Finding Faith ... in the eternal, not the temporary

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on March 18, 2018.

Today’s gospel gives us a very important lesson about how it is that God expects us to live out our lives here on earth: “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.”

However, it’s no secret that we are all bombarded every day by messages that are antithetical to Jesus’s that we hear in this gospel. ... Everywhere we turn, there’s another movie, or another song or some other popular societal message that speaks to the living in the here and now. … More money. ... More power. … Designer clothes. … The best cars. … Being popular. … Being admired. … No matter how much we try to limit mass culture in our lives, none of us can completely escape its reaches on us, can we?

Nearly everything and everyone tells us that our earthly obsessions are where it’s at, and that we should go get it all while the gettin’ is good.

But Jesus in this week’s gospel works hard to portray a different picture. One that reminds us that there is another life that we should focus on, and it isn’t the one that we are living here.

After all, if we are living in this moment ... if we are hanging onto our grain of wheat, instead of planting it, we can’t possibly bear the fruit of the Lord, can we? … And I know that there are plenty enough farmers and gardeners in this crowd that you can all understand Jesus’ metaphor when he says, “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.”

In other words, let’s apply today’s gospel to our own everyday lives. … No matter which gospel book you read, Jesus time again tells us that our value to the Lord is not in what we accumulate or store up in our lifetimes or how we look, but that our value is in the fruit we bear for him while we are here on earth.

Our value is not in how many honors are bestowed upon us, or what we drive, or how much money we earn. … But our value is in what we do with those gifts and opportunities that the Lord has given us. … In how it is we use those gifts to help others, to care for God’s creation, to be Christ’s hands and feet right here on earth. ... In other words, our value -- as God’s grains of wheat here on earth -- is in the fruit that we bear!

But I wonder -- despite Jesus extolling these virtues time and again to us throughout the gospels, not just here in John -- I wonder just exactly how often it is that we actually hear that message? … I wonder if -- just like the many people gathered there around Jesus for the passover celebration -- sometimes instead of hearing God, we just think it is thunder that we are hearing.

On Friday night, my family and I were watching the exciting NCAA tournament game in which Virginia was upset, but while that was indeed exciting, interestingly what I was really impacted by was not the game, but the commercials I was seeing.

Now you can call me naive, but in my defense, I just don’t watch a lot of TV anymore. And, in the rare moments that I do catch something, it’s always on Netflix or Amazon Prime, both services that offer commercial-free TV. … So, you could say that my TV-viewing habits are in quite a little bubble.

Anyway, we were watching the basketball game, and mind you this is March Madness right, so companies are all throwing their best pitches at us. … There’s commercials about buying new phones and cell services, and buying new clothes and buying houses, and more and more ... every ad designed to make us feel more inadequate than the last one because we don’t have the newest something.

And, as this week’s gospel was rattling around in my head, I couldn’t help but wonder how it is that any of us can remain normal, well-adjusted humans. … Afterall, when you have an advertising industry’s whose single, primary goal is to prey on all of our insecurities, and lead us away from exactly the kind of life God asks us to live, how do we stand a chance?

In particular, I was struck by an ad for a new 2018 GMC pickup. … We’re all used to car commercials, right? We know how they go. ... We know that the job of the commercial is to convince us that their vehicle is the best choice, and they normally do so by telling us about the great features it has, or about some special pricing for a limited time, or the cash back you’ll get or about the number of safety awards this particular model has won. … You know the drill. … And now, those kinds of car commercials I am used to. ... But this commercial just struck me in its unique deviousness.

It opens with a far away shot of a GMC pickup towing a boat along a coastal highway. On one side, there a steep cliff that drops away to a very large body of water, and way in the distance is a golden, shimmering sun. … Now, on the other side of the highway, there is the rest of the mountain, all dressed in green, luscious plants and it climbs skyward off the screen.

That’s the gorgeous opening shot you get for a few seconds, and then the next shot switches to a well-dressed man just leaving his house by the front door, with what looks like a computer bag slung over his shoulder. Presumably, he’s leaving for some important meeting.

And then big-voice announcer guy comes in and says: “How do you want to live?”

At this point the commercial starts to cut from shots of very attractive people driving a GMC truck to other scenes in our daily lives. … Work, play, etc. … And the announcer continues. “How do you want to live? … As a decent person? Good husband? … Is that it? … Good?”

I kid you not. … Good -- then, question mark. It’s asked as a question.

… And the announcer continues: “Of course not. … King of the hill? Better. … Top of your game? Win. … All powerful! Like a boss! … Like a pro! We couldn’t agree more. We are professional grade.”

Now let’s just let that sink in for a moment. … Again, call me naive, but I was shocked. And as I dwelled on that commercial for the next 24 hours as a backdrop to today’s gospel, it made me realize that we’re doing no better today than the folks who were standing in that crowd, listening to Jesus on that day.

Because while it seems so plain to us as we read this gospel what Jesus’s message was to that crowd, we don’t seem to be hearing it any better. It seems that maybe we’re missing the point ourselves, hearing thunder when it is God that is speaking to us.

I have to wonder how well we’ve heard Jesus when our truck commercials tell us men that being a decent person -- or heaven forbid -- only a good husband isn’t enough. … But rather the ultimate sign that we’ve made it is a brand new pick up truck and living like a boss!

The good news, of course, is that there is an exact roadmap to that life that bears fruit if only we listen. Jesus tells us in his own words, and demonstrates to us in his own actions.

Ever the good and faithful servant to his father, despite knowing what he is about to endure in the coming days -- as this speech comes just before he will be arrested, tried, found guilty and crucified on the cross -- Jesus tells the crowd that his soul isn’t troubled about his fate.

He outwardly rejects the notion that he will ask his father to spare him his death, although we know that would be an all-too-normal response for anyone else. … But not Jesus, instead, he responds, “No it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

He’s ready to give up this earthly life -- GMC trucks and all -- so that he may receive his eternal life, seated at the right hand of his father. … And in this very speech he reminds us that this same very life is waiting for us: “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep ti for eternal life.”

In fact, in the ultimate condemnation of what this world has to offer, in these very moments before his march to the cross will soon begin, Jesus doesn’t ask his father to be saved from his fate. … Quite the contrary, he instead prays that his impending death glorify his father’s name. He wants to glorify his Father, both in live and in death, sacrificing in a way that none of us could ever understand.

And this is how the entire Book of John portrays Jesus: We see that Jesus is here to pass judgement on this world and all it has to offer, again GMC trucks and all.

And this is where context is so important. We have to remember that Jesus is practicing his ministry in the heyday of the Roman Empire, which at that time stretched from the upper reaches of Northern Europe to the Middle East and down into Africa.

I think we could point out a lot of similarities that we might draw between Roman society and our times. As then, just like now, the quest for money and power and things -- all kinds of things including GMC trucks -- were endless, and those in the ruling classes scoffed at the notion of living for a higher power.

Even the Greek and Roman Gods of the time placed the importance on the here and now, the temporal. Society at the time was caught up in the pursuit of earthly gains, and there were many, many people who were forgotten on the margins of society, including women and children and slaves. And so, the heavenly values that Jesus stood for, and the very thought that he would willingly sacrifice his life to glorify his father were so foreign that he was mocked. Much like those same values are mocked today.

But ultimately, and thankfully for us, it is Jesus who gets the last laugh. … In this speech to the crowd -- which will be his last public address before he is crucified -- he tries to foreshadow for them that this mighty Roman empire might be able to put his earthly body to death down here, but ironically, in that very act, they are actually bringing him to his rightful throne and from there he is going to rule the world!

In other words, the things and the ideas and the idols that we love to cling to here in this world, at their very nature are temporary, and they lead us astray from what is really important.

After all: “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.”

So I ask you today: Do you love your life here? Or do you yearn for something more? Are you chasing the temporary here or the eternal in God’s name?

This week’s Good News is that there is a way, a road map that Christ has laid out for us. Plant your grain, don’t save it. Plant it and let it bear fruit for all.

Amen.