SERMON : Grains.
“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.”
It is indeed a powerful image and a powerful message that Jesus preaches to his disciples and to all the curious ones, who wanted not only to see Jesus, but also to hear his words. It is indeed a powerful message to us on this Sunday in March 2021.
Today’s Gospel is about discipleship, and the cost of discipleship, faithful unselfish service, relentless hope, and a faith worth dying for.
Today is also the last Sunday of Lent, as next Sunday will be Palm Sunday and the beginning of the easter Week and our Easter celebration.
So, how timely it is to listen to this message about being a faithful disciple, following in the footsteps of Jesus as a servant, believing in truth and acting righteously, yes, even losing life and giving up life to bring new life and hope to others.
The Christian Church has a long history of faithful men and women, who risked their lives and gave their lives for their faith and for change. The Lutheran Denomination tells a proud and strong story about faithful disciples, committed reformers, courageous pastors and brave congregations. The Lutheran Church tells a compelling and important story about faith changing the church and the world, about hope changing cultures and injustices.
The past couple of Sundays I have mentioned The Danish Lutheran pastor and resistance fighter Kaj Munk, and today I would like to mention another Lutheran Pastor and German theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer is known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi Dictatorship and the genocidal persecution of the Jews during second WW. He was arrested in April 1943 by Gestapo, imprisoned and transferred to a cruel concentration camp and hanged on April 9 1945 just as the Nazi regime was collapsing.
Bonhoeffer’s life and his tragic death, because of his opposition to The Nazi Regime, have been of great influence and inspiration for many Christians. Such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement here in US, and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS ITSELF EVIL. GOD WILL NOT HOLD US GUILTLESS. NOT TO SPEAK IS TO SPEAK. NOT TO ACT IS TO ACT.
“No man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. The truth is in all places.”
At the very center of Bonhoeffers theology and faith was Christ. Christ in whom God and the world are reconciled. Bonhoeffer’s God is a suffering God and a compassionate God of presence. Bonhoeffer preached and lived that faith. Christians should not retreat from the world, but instead act within it.
Jesus did not retreat from the world. He came into the world to save the world. He became flesh and took upon human form. He acted with compassion and love. He gave his life.
So, on this last Sunday of Lent, on our way to Easter, we must ask ourselves what God wants us to do, and what kind of choices faith asks us to make.
Most likely, these choices will not result in physical death as it did for Bonhoeffer, Munk or Martin Luther King Jr., or imprisonment as it did for Nelson Mandela, - but even so: choosing to do the right thing will have consequences. Faith always has consequences.
As Christians we are called to be righteous not called to be reckless.
We are called to be or make a difference, not to be indifferent.
We are called to be compassionate, not inconsiderate.
We are called to act with justice, to love tenderly, walk humbly with God and serve in love.
We are called to take a stand, and be part of this world as committed, compassionate and caring Christians, who believe in truth, justice and grace.
I teach and talk to my confirmands about ethics and morals of our Christian Faith.
We discuss The Golden Rule and 10CC. The double commandment of love. About what faith asks us to do, and how faith ask us to live.
“Do to others as you would want them to do to you.” Talking about the Golden Rule, we often talk about bullying and how to respond to it. A good way of making the right choice is to urge yourself to be an upstander instead of a bystander. A upstander. To stand up for justice and fairness and truth and not just to stand by as injustice, unfairness or deceits unfolds.
When you see somebody being hurt or mistreated, then stand up: be the one who do something about it, not the one who chooses to avert your eyes and keep walking. To take a stand on racial discrimination when you see it or meet it: to stand up for your Asian brothers and sisters when attacked, for any of your brothers and sisters who are mistreated or discriminated because of color, race, religion, sexual orientation or politics.
Dont be a bystander but a upstander. Upstanding is like standing fast: the definition of resisting. The choice to do something, to stand up to what is unjust, is to resist the destructive and evil forces and relations that surround us. To take a stand and make a difference.
Then the grain of goodness is sown. Then change has been sown. Then Christian good seeds has been sown to grow, blossom and bear fruit.
In “The Cost of Discipleship” Dietrich Bonhoeffer distinguishes between Cheap grace and costly grace. “Cheap grace requires noting from us. It is like cheap by standing. It is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”
Costly grace on the other hand, is “ the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciples leaves his nets and follows him.” It is the call to stand up!
If we are willing to risk some of what we have been given for the sake of others, then we are willing to live and to pay a cost. Then we choose and then we take a stand: then we are upstanders.
We just listened to or sang the beautiful Hymn with text by Bonhoeffer “By Gracious powers.” It is indeed a hymn with a powerful message and a powerful history.
Remember when and where it was written. In the damp, cold darkness of his prison cell, bereft any light, friends and family, Bonhoeffer wrote this poem to his fiancée Maria entitled “Von guten machten wunderbare geborgen.” A text full of hope in the gracious powers of God. It is a hymn that confesses faith despite all the sufferings and all the fears.
Bonhoeffer did not offer a rosy or easy picture of life or a cheap grace or faith that might tell us that everything is always right, that things happen for a reason, and that we should try to stay positive. Bonhoeffer knew it and lived it and confessed it: life is hard, sometimes even impossible hard. Darkness surrounds us, evils surrounds us, and silences surrounds us.
But we can have faith and keep faith because the God we believe in is compassionate, loving, gracious God who suffers with us, stays with us, comforts us and blesses us –
By Gracious powers, so faithfully protected, so quietly, so wonderfully near,
I’ll live each day in hope, with you beside me, and go with you through every coming year.
The hymn we are to sing after the sermon is a beautiful reflection on how the Word of God is a source and a seed, that must be sown, and we must make our dark earth welcome warm. The word of God is breath and life, that can heal and save when God’s Spirits move us. The word of God is flesh and grace, so we should dare to be as Jesus was…. who came to live, and love and die… who came to give his life to gain and fulfill it. Who came to be an upstander, and not a bystander.
Hopefully, we have all placed some seeds in the ground.
Hopefully, we have all nurtured the sprouts as they become plants and bear fruit.
Hopefully, we have all watched seeds bring forth life.
Hopefully, we will all continue sowing seeds. Hopefully, we will continue trying to be faithful servants, and faithful upstanders.
Bearing fruit in our lives might not require us to die a martyr’s death. But we do have to be willing to listen to the words of God and make them make a difference in how we live.
As I have been singing along when the beautiful anthem of Andra Day is played: Rise up
“I’ll rise up I’ll rise like the day
I’ll rise up I’ll rise unafraid
I’ll rise up and I’ll do it a thousand times again.
I’ll rise up high like the waves
I’ll rise up in spite of the ache
I’ll rise up and I’ll do it a thousand times again
All we need, all we need is hope
And for that we have each other
Be an upstander and rise up to the calling of God and by his gracious powers, we will live as children of light. AMEN