Sermon at Springridge Mennonite Church - Lent V - Sunday April 2, 2006

Scripture: Jeremiah 31: 31-34

John 12: 20-33

Title: “Outside of the box and On the heart”

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- The passage which was read for us from the gospel of John is one which I think holds a lot of significance.

- In my opinion it is a pivot point in John’s gospel.

- In the Johannine account much of Jesus’ ministry is focused on the people of Israel.

- And all of a sudden, here in this chapter, a shift occurs.

- It is said that some Greeks appeared to Phillip saying that they wanted to see Jesus.

- When the account of this reaches Jesus his response was:

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life (will) lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour. (v. 23-26)

- What did Jesus mean by this?

- Clearly he found the Greek’s query significant.

- It seems to represent to him that his work which focused solely on the people of Israel was ready to expand into the larger world.

- Now it was time to go on the world stage as it were.

- There are some other instances in scripture where we get a sense that Jesus primarily saw his ministry to the Hebrew people but then is surprised when encountering non Hebrews.

- The first is when Jesus encounters the Sidonian widow.

- Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15: 21-28)

- Since she was a foreigner from Sidon Jesus was reluctant to help her. But her persistence and faith in him impressed him and her daughter was healed.

- Another example of this dynamic is when Jesus encounters the Roman centurion:

- After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. (Luke 7: 1-10)

- Somehow when the Greeks requested to see Jesus, this triggered Jesus’ response: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

- True, Jesus’ remaining ministry was based in Israel but the waves of what happened spread very far.

- For from being a countryside healer and teacher he now went on the larger urban stage and his confrontation with the religious leaders of his day gained a much broader and ultimately global audience.

- If we were to find a remote parallel with our day maybe it is similar to someone going on Oprah or Late night with David Letterman.

- And it seems that it was the request from these foreigners to see Jesus which prompted this.

- What significance does this have for us?

- There is the fact that this tipping of Jesus towards the sacrifice he gave at Jerusalem is what brought his ministry to a head and to its ultimate fulfillment.

- But there is also a message for us about moving out beyond our own borders.

- Jesus at first seemed to have some reluctance.

- He was called, after all, to minister to “the lost sheep of Israel”.

- But in his encounter with non Israelites he became aware of the strength of faith which resided with them.

- It might have been a refreshing change for Jesus to have had these encounters.

- What about us?

- Are we sometimes so ingrained with our culture and people that we miss the movement of God’s spirit outside of our little world?

- Yes we too are a chosen people.

- We are a very blessed culture and people.

- And with all of that blessing we might feel that there is no reason for us to get in touch with people who are different than us.

- If Jesus would have had that attitude he would not have experienced the Sidonian woman’s faith nor the faith of the Roman centurion.

- But Jesus did move outside of his cultural bounds and was joyfully surprised with what he found.

- The chance is also here for us.

- By partnering with other congregations, doing exchanges, keeping in touch with Jeff and Tany Warkentin in Burkina Faso our chances of being surprised and blessed are great.

- I could pronounce an “Amen” here but that would make too short a sermon.

- So here is the second half:

- In our Jeremiah passage today we read and hear the words of our Lenten theme:

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

- There is an aspect of this passage which is supposed to be hopeful.

- The idea that, “One day we will all know better.”

- Wow. That would be alright.

- I don’t know about you but here I am in my mid forties and I still don’t get everything right.

- Having God’s instruction’s ingrained in me so that I would automatically know what’s right would be okay.

- But then there is a back handed statement here.

- Since we can’t get it right ,God will have to do something so that we do.

- It is like a mother with her forgetful child who has to pin a note addressed to the teacher on her child’s jacket in the hopes that its delivery will be completed.

- Since we can’t get it right, God will have to write it on our hearts so that we do.

- Well, so be it.

- I guess I can handle it. Perhaps you can too.

- But the question remains, will God be able to write his instructions on our hearts?

- In the Lenten resource packet the suggested children’s story (which I decided not to go with since it works so well for this sermon) was to have two clay hearts and a stylus.

- The one heart would be soft and pliable.

- The other would be fired in a kiln or allowed otherwise to dry so that it would become stone hard.

- The children would then be asked whether they have ever heard of the phrase “hard hearted?”.

- Then the storyteller would try and write the words “I love you” on each of the hearts to illustrate how the soft heart is receptive to these words while the other one is not.

- The lesson’s author states: “If God could really write words on our hearts or our minds, God would write, “ love you.”

- This is a nice illustration which serves to address the issue of being receptive to God.

- Probably most of us view ourselves as being receptive to God. If we felt God wanted something of us we would do it.

- But to be totally honest, our human nature often leads us to accept God on our own terms.

- Our understandings, leanings and politics are all gauged by what we feel is right and proper.

- Religion is similarly gauged.

- We believe what we believe because we believe it!

- Funny eh?

- Funny but also closed.

- And it makes sense. Of course we are going to use our past experiences and perspective to help us determine what we feel is right from wrong.

- But to assume that our past experiences and our current culture are the only bar that matters is wrong.

- It is wrong because we then are placing ourselves in the position of being God – the true holder of what is ultimately true.

- This is the essence of Jesus’ conflict with the religious leaders of his day. Those leaders sought to preserve what God had written on people’s hearts many generations previously.

- They had taken that message and fired it in the kiln of their orthodoxy so that it would be preserved and unaltered. What they had, they felt, was the truth.

- Unfortunately with a hard heart, no fresh inscription could be made.

- An openness to new people and their stories opens an avenue for God to communicate with us and also to minister to us.

- Being open is scary.

- It could result in unpleasant interchanges. It could even result in change.

- But then other people’s perspectives also help us to articulate for ourselves and others how we feel God has been shaping us.

- And that is important because a fear we have of being open is that it could result in confusion and even heresy.

- If we are not anchored to Jesus, that could happen.

- All the more reason to know more about our faith ancestry and to develop a personal faith history.

- We too have a faith to share with the world.

- The heart which is not hardened,

- the heart which allows God within,

- the heart which can see faith in other people

- is also the heart that is opened to God.

- May God grant us a good and humble understanding of our faith walk with him so that we might be able to witness effectively how He has worked in our lives,

- And so anchored that we might keep a fresh perspective for any new messages which he might want to write on our hearts.

- Amen.