The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for April 2, 2006

Texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34/John 12:20-26

Title: “Let Jesus Take it From There”

               The Jewish Passover was just days away, the grand event on the Jewish religious calendar, Jesus already having made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event that will provide our focus next week.  It just so happens, however, that our morning’s lesson places us on the other side of that event.  The palm branches with which the crowd hailed Jesus as the “King of Israel” have already been stowed.  The shouts of “Hosanna” that greeted his arrival have long since ceased to echo in the air. Though most who had welcomed the Lord have by now dispersed to make their individual provisions for the Passover festival, for one group the arrival of Jesus has prompted enduring consternation rather than holiday merriment.

                 For the Pharisees the hoopla surrounding Jesus’ arrival on the scene is an affront to social order.  Who knows when the wave of popular sentiment might crest, and with it what result?  Best be alert. Of course, the alert had already been sounded.  Jesus’ enthusiastic greeting by the Jerusalem crowds was not some spontaneous demonstration mounted for an unknown. No, you see, Jesus had been on the Pharisees’ “watch list” for some time, great notoriety attaching to his name when word of his raising Lazarus from the dead, and other deeds, began to circulate.

              Scripture gives us little help in gauging how widespread his circle of influence extended by the time he arrived in Jerusalem the fateful week that so dramatically changed history. Scripture simply reports the presence of “crowds” to witness his deeds, the size or composition of those crowds nowhere delineated.

              The Gospel of John, however, does find the presence of one group in the crowds to be worthy of particular note.  Present among those gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover were some Greeks.  Scholars believe that the Greeks to whom John refers were a group of Gentiles proselytes, recent converts to Judaism.

              The Greeks approached Jesus’ disciple, Philip, with a very straightforward request.  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Hearing the request, the disciple, instead of taking the request to Jesus straight away, sought out Andrew. A detail, merely a detail whose significance is difficult to judge, but it is just such details as these that give the student of scripture room to speculate.

              An insignificant detail that John, for whatever reason, chose to insert, yet might there be more to it than that?  It is important to remember that Jesus’ ministry to that point in John’s chronology was restricted to Jews.  Do you think that Philip may have struggled with the appropriateness of introducing Jesus to people who, by the standards of the Jews, were judged to be unclean and thus to be avoided? Rather than rush blindly off and do something he might regret, why not check in with Andrew? 

              I’m willing to speculate that the two disciples struggled at length over the form the introduction might take. Did they even known the nature of the business the Greeks wanted to discuss with Jesus? “They wish to see you, Jesus.”  Did their request merit action?  Should the disciples probe for more specific information?  Furthermore, by what criteria were they to judge the worthiness of the Greeks’ petition to see Jesus?  Should they on their own volition be establishing any sort of criteria in the first place?       

              It may well be that any thought Philip and Andrew committed to strategy was superfluous, for we do not even know if Jesus even met the Greeks, for Jesus seized the agenda and took it elsewhere. Yet, that said, it was the Greek’s request that prompted that turn of events.

              “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Philip first, and then Philip and Andrew, faced a dilemma.  Not only did they have to evaluate the propriety of making the introduction in the first place, they had to deliberate upon the character that introduction should take. 

We have all witnessed introductions being made, and we have made our own introductions. Introductions can be of the short, no frills recitation of information of a personal variety; name, hometown, occupation.  They may be of the more detailed variety that includes basic biographical information like education, and marital status.  Or, adding detail about work history, hobbies, and significant accomplishments, the introduction may yield a quite comprehensive picture of the person being introduced. 

                An introduction, I think you will agree, is a very important form of interpersonal communication for the points of contact it establishes between us.  In our lifetimes we have witnessed some beautifully composed and elegant introductions, and others that have been downright awful and embarrassing. When introductions are done well people connect, and a kindred spirit is fostered.  When done poorly, significant opportunity to establish relationship is forfeited.

                “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.  Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.”  An introduction was presumably made, but to what effect we are not given to know.

                 “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Those words meet the preacher’s eye each time he or she steps into the pulpit of the church where I was ordained. “Sir, madam, we wish to see Jesus.”  It has ever been a daunting task to introduce Jesus, for there is so very much of Jesus to introduce. Though the preacher faces the task more regularly, opportunities to introduce Jesus arise in the life of each Christian.

                Before the Greeks ever approached Philip, the eleven disciples who traveled with the Lord, and those in the broader circle of women or men who found themselves in his company, were challenged to introduce Jesus.  His words and works, of course, gave them much material with which to work, and from that material certain conclusions were drawn.  Jesus, as we know, was accorded various titles, “king of Israel,” “king of the Jews,” and “messiah,” most notably.

                   Yet while those titles may have communicated important information, the deeds of the man those titles were meant to introduce consistently exposed the poverty of such titles.  Would the “king of Israel” or the “messiah” spend his time in the company of tax collectors and sinners?  Would he go around offending the religious elite?  Would he make the cause of the widow and orphan his own?  It was on the basis of a resume being built on deeds that at once suggested greatness, and at other points naiveté, if not lunacy, that Jesus’ followers were challenged to introduce him to the world.

                   “We wish to Jesus.” What Jesus did the Greeks wish to see?  The Jesus who had so recently raised Lazarus from the dead?  Did they wish to see the Jesus, who represented himself as the “Good Shepherd,” who was willing to surrender his life on behalf of his sheep?  Or, did they wish to see Jesus, the Pharisees’ nemesis. Which Jesus? 

                   Jesus, so lately arrived in Jerusalem, was adored and loathed with equal passion. Left unanswered, and unanswerable, to what Jesus did the inquiring Greeks relate? “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 

                 The introduction of Jesus has been the life’s work of people like me by the thousands, but only the fool or the presumptuous would claim to have gotten the introduction just right. There is too much of Jesus to fit into one interpretive box, no matter how large and accommodating we might judge that box to be.

                 Philip and Andrew may well have had some well grounded opinions concerning the reception Jesus was liable to give the Greek Gentiles, but Jesus took introductions into his own hands. The Jesus of our morning’s lesson broadens the context in which the triumphal entry into Jerusalem is to be seen. The Jesus lauded with palm fronds on his triumphal entry refers his audience to other sober realities, and he does so with dramatic impact.  “The hour has come [Jesus declared] for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

                  “Glorified?”  The crowds knew glorified.  Glorified was Jesus arriving in town to welcoming crowds raising cries of “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Jesus, however, defined glorification in another way, as a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, but dying bears much fruit. Glorification for Jesus meant surrendering himself into the hands of those who sought any pretext available to silence him.

Taking introductions into his own hands, Jesus places before his audience a whole new way of seeing reality, a vision of life and the world where values are reassigned. It is a vision of life and the world that is costly to attain, because it means parting with things we valued greatly, starting with, of all things, one’s life.

                  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  An innocuous request, but where would that request lead?  One can never, in fact, predict where an encounter with Jesus will lead.  The primary mission of the church, of course, is not to predict where such encounters will lead, but to facilitate such encounters.  The church’s charge, simply stated, is to introduce the world to Jesus that Jesus may introduce himself to the world.

                  The church, as it happens, often feels compelled to do Jesus’ work for him, rather than gratefully accept the important mediating role we have been assigned.  We can never hope to arouse faith by merely reciting and attempting to explain the doctrines Jesus taught.  The illogic of surrendering life that we might gain life is too compelling. The illogic of servanthood as a symbol of greatness is too compelling. The world as it is all we know, save for Jesus. Jesus alone is the guardian of holy mystery, his resurrection exposing the limitations under which the world without Jesus struggles. 

                  The faithful church respects its limitations, but does not allow its limitations to silence it.  We attempt to faithfully interpret the word, recognizing that the word is God’s and not our own, recognizing that the restorative power of the word is God’s and not our own.

                In his recent book entitled “Does God Need the Church,” German theologian Gerhard Lohfink writes, “The Church did not come into the world as a finished product. Although everything has been given to it, it must still grow and develop.” Citing the very real challenges and frustrations the church has faced in its growth and development Lohfink, quoting one of the confessional documents of the German church, offers the following, “We can certainly not ignore the Church’s guilt and its deep wounds.  Nevertheless we see, in spite of all this misery, the beloved bride of whom it is said that she is more beautiful that the dawn.  Its [the church’s] mystery has shone forth in every century: in the words of Sacred Scripture, in the signs of the sacraments, in the beauty of the church buildings, in the seriousness of its reform movements, in the endless choir of its saints, in its steadfast faith that all the promises of God that have not yet come to pass my be fulfilled today.”  

                  “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Though the world’s longings for meaning and purpose may not be expressed in those precise words, the Church knows things the world needs to know.  Not to unravel divine mystery or explain it away, the vocation of the church is simply to make introductions based on the Jesus it knows. We faithfully report what we know, and we let Jesus take it from there. Who knows but that the ancient promises of God made known in Jesus may be fulfilled today. It could happen.  Are we prepared for it to happen?

 PRAYER

                Jesus, divine light, eternal hope of the world, head of the church, we live to know you better and to grow in faith and Christian maturity.  May we be faithful stewards of the privileges and resources we have been allotted, and so represent you to the world that hearts and minds may be opened to the power of your word.  Called out to serve, may we not mistake our own agendas for those you have assigned.  Where ardor wanes or sloth overtakes us, grant us wisdom to accept your discipline and learn from it. Teach us patience when the efforts we mount in your name disappoint, and forbearance when the efforts of others fail to satisfy our requirements. Lord, even as the twelve you called to ministry disappointed you, so we disappoint you.  We seek your forgiveness for the many ways we have fallen short, grateful for this new day, and the opportunity to make it a day of new beginnings.

                 O God, you have given us a wonderful world to live in, but the values and aspirations it maintains apart from you are a continuing source of temptation.  Your word, O God, enables us to separate wheat from chaff, truth from falsehood.  Ever prepared to teach us, O God, grant us the capacity to receive and learn.  And having learned, embolden us to share what we learn in such a way that your powers may be manifest in our words and witness.

                 Even though our thoughts and preoccupations keep us bound to New Orleans, we know that your commitments, O Lord, embrace the entire world.  Where we have not traveled, where we have no experience, you are there, for your love respects no boundaries; your providence embraces all of life. Mindful that you are the source of life for all people, though we may reside in the far reaches of Siberia or the splendor of Miami’s gold coast, we honor you as Lord of all, a God who is ever active, ever vigilant. We do not apprehend the breadth of your commitment to all people, but we are prepared to learn, we are here to learn.  May our minds and hearts welcome the lessons, O God, you are prepared to teach.  

                  God of the past, we celebrate that vast company of faithful women and men who, committed to you, built the church. God of the present, we welcome the opportunities we have been given to extend the legacy they have handed over to us. God of the future we know that you will preserve your holy church, our confidence grounded in the ancient promises, promises sealed and renewed with each new generation that calls upon your name. Past, present, and future are in your loving hands, and we are held in those same loving hands.

                  The future is in your hands and we are in your hands, stewards called to work with you in sustaining life.  Grant us wisdom in that special vocation.  Even as new reports are presented documenting the fragility of life in an atmosphere rapidly losing the protection of the ozone layer, universal resolve to act cannot be summoned.  We pray that world leaders will take seriously the peril coming generations will face as a result of our negligence.  Forgive us Lord for being so heedless of the warnings that the shrinking ice cap, and increasingly violent storms have delivered to us.   

                    Lord, we pray for those present here today who have special needs, those who are worried, forlorn, or lonely.  We pray for friends we care about who face travail. Strengthen the vulnerable that they may endure, and enduring find confidence to live into the hope Jesus’ resurrection won for us.

                    Hear prayers both spoken, and those we voice in the privacy of our hearts, for we lift them knowing to you are present, O God, to hear.  In Jesus’ name we pray.