Year B
John 12:20-33
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Critical Moments of the Spirit
It is said there are “thin places,” places that are open somehow to the holy. You know a thin place when you pass through one; somewhere in which people have prayed for a long time; somewhere with a sense of perfect stillness. You might feel like you’re in a thin place when you visit a church or cathedral, or the ruins of a monastery or other holy sites. The atmosphere of a thin place is difficult to describe, and can be overwhelming to experience.
Perhaps there are also thin places in time, uniquely decisive moments in the course of our lives when what we say or do can either open up or shut down the flow of the Spirit and the advancement of God’s loving vision for the world. What we do always matters; but there are pivotal moments where the stand we take or do not take, a decision to hang back or step forward and speak; moments of choice and change when much depends on our response to the Spirit. I know there have been those moments in my life.
One of those moments for our country, of which many of us here today either remember or have read about, I actually knew and served with a priest who was one of the Selma, Alabama Freedom Marchers who faced rage and billy clubs to advance onto the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March 1965. Their patient advance onto the bridge said more than words ever could: Equal representation is worth risking your life for. The brutality they suffered, captured by reporter’s cameras became silent testimony to the nation in the campaign for voting rights for all citizens. Not many weeks later, a judge’s ruling in favor of their right to public assembly decisively advanced the civil rights cause. There is still much more work to do in this cause but situations around us, coupled with faith and courage depends on our response to the Spirit.
Each of the texts today, which offer us the heart of Lent, presents a moment of critical change or decision that is powerfully used by God. We, as people of faith cannot become complacent in our relationship with God. For just when we think we have it all figured out, God comes to us in some unexpected way in one of those “thin places” that surprises us and causes us to keep awake spiritually. God likes to bring us to crossroads moments of choice and change, both for our own transformation and for the transformation of our communities and institutions.
For example, out of the blue, the prophet Jeremiah presented a fundamental change in how the Israelites were to understand their covenant with God. No longer was it to be seen as distant from them. The covenant was to be as close as the beating of their hearts. The law would not simply be carved on tablets of stone; it would be written within them. There would be an intimate and personal bond between the people and God. In the midst of war’s chaos and the pain of the Babylonian captivity, come words of hope. Jeremiah had been predicting dire consequences for years for the choices of the people. They had grown complacent and no longer placed their trust in God. Their faithlessness would surly result in God’s severest discipline. He had warned the nation to mend its ways and to return to the Lord. He called them to repent.
And before long, the things Jeremiah spoke of began to happen and in the midst of their despair, God told Jeremiah to set aside the words of judgment and condemnation and proclaim a message of hope. His message in the text today is one of the most beautifully profound and totally unexpected passages in the entire Bible. This was no superficial change that Jeremiah prophesied. It was deep and permanent, offering new promises of personal wholeness and joy. Yet, there were still some who were not quite ready to receive and participate in God’s new ways. Some resisted his God-given message of truth. More than five centuries would pass before Jeremiah’s vision of a new covenant would finally become a reality in Jesus.
Yet, the complete fulfillment of this promise has not yet happened. And as we await the complete fulfillment of the new covenant in Christ’s return, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews shares a unique perspective on Christ’s role in our lives. Our focus is to be on God’s Son Jesus Christ, who knows who we are and what we need, and through it all loves us dearly. The text tells us plainly that Jesus is the one we need. He is the “pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” He is our High Priest, who through his suffering and powerful praying connects us anew to God. The answer to our searching is not found in passing fads or in the latest self-help trends. Our response, our only choice is to turn to Christ, the One appointed by God to be the source of our eternal salvation. He is the one who offers life to all people.
Like the other texts for today, the story of the Greeks who seek Jesus in the Gospel passage is one that brings moments of choice and change as part of a sequence of truly amazing events in Jesus’ life. In the previous chapter of John, onlookers are absolutely astonished by the raising of Lazarus from the tomb. Judas becomes upset when Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with costly perfume. The following day a great throng welcomes Jesus with palm branches as he enters Jerusalem. During the Passover festival, some Greeks approach Philip and ask if they might visit Jesus with the possible intention of following him. When Philip and Andrew ask Jesus if he wants to see these Gentiles, outsiders, they may have anticipated a simple answer to their question from Jesus who was always one to teach whenever an opportunity arose.
Instead, sensing the importance of this moment through the Holy Spirit, Jesus discerns that his “hour,” has come. Things are starting to happen to produce the decisive confrontation that will lead to his being lifted up to God. And as Philip and Andrew listen to this shocking message from Jesus we can just image them asking, “Do you mean to say, Jesus, it is by choosing to give our lives away that we save them; by generously spending ourselves that we find life’s riches? Jesus is asking them to let go of their worldly identity and allow it to die. In doing so, we let go of the labels that have defined us: Jew or Greek, male or female, young or old.
What characterizes the people of the new covenant is their following of this One who must die and their own losing of life in order to find it. He is asking them and us, to declare our faithfulness and take on a new common identity as a servant of Christ, those who define their lives not by any reality of this world, but by the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Christ, who has given all he is and demands all that we are, insists on making all people God’s own.
As Jesus Christ entered this world, like a seed being planted, the power of salvation came among us. Jesus brought to earth the love that would transform us into the people of God. And as he was lifted up-on the cross and in his resurrection-we are able to enter into those “thin places” the presence of God and be lifted up as well. But we do so as a new people because of God’s amazing love. People that show forth Jesus’ love to the world. There comes for each of us, as there did for Jesus, critical turning points—moments of choice and change—when much depends on our response to the Spirit. For our sake or for others we need to embrace “our hour” relying on God, who sustains us.