April 6, 2003 - Lent 5

Sermon preached by The Reverend Armand John Kreft
Associate Rector for Family Ministry
Church of St Paul in the Desert, Episcopal
Palm Springs, California

There's a television show called "Unwrapped" and it's on the Food Channel. It shows how certain foods were invented and how they are made. The other evening it showed cake mixes. Betty Crocker invented cake mixes in 1948. The least successful mix was one in which you only had to add water to make the batter. It just didn't sell. When the company did a marketing survey, the reason it didn't sell was that it was too easy. People wanted to do something more than just add water. So they restructured the mix so not only did you add water, but you also had to add an egg. Sales rose dramatically because people felt they had something more to do with the mixture than just add water.

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it will never be more than one grain. But if it dies, it will produce a lot of wheat. Being a Christian isn't easy. We need to feel as if we have something to do with the process. Last week I said the only requirement to being a Christian is to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Easier said than done. We come here wanting to see Jesus. We have heard about Jesus and want to know him. We come to learn about him so we can serve him and tell others about him. But as his servants, we're suppose to go where he goes. It's easy to follow the resurrected Christ. It's easy to follow the Jesus who heals the sick and raises the dead. It's easy to follow the Jesus who walks on water and calms the storm. But it is very difficult to follow him when he's headed for the cross on Calvary. The people who hailed him as Messiah when he was out and about, cursed him when he was being crucified.

Here's where it gets difficult. If we wish to follow Jesus there are crosses in our future just as there was one in his. If we seek to be disciples of Jesus there are dark times ahead just as there were dark times for the first disciples. If we want the life that comes only through Jesus we must look beyond the present. That is as hard to accept now as it was back then. Because looking to the future requires hope and faith, and that is difficult when the present is in darkness. But Jesus offers us hope for the times of darkness. The light is with us now. Christ is here if we trust in the light we will become sons and daughters of the light. Then, when the darkness comes, we will not be left stumbling.

But the darkness is necessary. When the grain of wheat is planted in the ground, it is surrounded by darkness. That darkness is necessary in order for it to germinate, to produce new life, to send up shoots through the dark soil to bask in the nourishing light of the sun. Without the darkness, the grain would only die but not produce new growth. Darkness is necessary for the nutrients of the soil, as well as the support of the darkness in order to grow.

Not only does the grain of wheat send up shoots to the surface, it also sends down roots to hold it fast against the elements. Our spiritual life, our dedication, our commitment to living the life of Jesus is what roots us deep in the faith. The beautiful euculyptus trees are tall and slender but their roots are very shallow. In a wind storm many blow over. If we seek only a God who will make our lives easy, who will fix everything for us, we will be blown over by the events of life when God doesn't answer our prayers for the cross to pass us by. However, if we worship the God who created the universe, who loves us so much that he gave us his Son and who sends his Holy Spirit as our advocate and guide. A God who will never desert us or leaves us comfortless, a God who entered into our pain and sorrow and yet gave us hope again. If this is the God we walk with, then our roots will have dug deep into our darkest experience and still send out shoots to the light. For this is God who is not at our beck and call, but who calls us into his arms.

When we feel that God has abandoned us or when we are angry with God for not sparing us the darkness, it would be helpful to remember that the darkness is necessary for our personal growth. Darkness also brings us refreshing sleep. A time to end our ceaseless worries, our endless manipulations, our dashing about. A time to rest and rise with the dawn.

Most of the time in our darkness we look to our leadership, the progress of scientific discovery, the spread of knowledge rather than wisdom or drugs from our doctors and think that we can find the solutions to all our problems. But our hope for the light rests not in a system or a government or a philosophy, but in the cross of Christ.

From Annie Dillard's book, "Teaching a Stone to Talk": God needs nothing, asks nothing, and demands nothing, like the stars. It is life with God which demands these things....You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it." Darkness is necessary for us to welcome the light.

We want to feel as if we have a part in the process. When we go through some of life's hard trials, it is natural for us to center upon ourselves. Whether it is physical or mental anguish, personal pain tears us apart. God did not exclude himself from human suffering. He became one of us, in the person of Jesus, and shared with us all there is to share. Philip Yancey wrote, "God does not, in the comfortable surroundings of heaven, turn a deaf ear to the sounds of suffering on this groaning planet."

Even in the darkness of Jesus' life and ministry, he continued to heal the sick, feed the hungry, loved the unloved, taught the ignorant, and worked miracles amongst the people. Still the crowd shouted "crucify him!". And so he died that we might live.

When we are content and comfortable to stay in the darkness and shun the light, is when we have turned our back on the life to which Jesus calls us. A life of dying to self so that others may live.

For as surely as the night falls, the sun rises in the morning until that great day when the sun that rises will be the Son of Righteousness, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And joy comes in the morning.