John 12:20-33<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April 2, 2006<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Oscar night, we hear commentators say something like this, \u201cAfter years of struggle to make it big in the movies, she has at last achieved fame and fortune. This film has really given her success. This is her glorious hour!\u201d She rises from her seat and walks up to the stage in glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How about the many soon awaited graduation and commencement ceremonies? After years of study and exams, this is the hour when the graduates walk across the stage beaming in glory of receiving their diplomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or maybe the hour of glory is at the retirement party given for you after you have worked at one place for many years. You\u2019ve seen others accomplished this feat before and never thought that now after years of dedicated service; it\u2019s your hour of glory to receive that coveted gold pocket watch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hours of glory; and yet, Jesus\u2019 peculiar hour of glory was that time from noon until three when he hung on the cross. There were no applause, no cheers, and no mortar-boards in the air or gold pocket watches when it was Jesus\u2019 hour on the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s Scripture speaks about Jesus\u2019 glory. What does it mean for Jesus to be in his glory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fox-Hole Conversions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When World War II ended in the 1940s, America experienced a huge upsurge in the Christian movement. Churches were built, church attendance soared, and American Christians, particularly American Protestant Christians, enjoyed an unprecedented season of religious vitality. Those were truly our glory days, our great hour of glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were surely many reasons for this upsurge. But some sociologists of religion think that one reason was the old \u201cthere are no atheists in the foxhole syndrome.\u201d During the war years, many Americans had been thrown into desperate, difficult circumstances. Some were literally cast on the battlefields of Europe or the Pacific. Others had to cope with difficult circumstances at home. When the going gets rough, our intellectual reservations wilt, faith flames bright, and we believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This past week\u2019s SF Chronicle<\/em> featured a series on the \u201cWar Without End\u201d where we get a chance to understand the over 17,000 wounded and disabled American veterans of the war in Iraq. We met two who have loss limbs. They returned as heroes in their home communities but are struggling with the rebuilding of their lives with spouses and children. After such horrific injuries in the foxholes, many return with a faith in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We know that foxhole conversions can be short-lived and religious vitality wanes. We know that when the sun shines brighter and the weather is fairer, we tend to leave behind our faith. But we also know that some people continue to truly experience the real presence of Christ in their lives after they have experienced difficult and tragic times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes in life, when we are at the end of our rope, when we have hit bottom, when there\u2019s no glory to be found, it is there that we truly experience the real presence of Christ, the genuine grace of God. Though we may experience brighter days, we do not forget the truth that we experienced in the difficult days of darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fruit in the Bottom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s like Dannon yogurt. When you get to the bottom of the cup is where you\u2019ll find the tasty fruit. It\u2019s like the \u201cdrumstick ice cream cone.\u201d When you have gotten through the ice cream sprinkled with walnuts and eaten down the sugar cone is when you discover dark chocolate at the bottom of the cone. When we get to the bottom is when we may truly experience the best of the yogurt or the ice cream cone or perhaps the meaning of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was an old man fishing from the bank of the pond. A little boy suddenly jumps into the pond and panics. The little boy thrashes about in the water, crying out, \u201cHelp me! Help me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The old man continues to sit on the bank and watch his fishing line bob up and down, undisturbed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The little boy continues to cry out, \u201cHelp me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally the old man says, \u201cBoy, put down your feet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pond is only two or three feet deep. The little boy does so, touches the bottom, and easily walks to the shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes when we hit bottom, when we sink down or walk through the shadow of death is precisely when we learn to fear no evil, where we discover, maybe for the first time in our lives, the grace of God in Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Psalm 23 speaks of walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Some of you know what it means to walk through that somber valley. And yet, the gloominess of those tears is not unrelieved. The psalmist says that in the valley, \u201cI will fear no evil.\u201d Even there, especially there, God is with the troubled, comforting, and present with us. \u201cThou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the bottoms of life, we can truly find the presence of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peculiar Glory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In John\u2019s gospel message for us today, we see a peculiar kind of glory. The world\u2019s definition of glory is to win the Best Actress award or receive our diplomas or get that gold pocket watch after working all your life. Being in glory is to stand out above the crowd and shine in the radiant spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jesus said, \u201cThe hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified,\u201d but it would mean something quite different from the world\u2019s definition of glory. Jesus\u2019 peculiar glory is that only when a grain falls into the earth and dies would it be able to bear fruit. Jesus\u2019 peculiar glory is that if you love your life, you\u2019ll lose it and unless you stop following the ways of the world, you won\u2019t have your life in eternal life. And this peculiar glory calls us to follow Jesus who gives glory to God his Father. We are his servants so wherever he is, we must also be. This is a very peculiar kind of glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\u2019 glory is nothing like the world\u2019s glory. Jesus speaks of his hour of glory is when his soul is troubled. Jesus wanted his Father to save him from this hour of suffering on the cross. But a voice like thunder came from heaven, God said, \u201cI have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.\u201d Only when Jesus is lifted up from the earth will he be able to draw all the people to him. When Jesus is lifted up on the cross in this peculiar glory that the world does not understand is when he is glorified by God for us. His descent is his ascent. His degradation is his greatest glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In God\u2019s Glory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many times I have attempted to comfort people going through some great distress in their lives\u2014a life threatening illness, a marital disillusion, or some other tragedy\u2014only to be surprised to see that in the valley of death, they were closer to God than they have ever been before. Such declarations sound at first like mere wishful thinking or whistling in the dark. But maybe it takes the dark in order to truly see. Maybe these people are simply saying that when they hit bottom, they found out that down at the bottom, God was waiting for them. They found out that they hit bottom, not into oblivion, but into the embrace of a loving God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Long tells of a haunting story that we can identify. After graduating from seminary, this new pastor was called to a small church, small enough for her to set the goal for herself to visit every family on the church roll in her first six months. At the end of six months, she had almost done it. She has visited every family but one. \u201cThey haven\u2019t been here in two years,\u201d people said. \u201cDon\u2019t bother; they aren\u2019t coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had set her goal, though, and so one afternoon she drove out to their house. Only the wife was at home; she poured cups of coffee and they stayed at the kitchen table and chatted. They talked about this; they talked about that; then they talked about it. Two-and-a-half years earlier, she had been at home with their young son. She was vacuuming in the back room, had not checked on him in a while, so she snapped off the vacuum, went into the den and did not find him. She followed his trail across the den, through the patio door, across the patio, to the swimming pool, where she found him. \u201cAt the funeral, our friends at the church were very kind. They told us it was God\u2019s will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The minister put her cup down on the table. Should she touch it, or should she not? She touched it. \u201cYour friends meant well, I am sure, but they were wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI mean that God does not will the death of children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman\u2019s face reddened, and her jaw set. \u201cThen whom do you blame? I guess I blame me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t blame you. I don\u2019t want to blame God, either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThen how do you explain it?\u201d she said, her anger rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t explain it. I don\u2019t understand why such things happen, either. I only know that God\u2019s heart broke when yours did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman had her arms crossed, and it was clear that this conversation was over. The minister left the house kicking herself thinking, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I leave it alone?\u201d A few days later the phone rang; it was she. \u201cWe don\u2019t know where this is going, but would you come out and talk with my husband and me? We have assumed that God was angry at us; maybe it\u2019s the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This minister like all of us is sometimes hesitant to touch those difficult, tragic, dark and uncertain times of life. We want to pretend that everything is positive and okay. Maybe it\u2019s in these times that all the superficialness of life is peeled away. Maybe it is when our false consolations are exposed in the light that we are able to discover true consolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sunday morning, we often pray for good health, for prosperity, for safety and good things. And yet, according Scriptures, it is during the times of adversity, of tragedy, of hunger and need, of darkness and storm that people are met most by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps we ought to be praying, not that we will be relieved of all of our hunger, but that in our hunger, we shall find true nourishment. We ought to pray that in the storm we might find true shelter. We ought to pray that in the guilt-ridden nightmares that we have that we might dream of God\u2019s grace and reassurance that all is well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the sun goes down, and the sky becomes dark as midnight, we are surprised to see the glory of the stars. When we walk through that valley of the shadow of death, we lift up our eyes, we are comforted and we go on a new path of truth and righteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There, in the darkness, in the despair, we are able to see the peculiar glory of the Christian faith. We look up and see the glory of God who stoops to us in our need. Jesus Christ gets to the bottom where we are found to meet us at the cross and now reigns in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best Thing to Happen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We all have seen when shopping at a supermarket or getting a sandwich at a fast-food place that we often meet older people serving us. There\u2019 a story of just such a woman at 74 years old and still working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI never thought I would still be working at this age. But the company I worked for went broke two years before I retired. I lost every cent of my pension. With my medical expenses and my other responsibilities, I was forced to go back to work. To tell you the truth, it is the best thing that ever happened to me. I can\u2019t imagine myself just sitting at home doing nothing. I love it here. I can talk to all kinds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t you find that rather amazing? \u201cThis is the best thing that ever happened to me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes it\u2019s not the gold pocket watch that gives us glory. Sometimes it\u2019s really when we are at the bottom of life and we have to face up to some of those most horrible nightmares and times of our lives is when we also discover that God has always been there waiting for us to embrace us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What a peculiar kind of glory God is telling us. \u201cUnless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.\u201d Our Lord died on the cross so that when we find ourselves in the most distressing of circumstances, we can look up and see the glory of a God who stoops to us in our need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Precious Lord God, teach us to search for your glory in the darkest and most difficult times in our lives. Show us that these circumstances are not to be feared but instead you are using them to grant us an invitation to know you\u2014to have the reassurance that you are there to at the deepest bottom to embrace us and to save us. O God, we glorify your name for Jesus Christ has died for us so that we may have everlasting life. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John 12:20-33 April 2, 2006 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. On Oscar night, we hear commentators say something like this,