Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.
Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"
Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
The psalmist sings, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my heart longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God. When can I go & meet with God?” The idea that the human soul was made to long for God, to desire union with our Maker is a common theme in Christianity. Saint Augustine was quite a heathen and accomplished sinner before he changed teams to join the church. In his classic Confessions, he begins, “I searched, I read, I wanted. I, I, I.” Later he sums it up this way, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts cannot find rest until they rest in you”. C.S. Lewis in his autobiography, “Surprised by Joy” testifies that as far back as he can remember, desire for God. This desire could not be fulfilled through any earthly means. Human beings have by nature, by design a desire, a hunger for something that transcends the whole of creation. The crux of the argument is that we have a craving for fulfillment, yearning for wholeness that cannot and will not be realized, found or fabricated in this life by worldly means.
Scripture suggests that this is just the way things are post- Fall, when sin entered the world. Paul writes, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not of its own will but by the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay, and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”. Translation: Until Jesus comes in glory all we get are occasional glimpses of that glory, moments of grace. We have our trivial pursuits, assorted idols, and worldly addictions. We pursue them as if they will give us soul satisfaction, cling to them as if they are our spiritual lifeboat, & use them to control or cover-up pain.
The Apostle Paul strikes me as an ultra-addictive personality. The old Pharisee was parading his pedigree. Hooked on religion before getting hooked by Jesus. Looking good by leading goon squads to crush the Christians. Addictions are a part of every life. My family has a history of alcoholism that has been destructive. As a preface to the Ten Commands, God says, “I, the Lord God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” I used to not get that, seemed unfair, punitive of God to penalize the next generations for the previous generation’s corruption. But, it is simply the way the world works by God’s design. We are connected, interdependent, so what others have done impacts us. Legacy is good/bad- blessing/curse. Alcoholism-toxic relationships & patterns.
In the church we have plenty of addictive personalities. In pastoral training, you receive some basic tools for triage when it comes to serious addictions. In my experience, addictions are just as prevalent inside the church as outside. We just talk about it less and feel the need to hide it more. Addiction is a habitual repetition of excessive behavior that a person is unwilling or unable to stop, despite harmful consequences. Addicts feel the constant need to feed that addiction. For many, it becomes a way to exercise illusory control. Cover-up pain or hide a deeper issue.
I am not a pastoral counselor and not here to promote twelve-step programs. Yet, I have received healing from Christ through both pastoral counseling and attending an Adult Children of Alcoholics group. They are therapeutic but not for salvation. The sheer number of addictions and the vertical descent addicts experience in their personal compulsions is startling. Shopping, alcohol, TV, food, church, hoarding, work. Anything can be an addiction. God’s gifts can become idols, god-substitutes. In China, they have such serious problems with internet addiction that parents feel they have no choice but to send their children to a secluded military compound. One parent said she sent her 12-year old son because he would beat and bite her in the morning after she made the computer off-limits. A Promise Keepers survey reported that 53 % of its members had consumed pornographic materials. Christianity Today talked about sexual addiction among Christians. The current epidemic has caused the churches to respond with support groups like Operation Integrity and Pure Life Ministries. Women & men are seeking safe places where they can be honest about their struggles, level with others about their lack of control, find hope for healing.
William Willimon tells the story of trying to encourage a recovering alcoholic who was visiting his parish to join the fellowship. The man responded, “Pastor, I go to Alcoholics Anonymous. My life was almost destroyed by my drinking. The people there know my failures and have seen how unmanageable my life has become. Then they have held me accountable instead of just pitying me. Having been through all that with those people, what does your church have to challenge me?” The Alban Institute echoes this critique, “As a denomination, the Lutheran church is unprepared and ill-equipped to reach out to non-Christians and engage them in any process of spiritual transformation. Pastors are trained as spiritual nurturers, rather than catalysts in any process of transformation in the lives of individuals.” Lutheran & other congregations have the attitude that we want everything to get better, but nothing to change. What does the church have to offer the discontented and distracted? How can we hope to challenge a world of addiction and apathy? Where people pursue pleasure or wealth or power or status to escape or find God?
To reaffirm, God’s gifts of food, work, relationships, medicine, sexuality, church, and alcohol are still good. WE make them gods & idols instead of the living God. Lowering our expectations is a beginning. Our enjoyment & embrace of them, will always involve a measure of discontentment and disappointment. So what, if anything new, does the church have to offer the world that God has not given already to us? Jeremiah 31 is arguably the only Hebrew Scripture mention of the New Testament. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.” Turns out in Christ, God is busy pursuing us.
Robert Capon writes, “The human race is, was and probably always will be deeply unwilling to accept a human messiah. We don’t want to be saved in our humanity, we want to be fished out of it. We crucified Jesus, not because he was our God, but because he blasphemed: He claimed to be God and then failed to come up to our standards for assessing the claim. Jesus was not what the one we were looking for, the gospel was not the way of salvation we even wanted. Our kind of Messiah would come down from a cross & carry around a folding phone booth. He wouldn’t do a stupid thing like rising from the dead. He would do a smart thing like never dying”.
Jeremiah says, “The time is coming”. Jesus says, “The hour has come”. Jeremiah says, “They will all know me from the least of them to the greatest.” Jesus says, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” Lifted up means two things: Ascended as ruler and raised up on the cross. It is the latter I want to emphasize here.
Not lifted up as up, up, and away like Superman (back to the phone booth image). But lifted up, moving into the heart of our violence, cruelty, sin, addiction, sorrow.
The surprise is God is pursuing, seeking, sacrificing, & ultimately desiring us. In his Confessions, Augustine the heathen who started out with I searched, I read, I wanted (I, I, I) ends his volume with “You came, you touched me, you spoke. You, you, you. In C.S. Lewis “Surprised by Joy” before he is done searching Lewis realizes that the object that he has been pursuing has been pursuing him. Paul with the addictive personality says looking back in Philippians, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”. We stand at the threshold of Calvary. Next week is Holy Week. We enter the Passion of Our Lord. Let this be our working definition of the gospel. God deeply desires us and will do anything to get to us, even death on a cross. That is the game-changer.
Last weekend I received a call from a friend, “Just wanted to let you know I am at the NCAA regional in Portland live.” That same day I was hold up in my study, listening and straining to see the same game on our back-up 8-inch TV that my buddy saw live. That’s how many of us view the world & elect to live our lives.
We want life without risk, to be in control, to stay safe and sequestered, watching the world on an 8-inch screen. But, God in Christ comes to us, after us, & for us. So we may know the Almighty in person from the least to the greatest. So we may be fully alive, in fellowship, forever forgiven. God has changed the game in Jesus.
In Twelve-Step groups people often introduce themselves by saying, “My name is Chuck. I’m an alcoholic.” It is a way of breaking through denial and embracing the truth of brokenness. In the church maybe we should greet each other, “My name is Chuck. I am a sinner.” Scripture says we gather like Sinners Anonymous. You and I need to acknowledge our identity as a sinner. But there are other words you and I need to speak & hear. “I am the beloved of God. I am chosen & forgiven by God.”
Return to Top
