John 12:20-33
I love gardening. Getting my hands into the rich earth. Seeing the little creatures who live there. Getting the smell of it fresh, earthy, and oh the richness of it!
Today Jesus tells us about the cycle of the earth. The grain of wheat must fall to the ground in order to become more. More food for others, more of what is the goodness of it, more to supply the need. Yet we are afraid of death. Jesus gives us this representation of the life cycle which has to end in death. We will soon see even Jesus dies. Yet we are still afraid of death.
We call a funeral, a celebration of life, ignoring the fact that death has come. We see our churches become less and less full and we think we want to talk about the ways to get ourselves out of the dirt we see covering us. What if instead we start to look at the dirt? What might we find there?
Remember this first paragraph? What do we find in the dirt? Life. In healthy soil we see the remnants of the decay of death which in turn feeds other life. Bugs, new growth seedlings, new weeds, and even our poison ivy is all feeding off of this. What might we find if we dare to face the darkness?
Just like digging in the dirt aerates the roots in order to strengthen our plant we must dig around in the dirt to find our own ways of getting air to our own roots. Who are we? Where is God calling us? What are our gifts? These questions help us to dig into the dirt and allow us to breathe in that wonderful decaying soil.
We are built into a rich tradition of gardening and of facing death because it brings new life. We just have to dare to face the compost pile and dig our hands into being more curious. Into listening to our stories with an open mind and heart. May we return to these roots this Easter.
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