“THE GRAIN
OF WHEAT”
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A sermon preached Readings: Psalm 126, John 12:20-26 |
"Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it
bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
THE PROMISE AND THE CHALLENGE
On a shelf in our garden shed I have various packets
of old seeds –
left over from my more enthusiastic gardening days,
an on-going reproach to my good intentions –
the courgettes I never planted, the tomatoes I never nurtured,
the Brussels sprouts I never harvested.
They are good quality seed –
sealed in those little airtight inner packets –
they have remained undamaged and unadulterated –
though they may be past their official sell by date,
I suspect I’d get a half decent crop out of them –
except for one thing –
I never get them out of the packet –
they remain, safe, secure and inert.
It doesn’t need Alan Titmarsh
to tell you that if I want life out of the seeds,
I’ll have to take them out of the warm cosy dry packaging
and trust them to the cold wet spring soil –
knowing that some may not germinate,
but that meanwhile others will crack open,
draw in moisture from the soil,
and put forth shoots –
until the seed is no more to be seen,
but the plant grows and harvest comes.
"Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat
falls
into the earth and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
Here
is the promise and challenge of the Gospel.
The
Promise –
The world is a barren land – the soil is not the best, it is ill prepared –
it might seem safer to keep God’s seedcorn for
another time –
but
Jesus says – I am that seedcorn –
and I have come to lay down my life like a seed in a field,
to
share your sorrows,
even to enter your grave,
that
from there there might be life.
The
Challenge –
But the Gospel as so often is like a two edged sword -
yes there is a promise, but also a challenge in this passage,
for Jesus invites us to follow him on that path of death and sacrifice.
I read a piece in the Tablet last week by Paul
Murphy,
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
(The Tablet,
29 March 2003, p2).
He was arguing in favour of the war in Iraq.
He concluded:
“there are values and people worth fighting for and,
ultimately, worth dying for.
That is a fundamental Christian belief.”
In this week’s issue, there are a number of replies,
including a letter from Fr John Danford who says
yes of course there are people worth fighting and dying for –
this is a fundamental Christian belief –
but are there people and causes worth killing for?
That is not a fundamental Christian belief.”
(The Tablet,
5 April 2003, p14).
We
may not all agree on the question of
whether
there can be causes worth killing for –
or whether the current conflict might conceivably be such a cause –
though
there are still certainly plenty of us here in this Church
needing persuasion about that in the current conflict –
But
on this we can all be agreed –
however
much we may disagree about the killing.
As
Christian we are all called to serve,
and
if need be to die for, others
Following
Christ is not about the potting shed shelf –
It
is about being sown in the cold earth.
For
in Christ’s words, he who would save his life will lose it –
he who is willing to lose his life will find it.
Or to quote the Ballad
of Reading Gaol,
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?
OSCAR ROMERO
It is Springtime and one of the signs of new growth
is our re-born Mint Bookstall –
I commend it to you –
please browse, buy, or sponsor a book.
One of the books is a simple introduction
to one of the greatest saints of the 20th
Century –
Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.
Oscar Romero stood out against the paramilitary
death squads
of the fascist regime in El Salvador.
Then on 24 March 1980,
Oscar Romero presided at a Mass for a friend’s
mother.
He read the Gospel – the same one set for today form
John 12 –
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and
dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit
The as he spoke of what this meant for the
persecuted Church of El Salvador,
the death squads entered the Church and shot him
dead at the altar.
Only days before Romero had said,
"It is my hope that my blood will be the seed
of freedom
and the sign that hope will soon be reality"
And
indeed so it was -
and again the Church learned that
“the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”.
And
what he did that day, dying at the altar,
proved
to be more powerful that all the combined might of the military junta.
Never
underestimate the power of self giving sacrifice or the fruits of compassion:
RAVENSBRUCK
Here is a prayer, written by an unknown prisoner
and left by the body of a dead child
in the Ravensbruck
concentration camp:
"O Lord, remember not only the men and
women of good will,
but also those of ill will.
But do not remember all the suffering they have
inflicted on us;
remember the fruits we have brought, thanks to
this suffering —
our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our
courage, our generosity,
the greatness of heart which has grown out of
all this,
and when they come to judgment
let all the fruits which we have borne be their
forgiveness."
One
scrap of paper
more powerful than the whole Nazi war regime!
Grains
of wheat falling into the ground –
but
what fruits of love and forgiveness!
Oh
that we might help sow that seed! –
Sow
with the simple faith that even though we may never see the harvest,
somewhere
for someone the love we have sown will bear fruit.
Again
in Oscar Romero’s
words,
we are called to “plant seeds that one day will grow….
We are prophets of a future not our own.”
FAURE’S REQUIEM
And
so today our Communion is set
to
the wonderful cadences of Faure’s
Requiem –
written
to commemorate the departed.
Reminding
us
·
that though we sow in sorrow yet shall we harvest in joy.
·
that even when we cannot see beyond the cross we carry,
the Resurrection is indeed just beyond Golgotha.
·
that the communion of saints is not just about us
here at this table but about all God’s people
on earth below and heaven above.
·
That though the desert of this world
be right now covered with
the mangled carcasses of tanks and broken masonry,
our Lord is there with every weeping and dying soul -
and yet shall
the desert bloom like a rose (Isa 35:2).
So
let us follow Christ to the cross and the grave,
but always looking beyond.
And
so for ourselves
and every suffering soul throughout the world
we pray:
“In paradisum deducant te angeli…..
In tuo adventu
suscipiant te martyres” -
….aeternam habeas requiem.”
“May
the angels lead you into paradise
May
the martyrs receive you in your coming…
…May you have eternal rest.