April 9, 2000

Pastor David G. Mullen

John 12:20-33

Sir, we would like to meet Jesus! Really, that’s what church is for! Oh sure, in some ways, we gather here out of habit and duty. We know that this is what we’re supposed to do, and that even more, this is somehow good for us in the practice of our daily lives, but what the human soul really longs for is God. We can neither be fully human, nor have real peace, unless and until we are in conscious contact with God.

Sir, we would like to meet Jesus! Yet in the last decades of the 20^th century both pastors and people sidelined the mission of the church for the sake of various programs of social action, self-improvement projects, and moral agendas. This is not to say that trying to change the world or help people live better lives is not a worthy enterprise. It is. But it's not the most imporant.

Parallel with the sidelining of mission was the change in the pastor’s role: from being a leader formed by deep study, prayer, and sacramental spirituality to a combination congregational promoter, parish administrator, in-house chaplain, resident moralist, therapist, and yes, even social director. Even the room where the pastor spends his time in the church building was changed in most churches from "study" to "office". In other words, churches became religious clubhouses, very busy, making much ado, it often seemed, about nothing. (I checked my door this morning. We're doing something right here--it says, "Pastor's Study"!!)

But now churches all over America, including ours, are rethinking what we are about. Why? Call it natural and logical consequences. We’ve tried living our way. We’ve tried everything in our churches and nation except God and the result has been disaster. But now, it is beginning to look like both pastors and people are hurting enough to seek God again. Churches who see their mission as connecting people with Christ are thriving, vital centers of life and love because God blesses such mission. It is, after all, the mission Christ gave us and it meets deep human needs, not just surface stuff.

Sir, we would like to meet Jesus! Intern Pastor Frank showed me a remarkable piece of writing this week, right to the point of what I’m saying. A wise priest wrote of the ordained ministry, "Though there are problems in life for the solution of which people might well consult a minister of religion, that is the least of his "uses" to his flock. More truly the minister is one to whom his people come when they have come face to face with the unsolvable, those moments when they meet with the limits of creaturely power. At such moments, people have the need to draw near to one who, while able like others to swim in the waters of life and stay afloat in them, is not averse to drown… in them, willing and able to be overcome."

That’s great baptismal language and it’s also the truth. I confess that as a clergyman it is very tempting to adopt the attitude that my role is run around and try to fix all of you, and fix everything about this congregation, but that would be pure arrogance and utter folly. Sure, there is plenty that needs fixing, but what I have come to believe from the bottom of my heart, is this: no person and no church really changes, that is to say, finds the new life of Christ, without first hitting some kind of bottom, without first doing exactly what Jesus said in answer to those who came seeking him.

Jesus said, I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life.

What does that mean? Simply this: if you want helpful hints for living, read Ann Landers, visit your therapist, or call the Psychic Hotline. But if you want a new life, transformation, and joy, the you’re going to need to get real–with yourself and God. For truth is, when we are having deep and persistent problems with personal life or congregational life, our chief problem is God. Or rather, I should say, the lack of God. We cannot keep our old ways, our lives with all our demands and urges and desires and at the same time have what, deep inside, we want most: God.

I’m afraid it takes a Cross. I mean it takes what we hesitate to experience. It takes prayer and commitment to our mission. It takes lifting our eyes away from ourselves to the need of others. It means the struggle to give up self-will. It takes hitting bottom personally and congregationally, being humbled down to that place where we finally come to see that we don’t have the power to save ourselves or fix the world. It takes seeking nothing other than God and God’s will among to be done among us poor sinners.

Sir, we would like to meet Jesus! Dear people, church is and ought to be about ultimate things, things that really matter. Pastors and churches need to be clear about the primary mission to bring seekers to Jesus and introduce them to ways of God. That’s really what the Catechumenate is all about: long term, intentional modeling of Christ in Word, Sacrament, and human mentoring presence. The Catechumenate assumes, as the whole Church ought to insist, that both church members and leaders know what it means to be brought into the presence of the living God through Jesus Christ.

What this means for us as people of God, as a congregation, is the goal of being so real about our broken humanity and need for the saving power of God, that we in fact become what I would call transparent to God. It’s like this window of Christ praying in Gethsemane. If someone put plywood behind it so that the sunlight could not shine through, we’d see nothing of Jesus in it, like it is a night with no light shining on it. When we are honest about our sin and need and willing to let God be God, then we become unblocked, transparent, people begin to see Christ, through us and our liturgical assemblies.

Sir, we would like to meet Jesus! The ancient church knew all about this, and I believe we are coming to appreciate this deeper spirituality again in our day. A story from the Desert Fathers: "Three monks used to go and visit (the famous holy man) blessed Anthony every year. Two of them discussed their thoughts and the salvation of their souls with him, but the third always remained silent and did not ask him anything. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him, ‘You often come here to see me, but you never ask my anything,’ and the other replied, ‘It is enough to see you, Father.’"

Sir, we would like to meet Jesus!. Our mission, our reason for existence, is to be like Father Anthony, an icon of Christ, a great and wonderful window through which people see Jesus and thus find God, and love for their the rest of their lives. Amen.