Desiring Jesus - 18 March 2018 - Fifth Sunday in Lent

On this last Sunday in Lent, the last Sunday before Holy Week begins, we are challenged to preach on desire for the high priest who comes into the world to live and die and be raised from the dead, who tells us about dying in order to become something larger (single grain to wheat that has full heads––many grains), all wrapped in the mystery of the Resurrection.

The preacher must help the assembly enter into the willingness to lose established patterns in order to see or know or move into yet greater ways of living. This is not to validate suffering or encourage martyrdom. This is to become reflective about our allegiances and believe that we can detach for the sake of life abundant.

John 12:20-33

Walter Brueggeman preached on the verse, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” noting it offers the strongest rationale for a Christocentric theory of homiletic. The role of the homilist, particularly, is to offer a message that is transparent to the person of Jesus.

. . . The desire to see Jesus may have been mere curiosity, or search for some new religious or political cause célèbre. For whatever reason, the seeking crowds were sufficient in number for some authorities to exaggerate: “Look, the world has gone after him.”

There follows Jesus' teaching to a select few, presumably Phillip, Andrew and some of the other disciples. He speaks of a reversal of fortunes, one of those rare sayings recorded in all four gospels: “Those who love their life in this world lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Those who seek to lead must serve. Then follows a revelation of glory. His glorification will be the product of a similar reversal. The loss of life in abject circumstance will initiate eternal life in glory; the grain of wheat that dies will grow, bloom, and bear much fruit. –– Jeffrey VanderWilt

Jeremiah 31:31-34

In this season, when we focus on stories in which Jewish authorities plot Jesus' demise, it is crucial to recall how the new covenant is both like and unlike the old. It is the same God, the same promise, the same expectations, the same people. The One who brought Israel out from a land of bondage to a new place of freedom remains author of the new promise, restorer and sustainer of the people. Israel, now subject to punishment, remains the people to be loved and redeemed and transformed, the people who are to keep the law and witness to the One who saves and liberates before all the nations. None of these things change. The new does not contradict or rescind the old. The new is unlike the old simply in that God will no longer be satisfied to have the law carved in stone but will write the law on each heart. –– Scott Haldeman

Hebrews 5:5-10

[This passage] offers an extended treatise on the analogy between Jesus and Melchizedek. (Genesis 14) To understand the analogy, one must read beyond the lectionary verses. Christ, as priest, (Heb. 6: 19) is comparable to the High Priest who, on Yom Kippur, would enter the Holy of Holies to intercede before God for the forgiveness of the nation.

The early Christians knew that Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi and could not have been an Aaronic priest. Yet, they remained convinced of his having performed a proper “priestly role” throughout his saving death, resurrection, atoning and eternal presence before God. The reference to a priesthood long before Aaron, in the person of Melchizedek, who offered cereal offerings of bread and wine to the God “El,” was powerfully attractive to ancient Christians who saw in him a prototype for the saving works of Christ. –– Jeffrey VanderWilt

Jeffery VanderWilt, author of Communion with Non-Catholic Christians (Collegville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003) teaches at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Southern California.

W. Scott Haldeman is associate professor of worship at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.

Homily Service 39, no. 5 (2006): 2-8.

To See Jesus –22 March 2015 – Fifth Sunday in Lent

A parishioner once told me that her measure for whether or not a sermon was any good was all about whether she could “see Jesus.” That’s a tall order and a helpful clue for what is needed. Even in John’s Gospel we encounter soon-to-be disciples whose first urge is to “see Jesus.”

The preacher’s task is to figure out what that means and shape it for the assembly. Who is the Jesus who must be seen? What is it about this Jesus that is most necessary for people to hear? What in the story or narrative can make Jesus’ essential qualities most palpable?

This is important for the sustenance of faith. We do not come to worship on Sunday so much because we are perfect believers but because we need to hear again who Jesus is so that we can believe.

John 12:20-33

Walter Brueggeman preached on the verse, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” noting it offers the strongest rationale for a Christocentric theory of homiletic. The role of the homilist, particularly, is to offer a message that is transparent to the person of Jesus.   . . . The gospel writer notes that many in the crowd wonder about Jesus, but they do not yet believe in him. – Jeffrey VanderWilt

My vocation is to teach a new generation of preachers, pastors and teachers about all the other aspects of liturgical leadership, but not to preach. Yet one cannot neglect such a central act of worship in classes such as “Introduction to Christian Worship.” And so each year, I gird up my loins and lecture on preaching “as one without authority.” I always begin by invoking John 12:21, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

Nothing more, nothing less is the call of the preacher—to bring the people face to face with Jesus. It is not our cleverness that sustains, nor the brilliance of our exegesis. It is the One who fell to earth, lost his life, rose again and who like a tree bears an abundance of ripe, nourishing fruit. Let this One be recognized in the retelling of the stories, in the interpretation, in the breaking of the bread—and then perhaps the people, like those two demoralized followers at the end of Luke’s gospel who left their companions and their vocation to return home after their teacher died, may, with restored hope, and burning hearts, risk being witnesses to the Life that death cannot end, to the Love that is stronger than the grave. – Scott Haldeman

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The prophet announces a covenant that will not be something to learn, something to memorize, some rules to know. Rather, the covenant with God is written on the heart. The people will be united in a knowing that is deeper than cognition.

“Seeing” and “knowing” Jesus is, similarly, a heart-involved experience that is an on-going, ever-changing, always-evolving relationship with the One who is Love.

That relationship involves prayer, and so the letter to the Hebrews helps the assembly “see” Jesus also in its own prayerful communion with God.

Hebrews 5:5-10

Jesus prayed to the one who could save him from death, and yet he died, even death on a cross. Thomas Moore reminds us that prayer works, but not because we get the answer we want:

A billboard near an old house of mine displayed in six-foot type: “Pray. It works.” I always thought this was the ultimate in American pragmatism. If it doesn’t work, do you stop praying? What does it mean to say prayer works? You get what you want? Life gets better? My billboard would say: “Pray. It may not work.”

Prayer is an alternative to working hard to get what you want. One discovers eventually that what you want is almost always what you don’t need. Pray—period! Don’t expect anything. Or, better, expect nothing. Prayer cleanses us of expectations and allows holy will, providence, and life itself an entry. What could be more worth the effort—or, the non-effort? (Thomas Moore, Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), 19.)

– Scott Haldeman

Scott Haldeman is associate professor of worship at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. 

Jeffery VanderWilt, author of Communion with Non-Catholic Christians (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003), teaches at Santa Margarita Catholic High school in Southern California.

Homily Service 39, no. 5 (2006): 2-8.