Readings

FIRST LESSON

The first lesson is from The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions by Wayne Teasdale

Some 25 centuries ago, Socrates counseled, "Know thyself." In the same way, mystics have genuine, mature, honest self-knowledge. They are radically open to acknowledging faults and limitations, and do not shy away from coming to terms with them.

Spiritual progress depends on a maturity in our self-understanding. We must know ourselves fully. Humility is the basis of an honest, mature self-awareness that accepts ourselves as we are, without covering up, making excuses, or blaming others. We live in a culture in which the average person tells a lie 13 or 14 times a day, and many of these lies are to ourselves! Humility will not allow us to lie to others or to ourselves, and certainly not to God. A mature self-knowledge depends on truth and honesty.

Profound inner change takes root gradually within us as we gain the precious self-knowledge and uncover all the hidden motives that lie buried deep within us. This self-knowledge can also be seen as a gift of divine grace, and contains the wisdom to guide us in our mystical or contemplative development. In some traditions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, this grace can be mediated through a spiritual master or guru, but it represents a significant factor in our growth to spiritual maturity and wholeness in most-if not all-traditions.

Self-knowledge, when it reaches its full potential, becomes the basis for very radical inner change. Mature self-knowledge happens when we move beyond denial-denial of our faults and limitations, our buried motives or hidden agendas-and beyond judgment of others, beyond projection on others our own need for inner work. The more we see ourselves as we really are, rather than as our ideal self-image dictates, the more we are on the road to the fullness of the spiritual life, and the ultimate actualization and realization of our potential for divine love and compassion.

SECOND LESSON

The second lesson is from the Gospel of John Chapter 12, verses 20 through 33

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival, some were Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Child of God 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 lose their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, God will honor.

"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say-'God, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. God, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

This Week's Sermon

Date: SUNDAY, March 29, 2009

Title: It's Only a Grain of Wheat

Message Delivered By: Rev. Joe Mc Murray

It takes very little to separate us from one another. Maybe something happens out of pride, or perhaps we have a stubborn streak we learned from our families of origin. Perhaps we are over-sensitive or take things personally - but all too often it doesn't take much to topple relationships that sometimes have taken us decades to build.

This, to me, is one of the saddest circumstances about human nature.

There was a man who had a large farm, and when he died, he divided the farm into two so that his sons, John and Jacob, would each have property of their own. After many years of living in peace and harmony, they fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery and trading labor and goods as needed without a problem.

But then the long collaboration began to unravel. It started with a small misunderstanding and grew into major differences of opinion, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks and then months of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's toolbox. "I'm looking for a few days' work" the man said.
"Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with? Could I help you?"

"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor, in fact, it's my younger brother, Jacob.

"Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll do him one better. See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence - an 8-foot fence - so I won't need to see his farm or his face ever again."

The carpenter said, "Well, I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."

John had to go into town, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the entire day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. He worked into the afternoon and early evening.

John returned after dark, and went to bed. Before sunrise, he heard more nailing and sawing, and then as he was about to have breakfast, there was a knock on the door. The carpenter had just finished his work. John walked out the door and down toward the property line. His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. Instead, the carpenter had built a bridge - a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other!

A fine piece of work, handrails and all! And his younger brother, Jacob, was coming toward them, his hand outstretched. "You are quite a guy to build a bridge after all I've said and done." The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other's hand. And they hugged each other and vowed never to let a conflict come between them.

They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder. "No, wait! Don't go. Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said John.

"I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but there are many more bridges that need to be built."

Please pray with me:
_____________________________________________________________

God, point us to the way to build bridges in the broken relationships of our own lives. Help us to let go of the pride that separates us from those we love and those we think we can never love. And give us the tools to be bridge builders between you and those who are in the midst of broken relationships. And may my words and all of our thoughts be filled with honor and praise to you. Amen.
_____________________________________________________________

Today's lesson from John begins immediately after the events of the miraculous calling forth of Lazarus from the tomb. After that shocking episode, word had spread far and wide about Jesus his amazing powers to heal the sick, and bring to life those who had already died.
The Pharisees had seen Jesus become more and more well-known, and they were disturbed for they wanted to believe Jesus was a false prophet whose powers emanated from evil. And besides that, he was stealing their thunder.

After Lazarus was raised from the dead, the Pharisees proclaimed in verse 19 just prior to today's lesson, "You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has followed after him!"

By "the world" we presume they meant people in the local or immediate regional territory. The raising of Lazarus made firm believers out of many, and brought even more suspicion and opposition from the leaders of the Jewish community. And now, John's account claims that even some of the Greeks had come to see Jesus, as well.

These are early indications well before Jesus' death that his notoriety was growing among the Gentiles, as it obviously did among the Jewish people. This would come into play much later, long after Jesus' death, as the disciples and followers of Jesus would often dispute whether or not Gentiles should be considered viable disciples within the Christian movement.

Until now, Jesus was adamant in claiming that his time "had not yet come," that "the hour was not yet upon" him. But here, at last, Jesus acknowledged that the time for God's revelation through him was just about here.

Many believe Jesus knew that his time was drawing near and that his death was necessary even for his most faithful followers to finally comprehend who he was and what this would mean to the world.

"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."

Many believe Jesus was speaking about himself. Jesus was the grain of wheat to be sown into the earth. But the grain of wheat must die in order to live. That is, it must cease being a grain of wheat; its essence must change, in order for it to continue to grow. The grain of wheat dies unto itself. It's no longer recognizable as a grain of wheat. Its identity has changed.

Thereafter, it is no longer known as a grain of wheat. Its DNA might reveal some of the same components that defined it as a grain of wheat. It might even contain similar nutrients and minerals within it, though on a much larger scale. But it has ceased to be that tiny grain, and now is something entirely different.

One cannot overemphasize the dramatic change, the transformation that takes place from grain of wheat to seedling, from seedling to plant, from plant to crop, crop to harvest, harvest to many grains of wheat, many grains of wheat to flour, and from flour to bread.

The other meaning within this analogy is that we, too, must "die" in order to live. Now the paradox really hits home - how could we possibly do that? How is it possible to "die" in order to live?

The ultimate and complete death of the body is not the only death we experience in life. From the moment we are born, parts of us die every day. The older, outer layers of cells on our body die away, and new cells are reborn constantly. As the years pass, these cells may be less vibrant (or, perhaps lack "elasticity"), but they reconstitute and regenerate, nonetheless. This is what contemporary science calls "the aging process."

There are other ways we die unto ourselves. Jesus invites us to let the parts of us die that are already dying within us - events or circumstances that cause the love to die, or spirit to die, or the possibility of reconciliation to die, or hope to die.

There are some feelings we should let die - emotions that hold us back; patterns of behavior we should let die - behaviors that are unhealthy to ourselves and to others; addictions we should let die - addictions to substances or behaviors that are unhealthy, or relationships that keep us dependent upon others and keep others in codependency with us - relationships that deny rather than affirm.

"Those who love their life will lose it, and those who lose their life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

You might say, "I thought we were supposed to love our lives and who we are - you know, and stand up and out and proud and all that?" Maybe too much self-pride isn't such a good thing in large quantities. Maybe when we are consumed by something, we've gone a bit too far.

Is it really possible to love life too much? I think it is. Let's take work, as an example. Some of us get so wrapped up in our love of work that we don't have time for our partners or for friends or faith community; sometimes we work so hard we can't maintain what we consider to be "the comforts of home" within our own personal space. Perhaps, we could say, that isn't love but addiction. Perhaps we lose ourselves in our work so we don't have to face other things.

I had a brother who was a workaholic. My brother Tom was in politics and he literally worked himself to death. His work caused him to neglect his home, his family, and above all, his health. Don't get me wrong, he loved his family and his home very much. He provided for every tangible need.

But I am not convinced he ended up loving himself very much. Whatever your calling is in life - if what you do causes your health to deteriorate, or your relationships to be wanting, and you have it within your power to correct those imbalances but you choose not to because you choose something else, who does that serve? You? Your family? God? Ultimately no one is served.

Now it's true my brother loved his work, and was very passionate about it. It was a calling to him. He clearly believed he was doing something big that would make a difference to a lot of people's lives. And he lived into that each and every day, in his own way.

But it came at a high price - a price so high that it prevented him from continuing his calling. He made deliberate choices that so compelled him, he couldn't stop, even in the face of death.

Sometimes we love our identities too much - you know, the identities we have assigned to ourselves, like the self-appointed "caregiver" of the family that does everything. You're familiar with this, I believe? - the pervasive mentality that believes, "Absolutely nobody can survive without me. I have to "fix" everything. I must rescue everyone. I can't resist offering advice because otherwise people will make foolish mistakes they'll regret.

Here's another secret about the tiny grain of wheat: it was not made to act on its own. The grain of wheat cannot grow or nurture itself with just air. It needs help. It needs sunlight. It needs the nutrients found in good soil. It needs rain. It needs warm temperatures. It needs little worms to aerate the soil around it. It needs various forms of nature - insects and birds and other animals - to protect it while its long journey unfolds.

Some of us are overachievers and we think we can do it all on our own. Our own expectations of ourselves are so fantastic we usually can't come close to achieving satisfaction. We're consumed as we try to outdo ourselves.

I often speak of expectations in a pejorative way. Expectations can bring negative experiences if they're used as weapons against ourselves or others. Unrealistic expectations always leave us empty and wanting.

Meanwhile, a realistic expectation can be a very good thing indeed. I've already talked about our individual "selves" so let's talk for a minute about good expectations for others - not from others, for others.

When was the last time you approached someone and said something like, "You know - I think you'd be really good at this or that?" Or "I've heard you say you're not capable enough to do this, but I believe you are. I believe you have what it takes."

Can you see what that might feel like from the person who receives it? It may not be taken just as a friendly suggestion. It could be a calling for them. Your voice could actually bear the weight of the voice God. Think about it. Think about what that might mean to a person who isn't used to hearing from you.

You might also get this as a response, "Thanks, but that's really none of your business." You might. That's why it's called a "risk." But with God, we're supposed to take risks. We're supposed to rise out of our own safety net, out of our own comfort zone - probably a lot more often than we do - and challenge people to their calling. We are meant to witness one another's growth and hold each other accountable to continuing to grow spiritually.

We just said that last week as Marlene and Michael became members of the church: we will support you and challenge you to grow in your faith.

What if we practiced that in our relationships right here in this community? What if we really got to know some of the people of whom our expectations have always been low - and I mean bargain basement low.
What if we put some energy into those relationships and began letting people know that we expected a greater participation from them; a greater visibility; a deeper commitment of their energy and ideas. That might be a calling that they've been waiting for - maybe they'd prayed to God to show them a sign - maybe you're the sign. And suddenly, a calling comes out of thin air through your voice that suddenly makes crystal clear what God has in store for them.

It happened in my own life, so I know it happens. It happens all the time to people who invite it; and it happens to people who can take a few moments to look beyond taking care of themselves, and thinking about a sister or brother.

None of us are on this earth, or in this community, only for the purpose of our own growth; none of us here only to ensure that we are certain to hear God's calling for us. That's certainly a big part of it. But to stop there would be to write the cello solo and leave the symphony unfinished. We are here to help others discern, to facilitate and witness for them, and make manifest God's calling in their lives.

A lot can come from a single grain of wheat. Imagine the bounty from an entire field of wheat. Imagine the impact of the fruits of our labor when we call forth all of our strengths and all of our gifts from one another.

May we be so bold. Amen.