5th Sunday of Lent
April 6th, 2003
Homily by Jim

Jer 31:31-34
Heb 5:7-9
John 12:20-33

A few days ago when a group of friends found out I was preparing a homily, one lady asked "What's it about?"  I hesitated, and then answered:  "If you love your life you will lose it, and if you hate it you will gain life forever";  the lady said, "Darn it!" The others laughed--in agreement apparently.

    "Yes, darn it," she might have continued. "Now I've got to get busy and start hating my life. . . just when everything is going good." 

     But there's no need to start hating now or ever. The hating will come about for some in a surprising but sad way. There's no need to do anything; it will happen to you.

     Let me give you an example: In last week's paper was a photo of Kareem Mohammed of Iraq weeping over the bodies of his six children, his wife, two brothers, and his parents in Hillah, Iraq, where more than 33 people had been killed.  If we could see into this man's heart, we know that he is one who hates his life. And all that he has left is Allah.

     But not all of us will come to such grief as did Kareem.

    Jesus does not call us to reject our whole life and everything in it; that would be totally out of character for him--to turn his followers into mean spirited people who walk around trying to hate their lives. Jesus teaches us to rejoice in our salvation. So, what can he mean?

     He means, I believe, that I must 'hate' [in quotes] everything in life that distracts me from knowing who I am and where I am going. 

 

     He means too that there's nothing lasting to hold onto in this world.  It's an illusion if we think we are holding on anyway; it can't be done.  That is where so much of our grief comes from, trying to posses what cannot be possessed, trying to love what cannot be loved into permanence. In that sense we lose our life.  And yet we do it over and over again--because, because we are human.

 

    Life is wildly beautiful as far as the eye can see, but underneath is a dark side in which we can become entangled. If that happens, we lose our spiritual direction.  Each of you must know many persons who have lost their way.

    Some believe that they can enhance their security by literally piling up things and belongings; saving money far beyond what is needed for a good life, yet refusing to share with the less fortunate. Has this become the American Way?

    Here is an example of loving the wrong thing: It may surprise some of you, and it seems to me that we may be blind to it. I'm speaking of trying to please God by our choice of religion and by relying on our spiritual credentials; in effect, we are trying to reserve a special place for ourselves in heaven.  It the same as trying to posses what can't be possessed, of loving the wrong thing.

    To make this clear, let me quote a few sentences by the new, or fairly new, Archbishop of Canterbury. Where we would expect to find a conservative person in that position, somewhat elevated from the crowds, this man, Rowan Williams, is a man of deep compassion and of values like ours.  He puts these ideas so forcefully that I want to share them:

    He says:  "If you genuinely desire union with the unspeakable love of God, then you must be prepared to have your 'religious' world shattered. If you think devotional practices, theological insights, even charitable actions give you some sort of a purchase on God, you are  playing games."  [ unquote ]

    To believe that our religion in itself will save us is a kind of loving that is idolatry.  Many of you recall the days when when we were building up merit in heaven by a variety of religious activities-- litanies and novenas, fast days and so forth. There's nothing wrong with these things, but if I believe I can gain eternal life because I am pleasing God, as I would a parent, I need to be careful.

    The Archbisop continues:  "On the other hand, if you can face and accept and even rejoice in the experience of  darkness, if you can accept that God is more than an idea that keeps your religion or philosophy, or politics tidy--then you may find a way back to religion, philosophy, or politics that is more creative because you are more aware...."

    When I was a young man I believed that, as I grew older, I would come in some inherently natural way to understand the truth about life and death.  I actually thought that old people found it easy--or--easier to die than younger people. Now I know that is not true.

     Nor have I started hating my life, because I don't think Jesus asked for that in the ordinary sense of 'to hate'.  I've come to look quietly at those places in my life where I might be indulging myself or avoiding  pain or holding on to the intangible. 

     I believe in life after death. I don't really know what happens when we die; I have no direct evidence, and so my trust, like yours, IS in One with deeper insights than we possess, whose wisdom we unwaveringly trust, in Jesus.

    Some time back a family member sent me some pictures of tombstones so that I could pick out one that I'd like to be placed on my grave in our family plot back home when the time came! Was there a thought that I could look back from eternity and see how beautiful is looks on my grave?  What faith!

    I hesitated a long time to cooperate even though I knew that sending pictures to me was really a gesture of love.  Finally I chose one, only to learn the tombstone company had gone out of business.

   Well, I'll have a stone of some kind, even though its life will be limited in contrast to the one I hope to have found. And when that stone is gone, I hope to be sharing the glory of God with you!

   In the meantime let us struggle against whatever confounds us and work together to understand what it is to love in a way that leads to eternal life.