"Becoming One Of Jesus’ Seeds"

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – March 25, 2012

Centenary United Methodist Church

Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 12:20-26

 

    Have you ever wondered if God has problems?  Think about it.  Try to imagine what such a problem would look like.  We are material beings that have grown very used to understanding everything in material terms.  On the other side of the curtain is God who is spirit.  How does God communicate about a spiritual environment that no one can see?  Add to this challenge the question: Can God communicate in such a fashion that everyone receives the same message?

    Since God has granted us free will, we can understand the nature of God anyway we wish.  Are we really free to do this since our understanding of God has been inscribed on our hearts, minds and spirit by various teachers since our youngest days? The Apostle Paul knew of what he wrote when he said, “What we understand now is like looking at a dim image in a mirror.”  (I Corinthians 13:12) 

    This is the fifth and final Sunday of our walk through Lent and our lesson today illustrates one of Jesus’ most consistent themes during his ministry.  Jesus was telling his listeners that their mission was to blossom and surrender the seeds of their loving energy patterns to the winds of the Holy Spirit.  We never know how God uses our energized circles of energy generated by our attitudes and behavior that radiate to people around us.      

    Eugene Peterson has the newest translation of the Scriptures on the market today. If he had written this rendition of the Bible in the 15th Century, most certainly he would have been put to death for blasphemy.  In his desire to bring clarity to the Scriptures, however, he translated the Bible into English that even the most uninformed people can understand. His translation is called, The Message.  Listen to his version of what Kurte read for us:

Listen carefully:  Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat.  But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.  In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys the potential for spreading its seeds.  But if we let go of our lives, reckless in our love, we will have it forever, real and eternal. 

    These words of Jesus describe how timeless truth has spread throughout the world.  Jesus was teaching that God does not always communicate with words.  God speaks to us in a way that connects with a very basic need of people in every region on earth. We all need to be loved.

    The reason so many people do not easily recognize God’s communication is because countless people are still holding on to their individual needs, desires and goals as each deals with his or her countless life-issues.  Such clinging is very controlling of what we communicate to others.  Often we do not take the time to develop the skill of being reckless in our love. What does reckless love look like?

    I will give you an example.  Francis Kim and his wife own an athletic store in Honolulu that is part of the Pearl Harbor Shopping Center.  One day a tall young man entered their store and wanted to try on a pair of Nike Top-Flight basketball shoes.  The shoes fit perfectly.  He told Mr. Kim that he would prefer the same shoe in blue.  When Francis went into the back of his store to retrieve the right color from his inventory, the young man darted out of the store still wearing the shoes he had tried on.

    When he heard his wife screaming, Francis knew exactly what had happened. He told his wife to call the police immediately and he left the store in pursuit.   After crossing four lanes of traffic, Kim tackled the much larger man and the two men were found wrestling on the ground when the police arrived.

    Later that afternoon, Mr. Kim had to go to the police station to press charges.  When he arrived he received permission to talk to the young man.  Kim put his hands on his hips and paced back and forth in front of the man before he spoke.  He asked in very matter of fact tones, “Do you want to mess up your life for a lousy pair of basketball shoes?”  The young man was silent and hung his head. 

    After hesitating for a moment Kim said, “This is very important to me and I want an honest answer from you young man.  I have the power to have you released or to keep you here.  I need to know -- do you really want to mess up your entire life because you put everything you are on the line by stealing a pair of shoes?”  The young man eventually shook his head, “no.”

    To the young man’s surprise, Kim did not press charges.  Instead, he asked the police to release the man into his custody.  Kim took him back to his store and said, “I need a young man like you that I can trust to help me in this store.   I am going to do three things for you.  First, I want you to work for me and I will pay you twice a month.  Second, I am going to give you these shoes since you must really want them.  Third, I am going to give you a pair of socks to wear with those shoes.  Is it a deal?” 

    The young man’s solemn face melted into a large, broad smile as he stood there in total disbelief. The two men shook hands and that was the first day of the rest of that young man’s life.  Today, he manages that store while Mr. Kim has opened a number of other stores on the island.  Francis Kim was looking at the potential of this young man rather than the result from his use of poor judgment.  He was willing to give him a second chance.  This is what reckless love looks like.

    We may think to ourselves, “Fine, that is only one man who was pulled back from the brink of living a life of crime by someone who cared.”  We should never underestimate what the Holy Spirit can do with one deed like this.  How did I learn of this story so that I could tell it to you this morning?  No doubt the young man went home and told his parents what he had done and how Mr. Kim responded.  The story spread like a wild fire.  Why – because such a love-story is rare.

    Think of that woman who has influenced millions of people because Jesus used her as an illustration of generosity for his disciples as he watched her deposit her copper coins into the Temple treasury.  That story has made millions of people think about their own generosity because all of us have been touched by this woman whose name has been lost to history.  What is remarkable is that her spirit of generosity is still holding up a mirror to people in our generation. Think about what has had to happen for a story like that to keep circulating for the last 2,000 years.

    The deeds by countless unknown people are the seeds that Jesus asked his followers to become.  The people of the world are only going to be stirred by God’s communication when a deed like Mr. Kim’s takes place in their experience.  Again, God does not always use words.  Words can easily be misinterpreted.  God counts on people like us to make God’s spirit visible.  A lot of individuals can be given a course correction by common, ordinary people simply because they care.

    There was a college professor who enjoyed taking his classes outside when the weather was suitable for doing so.  His classes of about 18 to 20 students would sit in several small circles as he taught.  One day while he was teaching his class, a dog came walking toward the group.  He trotted around the group several times, then sat and watched the people.

    One of the students tapped on the ground repeatedly while looking at the dog and the dog came bounding into the group for some good old-fashioned loving.  The group responded with lots of affection.  When the dog quieted down and was lying beside the one who had summoned him, one of the women raised her hand. 

    When the professor called on her, she said, “I have been in this class since January and no one has ever spoken to me.  I am invisible in this class.  I’ll bet no one knows my name.   Then this dog came along and within minutes almost the entire class reached out and loved him.” As tears began to slide down her cheeks, she asked, “Why is that?”     

    Before the professor had an opportunity to respond, the student who tapped on the ground responded.  She said,

The moment I saw the dog, I knew he wanted to be included.   He was wagging his tail.  He had a look that communicated that he really wanted to be with us.  I have noticed you, Elizabeth, but you always sit in the back of the class.  Even now you have positioned yourself on the outer part of our group. You seldom speak.  Your body language has always communicated to me that you wanted to be left alone.

    The students sat there as the tension in the air fueled their anxiety. Each waited for her response to such a direct observation. She told the other students that she was afraid to open up to the class for fear of being looked upon as stupid.  She had never learned how to be warm and expressive.  Even on dates, she would ice over and not know what to say.  She hated herself after the young men who dated her dropped her off at her dormitory. She lacked the confidence to carry on a conversation. 

    After she finished speaking and with tears continuing to stream down her face she said, “Okay, here I come!” and she crawled into the center of the group on all fours and the class went crazy.  They petted her and hugged her.  Some of the other women were crying.  Everyone knew this experience was a break-through for her.  She had overcome a fear that had been defining her life.

    Have we ever known someone like that?  They are out there.  It is our task to make such people feel comfortable, loved and accepted and we must assume that their shyness and silence could easily be calls for love.  That is why we are here as seeds being blown by the Holy Spirit to the very people who need encouragement and support.

    Perhaps it was such a woman that was too shy to talk to Jesus.  She had suffered for twelve years with severe bleeding.  Her condition was so personal she could not talk about it. She came up behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment.  At once her bleeding stopped.  Jesus knew something had happened and asked, “Who touched me?”

    Peter said, “Are you kidding me?  People are all around you and lots of people are touching you.”  Jesus said, “No, this was different.  I felt my energy going out from me.”  When the woman realized that Jesus knew, she came trembling and fell at Jesus’ feet.  Jesus said, “My daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace.”  (Luke 8:43f)

    The universal language that everyone understands is when we stop thinking of love as a concept and we energize it through our attitudes, words and deeds.  When we think about Jesus’ on the cross, we can label him the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sins of the world.  We can sing about his paying a ransom for our souls. 

    However, when we personalize what he did, we understand a far different message that we can use everyday for the rest of our lives.  We can overcome the world as he did by loving without counting the cost. What he did on the cross had little to do with our sins.  It had everything to do with his showing the world that each of us has the ability to say, “I love you in spite of what you have done to me by driving nails into my hands and feet.”  Only then do we understand his words, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  When we learn to love like that, our need to sin goes away.

    We can become the seeds that Jesus tossed into the wind during his crucifixion.  Mr. Kim became one of those seeds.  The class became the seeds to a young woman who decided to become very vulnerable in her admitting, “I want you to love me as you did this dog.”   Everywhere we look there are people who need the light of God’s love to shine on them through what we do and say. 

    I hope during this Lenten season that we have learned how to let God communicate through us regardless of the circumstances that can easily drive those proverbial nails into our hands and feet.  We can love without counting the cost and in so doing we follow Jesus and also overcome the world.