.
God of all Creation: You write upon our hearts and in our minds your love and wisdom for living the good life. You speak to us just as you did with the prophets of old. You call us to action to share your love and our gifts with others.
Yet we sometimes, out of fear, choose not hear your voice. Lord have mercy.
We do not always do what is beneficial for us. Christ have mercy.
We hesitate to answer your call. Lord have mercy.
Today we choose to step out and embrace your calling for us. We rise to reach our potential and to share our very best with others. We respect Jesus and will allow him to support us and guide us in all we do. All this we ask in his holy name, Amen.
Jeremiah 31:31, 33 (abridged)
31“One day,” says the Holy One, “I’m going to make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. 33This is the heart of that new covenant: I will write my Precepts not on tablets of stone, but on their hearts, in their minds. We will be intimately, internally connected. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Scientific Christian Mental Practice — Emma Curtis Hopkins
All the liberating of the inner fire within us to operate on the world without us, by laying hold of its substance, is the speaking of the God-voice within us. This voice may come from the God-voice [outside] us, as it did to the prophets. If we feel that around us is God we may hear a voice from the bushes, like Moses. We may hear a voice from the air, as Samuel did. We may hear a voice from the clouds as Jesus Christ did. If we contemplate the God within us we shall feel the voice within us, and it will be as audible as if it were without us. Whichever way we may hear it we seem to turn our faith in that direction, and so our strength comes from that kind of faith. If we are determined that ALL is God we shall not be limited to the voice within nor the voice without. Everything will bear witness that we are in God.
John 12:20-26 (abridged)
20-21Some Greeks to Philip with a request: “We want to see Jesus.”
22Philip and Andrew went to Jesus with their request. 23“They want to see me? Jesus responded. “This is the time when the son of humanity is going to really be seen, to be seen, to be magnified! 24Here’s how it works: a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies. Otherwise it will always be one grain of wheat there are! 25So clinging to life will only bring it to an end. But if you simply let it go —without struggling or clinging—it goes on and on and on, right into eternity! 26If you want to walk this path with me, you’re going to have to do what I do. Then — like the grain of wheat — I will be replicated in the life of all of you. God’s glory will fill you all!”
There’s this cathedral that’s still being worked on, and the workers have rigged a “cage elevator” inside so they can get material up and down to the upper floors. A characteristic of these “cage elevators” is that the doors (gate) must be closed manually for them to be “called” to another floor.
One day one of the workers, Peter by name, takes the elevator to the top floor, and it is subsequently needed on the first floor by the sexton. Unfortunately, Peter forgot and left the door open. After the sexton rings for the elevator a couple times, to no avail, he yells up for the worker to send the lift back down. Visitors to the cathedral were treated to this sight: The sexton of the cathedral, head tipped up, yelling up to the heavens:
“Peter! CLOSE THE GATES!!!”
In today’s Gospel Jesus points to the mystery of the grain of wheat, which after seeming to lie dead in the soil now springs up throughout the land to sustain life. This dying and rising provides a paradigm for discipleship.
Whoever loves their life will lose it, and whoever hates it will gain eternal life. Now what does this mean? It means that the person who is fond of their life, the person who wants to live for themselves, always getting their way and advantage, they will in the end destroy their own life.
Now why is that? Because there is no way that you and I are smart enough, or can compute all the factors of our lives and end up on top of things, much less be on top of things as we go through life itself. There are too many unidentified factors that just pop up in the mix of life that interfere with our plans. The only way a person can have life is by giving it up. This means to bury those personal aims and ambitions that hinder you in fulfilling your calling from God. According to the Gospel of John, “Loving life” means a preference for worldly things that can blind a person to God’s love. Hatred of one’s life means rejection of the claims of the “world” and having a willingness to serve and follow Jesus.
The world will come to know God and God’s all encompassing, unconditional love by our willingness to serve. They will come to know God by what they see in us. If our behavior is considered a reflection of the nature of God, what are we saying about God when we use our God-given freedom to choose that which is not God?
Much as we say we love God, we struggle with the notion of submitting to the ministry of this God who wants to touch and shape and reshape our hearts. We like the sound of being “touched by God”. It makes us feel special. This is the love God so freely offers us and wants us to offer others. To do this, we will need to make some changes in our lives and we resist doing them because it restricts our choices. It dictates our preferences. It adds to our realm of responsibility, and in our busy lives, we feel that we have responsibility enough already. We have families and work and school and civic and political and social lives. We are on all manner of teams and committees and boards. We have programs and projects to run. Our “religion” for us is a social option and much like any thing else, we have to figure out how we can fit it into our overloaded calendars. The calling of a life centered on God is not an easy choice especially when it calls for us to make a change — and we do not like making hard choices.
Typical of our busy nature, we put God “on hold” while we take other calls, and this is not a mere figure of speech. In a myriad of churches throughout the country, and in spite of signs and announcements and the most diplomatic of requests for cooperation, we continually hear the rude interruptions of cell phones during worship services. Of course that would never happen here. The hard truth of the matter is that we listen for other people’s voices first, paying attention to the voice of God, only after we are finished with everyone else. And when the difficulties of life find their way to us, we reach out to God only when we have exhausted our own resources.
As Emma Curtis Hopkins says, “If we contemplate the God within us we shall feel the voice within us, and it will be as audible as if it were without us. Whichever way we may hear it we seem to turn our faith in that direction, and so our strength comes from that kind of faith.” God’s voice is more audible than a cell phone for it comes from within us. God speaks to us continually. We only need to listen.
The whole point of our Lenten season of repentance is that we have to be willing to let go of the need to hold on “stuff” that we value but that stands between us and God. We need to let go of life as we define it, in order to experience life as God designs it. To experience the glory of God requires us to die in order to live, to shed our cocoons of safety and take flight in lives empowered by God’s strength. Such a transformation is never easy, but it is truly possible because of the Christ who endured all of human experience, with all it peaks and pits, to show us the way to live.
When the road became rough, Jesus turned to God in his sufferings. The ultimate triumph of Jesus’ sacrifice stands as his legacy to you and me in the here and now. As we are taught by the Letter to the Hebrews, “because of our Lord’s obedient submission to the will of God, he is now a source of eternal salvation for all of us who now choose to follow him.” Following in his footsteps, we can endure, we can triumph, and we can change the world.
God will honor the person who imitates Christ by having the passion to serve others, just as God has the passion to meet your needs. We need to experience the service ministry to which each of us is called. My ministry may differ from yours.
That’s as it should be. Each of us has been gifted with special ministries. It would be sad if all of us were the same. God made each of us unique for many reasons. Among those reasons is the ability to meet the needs of relationships, of healing, and understanding. We must develop a passion to use our gifts as an extension of Jesus’ ministry.
So as we continue our Lenten journey, let us loosen our grip on the things that distract us and put our faith and trust in God. Let us pray for growth in the Spirit, that we might open our hearts to the Divine Inscription. Let us rise from our knees and move on in our journey that keeps us ever turning toward God, sharing our Light with the World. Amen.
God of all life, help us to let go of those things which ultimately bring us a life that is full of stress, illness, confusion, and poor choices. Help us to trust you with our whole lives. Forgive us when we refuse to hear your voice and choose instead to follow our own desires. We ask for the wisdom to prioritize our lives so that we may spiritually grow in communion and union with You. Be with those today who cannot be here due to illness, travel, or incarceration. We ask for your healing and blessings in our lives as we now affirm our love for you:
We choose to let go of all that separates us from You.
We are lifted up by your love.
We choose to listen to you.
We choose to answer your calling.
We choose to grow in spirit.
We choose to share our gifts with others.
We choose to trust you with our whole lives.
We thank you for your unending love.
And so it is. Amen.
Easter declares death is dead and done with. Yet few reply to its persuasion — deadness is so safe. Its badge is boredom; boredom is unlived life, security is the groove. The only difference between the groove and the grave is the depth. Hugh Lavery
