I wonder if you have heard either of these…
How many televangelists does it take to change a light bulb?
One.
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And how about this one?
Two men working in a factory were talking. ‘I know how to get some time off,’ said one. ‘How are you going to do that?’ ‘Watch,’ he said, and climbed up onto a rafter. When the foreman arrived and asked what he was doing up there, the man replied, ‘I’m a light bulb.’ ‘I think you need some time off,’ the foreman said, and the first man walked out of the factory. After a moment, the second man followed him. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ the foreman shouted. ‘Well, I sure can’t work in the dark!’ he replied.
Clever, isn’t it? But how true! We sure can’t work in the dark, even though we try. We are often a people who try walking in the darkness – who choose the familiarity of the darkness of the world to the startling light of God. This is where we find the people of Israel in our lesson from Jeremiah today. We find the prophet walking with God’s people in exile. A people who are dispirited and beaten down, a people who mess up and forget to walk in God’s way, a people who choose to walk away from God at times. This covenant is given not to God’s perfect people, but rather to Israel, Northern and Southern kingdoms, who miss the mark with God. God declares that God will be their God and they will be God’s people. The laws will be written on their hearts. The way of God will be so innate that it will not even need to be taught. This is not the first covenant that God makes with God’s people, but it is described as the new covenant. The result of this covenant is that EVERYONE will know God. Not just a few, but everyone. This covenant is the result of a whole community, a whole way of being, choosing to walk in the light. This is a promise for the future, God’s way forward. But this is not necessarily an easy choice to walk in the light.
In fact, our Gospel lesson reminds us of the cost of this discipleship. In Jesus’ final discourse to the disciples, he is preparing them for the events of his last week, which are soon to come. It is already next week, that you and I will wave palm branches with the faithful and shout crucify him with those who would chose Barabbas. Jesus calls his disciples, the ones walking with him towards Jerusalem and those of us who seek to follow him today, to follow him. Jesus calls us to walk in the light – his light, the light of his life.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending some time with our confirmands. Our confirmands are at Gretna Glen, one of our four United Methodist camps, this weekend. Gretna Glen is located just outside of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. As part of their confirmation retreat at camp, they learned about the membership vows that they will be taking on May 24th in front of all of you. These are the same vows that you all take with membership – that you will be faithful to God and to the church with your prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. They were living out their commitment to service by spending time serving in mission. Our confirmands were taken to Discipleship House at Jubilee Ministries in Lebanon.
Jubilee Ministries is an aftercare program and ministry supporting men and women who have been in jail. It was birthed from the prayer of Mennonite women in the late 1970s praying about how they could stay faithful to Jesus’ instructions to care for those in prison. Their mission is to provide Christian discipleship to those incarcerated or in after-care programs who are committed to seeking reconciliation with God and establishing a personal, growing relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. As the confirmands cleaned windows, dusted woodwork, and vacuumed living spaces, the group got to hear some of the stories of those living there. In the Discipleship House, the men living there were committed to breaking the cycle of addiction and re-incarceration through a rigorous and structured program of work, classes, one-on-one counseling, and commitment to the ideals of the Christian life.
We talked at length with a particular gentleman. This man described the cycle of his life of making poor choices, getting caught up in addiction and incarceration, and not being able to do it on his own. He said without reserve that he needed the structure and the support in order to attempt to stay clean and following God’s way for his life. He had tried it on his own a couple of times and he said he stayed away from his bad choices, his temptations for about a year and a half, before he found himself back in the cycle. He needed the structure of others, the accountability, responsibility, and support if he was going to keep his walk in the light.
It is not just true for this man and former inmates; it is true for you and me as well. We need others to help us to keep choosing our walk in the light. The infinitive of the verb, walk, declares that it is something that you and I must keep doing. In order to walk, our feet must keep moving. In order to walk, we cannot assume that we have already completed it, so we will not need to do it again. It is not that we decided once, years ago, that we would walk in the light of Jesus. It is something that we decide each and every day that we will choose again to walk in the light of Jesus. It is indeed from a privileges and skewed perspective that you and I begin to feel comfortable and imagine that we chose to follow Jesus once and from there on out, all of our choices will follow Jesus by trajectory. We need others to help us to keep choosing our walk in the light.
As we celebrate Scout Sunday, I find myself filled with gratitude for the important effects of scouting on the life of many. The ministry of scouting for boys and for girls seeks to provide structure and support through growing up years, so that children and youth may walk in the light, in childhood and their adult days. I can remember as a young girl saying with pride these words, “On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the girl scout law.” Even as an elementary school student, we talked at length with our leaders about how living this out was not something that we only accomplished when we gathered in the school cafeteria on Thursday afternoons. This was rather it was a choice we made, every time that we saw someone who needed our help, every time that we thought about walking by instead of helping, responding cruelly, instead of kindly, or serving our communities, instead of merely playing with our friends.
And as it is with our boy scouts as well. They could lead us handily in a recitation of the scout law – a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. This is more than recitation, I know. I have observed our scouts, here and elsewhere, live out their commitment to being kind to others, to be courteous in the ways in which they interact with their neighbors, to be reverent to God and God’s people, and much more. Our boy scouts support our ministries with their support in moving chairs, setting up tables, directing cars, and greeting visitors. Most scouts I know are quick to point out this choice to follow the scout’s law is a lifelong one. A lifelong choice in which the choice to walk in the light of God is a daily and important selection.
As we were leaving the Discipleship House yesterday, the man who was trying to walk the narrow path pulled me aside. He asked me if I thought that any of our confirmands were at risk, were any of them in trouble, were any of them walking in a path of darkness? I reflected for a moment with the compassion and intensity of his question. He was impressed with the work ethic and commitment of our young people and found himself concerned for them. Not specifically, I said, but they, like you, need to be surrounded with others who are walking in the light. So, my friends, for our youth and for our scouts, for our children and grandchildren, and for ourselves, let us walk in the light of God, reflecting the goodness and mercy of God into the darkness of the world.
This is the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
New Testament Lesson: Jeremiah 31: 27-34
The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord. In those days they shall no longer say:“The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.
A New Covenant
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.
Gospel Lesson: John 12:20-33
Some Greeks Wish to See Jesus
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.
Jesus Speaks about His Death
“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[a] to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.