Year B
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 119:9-16
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dutch photographer and designer Bas Uterwijk\u2026\u00a0 has found a new way to use artificial intelligence\u2026\u00a0 and specialized software which uses what’s called machine learning\u2026\u00a0 to create a new art form\u2026\u00a0 and the process is easy to understand\u2026\u00a0 it compiles everything that’s known about a person\u2026\u00a0 where and when they lived\u2026\u00a0 details of their lives that may include physical descriptions\u2026\u00a0 the geography and climate in which they lived\u2026\u00a0 available diet\u2026\u00a0 whatever’s available\u2026\u00a0 and it creates an image that’s in many ways more accurate\u2026\u00a0 than the technical information about them alone can possibly draw\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when it comes to the image of Jesus on our bulletin cover\u2026 the result is striking\u2026 although the Bible offers no clues as to Jesus’ physical appearance\u2026 it does mention that he didn’t stand out from the crowd\u2026 in fact\u2026 when he was betrayed\u2026 he had to be picked out of a group of ten other men\u2026 Mary Magdalene mistook him for the gardener\u2026 and the two disciples on the Emmaus Road didn’t even recognize him\u2026 so beginning with his birthplace in Bethlehem\u2026 in the Middle East\u2026 the software concluded that Jesus would exhibit the same darker skin tones\u2026 and the more conspicuous facial features as the inhabitants of that region\u2026 now the artist who created this image doesn’t claim that it is Jesus\u2026 but considering that the tens of thousands of images with which we’re familiar come out of a western perspective\u2026 of a white man with straight hair\u2026 it’s understandable why this image might be disconcerting\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jewish Greeks\u2026 who came to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover\u2026 went to Philip and said\u2026 Sir\u2026 we wish to see Jesus<\/em>\u2026 so again\u2026 the man on the cover is not the man they would have seen\u2026 if indeed Philip and Andrew actually brought them to see Jesus\u2026 but what might it mean to see\u2026 Jesus\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s a 1995 song by Joan Osborne called\u2026 One Of Us\u2026 in which she asks some of these questions\u2026 if God had a face\u2026 what would it look like\u2026 and would you want to see\u2026 if seeing meant that you would have to believe\u2026 ] and if God had a name\u2026 what would it be\u2026 and would you call it to his face\u2026 if you were faced with Him in all His glory\u2026 ] and what would you ask\u2026 if you had just one question\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would these Greeks have asked Jesus\u2026 the text doesn’t say\u2026 but we can imagine that they were part of the crowds\u2026 and saw Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem\u2026 we can imagine that they sought him out because word about him had spread\u2026 stories about his teachings\u2026 the call to put God over Empire\u2026 his love of the outcast and sinner\u2026 and the miracles\u2026 the miracles drew people from all over\u2026 people seeking healing from dis-ease and infirmity\u2026 and people hoping he could undo the death of their brother\u2026 or children\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if the image on the cover calls into question some of our assumptions about how Jesus looked\u2026 I wonder how this understanding calls into question some of our assumptions about the kind of life into which we are called\u2026 and what we wish to see\u2026 or not\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And when Philip and Andrew went to tell Jesus about these Greeks\u2026 Jesus didn’t ask what they wanted\u2026 he didn’t say\u2026 Please bring them to me<\/em>\u2026 ] while there seems to be a disconnect between Philip and Andrew conveying the request in one breath\u2026 and what Jesus says in the next\u2026 while there seems to be a disconnect\u2026 there’s no break in the text\u2026 this particular request from non-Israelites seems to have\u2026 in some way\u2026 brought home to Jesus\u2026 the reality of his impending death\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there may be a clue as to why\u2026 a clue in the occasional disconnect between how the text is translated\u2026 and what the original words meant to those who wrote the Gospels\u2026 now many of you will remember the story from John 3:1\u2026 about how Nicodemus\u2026 a leader of the Jews came to Jesus by night\u2026 and said to him\u2026 Rabbi\u2026 we know that you are a teacher who has come from God\u2026 for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God\u2026 <\/em>and when Jesus answers him he says\u2026 Very truly I tell you\u2026 no one can <\/em>see<\/em> the kingdom of God without being born from above… no one can <\/em>see<\/em>\u2026 and the Greeks too said\u2026 we wish to <\/em>see<\/em> Jesus<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Greek\u2026 the seeing of the kingdom of God\u2026 that Jesus describes to Nicodemus\u2026 and the seeing that the Greeks asked for… are the same word\u2026 but it doesn’t mean to simply look upon\u2026 it means to become acquainted with by experience\u2026 to become a partaker of\u2026 to know absolutely\u2026 in other words\u2026 the Greeks wanted to enter into Jesus’ revelation\u2026 they sought the full revelation of the cross\u2026 divine and human love entering into and transforming death\u2026 and that these non-Israelites came asking to enter Jesus’ revelation\u2026 seems to precipitate Jesus’ realization that the hour had come for him to be glorified\u2026 and that he will draw all people to himself\u2026 and no one will be left out\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n As John Shea writes\u2026 an agricultural image provides the key\u2026 a single grain of wheat enters the ground\u2026 and dies\u2026 in order to grow into much fruit\u2026 the revelation will entail the death of Jesus\u2026 the Jewish individual\u2026 but his death is not construed as loss\u2026 but instead\u2026 it’s seen as the beginning of a transformative process that will yield greater results than individual life\u2026 Jesus will become more through death… not less… and an aspect of this more… is greater availability\u2026 God’s descent from boundlessness into human form\u2026 is bookended by Jesus’ ascent back into omnipresence\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And it’s clear in our readings from both Hebrews and the Gospel\u2026 that Jesus doesn’t glorify himself\u2026 the verb is a passive verb\u2026 we hear phrases like\u2026 Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest… <\/em>and\u2026 having been made perfect<\/em>… he is acted upon by an outside force\u2026 he is gloriFIED\u2026 and it is for this reason\u2026 that he has come to this hour\u2026 that he asks God to glorify God’s name\u2026 and the voice from heaven said\u2026 I have glorified it\u2026 and I will glorify it again\u2026 <\/em> and the dying seed\u2026 is an indication of this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The promise in Jeremiah’s prophecy is the crowning covenant of all\u2026 because in it God\u2026 says that God’s law will move from outside of us\u2026 to inside of us… that God will write God’s law on our hearts\u2026 and when God’s law is as close to us as our breath\u2026 our actions are always Godly\u2026 and the seed which dies\u2026 the grain of wheat which falls into the earth and dies\u2026 is Christ\u2026 Christ is the seed written on our heart\u2026 our heart is the soil\u2026 but this seed isn’t going to grow in a soil that’s called fear\u2026 and we can let go of that fear since God says\u2026 I will forgive their iniquity\u2026 and remember their sin no more\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something larger is happening in these texts\u2026 they intersect with us in immediate and personal ways\u2026 our vocations may be different\u2026 but our salvation is bound to Jesus in how it glorifies the One who was able to save him from death\u2026 obedience and salvation are aligned\u2026 and are unfolding in our lives\u2026 and while discipleship is not a solitary journey\u2026 there are also seeds within each one of us\u2026 which constrain us\u2026 make us shortsighted\u2026 selfish\u2026 prejudiced\u2026 and which must eventually die\u2026 and when the right conditions exist\u2026 they too let go of the fear of losing individual selfhood\u2026 and give up their individuality so they can bear much fruit\u2026 exhaling into boundlessness\u2026 and glorifying God\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year B Jeremiah 31:31-34 Psalm 119:9-16 Hebrews 5:5-10 John 12:20-33 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 Dutch photographer and designer Bas Uterwijk\u2026\u00a0 has found a new way to use artificial intelligence\u2026\u00a0 and specialized software which uses what’s called machine learning\u2026\u00a0 to create a new art form\u2026\u00a0 and the process is easy to understand\u2026\u00a0 it compiles everything that’s known about a person\u2026\u00a0 where and when they lived\u2026\u00a0 details of their lives that may include physical descriptions\u2026\u00a0 the geography and climate in which they lived\u2026\u00a0 available diet\u2026\u00a0 whatever’s available\u2026\u00a0 and it creates an image that’s in many ways more accurate\u2026\u00a0 than the technical information about them alone can possibly draw\u2026 And when it comes to the image of Jesus on our bulletin cover\u2026 the result is striking\u2026 although the Bible offers no clues as to Jesus’ physical appearance\u2026 it does mention that he didn’t stand out from the crowd\u2026 in fact\u2026 when he was betrayed\u2026 he had to be picked out of a group of ten other men\u2026 Mary Magdalene mistook him for the gardener\u2026 and the two disciples on the Emmaus Road didn’t even recognize him\u2026 so beginning with his birthplace in Bethlehem\u2026 in the Middle East\u2026 the software concluded that Jesus would exhibit the same darker skin tones\u2026 and the more conspicuous facial features as the inhabitants of that region\u2026 now the artist who created this image doesn’t claim that it is Jesus\u2026 but considering that the tens of thousands of images with which we’re familiar come out of a western perspective\u2026 of a white man with straight hair\u2026 it’s understandable why this image might be disconcerting\u2026 Jewish Greeks\u2026 who came to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover\u2026 went to Philip and said\u2026 Sir\u2026 we wish to see Jesus\u2026 so again\u2026 the man on the cover is not the man they would have seen\u2026 if indeed Philip and Andrew actually brought them to see Jesus\u2026 but what might it mean to see\u2026 Jesus\u2026 There’s a 1995 song by Joan Osborne called\u2026 One Of Us\u2026 in which she asks some of these questions\u2026 if God had a face\u2026 what would it look like\u2026 and would you want to see\u2026 if seeing meant that you would have to believe\u2026 ] and if God had a name\u2026 what would it be\u2026 and would you call it to his face\u2026 if you were faced with Him in all His glory\u2026 ] and what would you ask\u2026 if you had just one question\u2026 What would these Greeks have asked Jesus\u2026 the text doesn’t say\u2026 but we can imagine that they were part of the crowds\u2026 and saw Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem\u2026 we can imagine that they sought him out because word about him had spread\u2026 stories about his teachings\u2026 the call to put God over Empire\u2026 his love of the outcast and sinner\u2026 and the miracles\u2026 the miracles drew people from all over\u2026 people seeking healing from dis-ease and infirmity\u2026 and people hoping he could undo the death of their brother\u2026 or children\u2026 And if the image on the cover calls into question some of our assumptions about how Jesus looked\u2026 I wonder how this understanding calls into question some of our assumptions about the kind of life into which we are called\u2026 and what we wish to see\u2026 or not\u2026 And when Philip and Andrew went to tell Jesus about these Greeks\u2026 Jesus didn’t ask what they wanted\u2026 he didn’t say\u2026 Please bring them to me\u2026 ] while there seems to be a disconnect between Philip and Andrew conveying the request in one breath\u2026 and what Jesus says in the next\u2026 while there seems to be a disconnect\u2026 there’s no break in the text\u2026 this particular request from non-Israelites seems to have\u2026 in some way\u2026 brought home to Jesus\u2026 the reality of his impending death\u2026 But there may be a clue as to why\u2026 a clue in the occasional disconnect between how the text is translated\u2026 and what the original words meant to those who wrote the Gospels\u2026 now many of you will remember the story from John 3:1\u2026 about how Nicodemus\u2026 a leader of the Jews came to Jesus by night\u2026 and said to him\u2026 Rabbi\u2026 we know that you are a teacher who has come from God\u2026 for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God\u2026 and when Jesus answers him he says\u2026 Very truly I tell you\u2026 no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above… no one can see\u2026 and the Greeks too said\u2026 we wish to see Jesus\u2026 In the Greek\u2026 the seeing of the kingdom of God\u2026 that Jesus describes to Nicodemus\u2026 and the seeing that the Greeks asked for… are the same word\u2026 but it doesn’t mean to simply look upon\u2026 it means to become acquainted with by experience\u2026 to become a partaker of\u2026 to know absolutely\u2026 in other words\u2026 the Greeks wanted to enter into Jesus’ revelation\u2026 they sought the full revelation of the cross\u2026 divine and human love entering into and transforming death\u2026 and that these non-Israelites came asking to enter Jesus’ revelation\u2026 seems to precipitate Jesus’ realization that the hour had come for him to be glorified\u2026 and that he will draw all people to himself\u2026 and no one will be left out\u2026 As John Shea writes\u2026 an agricultural image provides the key\u2026 a single grain of wheat enters the ground\u2026 and dies\u2026 in order to grow into much fruit\u2026 the revelation will entail the death of Jesus\u2026 the Jewish individual\u2026 but his death is not construed as loss\u2026 but instead\u2026 it’s seen as the beginning of a transformative process that will yield greater results than individual life\u2026 Jesus will become more through death… not less… and an aspect of this more… is greater availability\u2026 God’s descent from boundlessness into human form\u2026 is bookended by Jesus’ ascent back into omnipresence\u2026 And it’s clear in our readings from both Hebrews and the Gospel\u2026 that 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