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The 5th Sunday in Lent (B) Salmon are amazing fish. As most of you probably know, they are born in a river or stream – and then after growing to a certain stage they swim out to the ocean where they will live (depending upon their particular species) for one to five years. During their time in the ocean they will travel thousands of miles. But then, somehow, at a certain stage of their life salmon have an overpowering instinct to swim back to the place of their birth. They will expend almost all of their energy and do whatever it takes to return to their natal stream – swimming against strong river currents, navigating through rocky rapids and around dams, and even leaping up waterfalls. When they finally arrive at their destination, the female salmon with sweeping movements of her tail will dig out a gravel nest, called a redd, and deposit her eggs – and the male will then fertilize them. And then within a week or two, their mission completed, the salmon DIE. They all DIE – every last one of them! Eventually, however, the eggs that they have spawned will hatch – and thus the life cycle of the salmon will continue. But it is fascinating to note that it is only through DYING that there is new life among the salmon! It seems to me that this is perhaps very similar to what happening in today’s gospel. Our reading is immediately after John’s account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Great crowds had been waving palms and shouting “Hosanna!” and acclaiming him to be their king. One would think that Jesus by this time would be filled with pride and satisfaction over the apparent success of his ministry – that people were finally realizing who and what he was. But instead 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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn. 12:23-25) Jesus knew that the purpose of his ministry was not to become “successful”. He knew that it was NOT about him – and that the only “glory” that mattered was serving God and giving his life for others. Jesus knew that he had come to Jerusalem in order to DIE – so that by his death others could experience God’s love and eternal life. But as far as his own ambitions or even his own life was concerned, Jesus knew that it was NOT about him! Like the salmon, Jesus knew that his ultimate purpose and reason for being was not to preserve his life, but rather to give away his life for the sake of others. It was by doing this that he glorified God. As it was for Jesus, so it should be for all of us as his disciples. Perhaps one of the most important aspects of our faith is remembering that IT IS NOT ABOUT US! It is not about our success or glorification or even our “salvation”! It is NOT about us! I know that this sounds so simple, and yet it is so “counter cultural” and utterly opposed to our instincts and the ways and values of the world we live in! During the past couple of weeks, I have been reading a book called Giving to God by Mark Allan Powell, a professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He was one of Carol’s favorite professors when she was a student there, and he will also be the featured speaker at our Montana Synod Assembly and Theological Conference in Great Falls next month. In his book, Powell tells about a time when he served as a pastor in a congregation – and people wanted him to visit all of the “inactive members” and see if he could get some of them to come back to church. So he came up with a list of fifty families and visited one family each week for a year. During his visits Powell heard a multitude of reasons as to why people had quit coming to church. As he writes: “Some of the inactive members had complaints about liturgy or about church politics or about personal conflicts within the congregation. Some of them thought the church had gotten too liberal, or that it wasn’t contemporary enough, or that the services were boring, or that the programs we offered didn’t meet their needs.” (Giving to God, pg. 19) Powell goes to write that he tried to find a common denominator to all of these reasons, and that eventually he did. As he put it, all of the people told him in one way or another that they had quit coming to church because they weren’t “getting out of it” whatever it was that they thought they should get out of it. In other words, they had quit coming because it wasn’t meeting their “needs”. (Does any of this sound familiar?) Powell then writes: “This surprised me because when I was a child and my family went to church on Sunday morning, my mother used to tell us, “We are going to worship God.” I’m not sure if it even occurred to me that I was supposed to get anything out of it. Certainly, that wasn’t the reason we went. I didn’t know very much about church or about what it all meant, but even at a very young age I knew that it wasn’t about me – at least, it wasn’t all about me. These people didn’t come from all over town Sunday after Sunday just to get together and meet my needs. No. They came to worship God.” (Giving to God, pg. 20) Powell goes on to write that the “irony” he has come to discover is that when we quit focusing on ourselves and focus instead upon worshiping (and serving) the God who is so good to us, that is when one of our deepest needs is met. As he puts it, worship, almost by definition, is the opposite of self-centeredness. When we worship God, we make God (rather than ourselves) the center of our devotion. Doing this always involves some element of self-denial or sacrifice, giving up something that we value, giving up attention to our wants and our needs in order to focus on God. But (here’s the irony!), when we give up focusing upon ourselves – when we “DIE” to that kind of thinking, THAT is when we experience God’s eternal life! It is NOT about us! That is the central message of today’s gospel. When we “die” to ourselves, that is when we live. When we “die” to ourselves, that is also when we give life to others. And finally, when we “die” to ourselves, that is when we truly glorify God. Jesus knew that. He knew that the purpose of his life and ministry was for him to DIE. For him, his death was to be a literal one upon the cross. For us today, our “dying” may not mean that literally, but it does mean “dying” to our own wants and needs so that we can serve others and give glory to God. Jesus says; “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (Jn. 12:25) In other words, those who think that life is all about them will eventually end up with nothing – but when we are willing to give up focusing upon ourselves and instead focus upon God and serving others, we will receive ETERNAL LIFE – a peace and joy that nothing will ever be able to overcome or take away from us. Jesus says; “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.” (Jn. 12:26) “Even though you die by serving and following me,” Jesus says, “you shall always be with me – and my Father will honor you.” That is the hope and promise that we have as his people – that when we die to ourselves we shall receive God’s life – his eternal life - forever. We do not need any further reward and success. May this hope and promise – contrary though it is to the ways and values of this world – guide and sustain us during this Lenten season and throughout all our days. Yes, it is when we die that we truly begin to live! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen! -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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