St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
The Fifth Sunday of Lent
2 April 2006
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St. George's Episcopal Church |
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Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 119:9-16
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--’Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (John 12:20-33)
Left Brain to Right Brain
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
How many Charismatics does it take to change a light bulb? Five. One to change the bulb and four to bind the spirit of darkness in the room.
How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb? None. God has predestined when the lights will be on.
How many TV evangelists does it take to change a light bulb? One. But for the message of light to continue, send in your donation today.
How many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb? None. They like candles better.
How many Southern Baptists does it take to change a light bulb? About 16,000,000. However, they are badly divided over whether changing the bulb is a fundamental need or not.
How many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb? Four. One to change the bulb. One to bless the elements. One to pour the sherry. And one to offer a toast to the old light bulb.
How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? CHANGE!?!? CHANGE!?!? My great grandmother gave that light bulb to this church!
Okay, before you start emailing me telling me this old joke is in poor taste, let me assure you that it is not meat to insult anyone. The Presbyterian I got this joke from said, “ We Presbyterians are still waiting to hear what our answer should be from the committee our elders appointed to decide this issue.”
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors …” (Jer 31:31-33). These words from the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Israel must have seemed blatantly ridiculous. Change?! Change?! God made this covenant with us!
Imagine that your doctor called you up on the phone and said, “Well, Bill, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that you’ll die in a month. But the good news if you change your lifestyle, right now and for the rest of your life, you’ll live a long and happy life.” Would you do it? It sounds like a no-brainer. But in fact the odds are about nine to one that you won’t make the change.
Of course we would all say we’ll make the changes needed, and in fact many of us would begin making those changes right away. But it wouldn’t be long before our enthusiasm wore off and we slid back into the old habits. I smoked for a number of years. And I always said that I would stop smoking the minute my child was born. And when she was born I said, the time had come. But in reality, she was at least nine years old before I finally quit. People who have had bypass surgery are told to change their lifestyle, quit smoking, and to change their diets. But multiple studies have shown that in just two years after the surgery, 90 percent of patients have not significantly altered their behavior. Change is just too tough.
I am reading a book right now called, “It’s (Mostly) His Fault” a book about how most problems in relationships are caused by the man. Each chapter recommends specific changes that men can make in their behavior to slowly become more relational. The author of the book, psychologist Robert Alter, knows that change is not easy. He warns his male readers that this “will involve changing ourselves. To get men to change ourselves – even to think that we need to change ourselves – is the very definition of heavy lifting … It involves some time. There’s a lot of stuff to unlearn and a lot of stuff to learn, some bad habits to break … and it takes some time to get through all of that.”[1]
Changing behavior is a huge item in business. Corporations spend millions of dollars each year on consultants to bring in new practices and promote change, but these changes are often short-lived or rejected out of hand. And in the church change can be very difficult; like changing a light bulb that was given to the church by a founding family many generations ago, or cutting pews in half to accommodate people with disabilities such as we have done here.
John Kotter, a professor at the Harvard Business School says the key to change is the right half of the brain. The left-brain, right-brain theory suggests that the two different sides of the brain control two different “modes” of thinking, and that each of us prefers one mode over the other. The left brain is the logical half. It thinks sequentially, rationally, analytically, and is objective. The right brain is more random, intuitive, holistic, subjective, and does much of the synthetic thinking.
The school environment tend to favor left-brain modes of thinking, while downplaying the right-brain ones. Left-brain scholastic subjects focus on logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy. Right-brained subjects, on the other hand, focus on aesthetics, feeling, and creativity.
Kotter, the Harvard business professor, suggests that true success in changing behavior results from speaking to people’s feelings. Dean Ornish, a physician involved in preventative medicine, takes this a step further. He helps patients tap into their emotions in order to use “joy” to motivate change rather than “fear.” He believes that finding positive reasons for living, for example, are more likely to produce real changes in behavior than the fear induced by hearing, “If you don’t change your behavior, you will die soon, and you will die horribly.” Alter, the author of the relationship book I’m reading would agree. He would say that making these changes will produce a joyful relationship and give the man the woman of his dreams.
So people, and institutions, need to reframe their thinking to be more right brained. How do we do that?
Christians who are attentive to their faith already know the answer. It is by story telling. In order to make people change, they really need a story to provide an identity – a relationship – that is resonates emotionally with them. The prophet Jeremiah speaks God’s message to the people seeking to get them to reframe the experience of a people notoriously resistant to change by offering them not another set of rules – which would have appealed to their left brains – but rather a relationship which has appeal to the right brain.
God’s frozen chosen – which is to say you and me – are resistant to change. The story of the exodus shows us this over and over again. The people were delivered from one kind of problem or another, but each time they grumbled and complained. After the nations had settled the land, the people wanted to be like their pagan Canaanite neighbors and have gods and temples like them; that was the dominant frame of the day. Prophets like Jeremiah pointed out the problems with this kind of thinking.
The Sinai covenant that governed human behavior suited left brained thinking. Instead of being like their pagan neighbors, they were told to have no other gods except Yahweh, a god who didn’t even have a name other than “I am who I am.” The covenant was full of facts, rules, regulations. It was a left brained thing.
In time, it seems as if God chose another approach; a right brained approach. Instead of providing another prescription or rule book, God said that God would put God’s law within us; that God would write the law on our hearts.” This means that God’s desire will be in our hearts, our emotions, our hopes and dreams. God updated the covenant, and made it more about relationship than about rules. No longer would we know about God as an external agent calling for our obedience, but rather we would know God with our hearts.
The gospel stories and the letters of Paul tell us about the life of Jesus. Those stories provide the necessary reframing for human beings to experience God in a more relational way.
In the gospel story for today from John “some Greeks” asked to see Jesus. These “Greeks” were to the Johannine community, people who didn’t know Jesus. They were pagans who were probably seeking Jesus in order to seek favors from him like they sought favors from the gods found in one temple or another. They were like the Pharisees who always pressed Jesus for the rules. But Jesus called people to engage God through relationship rather than through religious ritual. Jesus painted a picture of a future – the kingdom of God – that was filled with joy for those who could be transformed in this way. Change, for Jesus was a viable option; it was what transformed death into life.
Jesus calls to us to embrace another story; a story in which God’s love for us will truly be written on our hearts. God wants us to know God, not argue about what we think we know about God. God’s word calls for us to move from the left brain to the right brain, from our heads to our hearts, from cognition to communication, from religion to relationship. Everything Jesus taught, preached, and did was about relationship. And it was about an enduring, meaningful relationship; one that is internal rather than external; that is lasting rather than passing; one that is not subject to the viscissitudes of history; and one that is not subject to change without notice.
Are you ready to embrace a lasting relationship with God? The good news is that God is always ready to embrace you.
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The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
9 How can young people keep their way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;
do not let me stray from your commandments.
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I may not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O LORD;
teach me your statutes.
13 With my lips I declare
all the ordinances of your mouth.
14 I delight in the way of your decrees
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts,
and fix my eyes on your ways.
16 I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--’Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] Robert Mark Alter. It’s (Mostly) His Fault. New York, NY: Time Warner Books, 2006. p. 10.
The Mission of St. George’s Episcopal Church is to lead people to love Jesus, and, through worship and scripture, to become empowered as a servant body – to each other, to our community, and to the world. For information about St. George’s Episcopal Church and its life and mission, please contact us at 1024 Southeast Cass Avenue , Roseburg, OR 97470 or by phone at (541) 673-4048 or (541) 680-3465. Contact Bill by email at wgstroop@earthlink.net and visit our church at http://www.roseburgchurch.net |
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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
30 March 2006
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