March 18, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
Our gospel reading from the gospel according to John comes from the 12th chapter. In the verses just preceding this reading, Jesus has entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, accompanied by crowds shouting “Hosanna,” and waving palm branches. It’s worth considering that only in John’s gospel are the branches specified as palm branches. Since the Maccabean period of about 167-160 BCE, palm branches were symbols of national triumph and victory. The palm branches point us to the fact that the crowd greets Jesus as their national hero.[1] This only increases the discomfort of the Roman authorities. In this scripture, John points out that “some Greeks” have come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. They find Philip and ask him to take them to Jesus.
Let’s listen for God’s gracious word to us in that encounter with Jesus in John 12: 20-33
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.
21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."
22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
23 Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24 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.
25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27 "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--' Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
28 Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."
29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
30 Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Our Psalm for this week is Psalm 51, a prayer of penitence attributed to King David. This Psalm is a cry of anguish from someone who considers themselves to be beyond the reach of God’s grace. But as we know, there is no one who is beyond God’s steadfast love and mercy. Let’s join together in reading and singing our response to Psalm 51:1-12
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Response: Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God. May I be like you.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Response: Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God. May I be like you.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Response: Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God. May I be like you.
God’s word for God’s people. Thanks be to God.
Some years back, I worked at a Presbyterian church as the second worst choir director in the history of choir directing. I say the “second worst” because there had to be at least one person directing a choir who did a worse job of it than me. To be fair, I told them when I took the job that I knew nothing about choral conducting! In any case, I was really bad at it.
The pastor of that church has made space for all kinds of different people to find a path to faith. One of the things he did when I worked there was to do away with the prayer of confession and assurance of pardon. His feeling was that the prayer of confession just made people feel bad. I disagreed; my argument was that the confession and pardon actually made people feel better! When I think about the importance of confession, I always think of this story, which I know you’ve heard, but here we go:
Three pastors went fishing together one day.
While they were out in a boat, one of the pastors said,
"We should share our struggles.
Let’s tell one another our greatest sin so that we can pray for each other.
The first one said, “I hate to admit this, but I have a problem with gambling.
Sometimes I the offering money and sneak off to the casino and gamble.”
The second pastor says, “I'm so ashamed to admit this,
but I am involved with a woman who is not my wife.”
The third pastor sat there silently.
The other two waited and waited and waited, then they said,
“We shared. We’re not leaving until you tell us your greatest sin.”
He said, “I’m really embarrassed to tell you this….”
The other two pastors waited in silence.
Then he said, “My confession is…. I am the biggest gossip in town.”
We humans have a complicated relationship with confession. Some of us struggle with a deep-seated sense of shame, and praying a prayer of confession, whether in a group or alone, triggers that shame, that feeling that we are bad or wrong. But we are made in God’s image, and while we DO bad things, we are not entirely rotten. After all, the creation story tells us that each day God created, and each day God looked the work of the day and called it good. Until God created humans. And then God looked at those humans and said, “very good.”
But also true is that in that story, the next thing that happens is that the humans mess up, and try to blame it on everyone else. It didn’t change God’s love for them, nor did it mean that God was mistaken about them, nor did it mean that they were NOT made in God’s image. What it meant was that they were frail humans, with free will, who disobeyed the ONE rule that God had laid out for them. They didn’t repent, or say they were sorry, even when they got caught. They cast around for someone to blame.
(Just a side note here – it isn’t necessary to believe this is a literal tale, but it is important to understand what the story says about humankind, and about God.)
What it says about us is that we don’t always use our free will
to do the things or say the things that glorify God.
What it says about us is that there are times in our lives
when we need to seek forgiveness from God.
What is says about us is that there are times we need to turn to Jesus,
who is drawing all of us to him.
What it says about God is that God’s grace and love are freely given,
and are not dependent upon the eloquence of our prayers of confession,
or how loudly we proclaim the gory details of our sins,
or how much we beat our chests and weep in sorrow.
God’s grace precedes our repentance!
God’s forgiveness is not the result effectiveness of our “performance”
God’s grace is what produces our confession!
God’s grace is not a reward or even a response to us –
it is a freely given gift.
As former Dubuque seminary professor Arlo Duba put it,
“The consciousness and acceptance of God’s mighty and gracious acts in Jesus Christ prompt praise; praise brings about repentance; and the first fruit of repentance is our confession of sin. The subsequent fruit is living a joyful and obedient Christian life.”[2]
That joyful and obedient Christian life becomes the fruit of grace. So when Jesus talks about the grain of wheat falling to the ground, he’s referring to his death and resurrection. That death is not to somehow appease God’s anger over human sinfulness, but it becomes the means for bearing much fruit.
Jesus says “When I am lifted up….”
and he knows that he will be lifted up for a purpose:
lifted up on a cross
lifted up from death
lifted up from the earth to return to the Father
And people will see that he and the Father were always one.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Response: Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God. May I be like you.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Response: Change my heart, O God, make it ever true
Change my heart, O God. May I be like you.
God’s word for God’s people. Thanks be to God.
Some years back, I worked at a Presbyterian church as the second worst choir director in the history of choir directing. I say the “second worst” because there had to be at least one person directing a choir who did a worse job of it than me. To be fair, I told them when I took the job that I knew nothing about choral conducting! In any case, I was really bad at it.
The pastor of that church has made space for all kinds of different people to find a path to faith. One of the things he did when I worked there was to do away with the prayer of confession and assurance of pardon. His feeling was that the prayer of confession just made people feel bad. I disagreed; my argument was that the confession and pardon actually made people feel better! When I think about the importance of confession, I always think of this story, which I know you’ve heard, but here we go:
Three pastors went fishing together one day.
While they were out in a boat, one of the pastors said,
"We should share our struggles.
Let’s tell one another our greatest sin so that we can pray for each other.
The first one said, “I hate to admit this, but I have a problem with gambling.
Sometimes I the offering money and sneak off to the casino and gamble.”
The second pastor says, “I'm so ashamed to admit this,
but I am involved with a woman who is not my wife.”
The third pastor sat there silently.
The other two waited and waited and waited, then they said,
“We shared. We’re not leaving until you tell us your greatest sin.”
He said, “I’m really embarrassed to tell you this….”
The other two pastors waited in silence.
Then he said, “My confession is…. I am the biggest gossip in town.”
We humans have a complicated relationship with confession. Some of us struggle with a deep-seated sense of shame, and praying a prayer of confession, whether in a group or alone, triggers that shame, that feeling that we are bad or wrong. But we are made in God’s image, and while we DO bad things, we are not entirely rotten. After all, the creation story tells us that each day God created, and each day God looked the work of the day and called it good. Until God created humans. And then God looked at those humans and said, “very good.”
But also true is that in that story, the next thing that happens is that the humans mess up, and try to blame it on everyone else. It didn’t change God’s love for them, nor did it mean that God was mistaken about them, nor did it mean that they were NOT made in God’s image. What it meant was that they were frail humans, with free will, who disobeyed the ONE rule that God had laid out for them. They didn’t repent, or say they were sorry, even when they got caught. They cast around for someone to blame.
(Just a side note here – it isn’t necessary to believe this is a literal tale, but it is important to understand what the story says about humankind, and about God.)
What it says about us is that we don’t always use our free will
to do the things or say the things that glorify God.
What it says about us is that there are times in our lives
when we need to seek forgiveness from God.
What is says about us is that there are times we need to turn to Jesus,
who is drawing all of us to him.
What it says about God is that God’s grace and love are freely given,
and are not dependent upon the eloquence of our prayers of confession,
or how loudly we proclaim the gory details of our sins,
or how much we beat our chests and weep in sorrow.
God’s grace precedes our repentance!
God’s forgiveness is not the result effectiveness of our “performance”
God’s grace is what produces our confession!
God’s grace is not a reward or even a response to us –
it is a freely given gift.
As former Dubuque seminary professor Arlo Duba put it,
“The consciousness and acceptance of God’s mighty and gracious acts in Jesus Christ prompt praise; praise brings about repentance; and the first fruit of repentance is our confession of sin. The subsequent fruit is living a joyful and obedient Christian life.”[2]
That joyful and obedient Christian life becomes the fruit of grace. So when Jesus talks about the grain of wheat falling to the ground, he’s referring to his death and resurrection. That death is not to somehow appease God’s anger over human sinfulness, but it becomes the means for bearing much fruit.
Jesus says “When I am lifted up….”
and he knows that he will be lifted up for a purpose:
lifted up on a cross
lifted up from death
lifted up from the earth to return to the Father
And people will see that he and the Father were always one.
Jesus said, “when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself” We are called to repentance, not as a way to win God’s favor, but as a response to the one lifted up for us.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, our Jewish brothers and sisters observe a custom called “Taschlich,” as they symbolically cast away their sins. During this ancient ritual, a group gathers by a body of water, preferably a lake or river that might contain fish. As they pray, some may physically throw bread crumbs into the water, while others symbolically shake out their prayer shawls. As they do so, they pray a prayer that details the thirteen aspects of God’s mercy. In a moment, I’ll invite you to participate in a symbolic “casting off” as we enter into this last week of Lent.
In your pew are watercolor markers and slips of tissue paper. Use those papers and markers to write down the things that you would like to cast off, the failure that you’d like God to deal with, the regrets that you’d like to give to Jesus. No one will read them but you. And when you are ready, bring them here, and cast them away into this water.
As you do that, I want to recite for you the thirteen aspects of God’s mercy:
God has compassion before a person sins;
God has compassion after a person has sinned;
God is mighty in compassion to give all creatures according to their need;
God is merciful, that humankind may not be distressed;
God is gracious if humankind is already in distress;
God is slow to anger;
God and plenteous in kindness;
God is truth;
God is faithful in keeping kindness unto thousands;
God forgives iniquity;
and transgression;
and sin; and God is always pardoning.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, our Jewish brothers and sisters observe a custom called “Taschlich,” as they symbolically cast away their sins. During this ancient ritual, a group gathers by a body of water, preferably a lake or river that might contain fish. As they pray, some may physically throw bread crumbs into the water, while others symbolically shake out their prayer shawls. As they do so, they pray a prayer that details the thirteen aspects of God’s mercy. In a moment, I’ll invite you to participate in a symbolic “casting off” as we enter into this last week of Lent.
In your pew are watercolor markers and slips of tissue paper. Use those papers and markers to write down the things that you would like to cast off, the failure that you’d like God to deal with, the regrets that you’d like to give to Jesus. No one will read them but you. And when you are ready, bring them here, and cast them away into this water.
As you do that, I want to recite for you the thirteen aspects of God’s mercy:
God has compassion before a person sins;
God has compassion after a person has sinned;
God is mighty in compassion to give all creatures according to their need;
God is merciful, that humankind may not be distressed;
God is gracious if humankind is already in distress;
God is slow to anger;
God and plenteous in kindness;
God is truth;
God is faithful in keeping kindness unto thousands;
God forgives iniquity;
and transgression;
and sin; and God is always pardoning.
That’s everything that the prayer of Psalm 51 asks, and more.
Know that God has already forgiven you, and that God’s grace, freely given,
will help you to bear the fruit of lovingkindness, today, and always.
Amen.
[1] New Interpreter’s Commentary on the Gospel of John
[2] Duba, Arlo. “True Confession,” Reformed Worship. https://www.reformedworship.org/article/june-1999/true-confession-ideas-recovering-true-spirit-confession-worship
Know that God has already forgiven you, and that God’s grace, freely given,
will help you to bear the fruit of lovingkindness, today, and always.
Amen.
[1] New Interpreter’s Commentary on the Gospel of John
[2] Duba, Arlo. “True Confession,” Reformed Worship. https://www.reformedworship.org/article/june-1999/true-confession-ideas-recovering-true-spirit-confession-worship
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