Sermon Buckland 29th March 2009 – Lent 5 March 29, 2009
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Jeremiah 31.31-34; Hebrews 5.5-10; John 12.20-33
I wonder whether you can think of an experience where you thought: “I’d love this to go on for ever.” Occasionally in our lives, we have those times where we are enjoying ourselves so much we don’t want the experience to end; or we feel so at peace with the world, we want everything to stay the same; or something has made us ecstatically happy and we don’t want those circumstances to change.
We all know life doesn’t work like that. The fabulous party comes to an end; the falling-in love experience turns into practicalities of sustaining a relationship; the sun goes in or things move on.
And life can be a bit like that too. We want to hold onto it at all costs. Scientists and medical researchers continually strive to find cures for every ill; people diagnosed with a terminal illness will often try anything to prolong their life; some people are artificially kept alive for years so that they don’t die. A life cut short, someone who dies young, is always seen as a tragedy.
Most people are not ready for death. Sometimes I meet a dying person who has reconciled themselves to what is to happen and is at peace with it. They often have a sense that they have lived their life, and the time has come for it to end. On the whole, they are the ones who die with dignity.
But we live in a mixed-up world. While many people try to prolong life, debates continue in Parliament and other spheres about euthanasia and its legalities, wisdom and so on. People go off to Switzerland to the Dignitas house in order to end their lives. And these actions raise enormous questions about life and death. Is a life of severe pain worse than no life at all? Do we have a right to self-determine the time of our death? What is the role of others who help people to die – murderers or guardian angels? How important is quality of life over the gift of life itself?
Times have changed – long gone are the days when those who committed suicide could not be buried in consecrated ground. But attitudes towards life and death have become very confused.
In times past, death was much more a part of everyday life. People could not be shielded from it in a way which is now possible. The dying were part of life, often cared for in the home. There were rituals about visiting the dead body, structures for mourning and so on. There was a greater understanding that life and death were part of a whole.
Nowadays, death is more sanitised. It often occurs in hospital; funeral directors take care of the laying-out of the body and preparing it for burial; except for the funeral itself, mourning has become a private family thing rather than a community one.
For many, death has become the ultimate enemy, rather than a part of life to be embraced. If we look around our world, we see that there are many deaths – the flowers fade, the grass withers, the seeds die, but as one part of life dies, another flourishes.
Christian Aid had a slogan a few years ago – We believe in life before death. An age-old question is – is there life after death?
Jesus’s attitude, though, was different. He talks about receiving life through death. There can be no hanging on to what we value when we die. Those who die best are those who are able to let go of everything earthly and yield themselves to what is to come.
A good death comes when someone is unafraid to let go completely, and embrace what is to come. The difference between this and euthanasia or suicide is that in the latter two death is seen as an escape from something bad – usually physical or mental pain, rather than a journey towards something good.
What does Jesus say? “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.”
The first is a reference to himself – through his death, others will be brought to life. But then he broadens this to his followers – eternal life is for those who hate their life in this world.
That seems strange to us. But the word “hate” is used here in a different way from how we would naturally conceive it.
To hate one’s life in Jesus-speak, is more about where our focus is. To hate one’s life means to be detached from oneself. He is not talking about rejecting and abominating one’s life, but about where one’s attachments are. To hate one’s life means that the central focus of it is not self but other. Jesus is talking about devotion to himself and obedience which must be so complete that nothing else distracts from that pathway.
But he is asking nothing more than he did himself. Jesus never ran from death. When there were choices to be made, he chose the godly way, the unselfish way, the way that put salvation before his own life.
He is not like Sir Roger, of whom the 18th-entury satirist Joseph Addison wrote: “As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in [the church] besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a short nap at the sermon, upon recovering out of it, he stands up, and looks about him; and if he sees anybody else nodding, either wakes them himself, or sends his servant to him.”
I suspect that waking someone up might disturb the preacher more than letting them sleep, but that’s not what I want to talk about today. Maybe falling asleep in sermons is a topic for another Sunday!!
But what is clear about Sir Roger is that there is one rule for him and one rule for everyone else. He can sleep undisturbed during the sermon; his tenants must be woken. It’s do what I say, not do what I do.
How different from Jesus, who embraced the death about which he spoke! How different from the man who led by example!
Jesus’s death inevitably brought sadness and pain to those who loved him – his mother and disciples, the women who followed him with utter commitment. His death, as every death does, brought loss to those left behind. But John tells us too that Jesus’s death was to have a much greater purpose. Through Christ’s obedience, even to death on a cross, God is glorified.
Through Christ’s death, evil was defeated – as he said “the ruler of this world will be driven out”. On the cross, the bad news of sin and judgement is turned into the good news of salvation. Death is no longer the end. Through the resurrection, the power of God, the one who was glorified in the obedience of Christ unto death, is revealed to be stronger than death, stronger than the power of sin which binds us.
The search for eternal life is something that can be completed only through death. First, the seed must be buried and die – that is Jesus – who was raised and then brought life to others. Then disciples must learn to stick loosely to the things of this world and devote themselves to the things of God, and by so doing they too will be raised to eternal life.
Today is the first day of Passiontide, when we think particularly of the suffering of Jesus as he headed for the cross. Next week is Holy Week when we can walk with Jesus through the last week of his life – the more we stay with him during his Passion, the more joyous our Easter will be. There are services every evening from Monday – Thursday; two opportunities for worship on Good Friday and three on Easter Day.
This coming week is also part of Passiontide, though many tend to ignore that, and wait until Holy Week to start their Passions prayers and reflections.
But why not, this year, take some time each day this week, to reflect on the story of the Passion – perhaps start reading it through and aim to finish it over the next two weeks – or maybe read one Gospel version this week, and one next week. There’s also Morning Prayer in the churches at 8.15 a.m. this week, quiet said services, open to everyone. Or why not take some extra time to pray, to meditate on the Passion?
It’s a chance too to be creative – take time to write a poem perhaps, or paint a picture arising from reflections on Jesus’s last days – works of art can also be a form of prayer. It doesn’t matter if we’re not great artists – it’s the offering of ourselves through the work we produce that is key. Some people are fortunate in that they have gifts which enable others to share their works of art, but those of use who are less gifted creatively can still use these ways to express our own prayers and reflections.
Or think about creation so vividly evident where we live, of the seeds that have died to bring new life to all we see around us.
The more we prepare ourselves for Easter, the more meaningful our celebration will be.
“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 lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
