March 29, 2009
(Fifth Sunday in Lent)
A Grain of Wheat
By
The Very Rev. Terry White,
Dean
Jeremiah 31:31-34 • Psalm 51:1-13 or
Psalm 119:9-16 • Hebrews 5:5-10 •
John 12:20-33
(From
The Lectionary Page)
As a high school student, I asked my parents if I could spend an upcoming weekend attending a religious retreat. For my parents, it was an answer to prayer. For me, it was a chance to spend a weekend away with some friends, and to boot, a girl I had an enormous crush on was going to be there, too.
Now many years later, I don’t remember much about the weekend, but I do recall that in first address of the retreat, the coolest priest I had ever met, Father Henry, a Franciscan Friar, centered his whole talk on a single passage found in today’s Gospel: 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.
Father Henry said to the 25 or so youth gathered: you are each a grain of wheat, all the leaders around you are grains of wheat, I am a grain of wheat, and the Lord Jesus needs for us to die so that he can raise us to bear much fruit. We must die to self, he said.
You could have heard a pin drop. I can’t speak for anyone else, but Father Henry did not need to convince me of anything. I knew I was looking for real purpose for my life. I wasn’t at rock bottom. I was not in deep trouble. Mostly I needed some direction. What I did not need what someone telling me what my life’s purpose was. But I needed a guide, a path, some tools I could use.
And Henry read again these verses from John’s Gospel: 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 hate 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, the Father will honor.
John introduces those words by saying that Jesus’ hour to be glorified had arrived. Some Greeks had come to see Jesus, signifying the Gospel was being heard by Jews and Gentiles alike, that all God’s people were included. Anyone with questions and doubt, anyone who is restless, anyone who is seeking more than what the world gives, will be satisfied by the glory to be revealed.
“The hour has come.” Such a phrase demands trumpets, a peal of bells. And then what follows is the proclamation of a truth we are still wrestling to comprehend: Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."
Unless a grain of wheat dies and falls into the earth, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit. In Jesus’ sacrifice we learn that death precedes life. He will be lifted up from the earth at the crucifixion, at the resurrection, and in his ascension. And all people will be drawn.
Perhaps the Greeks simply wanted to see Jesus, to hear his teachings and how he answered his critics. But as they listened, they may have become aware that this Jesus spoke of something they did not know, but desired ever so deeply. A glory unlike anything the world termed as glorious, but which in their hearts resonated as being as true as anything they had ever heard.
The 17th century philosopher, Pascal wrote, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every[one] which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” That void that we are looking to fill can only be satisfied by God.
On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we begin the final journey to the gates of Jerusalem. Before us are the Passion and Holy Week’s rigors. We will be tested, and we must not turn away, nor take the easy way out. And as we take up our cross and follow the Lord, the words of the psalmist fortify us:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, *
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence *
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
Give me the joy of your saving help again *
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
Phillips Brooks, priest and sometime Bishop of Massachusetts was rector of Boston’s Trinity Church, Copley Square. Inscribed on the desk of the pulpit is the verse: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. A reminder to all preachers of the call to proclaim Jesus Christ and him Crucified.
This plea of the Greeks is the desire of us all: we want to see Jesus, to know and feel and experience as much as we can of the Lord’s life. And as John knew in writing his Gospel, if we wish to know Jesus, if we wish to see Jesus, we start at the cross. For the Passion explains all that the Gospels tell us preceded the Passion, as well as all the follows. Here is how Jesus glorified his Father, and it is how we glorify Jesus’ Father, and it is how the Church glorifies the Father.
If a grain of wheat dies and falls into the ground, it bears much fruit.
The retreat weekend did not turn end up being a time to talk to the girl I had a crush on. It seems every other guy on the weekend had a crush on her. In truth, I went on the retreat not thinking that much about seeing Jesus, but luckily, Jesus was thinking about me. And this morning, he is thinking about us all. He was lifted up for us. May we draw near. And bear much fruit.
