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This is why I have come…

John 12:27-36

March 3, 2003

Jesus Speaks about His Death

²⁷“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” ³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people^£ to myself.” ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. ³⁴The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah^£ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” ³⁵Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. ³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

"Now my soul is troubled…"  says Jesus.  It's at some point during his final week, what we now call "Holy Week."  He's talking again about what we've been talking about for the last month:  the passion, pain, suffering and death that he must endure.  He is troubled, as we see in so many places in the gospels, troubled by the sinful condition of the world and what that condition is compelling him to do.

What would you do under such strain?

A young man entered a very strict monastic order. It was so strict that members were permitted to speak only two words per year to the abbot. At the end of year one the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke his two words, "bad food." At the end of the second year the young man appeared before the abbot and spoke two more words, "hard bed". At the end of year three he came to the abbot and spoke his last two words, "I quit." The abbot responded, "Well its about time. Complain, complain, complain that’s all you’ve done since you came here."[1]

Each of us responds differently to the struggles, the strains and the hardship of our lives.

Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.” says Jesus.  He is troubled, he is disturbed by what lays ahead of him, but his situation gives him a deeper insight.  He doesn't complain and he doesn't run.  He is simply reminded of why he has come to this realm, down from the perfection and timelessness of eternity.  He has a purpose, a mission in mind.  And he gives a clear indication as to that mission in the famous passage from John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

Troubled as he is, disturbed as he is by the predicament he finds himself and the world caught up in, he has focused his entire being on reaching out to his father's creation in love and for their salvation.

All during Lent, we have said that we have several ways in which to commemorate the season.  We remember Christ's passion and draw nearer to the experience of the Cross and by so doing, draw nearer as well to the experience of Easter morning.  We have been focusing on the practices of learning and teaching, repentance, and prayer during the weeks of Lent. 

This week brings us to the practice which brought Jesus to this world in the first place, which by doing, ourselves, we are actually repeating, emulating and reliving the very life of Christ.  And that is the practice of Christian Outreach. 

Last summer, you spent quite a bit of time, about six weeks, listening to my preaching on outreach.  Then we called it Evangelism and focused on various aspects of this big word. 

Just a handful of weeks ago, the AEUNA sponsored, and I helped plan a conference in our sister churches in Belmont and Watertown, Massachusetts regarding outreach and evangelism. 

As Lent begins to wind down, I want to spend a moment or two once again and focus in on what Jesus himself is concerned about as he draws nearer to the Cross.

As we do this, perhaps the thought comes again to mind, "What is Evangelism?  What is meant by Outreach?  What was really in Jesus' mind as he was faced with the troubling reality of the cross and his own crucifixion?"

For Jesus outreach is 1. Helping and Christian Service 2. Evangelism and telling the Good News 3. believe it or not, once again, Prayer.

I. Prayer

Lets start with prayer. 

Prayer for outreach isn't just that prayer that we do to give thanks to God and to praise God for all the blessings in our lives. 

Prayer for outreach isn't just the prayer we do when we are faced with our own troubles and suffering and need God's help. 

Prayer for outreach isn't necessarily that hopeful, goal oriented prayer we described last week and called Lenten prayer. 

Prayer for outreach isn't just what we do in our daily devotions or in our simple regular spiritual practices that keep us in communion and connection with God, its not just the vertical aspect of prayer which makes it a prayer for outreach.

Prayer for outreach is a horizontal, person for person, and neighbor oriented prayer which takes the neighbors', the friends' and even the enemies' plight to heart and to God.

The German theologian and martyr for his faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer called this type of prayer by its technical, theological term: intercession or intercessory prayer.  He said, "Intercession means no more than to bring our brother or sister into the presence of God, to see him or her under the cross of Jesus as a poor human being and sinner in need of grace… I can no longer condemn or hate a brother (or sister) for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me."[2]  

Jesus himself says, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,"[3]  and also "bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."[4]

As Jesus was approaching the cross, his mind and his thoughts were on others, even as he wept for himself and was troubled for what he was to endure, he cried for Jerusalem[5] and he instructed his disciples to pray for their enemies, those who persecuted them and abused them.

Our prayer list is just such tool, an opportunity to reach out in prayer for the welfare and good of others.  Perhaps you have participated in prayer for others such as we have done here even today.  Have you ever prayed for those whom you hated?  Have you ever prayed for people whom you think to be wrong, awful or who have made you feel uncomfortable?  This is what Jesus is doing even as he faces his own death at the hands of such people.

II. Helping and Serving Outreach

But that wasn't enough for Jesus, Jesus also wanted his followers to actually ease the suffering of others and to heal their pain.

Perhaps you have heard of Jesus' parable in which he teaches that in order to be worthy of heaven, one must reach out to all those who are suffering, giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, offering welcome to the stranger, clothing to the naked and personal care to the imprisoned and the sick.[6]

There are many who have taken this type of outreach quite seriously.

Henry Dunant was born to wealthy parents in Switzerland in the early 1800's. A deeply compassionate and faithful man, he devoted considerable time assisting and encouraging young people, especially the poor. At about eighteen years of age, he founded a Young Men's Christian Union.

In 1859, at the age of 30, Dunant was traveling in northern Italy. He had only one object in view--to get the support of the Emperor of France for a business project. But the Emperor, Napoleon III, was busy at war with Austrians in Northern Italy.

Arriving on the day of the Battle of Solferino, Dunant could not believe what he saw. That day the French victory over the Austrians left 40,000 dead, dying and wounded scattered over a bloody battlefield.

Dunant never did find the Emperor, but what he did see changed him and the world forever. He joined in the work of relief.  On that day, he sent his own coach to bring supplies, and wrote to his friends in Switzerland for aid. He labored for three days at this horrible task. Then he returned home. He began writing. He made an appeal against the terrifying inhumanity he had witnessed. He hoped he could influence people to prevent or to reduce the suffering of soldiers and others affected by war. The result of his writings was a book: A Memory of Solferino (Un Souvenir de Solferino), printed in Geneva in October 1862. This famous book, mailed by the author to influential people throughout Europe, motivated them beyond all expectation.

In the last chapter of his book he made some proposals on make-shift hospitals, training volunteers, and the necessity for international cooperation. Finally, five years later, sixteen nations created a plan, modeled on Dunant's proposals, acknowledging the neutrality of medical personnel in times of hostility. For their banner and symbol they chose a white flag with a red cross. And so the Red Cross was born![7]

At a time such as we are in now, the Red Cross is busy.  Throughout the world and also in Iraq.  Visiting the prisoners of war on both sides of the conflict.  Hoping to bring easing to the suffering of any whose lives have been upset.  All because one man was faced by the suffering of complete strangers, mostly enemies of his own country, and couldn't turn away, but instead was motivated to Christian outreach.

What about the soldiers?  Have you ever felt like you'd like to do something to reach out to them?  If so it seems you are not alone.  This week I checked.  There are quite a few ways that you can actually write to American soldiers on the front lines in Iraq.  The most effective way is if you have family or connections to any in particular.  But even if you don't I found almost a dozen different web sites which allow you to write directly to troops on the front lines.  Can you think of a better way to reach out and say thanks to a young man or woman, ready to sacrifice his or her life for you, for me and for our country?  Can you think of a better outreach to such a person, short of reaching out and bringing her or him straight home?  If you want to write to soldiers in this way, come talk to me after church, during the coffee hour, or just get on our church website and find this sermon, on that page I’ll install all the links to the dozen or so sites that help you do this.

But we can reach out in so many ways.  The food collection we've been doing since before Lent began, the land mines in Armenia project which I just spoke about earlier, and hundreds of other opportunities organized and presented by dozens of Christian and other organizations to ease the suffering of others around the world.

III. Evangelism

There is one more type of outreach in which Jesus engages, even as he draws nearer to the cross.  This is the kind of outreach that wants to tell other people about God in heaven and about God's love for all the world.  Its kind of outreach, which is so often called Evangelism or spreading the Good News, that the simple little passage from John 3:16 which I quoted earlier, does so quickly and eloquently, : “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 

Jesus gave his life for this type of outreach, for evangelism, for giving this bit of good news.  His death was both a by-product of this evangelical effort, he was killed because people could not bear him and his message about God, and an essential component of that good news: he died, but he also was resurrected, defeating death itself, and giving all humanity a way to that victory.

Evangelism, outreach and spreading the good news of God's nature, love and kingdom, isn't just talking and preaching, its also putting oneself on the line as Jesus himself did and allowing God's grace to work through the miracle of death, despair and resurrection.

Mary Reed was a missionary in India, In her travels as a missionary, she visited a colony of people struck by leprosy and was deeply moved by their plight. Some years later, as a result of her work in that dangerous community, Mary herself contracted leprosy.  Rather than returning to the USA, the land of her birth, to search for some comfort or a cure for her disease, she returned to India and went back to work among people with leprosy. She believed that her affliction was a divine command to work among the lepers as an evangelist and a missionary. Now however she was to tell them that she knew firsthand their pain and trauma. She became head of the community she had visited so long before, and in the years following many were given the Good News of Christ and a vibrant church was established.  Mary Reed retired at the age of eighty-four.  She never returned to America, but died there among the people she loved so much, after many years of faithful teaching healing and prayer.[8]

For this woman, preaching and telling people about the Good News of God's love wasn't just lip service and an empty word here or there.  It was real outreach, that also exacted its own price on her own life.  Preaching, speaking out, doing Evangelism and spreading the news of Christ  and God's love is rarely easy, popular or harmless for the evangelist.  Yet it is a vital component of Christian outreach.

Telling people about Jesus alone is not Christian outreach.  Praying for people alone, even people you dislike or even hate  is not Christian outreach.  Helping people through their pain, suffering and hardship is not Christian outreach.  All of these thing together are Christian outreach.  These are the things upon which Jesus was focused as he approached the cross. 

As we come closer and closer to Jesus' time of the Cross, may we too not avert our eyes and run the other way, complain or become lost in our own suffering.  Let us remember that even suffering can be redeemed, that at such a time in his life, Jesus focused on something that transcended his suffering and had roots in the eternal places, reaching out and touching those around him with the love and Good News of God above…

Amen

Ways to reach the troops by mail and e-mail:

http://www.usocares.org/home.htm

http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html

http://www.operationuplink.org/

http://anyservicemember.org

http://www.OperationDearAbby.net

More links:

http://www.opsos.org/