John 12: 20-33; Jer. 31: 31-34               Outside the Box    E,GR        Apr2/06

 

1. Tension is extremely high for Jesus.  Our scripture is immediately following the Palm parade.  On one hand, there is great exhilaration.  On the other, it?s becoming inevitable what?s ahead.  Don?t you wonder what Jesus might be thinking, feeling?  His mind and emotions whirling.  The parade is further evidence that the people are not getting it.  Their minds are still closed in a little box about what the Messiah will be like.

 

2. Then some people come, known for their valuing of the mind, the Greeks.  They would ?see? Jesus.  For John, ?see? means know.  So he has Jesus say, if you want to really know me and what?s going to happen, I?m going to be lifted up.  It?s John?s short hand for the cross.

 

3. Then Jesus immediately begins to talk about the grain of wheat.  He?s going to try one more time to explain to the disciples and those gathered to listen, why it needs to be this way.  To help them to open their minds to what his ministry is all about.  Now he knows that he must choose between self-protection and self-giving.  Jesus willingly chose to be the grain of wheat.  To offer himself totally in love, no matter what the cost.  To be fertile ground out of which newness, change and growth will come.

 

4. Jesus? whole life was thinking outside the box of conventional religious and cultural wisdom.  If that wisdom put things before people.  If that wisdom made God seem far away or blocked the flow of God?s spirit.  If that wisdom put unnecessary burdens on the people or said that it was all right for them to be poor, or left out or lonely.  Instead he taught and lived God?s love for the world.  And that nothing can stop that love. 

 

5. What would have happened if Jesus had backed down?  If he?d backed down because the religious leaders couldn?t think outside of the box of the religion that they?d known and loved for centuries.  Or because they couldn?t think outside the box of power and privilege ? a few people on top ? skimming the cream.  Or couldn?t think outside of the box of fear.  These leaders want Rome to know they?ll act decisively with people who are on the edge of rebelling.  And Jesus is just the one they?d like to get rid of with his new ways of thinking.  What if he?d backed down because the disciples couldn?t think outside the box of being first and best?  Or because the people couldn?t think outside the box of a military leader who would come and magically turn things upside down so they were on the top.  If Jesus had backed down, his life and teaching and love would likely have been buried with him.

 

6. So he asks us to do some hard thinking outside of the usual box in the difficult verse about loving and hating life.  Did Jesus hate life?  Not at all.  His was a celebration of what life could be at its fullest.  We need to look again at what John means when he talks about ?life in this world?.  It is short hand for trusting money, power, and prestige.  If we hate money, power, prestige we then may turn to trust relationship, love, forgiveness, in a word, God.  God so loved the world.  We are not to hate the world God loves, but turn from the things that are destructive.  To put our trust in God and what is life-giving.  Because of God?s great love for the world we bet our life on love rather than power and might.

 

7. So what are some of the other ways that we can think outside of the box that are life-giving?  Sometimes this letting go of self that Jesus was talking about means seeing the gift in other people.  If our gift is to be a thinker, we can broaden our ability to be fully human by becoming aware of what we are feeling in different situations.  What others are feeling.  Not always needing to be logical.  If our gift is to feel deeply, we can broaden our ability to be fully human by opening ourselves to what we might think in certain situations.  What others are thinking.  To understand that logic can be very helpful in its place and what it means to those who are logical thinkers.  And listening for what the person with the opposite gift has to offer our growing.  While we genuinely celebrate the gifts of others.

 

 

8. Letting go of self may mean thinking in a new way.  Outside the box of how we thought life would be / should be!  Imagine that we had planned a vacation to Mexico.  For months we?d researched, day-dreamed about the wonderful sunshine.  We board the plane, read, watch a movie, and eventually land.  In Paris.  It?s a beautiful day in Paris.  A romantic city of delicious food, exquisite art, and exciting history.  But it?s not Mexico.  Life?s a lot like that!  Can we enjoy Paris?

 

9. Letting go of self may mean thinking outside of the box of what we can and can?t do.    A woman had been depressed for many years.  Grief had made it more intense.  In counseling she described how she felt like being in a deep pit she couldn?t get out of.  She was asked to close her eyes and imagine the pit.  What was it made out of, what was in it.  It was empty and made of dirt.  After a silence the counselor asked what might she do to get out.  ?I?m piling up dirt in one corner so I can walk out!? was her spirited reply.  The image, the metaphor in fact enabled her to do exactly that out of the pit of her despair.

 

10. Many of you were privileged to know Carl Ridd, prophet extraordinaire, outside of the box thinker, as your minister.  I had the honour to know him as a professor and colleague and friend.  Carl particularly thought outside of the box about materialism, poverty, injustice of any kind, and challenged all of us who would listen to dare to do the same.  He was one of the first who saw possibilities for training for ministry outside of seminaries.  It was another step on a long journey that eventually made it happen.  You had to be ready to read his Christmas and Easter letters, didn?t you?  I always felt very uncomfortable.  But they were very important reminders of a world in need.  In his life as a political activist, he helped to open many minds.    Just over a month before he died, Carl organized and spoke at a huge peace rally in Winnipeg.  The day before he went in for treatment, he went to preach because he?d promised, then into hospital.  From his hospital bed he continued to write and encourage others to work for peace until he died a short time later.

 

11. In our congregations, how can we continue to think outside the box, as we seek to follow the Christ?  You know well the image of dying and being reborn each spring that Jesus used with the grain of wheat.  Dying to the old in order that something new may be born.  Margaret Wheatley reminds us there is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.  What are the issues that we want to take on in our congregation?  Perhaps continuing to support our farm families personally or politically in challenging economic times. Another person I was talking to is interested in talking with and understanding people of other faiths.  Or some in our Lenten Study about water may want to look at the issues locally we can be involved in.  What does privatization of water mean for us here, or Canada, or for the world?  We?ve learned what ordinary citizens can do. Margaret Mead wrote, ?Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.?

 

12. That?s why we want to continue to open our minds to think outside the box.  Because that?s how we?re created to be.  God continues to create new possibilities.  Continues to offer wisdom for those who will see and hear.  Continues to pour out love for our receiving.  Continues to encourage us to choose to die to fear, to self, in order that we might learn to really live.