March 22, 2015

Helen Jacobi

Lent 5     Jeremiah 31:31-34     Psalm 119:9-16     Hebrews 5:5-10     John 12:20-33

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They were a group of Greeks, foreigners; they come to Philip, one of the disciples and say “we wish to see Jesus”. Philip is not sure what to do – Greeks?! really? are we going to waste the Master’s time with more foreigners? So he goes to consult Andrew and together they go to ask Jesus. Safety in numbers.

If a foreign tourist came up to you as you were walking into the church and said “we wish to see Jesus” what would you say? You might be a bit perplexed but you would probably invite them into church?

But if they came up to you on the street away from here, or at your workplace, or across your neighbour’s fence and said “we wish to see Jesus”; first of all you might think they were a little crazy. But if they insisted – They wish to see, to know, to experience Jesus. [1]

You might say

• when I look after my grandchildren and see their delight in playing on the beach I know the joy of Jesus

• when I sit with someone as a volunteer at the hospice I know the courage of Jesus

• when I serve one of the street people who come to the City Mission for dinner I experience Jesus as the one who is serving

• when I rage in grief at the loss of someone who died too young. I hear the words of Jesus – my God why have you forsaken me

• when I have achieved something at work or school that was complicated, and took all my focus, I hear the parables of Jesus from everyday work situations – the farmer, the vinegrower, the merchant, the woman at the well

• when after all the years of protest apartheid ended in South Africa I saw the justice Jesus preached about becoming real

• and you might say – I wish to see Jesus too, who seems elusive often, and other times so present. And so I come to worship, to be in community, and to seek nourishment, to know him.

You might talk about the sermons we have heard over the last month as we have journeyed through Lent. How Carolyn Kelly spoke about the wilderness, how sometimes we need to be lost to be found. And how the city around us can be a wilderness where we are lost; or it can be a wilderness where we find life and energy.

How George Armstrong showed us how to see Jesus as a prophet and how we can see him in the prophetic actions of others; naming things as they are.

How Stephen Jacobi described Jesus the zealot calling out the actions of the powerful, and challenging the less powerful in our assumptions and beliefs.

How Michael Bell shows us that we can see and hear and feel Jesus in our music as we gather for worship. Michael said there is a change in quality which is difficult to explain between a love song and a song about God as love.

We wish to see Jesus – what would you say?

A couple of weeks ago some of us went to hear Lillian Daniells, a speaker from the US, at St John’s College. She writes and speaks about the SBNRs – spiritual but not religious – SBNR.

She said in trying to accommodate the SBNRs and many others who do not come to church we have developed a script that goes like this: “you can just come, nothing is required of you; you don’t have to do or think anything” “and so we thought of you”. And because that sounds really underwhelming we add “our church has great music” – as if there is nowhere else people can find great music. “Our church has great people” – as if there is nowhere else people can meet great people – and then she pointed out, we are lying because we don’t think all the people at church are great!

And we are not answering the question – which is – where can we see Jesus?

What is it about our life and experience of faith which draws us here; what is it that we value in our own faith which makes us want to share that faith with others. I know in our very secular A/NZ context we find it hard to talk openly about our faith. Faith is ridiculed and belittled all the time in the media and in the public domain. We feel awkward.

But new people show up here every Sunday and in my office during the week looking for something, looking for Jesus.

How do we answer; what do we offer? Going back to the original story with the Greeks and Philip and Andrew buddying up for support; what answer does Jesus give? Well we don’t know if the Greeks actually ever got to see Jesus. But Jesus says to Philip and Andrew – “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.” Which doesn’t really seem to be an answer to the question. “Those who lose their life will save it.” That’s not an answer either. Or is it?

Jesus’ answers are about himself and those who will follow. Jesus will lose his life and find it;

in baptism we are called to “die to our sins” and to be born anew; over and over again each year in our liturgical cycle at the beginning of Lent we are marked with ash; then we walk this road to the cross and come through to the other side; like a grain that dies in order to bear fruit.

In our answers to the person who says – we wish to see Jesus – you might say

• I see Jesus best when I have decluttered my life of too many possessions

• when I give a decent donation to the Vanuatu appeal even when I think I really can’t afford it; and cut back on dinners out instead

• when I sacrifice some time to help a neighbour who most of the time I find really annoying

• when I lose myself in the music on a Sunday morning

And then what about us as a faith community together; what image do we project?

How do we present ourselves to the city, to our neighbours? When the city comes calling and wants to know what we are about? Do we know? Can we answer that question?

As we gather for our AGM this morning we have some written reports which tell us something of what we are about. They are an important record of our activities over the last year. Are they any help to us in the conversation that begins – we wish to see Jesus? Let’s find out as we talk together after the service.

[1] The word the Greeks use is “eido” which means to see, and to know, and to experience.