John 12:20-33

Lent 5 - Year B

There’s a lot of “troubled soul” going around. Unfortunately much of it is really troubled convenience or troubled desire. These are pretty direct routes to suffering.

When it gets to soul we have this wonderful poem by W.B. Yeats.

We also have this sequence:

Festival scene
One of those Greeks ask for Jesus
Jesus hears of it and responds “Glory be!”
Jesus has second thoughts about getting to glory
And a voice
“Hey, glory has already happened and will again.”
Well, that’s a comfort
What’s left to lose?
Take your next step to set things right

See what some Greeks got us into? Now we have to be about justice. That seems to keep happening. Every time we turn around there is a seemingly innocent incident that ends up asking us to be kind ourselves and to see that kindness is done unto others.

That light shining into dark places points to one place after another in need of justice. That’s soul-troubling. That’s a set-up for justice-fatigue. Yet, that’s what will lift us out of one remorseful ditch after another — working with the light given us.

And the wonderful pre-grave line: “Then Jesus hid from them.”

Use what light you have. Play hide and seek. Seems you’ll find Jesus hiding with the invisible people waiting for you come join in justice joy — an untroubling of souls.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/03/holy-week-tuesday.html

Fair warning to those desiring to experience G*D's presence in Jesus or some other form - it will lead you to transformation. If there is some doubt about that being what you are after, it would be better not to so seek.

Will you later be able to take back your commitment to follow through - your death? Sure, but it will take a reneging on your quest to live in this hour.

Some folks wanted to see Jesus and he warned about what happens if folks really see him. When folks want to see you, do you warn them about the dangers they are about to face - a meaning in life that leads to rebirth and all the attendant consequences? If you aren't warning folks, might it be that you have left open your option for G*D to save you from yourself being transformed.

This can be seen as a challenge to receive G*D's glory in our frail forms. To want to see Jesus is to want to bear glory and that is a large want that needs more than interest in celebrity.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html

As a seed or a cutting falls to ground [baptism] and is fruitfully raised up, grain or grape, it/we become Christ's body willing to be broken and Christ's blood forgivingly shed [communion].

A part of the mystery is how this happens all the time and at the same time. I fall as you are raised and fall again as I again am raised - the community of faith.

As we hear echoes of Transfiguration and Gethsemane in each moment, may we rejoice in GOD's direction of the whole of creation towards a progressive growth in maturity.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/april2003.html

There is quite a pecking order in order to see Jesus - Philip to Andrew and both had to have their respective keys for a nuclear strike order ready to simultaneously see Jesus. This arrangement can be a lens through which to view Jesus' next comments. Note that John records no meeting with the Greeks that started this scene. In fact, Jesus subsequently departs and hides from everyone.

We could read this, because of the crowd scene mentioned in verse 29, that Philip and the Greeks were on the outer edge of a crowd and the Greeks didn't have a faith that was active enough to push and shove their way to the center, to be with Jesus. Looking for an intermediary that won't require one's life is enough to keep one from life.

To this end, it would be instructive to put Jesus' words about glory in our own mouths. If this is a teaching for us rather than a self-reflection by Jesus it would begin to give us our daily minimum requirement of brazenness, chutzpah, and active faith. We would be thunderstruck at what was possible for us beyond politely working through butlers like Philip. Thus we would find Jesus' final words here reflective of our life, "While you have the light (active faith), believe (act) in the light, so that you may become children of light."

This is close to Peter Bohler's advice to John Wesley to, "Preach faith until you have it. And then because you have it you will preach faith." A place to see this at work in denominational advertising is at the United Methodist's Igniting Ministries.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html

"I have glorified [my being] , and I will glorify it again." So says G*D. This is to be a word for our sake (the crowd).

Jesus goes on to talk about his death and his presence with the people. It would be very easy to presume that the future glorification is about Jesus' death and judgment.

We can catch a larger glimpse if this glory has something to do with our lives (including our deaths). G*D intends to be glorified in you and me and we.

Will we reflect as does Jesus, "Shall I be saved from this glory?" Will we respond in more than words, "No, it is for this I am alive!"

It is time to turn up the universal Glory rheostat by engaging our lives and loves with the larger life and love of G*D and one another. Enjoy the warmth, we've been too cold for too long.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html

G*D: "I have glorified, I will glorify; I have been who I have been, I will be who I will be." And so the bookends are in place.

Self: "I am beloved." And so the content is in place.

Now comes the living with new covenants, steadfast love, abundant mercy, clean hearts, joyful salvation, and a willing spirit. Thrown into these qualities that open us to an expansive future are those elements that narrow us down: strayless commandments, sinless statutes, reverent submission (with cries and tears), and learned obedience.

As we go along there will be requests to take folks to Jesus. What will you show these inquiring hearts and minds first, second, third, finally? Will you start with something from the expanding list or the narrowing list, and why? Will it depend on the nature of the searcher and begin with where they are (if looking for more, start with the expansive), or begin with where they are not (if looking for more, start with the narrower)? Both have their appeal and effectiveness, but they are probably both equally incapable of being turned into a technology to be applied universally.

Will you start with where you are instead of where the questioner is? Here the questions of application may be even more difficult.

Finally, will any of this impact the kind of life you are going to live (which may have an impact on what kind of death you will have)?

- - -

someone is coming to dinner
they wish to see what makes me tick
that of course cannot be seen
it must be planted and replanted
grow unseen and burst dark bonds
a fruit here and there and everywhere
may yet appear in miracle and mystery

fed and encouraged
some choose to dive
into the dark
of a miracle self
invested as fallow seed
until tears of pain
waken it to bloom

a bloom of thunder
echoing from the past
awakening a future
with morning glories
twining upward
drawing beauty with them
here today gone tonight

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

What is the chain of command in your faith community to connect inquirers with your source of authority? Would folks know you are in that chain of command and ask for next steps?

In the storyline there is a temptation to make Jesus’ responses into a scary kind of evangelism fit only for saints, not the faint of heart. His response to being asked about some Greeks wanting to have an audience was to talk to his chain of disciples about how hard his work is and to depart, to turn down the request.

We don’t know if the inquirers we a part of later crowds, but on the surface here, they didn’t draw near to Jesus because his soul was troubled, he was out-of-sorts, even grumpy, and out of here.

The passage continues with a reference to all Jesus had given his disciples and they still didn’t get it. This would tend to suggest that what the disciples didn’t get was their own part in salvation history. For some reason they still saw the way to G*D going through channels, works-righteousness, and a top-down structure. Imagine if Philip had said, “What can I help you with, for to see me is to see Jesus?” Disciples are reflections of their modeler. Even more, what if Philip had said, “What can I help you with? Together we can partner with G*D.” As Jesus is to reveal G*D, so we are to reveal G*D. Anything less is to discount our discipleship. You and Philip have choices about bumping people one step closer to a disappearing Jesus or acting out the humble authority of following Jesus all the way to G*D.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-122-36.html