AN ENGAGING GOD!  AN ENGAGING FAITH?

 The Biblical Testimony

 “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”   John 12:25

 The Proclaimed Word

I begin by asking you a simple, straightforward question.  Does your faith cause you to engage the world, or step back and be less involved with the world?  Does being a Christian mean for you to be more involved in the messy complexities of life, or less involved?  Does your faith create a sense of deeper connection with people, especially people different from you, maybe people you do not ever like, or does your faith cause you to stand apart from certain people?

 I believe this is a critical and crucial question.   I think a huge temptation in being a person of faith, a “spiritual” person if you will, is to separate ourselves; keep a safe distance from others, especially those we deem to be different or sinful. 

 Every one of us whether we are aware of it or not, is on a quest for meaning.   We want our lives to make sense; to have purpose; to feel like life is more than happenstance or accident.   I assume by your presence here this morning, that you look to God for that sense of purpose, by seeing your life as focused on a spiritual or divine point of reference.

 But how does that work for you?   When you think “spiritual” or “being Christian,” what comes to mind?    For many being Christian or “spiritual” means being linked to an invisible realm that exists beyond everyday experiences and sensibilities; that to be truly “spiritual” and “Christian” is to participate in a reality beyond the mundane reality of everyday life; to become somewhat disconnected from this world, and more engaged with a spiritual world beyond. 

 In that kind of thinking what can happen is that our striving to be “Christian” can subtly and deviously disengage us from the realities of the world, and I believe that is a problem. 

 It happens in various ways.  It can be tempting to use faith, not as a way to connect with the world, but a way to disengage and separate from the world.  I think attitudes like religious self-righteousness, arrogance or judgmentalism are backhanded ways we use faith to disengage from real people and disconnect from real situations.  I think offering simplistic answers to complex personal situations is a convenient way to disengage, by not taking a person’s real situation seriously.   Saying that the only thing that really matters is the status of a person’s soul before God can be a clever way to avoid and minimize real human suffering and need.    

 But what we are presented with in today’s gospel is a very different thing.  We see God in Jesus Christ not disengaging from the world, but engaging the world – in fact plunging to the very deepest and darkest depths of life. 

 Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.   Very truly, I tell you, 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.”   (12:23-24)

 When we speak of glorifying, we usually think of honoring, revering, praising, venerating, or deifying.  But that is not the case here.  Jesus turns everything upside down and stands everything on its head.    When Jesus speaks of his own glorification, he speaks of his death, not life.  We glorify athletes, movie stars, rock stars and otherwise famous people.  We glorify ourselves by being winners and asserting ourselves.  We don’t make a habit of glorifying people who knowingly walk into an ambush and are strung up to die.  We label them foolish or deluded!

Jesus goes on, “Those who love their life will lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  (12:25) Again, Jesus speaks of death.  He speaks of a death that leads to life and a life that leads to death.   When we speak of loving our lives, we usually speak of creating security for ourselves, safe-guarding, escaping, protecting.  When Jesus speaks of loving his life he paradoxically talks about losing it, giving it, and sacrificing it.

 Finally the passage concludes with, “’And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (and John adds the editorial comment)  “He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.”

 John had to add the editorial comment so people didn’t misunderstand.  Jesus’ reference to being “lifted up” was not a spiritual journey to heaven, but his crucifixion on the cross; a deeper participation in life and death.   

  I believe this passage lays out two critical things in terms of what it means to be “Christian” and live out our faith; to be a “spiritual” person.    

 First, what we see in this astounding gospel passage is not a God who is removed from the world, but a God who fully engages the world to its deepest and darkest depths.   

- Instead of requiring us to take the initiative and find our way to God, God takes the initiative finds his way to us – all the way to us. 

            - Instead of making us ascend to him through our own efforts of piety, prayer, meditation, spiritual disciplines, mystical experiences, moral living, or whatever, God seeks us in Jesus Christ in all of our humanity, brokenness and sin. 

 - Instead of demanding that we climb up some ladder toward heaven away from the world, trying to make ourselves worthy and deserving of God’s love, God in Jesus Christ takes a gigantic plunge, like jumping off a thousand foot cliff, plummeting to the depths of the sinful and broken human condition to communicate the most critical truth of the Christian faith that, “We are forgiven and lavished with the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  

 Over and over in his teachings Jesus paints shocking and incredible pictures of a down-to-earth God who can only be described moving ever deeper into the world, not separating from it.

   - God is the shepherd who risks the dangers of the wilderness to find the one lost sheep.

- God is like the woman who after losing a small coin frantically tears the house apart looking for it, and when she finds it throws a party to celebrate.

- God is like the crazy party-giver who hosted a dinner party, and when the respected invited guests would not come, he sent his servants out into the alleys and streets to bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. 

 These are astounding pictures of an upside-down engaging God who fully and completely enters the human condition; your personal human condition to bring himself to you, not transport you to him. 

 The second thing is this, and this is the clincher for us today:   Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” (vs 26)  The Christian Faith is a down-to-earth faith.  To be “spiritual” and “Christian” means to have your feet firmly planted on this earth, following Jesus by putting one foot ahead of the other, a step at a time, following Jesus into a broken world of pain and people equipped only with His cross that he promises will draw all people unto himself. 

 Right now the world is teetering with a myriad of monumental crises.  It’s time when so many crucial issues are facing humanity as a whole; a time when the future of human life on the planet earth hangs in a tenuous balance like never before.    

 The answers and solutions to the predicaments of our time are going to be complex, extraordinarily difficult and imperfect at best.  The last thing we need from religious faith is what we’ve been getting so much of, actions and rhetoric that intensify problems as they fan the flames of hatred and disdain between people; often minimize the plight of the poor, sick and oppressed on this planet; and some even dare seriously suggest of intentionally destroying the earth in order to precipitate the final coming of Christ. 

 The world needs people of faith who dare follow Jesus Christ into the world empowered and equipped with a faith that heals and reconciles and draws people to God.

 The old hymn lyrics sing, “This is my Father’s world.”  It puzzles me how we boldly worship a Creator God who we cannot see, yet so often ignore and minimize the frightening warning signs of global warming, pollution and lack of conservation which we can see?  

 Jesus said, “Just as you do it (or not do it) to the least of these who are members of my family, you do it to me.”   It baffles me how we dare worship a Lord Jesus Christ in piety and praise who we cannot see, and yet so often minimize the needs of the poor, oppressed and dying on this planet who we can see?  

 It confounds me that we can so readily worship a Jesus we cannot see who cast out demons that haunted human minds, but yet show little advocacy about the special needs of the mentally ill in our own community who we can see. 

 It bewilders me that we so easily worship a Jesus we cannot see who cured the lame and gave sight to the blind, and advocate weakly at best for the handicapped within our own community who we can see. 

 It perplexes me that we worship a Jesus we cannot see who fed 5000 hungry stomachs with bread and fish, and then show a feeble concern for the billions of starving and undernourished we can see. 

 “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”  

 I end where I began.  Does your faith cause you to engage the world, or step back and be less involved with the world? 

 We have an engaging God who plunged to the depths of darkness, death and despair to draw all people to himself.  Will we follow him into the world where he still is with an engaging faith?