Sermon on Passion Sunday 2012 text: John 12: 20-33

I remember the time not so long ago when you used to book a holiday without really knowing what you were going too.

You may have seen the odd picture in a brochure but you were never really sure if this was going to be the apartment you were having or even if the picture was of the right hotel.

Nowadays though you go onto your computer and google it to have a look.

If you go into google earth you can also pin point apartments and villas round the world if you want to have a good look at where you are going.

Its difficult for us in our world not to see things, in a way with computer access we can all see the world- nothing is particularly hidden from us.

Why start with this- because our gospel reading starts with the request of some individuals to see something.

And that something is Jesus.

And I want to think this morning as we enter the time of passion tide as we approach Easter to think how Jesus is seen in the world.

how in a world where we can see things from around the world at a click of a button- how Jesus can be seen and experienced in the world in which we live.

So we start our gospel reading with the request of these greeks to see Jesus.

We see them coming up to Philip and asking him.

Perhaps they had heard about him, or may even have seen him from a distance and decided it would be good to see him closer.

We are not sure why they ask but this request is pivotal to Jesus then beginning to teach the disciples further about what was to happen that first Easter.

It’s odd perhaps that Jesus doesn’t seem to want to see these Greeks.

He doesn’t appear to welcome them with open arms and invite them in.

Odd when we know that the good news of Jesus is shown not to be just for the Jews but also for the gentiles.

Of course he may have welcomed them in and we are just not told- but Jesus appears to use this incident to speak of how his death is going to open up to all the possibility of being part of his kingdom.

As well as speaking of how the world will see Jesus throughout the generations.

This is the glory that Jesus is talking about here.

So let’s think for a moment about what Jesus was saying here.

In verse 32 Jesus says: “And when I am lifted up from the earth- I will draw all people to myself”

What does he mean lifted up?

It seems to me that he is speaking not least of being literally lifted up when he was put on the cross to die.

He was literally again speaking of his death.

So he is saying that if the Greeks want to really “See” Jesus, if they want the full benefit of what he was sent in to the world to achieve.

Then he had to carry on and complete the task for which he had been sent.

He had to go to the cross in order to open the way for all men to come to God for themselves.

He had to go to the cross in order for man to gain a deep and true access to God.

If he carried on then these Greeks wouldn’t just be able to literally see Jesus- but they would be able to come to him, to know him for themselves through the amazing love of God.

This is a clear picture that Jesus was doing on the cross what he intended to do.

This is important to remember as we face people in the world arguing against our faith.

Some would say he was just a good person – who ended up dying and people just thought they saw him again to give a happy ending to a tragic story.

But this speaks against this strongly

This wasn’t just some accident that had a quirky ending where all was not lost.

This was a deliberate act- Jesus knew what he was doing.

As he entered Jerusalem on the back of a donkey- Jesus knew what was to happen.
He knew that his time had come to draw all men to himself through his cross.

And in this way he was to be truly glorified- not how we think of glory but in a completely different way.

So the role of the Greeks in this little scenario in Johns gospel are key.

They enable Jesus to speak of the way that he will be seen for the whole world.

That to see him fully – for us to know him fully - he must die in order for us to reconciled to God.

But Jesus does not only in this passage speak of himself.

We are aware as we read this passage that this has a message to us too as his followers.

Although Jesus is speaking of how he alone will stand for our sin on the cross.

How this means that we will no longer have to take the punishment for our sin.

That he has won the power over sin and death through his death and resurrection.

He is also speaking of how this is a route which we his followers- his servants must follow.

This is a challenge he makes to his followers then, to the Greeks who came to see him and to us.

That if we really want to “see” him, to get to know him and understand what he is about for ourselves,

Then we must be ready in his words to be “Planted”- and to risk all for his service.

How does a plant grow- first the seed must die in order to break down and bear fruit- to grow into a healthy plant.

How do we grow as Christians- by loosing our life and following him.

Quite a tall order.

In some parts of the world the challenge is huge and individuals literally loose their lives or livelihoods to follow Christ.

We don’t face that challenge here – in many ways it is too easy for us to be Christians in England today – it doesn’t really challenge us at all.

And yet if we want to like Jesus show God’s glory then we are called to do this.

And this challenges me about the complacency of my faith.

What would I be prepared to bear- to loose – to give up because of my Christian faith.

And it was here as I was writing this that I began to feel quite uncomfortable.

That I got up and wondered around because I wasn’t sure what I should say.

Because this is really quite a challenge to us all- this is uncomfortable stuff, because it can take us out of our comfort zone and into unknown territory.

Because being a Christian does not make you immune from problems, it doesn’t keep you safe and wealthy and well fed.

Following Christ may lead us to have to do things where we are going to be ridiculed, laughed at, where it may have a detrimental effect on our bank account.

In our country it is unlikely that we will ever face the things of those Christians in other parts of the world.

But are we willing as Christians in this country to go against the grain of society to stand up for things that are wrong.

Are we willing to take action that leads us to be labelled fundamentalist or loony Christians- just because we stand up for what the bible tells us clearly.

Are we willing to do something that means giving up our time and money to follow Christ.

I ask this question because it asks a bigger question - Are we prepared to follow him fully or do we often put limits on what we are prepared to do.

These are the challenges I think from this passage.

The challenges that this gives us of dying to our selves and following Jesus.

And yet as we do this- as we serve others- as we begin to be an authentic witness to Christ in this world, this answers another huge question –

We began with thinking of seeing- of the Greeks question – can we see Jesus.

And it is in our witness that Jesus is seen in the world today.

If we went onto our computers and did a google search for Jesus – it may give up some interesting websites but it wouldn’t give us a true picture.

But how Jesus is seen in the world today is through us.

Jesus reveals himself now in the world through changed lives, through our experience, through us modelling his life of devotion and service.

If someone came into our church and said – can I see Jesus what would we say.

Would we point to some picture of him, would we invite them to see the Vicar-

Or would we say- here’s my life- this is what he has done for me- this is how he died on the cross- and this is how I now spend my life serving and following him.

Perhaps as we enter this last bit of Lent and into Holy week as we begin to look again at the cross- lets ask ourselves the question – not how do I see Jesus, how do I see his true glory- but how do I show Jesus in my life, how does his glory shine through me.

Invitation to come and see

This is my sermon for today - based on Phillips comment to Nathaniel in John 1: 43-end.

I received an invitation this week to go to the party of a good friend who I haven’t seen for a long time.

It was good to hear from her and really nice to be invited to her party but unfortunately I am not sure I can go or not – you see the date is on our wedding anniversary and I had already made Andrew change something else he was doing that night!

For me I am not being forced to accept the invitation and I have to make a choice as to whether or not I want to accept it – I guess I need to think what would be my priority for that evening.

Invitations can be lovely to have can’t they but always they come with them a choice – will I accept it or not.

I start with this because I think the gospel reading for this morning comes with it a question to us all – the question that is posed by Phillip to Nathaniel,

Philip says – Come and see…..

Come and see – the invitation to come with Philip to see Jesus.

And as we see this invitation I think actually we can take this invitation for ourselves and it is my invitation to us all to hear this morning – come and see….

Come and see – what God wants you to- this morning, tomorrow, and so on and so on.

Because this is an invitation that goes on and on to us, no matter how many times we hear it.

And just like any invitation we can take it or leave it – we can accept it or not.

Nathaniel accepted the invitation to Come and see – and the reward was a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

What is our reaction to the invitation this morning.

Last week I spoke about the Kings noticing the star  and therefore noticing God at work in their lives.

(We have thought again this morning about how we notice God in our lives and in the lives of others.)

Because coming to see is actually taking time to notice.

When we look through the bible we see countless times that God appeared to people in unusual ways.

For a very few we see dramatic “theophanies” or encounters with God – such as we see in Isaiah 6 or Paul’s Damascus road experience.

For most though an encounter with God is in more gentle different ways –

For Samuel it was the voice calling in the night.

For Elijah it was the still small voice in the calm after the storm

For Abraham it was in welcoming the visitors – who he later realised were angels

For Joseph it was the angel in the dream.

For the Kings it was in the reading of the stars.

And then with Jesus each day people encountered God – in sharing bread and fish on a hillside, drinking wine at a wedding feast,  in homes of ordinary people and those who were outcasts.

On a fishing boat and even in a synagogue.

People met Jesus – they met God’s son and were able to come and see for themselves what he had to offer.

For those of us who are here today – I am certain we have in some way heard that invitation to come and see,

But I wonder in many ways whether or not we are uncertain how to really take up that invitation.

Perhaps it is a bit like hide and seek – often when you play hide and seek with small children you always know where they are going to be hiding – because most of the time they have just a few places which are there special favourite places to hide.

So as the adult playing with very little children you end up going through the pretence of looking for them in unexpected places before you finally go to the obvious place where they are waiting excitedly.

Perhaps we have favourite places but not to hide but to find – to see God.

Perhaps we go back to those places time and time again – expecting this is where we are going to find God – and I am sure we do….

But I am sure also that the God who poses the question Come and see is actually wanting us to look for him – to come and see him in those unexpected places too.

This week as I have been thinking about what this and what to say to you all – I have been struck by two very different examples of perhaps seeing or even hearing God in different ways.

I want to share these with you to perhaps get us all thinking about where God may be calling us to come and see him.

Firstly is the story in the papers this week of the lady who baked a cake every day of the year.

I read this because I love baking as some of you know and was intrigued by the idea of making a cake each day.

Where they different cakes – no they were the same cake, using the same recipe and she didn’t bake them to eat – she baked them to give away to others.

It started apparently when she began to make cakes for those she knew who were going through a rough time.

And then it just grew until she had set herself this challenge to bake a cake each day – and the recipients were those in the community in need, or going through difficult times.

In the newspaper article I read she commented on how this had made her feel to give so much to others in a very positive way,.

And how she was going to miss it when it ended.

Now I don’t know as it wasn’t said if this lady had a faith or not.

But as I read it I wondered if when she was doing this and saw the result was she noticing God – was she aware of  his creativity as she used hers,

Was she aware of God’s sense of love as she shared with other people as she saw there faces of appreciation.

Perhaps God was revealing himself – inviting her to come and see in that situation as she helped others.

And the question for us all is this – would we have seen God in that too….

And then the second thing that struck me this week was in reading a book by the American contemplative – Richard Rohr,

He lives in a community, and as such has taken monastic vows.

This couple in their later working lives act as foster grandparents – and still regularly take in young children.

He writes of talking to the man – Hugh

“I often ask him who much sleep he has had, and he’ll answer. “oh they woke me at two and four – another chance to learn how to love.”…..it’s important for me to hear that. We who are celibate and have time for silence, living alone and shutting a door can give the impression that we are the ideal. That others should really be more contemplative like us. Hugh and Anne teach us that life itself is the necessary school for contemplation. Life is the best teacher of true prayer..”

Is he talking about the invitation to come and see?  - well that is part of what prayer is, time to come and see and recognise God.

Here we see how our daily lives can be times when we interact with God in how we learn to deal with life situations.

How we encounter God in our relationships, in learning to love as well as showing love.

God will reveal himself to us through his written word but he enlightens this when we encounter the reality of his teaching in relationships.

God’s word is living and active as we read in Paul’s letters because it has impact on our lives.

But we see the outworking of his word as we learn to be open to God pointing it out to us in our daily lives.

To see what it means to truly love as Jesus loved.

To see what it means to put to death the old self and to clothe ourselves in righteousness.

God invites us to come and see as we interact with others.

I started in talking about invitations to something and said that God gives us the invitation to come and see.

There is however once big difference between His invitation and most others we receive.

Because His is not for one – one off event or even a series of different things – the invitation he gives us is to Come and see each day.

And like any invitation it is up to us to respond.

He calls us each day to come and see – to see Him at work in our own live and in the lives of others, to encounter him in our surroundings through creation, though his written word,  through our relationships, to hear him speak to us in the still small voices and through the noise of life.

All we need to do to accept this invitation is to be open to “See”- not to necessary always go to the familiar places to see but to see where else he may be wanting us to see Him.

To pray for God to Open our eyes to see him in unfamiliar places.

Epiphany reflections

This is what i will be preaching this Sunday as we celebrate Epiphany. It isn't really about the wise men but about being open to how God may want to talk to us. You really need to listen to the Army Wives recording, "Wherever you are" during this as we will be on Sunday. Thanks to my dear old Dad who spoke of this last week so movingly!

I wonder what would have happened if the wise men hadn’t noticed the star?

We would have missed out on a huge part of the Christmas story.
The wise men teach us so much and at the heart of their story is the fact of God’s love in the baby Jesus being open to all – men from the East Gentiles  - a pivotal fact of our faith is that – the gospel of Jesus Christ being open to all – no matter what race or social status, whether jew or gentile, shepherd or magi.

But as I was reflecting on the wise men I thought also about their openness to receive from God.

They were willing to follow the star because they knew it was going to lead to something amazing.

They were open to what God might reveal to them through this star and in turn brought costly gifts for the new born King.

They saw this in their study of the stars, where do we see God revealing himself to us.

Perhaps we think that it’ll be only on a Sunday in Church, but in my experience and in the experience of Christians down the ages – God shows himself to us in unexpected places, if we are open to how he may speak to us.

Perhaps there is a message for us in 2012 to be open to how God might want to reveal himself to us, through all of life, through film, music, relationship, creation and so on and so on…..

This morning I want to reflect with you on some thoughts from what was the Christmas number 1 single, and what God may be saying to us through this.

(you may want to listen to the song now!!)

 This unlikely song was  No1 Christmas song, putting the X factor out the way – this song caught the imagination and the emotion of the nation.

I have to say I find it difficult not to get emotional when I hear it and I think about how it was made.

It is an amazing story and one of the best T.V. programmes we have enjoyed for a long time.

Imagine it is the New Year, last year for those Army wives and girlfriends.

All they were probably thinking about as the New Year came in was ‘this is the year when he will be leaving me and the kids for 6 months and he may not come back’.

This year for me will be about counting those days until my husband/boyfriend returns.

Then along comes a man who says let’s sing, let’s form a choir, and after much persuasion, they do.

When they started they had no idea how it will end

The men leave, the choir is formed. Then Gareth contacts a composer by the name of Paul Mealor to write them a song. The words used for the composition are taken from their own personal letters that go backwards and forwards to Afghanistan.

Person letters are so much more meaningful that text messages.

I remember as a child finding the personal letters that were sent between my parents before they were married when he was a young RAF officer stationed at various places and she a  young nurse.

We had a childhood laugh at some of the content – which had a lot to do with the words darling and darning socks.

But as I look back on reading those – they have long since been destroyed apparently! – I do think how personal they were and actually how it was probably wrong of my sister and I to sit giggling at them.

The result. The choir perform before Officers at the passing out dinner at Sandhurst, then at the Royal Albert Hall before the Queen, and they end the year as the No 1 Christmas song. Amazing story, A year that started so bleakly, ends so amazingly. Perhaps there is a message here for us as we begin another new year.

Look at the words passed between the couples,

Wherever you are, my love will keep you safe,

My heart will build a bridge of light, across both time and space,

Wherever you are, our hearts will beat as one,

I hold you in my dreams each night, until your task is done.

They are lovely words, personal, from the heart. You could almost think it was a modern Psalm with Jesus singing those words to us. ‘Wherever you are my love will keep you safe’. God spoke through the Prophet Jeremiah(31:3) and He said ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love, Jesus said ‘Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends’. If we wanted proof how much God loves us, look to the cross.

Apparently when Gareth Malone does a programme like this and sets up a new choir he gives up his own home, moves into the area where he is going to form a choir, rents a house and lives among them for 6 months

Remember the beginning of John’s Gospel where, talking of Jesus, he wrote ‘the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’, from the Greek you could translate it as ‘pitched his tent among us’.

Jesus came alongside us to bring us back to God, so that one day we can be part of the Heavenly Choir.

Jesus said before He returned to His Father in heaven ‘and surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age, and through His Spirit, He is with us now.

It is sometimes thought that being a Christian is about going to Church occasionally, trying to do good etc.

But is a bit more than that, it is about having a relationship with Jesus. 

Summed up by the first line of the second verse ‘Wherever I am I will love you day by day’. Just as we reciprocate our partners love, so we love God in return for His love for us.

Just as the love these army couples have for each other sustains them through the dark times, so the knowledge God’s love for us can sustain us when we face an uncertain future. T

heir response is to cling to faith along the dark, dark way and to pray each day a safe return.

We have to hang on to our faith, even though at times it seems like we are hanging on by our fingernails, and we can pray.

I and  I know many others have been very moved by this choir. The way these women facing an uncertain future have become special because together they shared music, and the whole country have enjoyed seeing and hearing them.

By this I don’t think we glorify war but I do feel they can teach us something as we face a very uncertain New Year, I do feel God can talk to us through this. J

ust as the wives and girlfriends shared their music and blessed countless millions, let us as a Church ‘share God together and use this New Year as an opportunity to get closer to God in our own personal relationship with Him.

I want to finish with a few verses from Psalm 62: 5-8

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;

My hope comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

He is my fortress, I shall not be shaken.

My salvation and my honour depend on God;

He is my mighty rock, my refuge.

Trust in him at all times, O people;

Pour out your heart to him,

For God is our refuge.