Sermon: Grains, Growth and Grace.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.”

This sentence from the Gospel according to John speaks to us in so many and many ways.

It speaks about the ways of nature: of grains and growth, of soil and rain, of the small beginning in the small single grain or seed to the grand harvest of golden wheat, red apples, yellow oranges, or yellow mustard plants covering our green hills of Southern California.

It speaks about how magically and mysteriously one small seed, one small grain buried in the dark soil can grow into a harvest of abundance and grace. That the darkness in the soil will produce life and more.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.”

We do know that small seeds of love, faith and hope are planted and ingrained in us to grow with grace.

We also know that small seeds of misuse, misconduct, mistrust can grow into impossible, unbearable and miserable memories that disrupt and corrupt our lives.

We know how good things can grow with grace, and how terrible things can grow with fear.

We conclude almost every service with the words of the hymn:

 Lord, let my heart be good soil, open to the seed of your Word.

Lord, let my heart be good soil, where love can grow, and peace is understood.

A beautiful prayer asking God to make our hearts receptive and open not his Word, so that love can grow in us, and peace can be understood in our hearts.

When my heart is hard, break the stone away.

When my heart is cold, warm it with the day.

When my heart is lost, lead me on your way.

Lord, let my heart be good soil.

We ask that when our hearts and minds are hard and haughty, that God will break the stone and resistance away.

We ask that when our hearts are cold and wintry, that God will warm us like the sun warms the soil.

We ask that when our hearts are lost and lonely, that God will find us and lead us on the right path.

The hymn is inspired by the parable by Jesus “The parable of the Sower,” where Jesus taught that we as humans and as believers are to be like good soil that yield crop.

We know that we need small seeds of hope sown in us: small grains of hope and love that can fertilize and nourish growth.

We know that unless a seed, a grain, a word, a hope, a faith and a love is sown in us we remain hopeless, despairing and lonely.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.”

This sentence from John also speaks profoundly to us about Jesus as the center of our faith and hope. That he had to live and love and die to give life and hope.

This is a sentence that prepared the disciples for the coming dramatic easter days, - and it is sentence that prepares us for the celebration of Easter as we leave Lent behind today.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.”

The Anima Christi prayer (Soul of Christ sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me…) has for centuries been used by Catholics for private devotion and prayer after daily Mass and Communion. The Anima Christi prayer has been in use as far back as the 12th century.

Jesuit Father David Fleming did a contemporary translation of this famous prayer as part of his book, “Draw Me into Your Friendship.”

This is Father Fleming’s version of Anima Christi.

Jesus may all that is you flow into me. (1)

May your body and blood be my food and drink. (2)

May your passion and death be my strength and life. (3)

Jesus, with you at my side, enough has been given. (4)

May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your Cross. (5)

Let me not run from the love which you offer, (6)

But hold me safe from the forces of evil. (7)

On each of my dyings shed your light and your love. (8)

Keep calling to me until the day comes when, with your saints, I will praise you forever. (9)

 

The words of the prayer echoes images from John’s Gospel about the vine and the branches, institution of the Communion, the cross, and the trials of a life of gradual “letting go” in preparation to the final “letting go.”

On each of my dyings shed your light and your love. On each ending in our lives, every dream, hope, wound and wondering that will die in time, we ask Lord, shed your light and your love. So, the ending is not darkness and loneliness but light and love.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.”

 

It is St. Patrick’s Day and the middle of March Month: a time and a month marked with green, grains, growth and grace.

 Springtime is indeed a lovely time, and we sing about this springtime in so many of our songs and hymns. Springtime is a lovely time: and it collides with the wonderful hope of Easter.

Now the green blade rises.

From the buried grain,

Wheat that in the dark earth

Many days have lain.

Love lives again that with the dead has been.

Love has come again.

Like wheat arising green.

 

How this beloved Easter Hymn moves me every year. Love has come again like wheat arising green. This is a beautiful way of describing hope… specific our Christian hope. That the grain of wheat, Jesus Christ, had to fall into the earth and die, to give live and love and light to the world.

His life and his death and resurrection are the light and love shed on each of our dyings.

His life, his death and resurrection are the hope that gives us strength is this life of so many smaller endings and farewells. There are indeed so many small or bigger dyings or farewell in our lives: so many endings before the final Ending, so many farewells before the final Farewell, as Debie Thomas to beautiful wrote in her essay: “Each of my dyings.”

 The gradual farewell to childhood, the ending of our first love, the farewell to innocence and simplicity; the dying of parents and beloved family members, the consistent dying of memories and recollections, - the dying of the life we knew, the farewell to yesterday and yester year.

We do know that our lives start as a small seed, a small grain, a small child…. Our beginning is a small seed planted in the darkness of the womb of our mothers, only to burst into light and into a full life and full human being. And we know that our life in time has a limit and an end.

 

On each of my dyings shed your light and your love.

As we walk into Easter Week, we walk with hope that through Palm Sundays Triumph, through Maundy Thursday heartfelt supper and deep fellowship, Through Good Fridays Cross – we eventually celebrate Easter Morning with hope that on each of our dyings, each on our lives God sheds his light and love.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain.

Let us prepare to celebrate Easter with joy and hope and pray: 

Jesus may all that is you flow into me.

May your body and blood be my food and drink.

May your passion and death be my strength and life.

Jesus, with you at my side, enough has been given.

May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your Cross.

Let me not run from the love which you offer,

But hold me safe from the forces of evil.

On each of my dyings shed your light and your love.