Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 3/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is John 12:20-33 . The twelfth chapter of John is the conclusion of what is called the gospel ’ s  “ book of signs. ”  Signs are prevalent throughout the first section of John ’ s gospel. Now we come to the bridge, as we transition to the second part, called the  “ book of glory. ” This portion of John ’ s gospel provides us with a sensual feast. The senses of sight and hearing are employed by John as we are encouraged to follow Jesus.  First of all, the Greeks want to see Jesus. Seeing means more than getting a simple glimpse of him from afar. They want to meet Jesus and to speak with him. This begs the question, just who are these Greeks? They may either be people who had converted to Judaism from another religion and so came to Jerusalem to worship or they may have been Jews that lived in gentile areas like the Apostle Paul did. We don ’ t know for sure. At any r...

This is the message I shared with St. Timothy Lutheran Church this past Sunday. The sermon was slightly modified for St. Mark's . The scripture was John 12:20-33. In today's gospel, once again we see Jesus acting in an unexpected way. Unlike the previous weeks of grumpy, angry Jesus, today Jesus just seems to be rude. John tells us about some Greeks who wanted to see Jesus. They were in Jerusalem for the feast, so they were not pagans. They were likely Jewish proselytes, converts to Judaism. First they talked to Philip and then Philip talked to Andrew and then Philip and Andrew talk to Jesus. Jesus responded to the Greeks by saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified..." What  in the world does that mean and how does it have anything to do with the Greeks' desire to meet with Jesus? Prior to this, in John's gospel, Jesus kept saying that his hour had not yet come, even when his life was threatened. ...