John 12:20-33; Jeremiah 31:31-34
Sometimes our biblical stories are centered around questions that the community at that time was grappling with and this is what we have today in John. Do we allow in those who are not Jews, can they join the Way? We get this too in Jeremiah, about the Jewish community, how will we follow God now that there is no temple, now that we are captive in Babylon? They didn't have an answer right away. We now know if the Greeks weren't allowed in Christianity wouldn't have spread. We now know that the synagogue was started out of this time of captivity in Babylon. Both of these hinged on people being open to change, being open to discerning where God was leading them next.
This is why Jesus breaks into this Spirit talk about death, because in order to discern our old ways of being sometimes have to die. We don't get the story of the personal struggle of the Jewish church in letting this go out into the wider world, neither do we get the struggle of the Jewish community in not being able to worship in the temple. We do get the stories of examples on how to live out your Jewish faith in captivity through the stories of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or through Daniel and the lions den one is about eating and not worshipping idols the other is about praying and not worshipping the king.
With the end of Christendom as we once knew it, with churches packed every Sunday and now they are not it is our turn to struggle with our own questions and discern the new path God is leading us on. "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." Jesus says this and it helps us today. Ideas die hard deaths. Just look at any church looking for a pastor and they are asking for people with experience in church growth. They don't want to ask the harder question yet. What if our dream has to die in order for us to grow? What if we have to come up with new ways of being church in this age in order to bear fruit?
It isn't overnight that either of these communities tackle and answer these questions. It takes years and the hard work of discerning, of listening, of trying and failing and trying and success. It is well worth it. There are valuable lessons learned here for us and for other communities as well. Lessons in inner growth and inner strength. Lessons in being small, being outcast, facing death things we don't learn until we face them and it is not a cup that will pass us by.
There is great hope in these stories though. Jesus rises on the third day. The Way becomes the church for all people. The Jewish community finds even without the temple they are still God's people, still able to pray and worship the one God. So it grows out of the small, imperfect faith of people now and in a time gone by. We have a chance here, a chance to choose life in the darkest of times. A chance to show others what it is to face our fears and hear God's call. Do we want to see Jesus? If so then we choose to live into this Spirit talk of discernment, of listening, of trying and being explorers and pioneers of the faith. Will you choose life?
Sometimes our biblical stories are centered around questions that the community at that time was grappling with and this is what we have today in John. Do we allow in those who are not Jews, can they join the Way? We get this too in Jeremiah, about the Jewish community, how will we follow God now that there is no temple, now that we are captive in Babylon? They didn't have an answer right away. We now know if the Greeks weren't allowed in Christianity wouldn't have spread. We now know that the synagogue was started out of this time of captivity in Babylon. Both of these hinged on people being open to change, being open to discerning where God was leading them next.
This is why Jesus breaks into this Spirit talk about death, because in order to discern our old ways of being sometimes have to die. We don't get the story of the personal struggle of the Jewish church in letting this go out into the wider world, neither do we get the struggle of the Jewish community in not being able to worship in the temple. We do get the stories of examples on how to live out your Jewish faith in captivity through the stories of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego or through Daniel and the lions den one is about eating and not worshipping idols the other is about praying and not worshipping the king.
With the end of Christendom as we once knew it, with churches packed every Sunday and now they are not it is our turn to struggle with our own questions and discern the new path God is leading us on. "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." Jesus says this and it helps us today. Ideas die hard deaths. Just look at any church looking for a pastor and they are asking for people with experience in church growth. They don't want to ask the harder question yet. What if our dream has to die in order for us to grow? What if we have to come up with new ways of being church in this age in order to bear fruit?
It isn't overnight that either of these communities tackle and answer these questions. It takes years and the hard work of discerning, of listening, of trying and failing and trying and success. It is well worth it. There are valuable lessons learned here for us and for other communities as well. Lessons in inner growth and inner strength. Lessons in being small, being outcast, facing death things we don't learn until we face them and it is not a cup that will pass us by.
There is great hope in these stories though. Jesus rises on the third day. The Way becomes the church for all people. The Jewish community finds even without the temple they are still God's people, still able to pray and worship the one God. So it grows out of the small, imperfect faith of people now and in a time gone by. We have a chance here, a chance to choose life in the darkest of times. A chance to show others what it is to face our fears and hear God's call. Do we want to see Jesus? If so then we choose to live into this Spirit talk of discernment, of listening, of trying and being explorers and pioneers of the faith. Will you choose life?
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