The Fifth Sunday of Lent - March 25, 2012
John 12:24
"What I'm about to tell you is true. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only one seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
In John's Gospel, Jesus offers these words when he entered the season of his life in which he set his course for Jerusalem and what would be his crucifixion. Thus, there is a sense in which these words are grandly true for him, and will be his lived experience on the path ahead.
He also, though, speaks a universal truth, a truth about the way life is ordered, a truth about what it means to be a part of life on this planet.
The human heart sees death as an ending, whether it is the death of a job, of a relationship, of a dream, of good health.
Because we see life from the perspective of, "What does the event or happening mean for me?", death is an ending.
But the Gospel invites us to a wider, more expansive vision. You and I are not the center of the universe. We may be one point of reference, but we are not the only point of reference, nor the primary point of reference.
In a larger sense, death is not only about endings. Death is also about beginnings. A grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies. . . it produces many seeds. Something happens in the process of death that brings new life. But a person must have eyes to see it, otherwise death is only an ending.
It is important to grieve the endings, to lament over them, but also not to get trapped in the endings. When we get trapped in an ending, we usually miss the next beginning, or even stall out the next beginning.
Jesus said that the beginning of fruitfulness is death. The world of nature knows this rhythm of life - death - life. And we, as humans, are invited into its rhythm as well.
For today . . . as you think about your own experience with death and endings, consider the ways this rhythm of life - death - life has happened in your life. You might think of a relationship, a job, or a dream that has died for you. Remember the ways this particular death felt like an ending. As you look back on it now, can you see what came to life because of that death? In what way was that death a beginning point?
"What I'm about to tell you is true. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only one seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
In John's Gospel, Jesus offers these words when he entered the season of his life in which he set his course for Jerusalem and what would be his crucifixion. Thus, there is a sense in which these words are grandly true for him, and will be his lived experience on the path ahead.
He also, though, speaks a universal truth, a truth about the way life is ordered, a truth about what it means to be a part of life on this planet.
The human heart sees death as an ending, whether it is the death of a job, of a relationship, of a dream, of good health.
Because we see life from the perspective of, "What does the event or happening mean for me?", death is an ending.
But the Gospel invites us to a wider, more expansive vision. You and I are not the center of the universe. We may be one point of reference, but we are not the only point of reference, nor the primary point of reference.
In a larger sense, death is not only about endings. Death is also about beginnings. A grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies. . . it produces many seeds. Something happens in the process of death that brings new life. But a person must have eyes to see it, otherwise death is only an ending.
It is important to grieve the endings, to lament over them, but also not to get trapped in the endings. When we get trapped in an ending, we usually miss the next beginning, or even stall out the next beginning.
Jesus said that the beginning of fruitfulness is death. The world of nature knows this rhythm of life - death - life. And we, as humans, are invited into its rhythm as well.
For today . . . as you think about your own experience with death and endings, consider the ways this rhythm of life - death - life has happened in your life. You might think of a relationship, a job, or a dream that has died for you. Remember the ways this particular death felt like an ending. As you look back on it now, can you see what came to life because of that death? In what way was that death a beginning point?
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