The radical inclusion of the Gospel.
SERMON for the 5th Sunday of Lent, 2024. Readings are Jeremiah 31.31–34 and John 12.20–33
A seed looks dead, but we know that if it is planted in the earth we can expect to see it spring to life in due course. Jesus is telling us in that metaphor what will happen to him: he will be dead and buried, then rise again. But he also tells us that, as a result of that new life, other grains will grow and multiply. It is no small thing: the death of Jesus is not merely the death of one man, it is the taking on of evil: the saving of the whole world, putting sin itself to death, burying it, so that resurrection life may come in its place.
Greeks appear saying, “We want to see Jesus.” They have come to worship at the Jewish festival as Roman citizens. They are drawn to Judaism, rejecting the pick-and-mix Roman gods, and the spirit of their age. These Greeks did their best to follow the Law and Jewish customs, but they could not participate in temple worship or all the ritual requirements of the Jewish faith. They were Gentiles, outsiders, so there were very real, human barriers to their inclusion in worship and the communal life of God’s people. They were not part of the Covenant between God and Israel.
But long before this scene, Jeremiah wrote of the limitations of this covenant. One side of the deal was to be a holy nation, called to be the light of the world. But the human heart falls short: they did not live as a holy nation. So Jeremiah is given a new message: God will enter into a new covenant, a new promise, written on the heart, a covenant which goes beyond the letter of the Law. Today’s Gospel reveals how inclusive this new covenant, our covenant, really is.
The Greeks asking to see Jesus is a sign: the Holy Spirit is moving in hearts and minds, causing people to reject the spirit of the age, to yearn for change; their hearts are seeking God. This is a dramatic moment: Jesus’ response to the world knocking at his door is to set his face towards the cross and to call us to follow in his footsteps, and this will be to the glory of God. The grain of wheat will be dead and buried, then rise again and bear fruit.
The radical inclusion of the Gospel is plain to see: Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He performed miracles not just among the righteous and respectable but with outsiders: Gentiles, disabled people, soldiers of an occupying army, folk on the fringes of society. And each of these were drawn to Jesus, and went on their way praising God, and knowing who Jesus is.
Jesus tells his disciples that he will die on the cross to draw all people to himself. It is a calling to all humanity to repent, to have God’s law inscribed upon our hearts so we live in righteousness. It is a calling to turn the world upside down, to trample down the barriers of humanity and come together as disciples of Christ. Going back to our Prayer Candle – that is why the inclusion of people with impairments in our church and our society matters: it is a Gospel imperative, not an optional add on. This is why we pray today for tomorrow’s hearing at the UN when the UK government will answer to the international community for its violation of the 2009 Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons.
Impairment vs. Disability
Just to unpick language a moment: there is a difference between someone being impaired and someone being disabled. When the impaired do not have their impairment taken seriously and reasonable adjustments made so they can participate, that is the point at which they become disabled. Their impairment is something we cannot readily change. The word “disability” on the other hand means the lack of ability (dis-ability) to participate, so that is something we very often can do something about, and we must do something about it communally, both in church and in our society. Jesus rose to “new life – life in all its fulness”, so our goal should be human flourishing: participation together. Our church school, St Mary’s, has an excellent vision statement which draws deeply on this Gospel theme: “Together, we inspire and nurture so that everyone can flourish”. A great motto for a school, but it also sums up what it means to be the Church of God in this and every generation. We should aspire to be a place of welcome to everyone, so that all the modern equivalents of the Greeks who came to seek Jesus can seek him here, whatever their gender, race, impairment, disability, sexuality or socio-economic background. Like Jeremiah, our calling is to be prophets in our own generation: to cry out for justice for everyone, which tomorrow especially means justice for Deaf and Disabled people in the UK – to pray, and make a fuss to our elected representatives about it. To proclaim to everyone that they are loved by God, loved by us, and are precious in God’s sight and ours. This radical inclusion is not an optional extra to our faith. The love of God is everlasting and infinite. We are called to inherit what Jeremiah promised: to know God, and to have everything which keeps us from godly living forgotten – barriers to our flourishing struck from history.
God’s vision of inclusion
We are called to share that promise with our world, and to have God’s generous vision of inclusion, so that we preach the full Gospel of repentance and forgiveness of sins, of receiving God’s wholeness and healing, and of being transformed into God’s Holy people to stand against the divisive, unloving, mean-minded, unjust spirit of our age.
Our Diocesan vision, Living Christ’s Story has asked us to address how we reach people we currently don’t. It is an inclusive vision which we must grasp as a church community. I want people to know that they can encounter the love of God here, that they can meet Jesus here, that here is a safe space to turn to Christ and be transformed into the likeness of Christ. But we need to make sure we know that they are welcome, regardless of their age, gender, race, socio-economic background, sexuality, or disability.
May that Covenant, the Law of the Love of God revealed in Christ Jesus, which tramples human barriers and limitations into dust, be written on our hearts, and may we all be prophets of this inclusive covenant of grace in our world, to the glory of God. Amen.
Vicar of Villages 