John 12: 20-36 (links validated 2/25/24)

("A few years ago I read a book by the Benedictine nun Joan Chittister called Scarred by Struggle, Transformed By Hope. She observes how experiences of loss bring great pain. Such pain can be intensely private and personal. Deep losses hurl one into an "inner storm" of "strange forces." God's call, says Chittister, is that we move from isolation to independence...")

(includes lots of Greek exegesis)

always good insights!

(excellent exegesis)

There’s been an overwhelming amount of really awful news over the last few weeks. Back at the start of the semester, we had a tragic death of a student right on our campus of Montclair State University… two weeks ago, 4 students from my college alma mater, DeSales University were involved in a car crash which left three of those young people dead and the other still in critical condition… and a few weeks ago one of our former students from Newman at MSU shared how her 3-year-old niece fell into a swimming pool, nearly drowned and has been waging a long, still uncertain battle in the hospital ever since. After a year where seemingly everyone around the world has been suffering – whether physically from the COVID sickness or all the horrible tentacles that stem from it, the last thing we need is any more tragedy or sadness. Unfortunately, life does not offer some protective cover when we think we’ve maxed out on what we can handle...

It reminds me of the song “Jesus Take the Wheel”, which was recorded by country music singer Carrie Underwood. The song tells the story of a mother who lives a hectic life. On a late-night Christmas Eve drive on a snow-covered road, the woman begins sorting out her emotions and bemoans not having enough time to do the things that really matter. Then, her car hits a patch of black ice, causing the woman to lose control of her car. She panics, takes her hands off the steering wheel and cries out to Jesus; shortly thereafter, the car stops spinning and safely stops on the shoulder. After taking stock of the situation (and seeing that her baby has remained fast asleep in the rear seat), the woman decides to let “Jesus take the Wheel” of her life...

Óscar Romero was an El Salvadoran Catholic priest who worked for social justice and peace from violence. In a homily based on this text, and on the anniversary of the death of another activist, he preached, “Many do not understand, and they think Christianity should not get involved in such things. But, to the contrary, you have just heard Christ’s Gospel, that one must not love oneself so much as to avoid getting involved in the risks of life which history demands of us, that who would avoid the danger will lose their life, while those who out of love for Christ give themselves to the service of others will live, like the grain of wheat that dies, but only apparently. If it did not die, it would remain alone. The harvest comes about because it dies, allows itself to be sacrificed in their earth and destroyed. Only by destroying itself does it produce the harvest.” As he finished his sermon and transitioned to leading the celebration of the mass, Romero spoke of its symbolism in the wheat and chalice. It was then that hitmen, likely hired by a right-wing political party leader, came into the church and shot Romero to death at the altar. You can read the full homily here.

According to an old adage, the brave man tastes death but once whereas the coward tastes death many times. In the movie Saving Private Ryan we see this proverbial dynamic at work. Most of the soldiers in that story are stout of heart. They have passed through many harrowing battles but without regret because they know they conducted themselves well. Although some of these brave men die before the story is finished, nevertheless up until that final fatal moment, they had not experienced the kind of psychological death that is exhibited over and over by the character of Corporal Upham. Upham was a translator in a safe clerical position before getting swept up into the real war. But this young, naive, and innocent corporal was unprepared for combat and so regularly froze up in terror. In one of the film’s most excruciating scenes, Upham is seen cowering on a staircase, paralyzed by fear, even as he listens to the death cries of one of his comrades who is being slowly killed by a German soldier at the top of the stairs. His cowardice prevents Upham from saving his friend’s life. After the man is dead, the German who killed him casually walks past Upham on the steps. Upham is such a pathetic figure that the enemy just leaves him alone. Upham is not even worth killing—he has died on the inside anyway. In the gut-wrenching sobs that Upham then heaves forth, you sense this is true. The brave man tastes death just once, the coward dies again and again. That’s how we usually think in this world. So what are we to make of Jesus’ words in John 12 that indicate that not only does death produce life, followers of Jesus will lead lives of self-denial and perpetual death in their Christ-like efforts to bring more life to the world, too? The gospel so often goes in different directions from the rest of the world. Do we preachers always remember this, though? Perhaps it is the brave person who faces death every day for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of the Gospel.

In one of the later Anne of Green Gables movies, Anne and Gilbert are married for mere days before Dr Blythe goes off to the Western Front to patch up the soldiers wounded in battle, so that they will be better cared for before they are sent home. He is reported as missing in action. Anne refuses to believe it, saying, “He must be alive. If he were dead, would I not know that in my heart?” As the movie goes, she goes to France and does find him well and treating the horrific injuries that are part of any combat. The movie does not follow the time line of the actual novels which are dated a generation earlier...

I read a story on the internet recently (and of course that makes it true!!) about a small wedding with an unexpected wedding guest. The groom thought the woman sitting in the front row was part of the bride’s family, but that was not the case. At the end of the ceremony the woman was introduced to the groom and given a stethoscope by the person who had arranged all of this. With permission she listened to the groom’s heartbeat. Her face broke into a smile and then her eyes welled up with tears. It turns out that her son had been killed in an accident the year before and had donated his organs. The groom at this wedding had received her dead son’s heart! His new lease on life enabled him to put his former limitations behind him, get married and make plans for a full life...

One day, a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going down. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!” After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said, “See? I made a difference for that one!” — “The Star Thrower” is a classic story of the power within each one of us to make a difference in the lives of others. Today’s Gospel challenges us to make a difference in the lives of other people by our sacrificial service to those around us in the family, in the workplace, and in a wider society...

A farmer regularly goes to the fields with his children and they watch the plants grow and thrive. One day, shortly after the sowing, they are walking along the fields again: “What do you see?” the farmer asks. “Nothing,” answer the children. Some time later they are back on the edge of the field. “What do you see?” asks the father. “Lots of small stalks, it almost looks like a green meadow,” answer the children. In the summer the farmer shows them the field again, now full of ears of wheat. “What do you see now?” he asks. The children describe what they see: “The stalks are strong and bear a lot of grain.” The father says: “It will be a good harvest.” A year later, in the springtime, they are walking along the fields again. The fields are freshly tilled. “What do you see?”, asks the farmer. The children answer: “Bread for you and for us and for everyone.” This is hope!...

At the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the world was introduced to a 22-year-old poet, Amanda Gorman. Her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” delivered with such poise and passion, launched her into the spotlight of fame. Sitting just feet away from her that day was former First Lady Michelle Obama. In the February 18/February 23, 2021 issue of Time magazine, Ms. Obama interviewed Amanda Gorman about that day and about her work. At one point Ms. Obama asked Amanda about the influence art can have on social change. Ms. Gorman answered “Absolutely. Poetry and language are often at the heartbeat of movements of change.” She noted how words and images can convey meaning. She then recalled how at a Black Lives Matter rally she saw a banner that read, “They buried us but they didn’t know we were seeds.” The image that those words conveyed touched Ms. Gorman very deeply. From small beginnings, when things look at their worst, great things can arise and grow and bear much fruit...

This is an unconventional starting point for the passion narrative, which typically begins with Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Instead, the Brothers have chosen a lesser-known episode from John’s Gospel, which occurs just after the triumphal entry—and what a beautiful passage to highlight...

Carved into the pulpit of one of the churches I used to preach at in my first call are the very same words that start off our Gospel for this Sunday: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” When I first read those words, which had been both crudely and permanently gouged into the wood with a pocket knife, I was stunned. In a simple, yet beautiful church, whose altar guild would spend hours making sure everything looked spotless for worship, I was not expecting to be confronted by such aggressive graffiti every time I stepped foot in the pulpit...

Not too long ago, I read a compelling story about the legendary whistleblower of police corruption, Frank Serpico. Some of you might recognize the name; Serpico is an iconic film released in the 1970’s starring Al Pacino - it was an adaptation of his true life story. Frank Serpico was a police officer in the NYPD who witnessed some of his fellow officers committing acts of violence, taking payoffs, and participating in other forms of police corruption. Disturbed by what he had seen, he decided to expose them all. Not surprisingly, that doesn’t go down well with people who could be impacted by his decision. He is harassed and threatened by his peers. He also becomes a divisive figure in the department. All of this begins to take toll on his personal life. After receiving constant death threats, he is shot in the face during a drug bust on the job, which almost costs him his life, an incident that all these years later, still is very suspicious...

But the most memorable answer I’ve ever heard came from a wheelchair-bound man in his 80s: he said: “I’m grateful that God answers all of my prayers.” This came from a man in his 80s who can’t walk, can’t hear well, can’t see well, had little contact with his family…he can’t even eat – because a stroke paralyzed his swallowing muscles, he depends on a feeding tube. This is the one who said, “God answers all my prayers.”

According to an old adage, the brave man tastes death but once whereas the coward tastes death many times. In the movie Saving Private Ryan we see this proverbial dynamic at work. Most of the soldiers in that story are stout of heart. They have passed through many harrowing battles but without regret because they know they conducted themselves well. Although some of these brave men die before the story is finished, nevertheless up until that final fatal moment, they had not experienced the kind of psychological death that is exhibited over and over by the character of Corporal Upham. Upham was a translator in a safe clerical position before getting swept up into the real war...

Meg, the young protagonist in the novel A Wrinkle in Time, has answered the call to rescue her little brother from the grip of Evil itself. It finally comes to her that the only weapon she has which the evil IT does not have, is love… Love. That was what she had that IT did not have. She had Mrs. Whatsit’s love, and her father’s, and her mother’s, and the real Charles Wallace’s love, and the twins’, and Aunt Beast’s. And she had her love for them. But how could she use it? What was she meant to do?...

There was once a farmer who thought he knew better than all the rest of his fellow farmers. He enjoyed eating his largest and best potatoes and put the small ones aside to use as seed in the spring. In a few years his entire potato crop was about the size of golf balls. He had ignored one of the primary rules of agriculture which was “don’t plant small potatoes”. Though it might seem like a waste, you save the best for seed, not for eating; it is how to have the best crop the next year!...

Psalm 69 likens death to flood waters. And these are the very waters cresting in Dame Margaret Drabble’s newest novel, The Dark Flood Rises. She asks us to consider that which many of us would rather not contemplate: our coming deaths. She writes: It’s not clear to her what she’s supposed to do, on a spiritual level, with the rest of the time she has left. She’s never much liked the language of struggle and battle, and anyway, she knows the battle is already lost. She hasn’t thought of her relationship with her cancer in terms of fighting the good fight, as some do. But the lines from Timothy come back to her, nevertheless: Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called…

The scene starts with some Greeks wanting to see Jesus. Their request, transmitted through Philip and Andrew, sparks a series of reflections made as pronouncements, and here’s where the inversions come in. First, Jesus declares that the hour has come, the hour of his glory. We’ve been waiting a long time for this hour and time, mainly because Jesus keeps saying it “has not yet come” (see John 2:4, 7:6, 7:8, 8:20). But now it has – the hour/time of glory has arrived. But “glory” is not what we might think, which is the first inversion...

Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker who makes Tarantino look like a chump, popularized the notion of the cinematic MacGuffin. Many of Hitchcock’s films (here’s a fun list) used this technique, this “plot device. Ye olde Wikipedia explains a MacGuffin this way: The element that distinguishes a MacGuffin from other types of plot devices is that it is not important what the object specifically is. Anything that serves as a motivation will do. The MacGuffin might even be ambiguous. Its importance is accepted by the story’s characters, but it does not actually have any effect on the story. It can be generic or left open to interpretation. Briefcase as MacGuffin. Whether you enjoyed or despised Pulp Fiction, you didn’t need to know the case’s contents...

Honor from above is not the expected outcome of a life of service, a truth well illustrated in the television series “Downton Abbey.” Early in the first season, when a high-ranking duke comes to visit the Crawley family, a substantial group shows up at the door to welcome him. This group includes not just the Crawleys themselves, but all their maids, valets and footmen. The duke exchanges courtesies with the family, but pays no attention to the servants, who stand silently throughout the reception. The duke offers them no greeting and gives them no thanks for their welcome. At the end of the reception, when a particular servant is addressed, he responds as briefly as possible and avoids eye-contact throughout the interchange. The scene is a blunt illustration of the hierarchy that pervaded aristocratic households of the day. Servants honored members of the upper class with no expectation of reciprocity...

("Sadhu Sundar Singh was born a Sikh in 1889 but as a young man converted to Christianity and decided to stay in India to be a missionary and bear witness to Christ. One late afternoon in the Himalayas when he was travelling in the company of a Buddhist monk, it started to snow. The wind was bitterly cold and the night was descending quickly. As they crossed over a narrow path above a steep cliff, they heard a cry for help. Deep in the ravine there was a man who had fallen into it and was laying there wounded...")

("In his book The Cost of Discipleship, the German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer issues a blunt warning to those who would be disciples of Christ. Bonhoeffer writes: 'The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the divisions which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace.'...")

("A couple of months ago, 22 year old Louisa Manning became an international story for standing up to a bully from when she was in 8th grade. Louisa's a student at Oxford University in England, and at some dinner-dance, formal on campus, she bumped into one of the guys she knew from back in 8th grade. He was pretty surprised to see how much she had changed in the years since they last saw each other...")

("There's an old saying that the learning doesn't start until the lesson is over. That is, once the teacher isn't around to tell you what to do anymore, you either know what to do or you don't. If you do, it's because a part of that teacher is living in you. The seed is planted and bearing fruit in your life. What's more, it's bearing fruit in the lives that your life touches and in the lives touched by everyone who was influenced by that teacher...")

("In Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, the young Cordelia Flyte tells the protagonist Charles, upon hearing that he is an agnostic, that she will pray for him, 'That's very nice,' Charles says but Sebastian tells him disdainfully, 'She said a novena for her pig.'...")

("According to an old adage, the brave man tastes death but once whereas the coward tastes death many times before he finally dies. In the movie Saving Private Ryan we see this proverbial dynamic at work. Most of the soldiers in that story are stout of heart...")

("During a trip to El Salvador a decade ago, the delegation I was part of visited the hospital grounds in San Salvador where Romero lived. I can still picture his sparse bedroom and the chapel where he was killed—shortly after preaching on John 12:23-26, part of this Sunday's lectionary Gospel reading. The day before his death, Romero publicly pleaded with his nation's soldiers to disobey unjust orders and stop the repression. He called on them to listen to the voice of God, whatever the cost...")

("The poem Canción de Jinete by Spain's great Federico García Lorca captures the frightful burden, which the future can be. We don't know who the horseman is, or what waits for him at Córdoba. Indeed, he only knows enough to fear, but on he rides, knowing that he will never reach the city....")

("Last weekend a video surfaced of members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma singing a racist chant while traveling on a bus to a party. The chant, which included references to lynching and racial slurs, has caused quite a backlash. The fraternity house has been banned, the students have moved out and the leaders of the chant have been expelled from the university...")

The story of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran has been in the news, on and off, for almost ten years. They were arrested in April 2005, along with seven others, and the two of them were accused and convicted of being the organiser and enforcer for an attempt to use the other seven to smuggle a large quantity of heroin to Australia. There is not a lot of public sympathy for drug smugglers, and even less for those who are seen to be intimidating others into smuggling drugs. While in prison, Myu Sukumaran has studied for and been awarded a degree in fine arts, and emerged as a significant painter. He set up and ran an arts program and several other educational programs within the prison. Andrew Chan converted to Christianity and after undertaking a theological degree and running church services within the prison, was recently ordained as a pastor by an Australian church. It is usually easy to be cynical about religious conversions on death row, but if you were just trying to curry favour with the authorities, you wouldn’t convert to Christianity in a dominantly Muslim country...

In Anne Tyler’s novel “Saint Maybe,” a character named Ian bears a terrible burden of guilt. He has too carelessly spoken words to his brother, expressing his unfounded idea that his brother’s wife is cheating on him. Ian’s careless speech, born of anger against his brother and sister-in-law, leads to their deaths, the leaving behind of their three children, and an aching pain in Ian that he bears part of the responsibility for how things turned out. He longs to be set free from his burden, to experience true forgiveness. Ian finds his way to a church where the minister tells him that he needs to take care of the three orphaned children. In taking on the raising of the children, Ian realizes that any forgiveness worth having needs to be linked to a change of life. The problem for Ian is that he sees forgiveness as something he must earn. He leads an upright life, but he cuts himself off from others, becomes distant from people, including himself. He wonders why, with all the good works he’s been doing, all the “atoning and atoning,” it still feels like God hasn’t forgiven him. He’s been busy trying to earn his forgiveness, and it’s not working. He lives in such a way as to avoid making mistakes. One of the children teases him, calling him, “King Careful. Mr. Look-Both-Ways. Saint Maybe.” Ian feels he has a second chance, but he also feels he has to be very cautious. Since he thinks forgiveness depends upon himself, his own ability to make things right, he can only live in a closed and cut-off way, a way that prevents him from experiencing the fullness of life, from taking risks for the sake of love. He has become a man, in a very narrow sense, of upright behavior. He has even taken a job as a cabinet maker, taking refuge in inanimate objects so he doesn’t have to deal with people, not risking hurting or being hurt...

(includes several quotes)

("I remembered the time a large bull camel stepped off the Gunbarrel Highway just in time to avoid this crazy whitefella— me— driving in to him. I'd being watching the road very carefully because I had been travelling faster than was safe. I'd been watching him for at least 2 kilometres, and had not seen what was right in front of me...")

"When I first began to learn the devotional use of icons, I remember Tilden Edwards offering us this distinction between seeing and gazing. Seeing, he said, was reaching out with your sight and taking hold of what you see, making it yours, part of the world your mind is making sense of. Gazing, he said, was opening your mind, your soul, in your unwavering stillness, allowing the icon to come into you and take hold of your sight, transforming your understanding of the world with its mystery...."

("A dialogue between someone named 'Me' and Jesus and John: Reflections on Jeremiah 31: 31-34 and John 12: 20-33. The conversation begins with 'Me's' feelings and thoughts about why Jesus chose to go to Jerusalem, the connection thread of Lent. If Jesus sounds like James Carroll from his recent book, Christ Actually, 'Me's' reading him now...")

I know of no better poetic summation of the vocation of Christ and of his messengers than this one, from Leonard Cohen, who happens to be a Jew: If it be your will that I speak no more And my voice be still, as it was before I will speak no more, I shall abide until I am spoken for. If it be your will. If it be your will that a voice be true From this broken hill I will sing to you From this broken hill all your praises they shall ring If it be your will to let me sing...

Several years ago there was a Public Television program on the problem of hunger in India. The TV camera panned the landscape, revealing a dry, rocky, pathetic little village populated by desperate people. They had lost crop after crop to a seemingly endless series of droughts which, combined with their rock-strewn landscape, made farming appear increasingly futile. What were they to do? Without a crop, they would starve. But an engineer came to the area and told them, “The stones you now curse will become your salvation!” He told them to gather stones and bring them to a low area outside the village...

"Like the Greeks in the Gospel, I think most of us would like to get a glimpse or more of this Jesus, they were so interested in. I believe that many "pilgrims" go to Palestine and visit the sites where it is known that Jesus visited. Perhaps in walking where he walked and seeing what he saw, Jesus will become more real to them..."

("During the Persian Gulf War, one of the New Yorker writers was reminded of an incident described by George Orwell during the Spanish Civil War. Orwell wrote from the front lines that he saw a man from the opposing Fascist forces jump out of the trench and run along the parapet in full view, presumably carrying a message to an officer...")

I commented before about our tendency to avoid facing the prospect of death. I think that some of the depth of public grief for this man can be explained by the way his death challenges that denial and avoidance. You see, not only was Jimmy only 45 years old and the father of young children, and not only was he an elite athlete who should therefore be at less risk of health problems than most of us, but he was the most indestructible of them all. This guy played more consecutive games than any other player because nothing seemed to be able to keep him down. Several times he ended a game with injuries that everyone thought would keep him out of the game for weeks or even months, but every time he would pass a rigorous fitness test the next Friday and play again. True to form, he survived the cancer about two years longer than expected, bouncing back after repeated bouts of surgery, and so it seemed impossible to believe that he wouldn’t ultimately defeat the cancer and live to a ripe old age. So Jimmy’s death confronts us all with the reality that we ritually reminded one another of on Ash Wednesday: remember that from dust you came and to dust you will return; may the Lord give you life. If we have the courage to accept it, it might be the one last gift he wanted to give us as he departed...

Diogenes Allen, in an incisive essay on the missional challenge of late postmodern western culture, suggested that Christopher Fry had captured our situation well in his play A Sleep of Prisoners. Allen introduced the quotation with these comments...

("In the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Toula's father comments: "Nice Greek girls are supposed to do three things in life. Marry a nice Greek boy, make babies, and feed everyone till the day we die." Day after day, Toula, who is already thirty-something, toils in the family Greek diner, lank hair and a baggy dress...")

("So do you remember that kerfuffle back in the 90s when Mattel brought out a new Barbie doll called Teen Speak Barbie? The Barbies were programmed to say what the company considered typical adolescent girl phrases...")

("In her book Dead Man Walking, Helen Prejean describes her feelings as she watches her first execution. Everything inside her is sick and confused. She knows that what is about to happen, the taking of this man's life, whatever his crime, is wrong and yet she can appreciate the feelings of those who are about to take that life...")

("When Mike was three he wanted a sandbox and his father said, 'There goes the yard. We'll have all the kids in the neighborhood and they will destroy the grass.' And Mike's mother said, 'It'll come back.' When Mike was five he wanted a jungle-gym set. 'Good grief, that will create mud-holes and bare spots,' Mike's dad said. Mike's mother said, 'It'll come back.'...")

("'Sir, we would see Jesus,' the Greeks said to Philip. We, too, need to see Jesus, so that when others want to see Jesus, they can see him in us. As the old spiritual puts it: 'In the morning when I rise, Give me Jesus. When I am alone, Give me Jesus. When I come to die, Give me Jesus. You can have all the world, But give me Jesus....")

This week is the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin. Hundreds of thousands of people come from around the U.S. and some from around the world to experience the newest bands and the trendiest sounds on the planet...

("During Lent in 2002 I spent a Sunday morning standing at Ground Zero in New York City. I wasn't alone as a number of people were also somberly gazing at that vast sixteen-acre zone of destruction. It was one of the saddest places I've ever been...")

In the works of the best selling novelist Tom Clancy, there are a number of characters who appear in almost every story. For anyone who has read Clancy’s books, certain main characters come to mind: the mysterious CIA agent John Clark, White House Chief of Staff Arnie van Damm, FBI Director Bill Shaw, and, of course, Jack Ryan, who seems to have a new job in every novel. There are also hosts of other, less prominent characters who have walk-on bit parts throughout the Clancy opus. One of these is Helen D’Agustino, a Secret Service Agent on the Presidential detail. ‘Daga,’ as she is affectionately known by her fellow agents, is an attractive, intelligent and capable woman in her thirties. Very early in her career, Daga demonstrated her courage and her talent as a law enforcement officer. For this reason, she was selected for an elite position as a personal bodyguard to the leader of the free world. At first glance, this looks like a particularly high honor — that is, until you think about what such an appointment really means. A Presidential bodyguard exists for one thing, and for only one thing: to ‘catch a bullet,’ to give his or her life in exchange for someone else’s. In a way, a Secret Service agent must be willing to put their life on the line not just for the President of the United States, but for every person who would be affected if the President was assassinated. In other words, conceivably they must be willing to lay down their lives for many, many others. If Clancy did a good job in developing the character of Helen D’Agustino, we learn that an agent always has this purpose in mind...

("In 1819 John Keats, the English poet, sat transfixed before an ancient vase he happened upon in an Italian museum. It was an urn from ancient Athens, the principle city of Greece, and it featured the carved figures of women and men dancing to some kind of ritual in an idealic forest glade. Something about these figurines captured the poet's attention and, more than that, took him away into a rapt meditation upon the capacity of art to convey spiritual truths...")

("The Greek philosopher Socrates is regarded as one of the wisest men of all time. This man who lived between 470 and 399 BC devoted his life to exposing ignorance, hypocrisy and conceit among his fellow Athenians and calling them to a radical re-examination of life...")

("On a beautiful tropical beach occasionally the tide and the surf would be just right, and they would combine, and cause a lot of shellfish to be cast far up onto the beach. Some of these shellfish were very beautiful...")

"The time was the roaring twenties. The place was Oklahoma. John Griffith was in his early twenties - newly married, and full of optimism. Along with his lovely wife, he had been blessed with a beautiful blue eyed baby. John wanted to be a traveller...")

("At the beginning of his pontificate, a Mexican family from Mexico City decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Their oldest son was dying of brain cancer and his parents thought that it would be spiritually beneficial for their sick son and the entire family to visit the Pope and all of the beautiful holy places in Rome....")

("If a label is to be given to the people of the early years of 21st century, I think a good one would be 'The Impatient Generation'. We are living in a time when everything has to happen now and if it doesn’t happen when we think it ought to happen we become impatient, we complain, we stress, we get agitated...")

("There is an old old story told that seeks to illustrate the cost of this sacrifice. It seems a bridge-keeper was tending the draw bridge over the river. On this particular night the man had brought his son to work with him. The phone rang and it was a train engineer informing the bridge-keeper of his impending arrival...")

["Stephen Spielberg’s Always (1989), a remake of a 1943 film A Guy Named Joe (featuring Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne and Van Johnson) is perhaps the worst film ever made about God but with (for this sociologist) one of the more wondrous images of God -- Audrey Hepburn..."]

("A nursery rhyme goes something like this: Pussy cat, Pussy cat where have you been? I've been to London to see the Queen. Pussy cat, pussy Cat what did you there? I frightened a little mouse under her chair...")

("in this scene from the movie Matrix, the antagonist, a 'machine' called Agent Smith, speaks of his disgust with having to live among people. 'Humans smell,' he says, 'their stench makes me sick...")

("The movie series based on The Lord of the Rings has brought to new prominence the author of the books on which it is based, J. R. R. Tolkien. Tolkien was many things: a university professor, a medieval scholar, a writer of fantasy, and a Christian. During the First World War, young Tolkien served in the trenches with the British army...")

("I can recall very clearly the struggle when the thought first came to me that God might be calling me to the ministry. The first inclination was along the line of Moses and Simon Peter who thought that the Lord would be much better off looking for someone else!...")

The pain of despair will ultimately turn to your good. Emily Dickinson wrote: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard...

("The famous and saintly Mother Teresa of Calcutta gave an interview during the last few years of her life that illustrates the point well. The reporter noted that religious orders in the west and many churches, for that matter, had been losing numbers. But the reporter also noted that Mother Teresa's order was growing by thousands, so she asks 'Why?'...")

("We can remove hope in other ways. The United Church of Christ just developed a new commercial which is just now going to hit the airways and will, I’m sure, stir controversy. The commercial depicts people in church sitting in pews, ejector pews, that eject when someone perceived to be less than desirable is sitting in the church...")

("In preparation for the sermon for today, I wanted to find out what happened to seeds when they are planted into the ground and die. They key to the text for today focuses on the seed that dies, and so..... I called the Dunn Seed Company. I thought the Dunn Seed Company would know about seeds. So I telephoned them ...")

An interesting thing has been happening to my heart these past weeks—it has become a little numb—and I mean this figuratively because there is no other way to describe the condition. I became aware of my heart’s condition when I heard one of the latest George Bush jokes. George Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar. A guy walks in and asks them, “What are you guys doing?” “We’re planning World War III,” Bush says. “We’re going to kill 10 million Iraqis and one bicycle repairman.” The guy exclaims, “Why kill a bicycle repairman?!” Bush turns to Powell and says, “See, I told you no one would worry about the 10 million Iraqis!” In 1954 Chairman Mao, the leader of China, told Nehru, the leader of India, that “China has many people, the atomic bomb is nothing to be afraid of…the death of ten or twenty million people is nothing to be afraid of.” In 1957 in Moscow, Mao boasted that he was “willing to lose 300 million people.” After one battle, Emperor Qin killed four hundred thousand prisoners. After another, he located all the members of families who were his mother’s family’s enemies and had them buried alive. Quite recently, English policy deliberately starved a million men, women and children in Ireland—one person in eight. Pol Pot killed one (or two) million of his own Cambodians—again one (or two) of eight. Stalin’s decision to export grain, long before his 1934 purges, killed ten million peasants. Another ten million Soviet citizens died in purges and gulags. In 1994 Rwandan Hutus killed eight hundred thousand Tutsis in one hundred days. What does it mean for our hearts when we become simply spectators of calamities taking place in another country? What hope is there for our hearts if they become cold as stones? “Put a new heart in me, O God” because this one that I have cannot contain all these numbers. Each victim’s personal death, possesses its unique history and sacred form. My heart echoes the questions of Susan Sontag ,“Are war images promotions of agony or invitations to mourn?”...

("In the old days, cars came equipped with a six-volt electrical system. That's all they needed. The engines were small – a hundred horsepower, or so – and they had few accessories – a starter, windshield wipers, a cigarette lighter and, if you were in tall cotton, an AM radio...")

("there's a new program sweeping the country today called ALPHA. It actually began in England twenty years ago. A minister at Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, London, was looking for a way to present the basic principles of the Christian faith to new members. What emerged was the Alpha Course. In a relaxed and informal setting, he addressed simple questions such as 'Who is Jesus?' and 'Why do we pray?'...")

("Walter Wangerin tells a story about he and his son Matthew, one I've shared in several classes here at Emmaus a number of years ago. He writes: 'Three times I tried to get my son Matthew not to steal comic books! This is the truth! I'm not sure why, but my son started this comic book collection...")

("I am currently reading a journey of a man who is exploring his heritage as a landowning family in South Carolina. The book is called Slaves in the Family. He knew for many years that his family history included owning five rice plantations around Charleston...")

("The Russian author Dostoevsky's greatest genius was the ability to give life to polemic philosophy. In his day, friendships, even marriages, were made and broken, and people became criminals or saints, all for the sake of ideas, as all Russia was consumed with the passion to define itself and to see its way forward. He wrote these words...")

("The band of guerillas had nearly completed their rescue mission. They had located the princess and secured her release from prison. Relying on the brazenness of the smuggler Hans Solo and the technological skills of R2D2 the band had maneuvered through the enemy ship to their spacecraft..." and other illustrations)

("I have shared with you before parts of my experience of adopting Nora. A part of that story that I have never shared with you is the night that Vickie and I received a phone call from our adoption agency saying that the adoption was off. For reasons that are still unclear, we were told that the Russian courts had not cleared Nora for adoption and that she might not ever be cleared...")

("A Chinese Lord was pleased with his fine garden. He was delighted with its towering bamboo tree. Every time he passed it by the bamboo would sway and bow down low in homage. One day the Lord spoke to the tree: Bamboo, I have a favor to ask of you'. The bamboo bowed even lower: 'I am your servant. I will do whatever you ask'...")

("At our Overnight Retreat, I was reminded of Erica Jong's book Fear of Flying. It was one of the first books I read after coming back to the U.S. for college. My English professor loved poetry and tried in every way possible to imbue us with this love as well. In the course of teaching us a poem, he referred to Erica Jong's book and on seeing some blank faces, including, mine, he recommended that we read it...")

("On September 9, 2001, I boarded a plane from my home in Atlanta and headed for New York City. I was about to spend time with a group of close friends and colleagues at a gathering in Manhattan. The plane had mechanical trouble and, eventually, we turned around and headed back to Atlanta....")

("Now anybody who has seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, can appreciate how the arrival of a bunch of Greek people on your doorstep can be an exciting moment! I’m not sure all Greeks are like the flamboyant members of the Portokalis family…but I sure hope so!...")

("'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse!' And with those words, Clement Moore became a household name, and The Night Before Christmas became a highly valued seasonal tradition that is recited in millions of homes every year...")

("The movie Cinderella Man takes place in the depths of the Great Depression. Boxer Jim Braddock's family, like so many others, is living in poverty. He gets up early one morning hoping to get a shift at the dock. He gets ready to sit down and eat a meager breakfast, prepared by his wife, Mae. Jim gets up and wonders where his wife has put his socks...")

("Years ago a boy had a crush on girl in his high school freshman class named Laura Mae. It was a farm community and everybody planted gardens. They also protected them with scarecrows. Each family tried to make its scarecrow the most lifelike and original..." and other illustrations)

"Max Cleland was a typical Southern boy. He starred in sports, was voted his high school’s most outstanding senior, and volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam. One month before heading for home, Lt. Cleland saw a grenade on the ground that somebody had apparently dropped..."

"Cheryl continually complained that she didn’t make enough money, couldn’t afford the things she wanted, and therefore, wasn’t ever going to amount to anything. Her counselor said to her, "You’re throwing your energy away complaining instead of using it to get ahead..."

("I have lived for 12 years with a chronic illness called Crohn’s Disease, and my thoughts turned to how this disease may wreck havoc on me as I age. I realized that I have not worked out for 3 months and I better get to the gym and take care of myself...")

("A few Lenten seasons ago, my friend Ed Covert put up three crosses draped in black on the front lawn of St. Stephen's Episcopal and received a dozen calls complaining that the crosses made the neighborhood look bad...")

("A Sunday School teacher was honored one Sunday by her church for 25 years of faithful service in teaching the young people of that parish. She was honored with a plaque and a pin describing her faithful service, her dedication and the love she gave so generously to her students. When asked to speak, she said, 'I am surprised you would honor me this way...")

("Max Lucado once asked: 'Does a mother go through the pain of birthing a child and then leave it at the hospital? Does a father go through all the work of filing for adoption and then leave the child at the orphanage?' He then asks the question, 'Will God sacrifice His Son to save you and then not take care of you?' The answer is clearly 'No'. Even in the darkest of times, the hardest of situations, God pours out His blessings on each of us..." and several more)

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(Poetic Homily by Michael Kennedy)