Episcopal Church of the Incarnation

West Point, Mississippi

The Fifth Sunday in Lent (B)

Jeremiah 31.31-34 Psalm 51.1-13 Hebrews 5.5-10 John 12.20-33

May the Lord be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that

I may rightly and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.

Outline of a Sermon Delivered Extemporaneously

1) “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.”

a) Here we have Jesus, teaching in the Temple, having traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover, and knowing that the hour has come in which He will die a horrible death.

b) This comes after He has been anointed by Mary, after He has entered Jerusalem to the “Hosannas!” of the crowd.

i) This hour is now recorded by John after the other times in the Gospel when the expected does not happen because, in John’s words, Jesus’ “hour [had] not yet come”.

ii) Indeed, after Jesus Himself, at His first miracle in Cana, has told his very mother, “My hour is not yet come.”

(1) Now, now facing death is His hour come.

(2) Now is the hour for Him to be glorified.

(a) Glorified not at the changing of water into wine; not at the healing of the sick, the crippled and blind; not even at the very raising of Lazarus from the dead.

(i) But now, facing His own death.

2) And how does John set the scene for this hour? This hour that comes after triumphal entry into Jerusalem but accompanied by the failure of the crowd and of His own disciples to understand who Jesus truly is?

a) Jesus says that His hour is come after Andrew and Philip have come to Him and told Him that “some Greeks” want to see Him.

i) Who are these Greeks?

(1) The fact that they are in Jerusalem for the Passover tells us that these are so-called “God-fearers,” persons of foreign birth who recognize that the Jews worship the one true God, and who seek to worship this God even though they are excluded from most Jewish ceremonies.

(2) Notice that their desire to see Jesus means that what the Pharisees have just said in a prior verse–“... look, the world has gone after him”–is correct.

(a) Sometimes even the Pharisees get it right.

(b) And here the Greeks get it right, for the word John uses, the Greek verb eidon, has a meaning not just of sight, but also of experience and affirmation.

(i) The Greeks want to recognize Jesus for who He is.

(ii) And now He says His “hour is come”.

1. Now when the world is coming to see who Jesus is.

3) What happens in this hour, when the Son of man is to be glorified?

a) This passage starts the whole long section in John in which Jesus first teaches what it means to be His disciple, shows what it means to be His disciple (in the washing of the feet and in the breaking of bread), and prays for His disciples, one of whom then betrays Him.

b) This whole long, final teaching moment begins with Jesus speaking of a seed dying in order to bear fruit.

i) Of gaining eternal life through losing the love of this life.

ii) Of being with Jesus, and of being thus made acceptable to the Father.

4) And it’s just this realization, that we must lose our lives in order to gain eternal life, that is the hour in which each of us is called to the glory which God gives us in His Kingdom.

a) We must lose our love of this life by loving all the more that one Way, one Truth, and one Life by which and to which we are each called.

i) Notice what Jesus does here?

(1) The verbal formula most of us think of when we think of Jesus being with us is reversed.

(a) We’re used to relying on the promise given at Matthew 18.20 that when two or three gather in Jesus’ Name, He is in our midst.

(b) Whereas here He says, “... where I am, there shall my servant be also”.

(i) “Where I am.” And where is that?

1. First it is in letting go of one’s life to this world.

2. And then it is in heaven.

a. Do you catch in that a little echo of the words that our Lord Himself taught us, in which we are to pray to the Father?

i. “... thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven ...”

5) Brothers and sisters, we are gathered together here today in Jesus’ holy Name, secure in the knowledge that He is with us; He is in our midst.

a) We’re gathered here together secure in the faith that God’s Kingdom and His holy will is our calling.

b) But all around us, and perhaps here with us today, are “Greeks,” people who want to know God and to recognize Him for who He is.

c) And God wants us to show these well-meaning folk who Jesus really is.

i) God wants us to show all those around us who say “I’m religious,” but who do not confess with their lips that Jesus is the one and only Way to the Father, the one and only Truth, the one and only Life.

(1) Jesus. Jesus is not just some wise teacher by whom we can learn to be better persons in this life.

(a) He says, “... where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him.”

(i) Where I am, in the renunciation of self, the death to self.

(ii) Where I am. And how do we find this “where”?

1. We find this “where,” this kingdom, this eternal life, by following Jesus and by serving Him.

d) That’s your calling; that’s my calling.

i) At all times, in all places, with all people.

6) Which brings us back to Philip. Why is it that the Greeks who want to experience Jesus come to Philip?

a) Is this a random event, or is it not more likely that these Gentiles approach Philip because he’s more approchable?

i) He’s from Galilee, a mixed area in the North, with as many Gentiles as Jews.

ii) He’s got a Greek name.

(1) And so it’s easy to understand folks coming to a member of the “inner circle” whom they see to be a potential contact.

b) And that’s where you come in.

i) You have a role to play with all of those well-meaning, hungry, folks around us who don’t know Jesus.

(1) When they see you experience Jesus, you might be the one who is “approachable”.

(a) And since you are seent o be a church member, you are seen by them to be an “insider,” a disciple.

(2) And as a disciple, you might be the one who can speak–even casually–about God and about how you experience God in worship.

(a) To invite them, these “Greeks”, to come with you to worship.

c) Uh, oh! There’s that “E” word: evangelism, a word that makes most Episcopalians uncomfortable.

i) We’ll speak some other time about how we can go about asking people to come to church with us, but for today let’s just look at what’s involved in this example: It involves being seen to live as a disciple, to witness to your faith in how you live.

(1) And in so witnessing to be ready share your faith with others.

(a) Folks who you know socially or at work, who may ask sometime why it is that you are in church on Sunday, or what Easter is all about.

ii) You can show the world what it means to believe in your heart and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord.

iii) What it means to die to this world so that in dying we may bear the fruit that is God’s.

iv) To evermore praise His holy Name.

(1) To Him “... be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever! ... Amen!”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.