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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align="left"><span>John 12 <font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">- </font></font>the sermon title "When a Grain of Wheat Falls" </span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Sermons for Lent 5</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John 12:20-33 - <strong>"When a Grain of Wheat Falls" </strong></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John 12:20-33 - <strong>"Get Out of Your Big Pick Up Truck"</strong> by Leonard Sweet</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Years ago, when the
Betty Crocker Company first began selling their cake mixes, they
offered a product which only needed water. All you had to do was add
water to the mix which came in the box, and you would get a perfect,
delicious cake every time.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It bombed. No one
bought it and the company couldn't understand why, so they commissioned a
study which brought back a surprising answer. It seemed that people
weren't buying the cake mix because it was too easy. They didn't want to
be totally excluded from the work of preparing a cake; they wanted to
feel that they were contributing something to it. So, Betty Crocker
changed the formula and required the customer to add an egg in addition
to water. Immediately, the new cake mix was a huge success.
Unfortunately, many people make the same mistake when it comes to
"packaging" or presenting the Christian religion. They try to make the
call of Jesus Christ as easy as possible because they're afraid people
won't "buy it" if it seems too hard.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Jesus said, unless a
grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single
seed. But if it dies it bears much fruit. Jesus then explained what he
meant. He said, "The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man
who hates his life in this world will keep it." It's true in life isn't
it? If we are going to get anything out of it we have to invest
ourselves in it. Do you remember the second to last album by the
Beatles? It was called "Abbey Road" and for my money it was their best.
The last song is a little musical reprise called "The End." It's the
last lyrical statement the Beatles make on the album. And it went, "And
in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The truth of this
is written in creation. It is evident for everyone to see. It even is
found in something as small as grain of wheat, a seed. Jesus said, </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>1. First, when a grain of wheat falls it dies.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>2. Second, when a grain of wheat falls it bears much fruit.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>3. Finally, Christ is the grain of wheat that dies and bears much fruit.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1056540614__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109568638444&s=45429&e=001Xb2fpMnkZaZK4zmhDGe8jPmINsVjkDsJmSHFCZPCCRymGNCJ63k3zHHB8HKswhJYv-WNe2LN9ty2hfbwl3uEM_6lgMEDmFZjWDf0tASkaYnews_feyWTrZfcKjjI9r2k">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_______________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The full text of the following sermon is available at <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1056540614__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109568638444&s=45429&e=001Xb2fpMnkZabJ1xk-JXZllYESLY7OlwypTSXB6E7gbXKdDA1NzSI2Nr-LpMJH-RVABDmbvXvvj44Ofs3HzKEXpkkBTXwqukugRF8D8wTJp4E=">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
</font></font></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"></font></font>John 12<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"> -</font></font> the sermon titled "Get Out of Your Big Pickup Truck" by Leonard Sweet </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A few years ago,
just before Thanksgiving, Tom Lind, a salesman from Montana, was making
his rounds, traveling his regular route along the southern Oregon coast.
As usual he was in his older model pickup, piggybacked with his small
camper. Looking to continue his route south and east, Lind made a
fateful spur-of-the-moment decision. He opted to take the scenic route.
Only a few miles on this blue highway, however, the elevation rose
rapidly and good ol' Oregon drizzle transformed into swirling
snowflakes. Tom was in his big pickup, so he kept going. But the snow
kept coming. Soon Tom found himself in the middle of a blizzard
whiteout. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Forced to pull
over, Tom stopped for the rest of the day. By nightfall his pickup was a
slightly discernible lump of white in a vast landscape of snow. Still
Tom wasn't terribly worried. He was in his big pickup Soon the
road-clearing crews would be along and would help him escape the cold
clutches that held him and his truck captive. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>What Tom didn't
realize was that the scenic route he had chosen was closed after the
first winter snowfalls. The Forest Service didn't maintain that road in
any way. They would not be coming up that way until spring thaw. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>But Tom didn't know
that. Convinced that someone would be along as soon as there was a
break in the weather, Tom determined to do the smart thing: stay in his
big truck. Avoid the risks of exposure or getting hopelessly lost in a
snow drift by hunkering down in his big truck. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>As soon as he
failed to arrive at his next sales appointment, family and friends,
state and local police forces began searching for Tom. No one thought to
venture up the little used, completely snow-blocked back track Tom had
chosen. When the weather cleared and blue skies and sun shone down on
Tom's trapped vehicle, the salesman opted to continue being smart and
safe: he stayed with his big truck. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It seems impossible
to understand now, but Tom stayed with that big truck for over eight
weeks. He kept a journal of his thoughts, his hopes, his fears, his
considered options. But still he sat in that big truck. Eventually he
grew too weak to have any real options anymore. By Christmas he couldn't
have walked out if he had wanted. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>At the end of
January a group of back-country skiers inadvertently came across Tom and
his safe haven big pickup truck. Tom's journal revealed he had finally
died sometime around January 15. His emaciated, dehydrated body was
still in his truck. In trying to minimize his risks, Tom thought he was
opting to stay safe. It turned out Tom was opting out of life. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Life is risky
business. Right now we may be focused on those who are standing at risk
as members of the armed forces. But the truth of creation is that all of
us stand in harm's way every day of our lives. We may no longer think
of ourselves as part of the food chain. But the truth is the mere fact
we're breathing puts us on the list to someday NOT be breathing. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Like Tom and his
big pickup truck, we may believe that seat belts, FDA regulations,
security alerts, and smoke detectors can keep us safe. But the truth is
we're fragile, fallible, fractured creatures whose lives are always
hanging in the balance. Every one of us is only one breath away from
eternity. Five seconds is all that separates us from forever. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Getting stuck on a
snowy road is an experience with which all of us can identify. So too is
the example Jesus gave his listeners of the wheat grain. Just as we're
(almost) all drivers, so was Jesus' audience almost all farmers. The
weaknesses and fallibilities of a car-the weaknesses and fallibilities
of a crop-these are common, personal, everyday information. The organic
nature of the wheat grain led to Jesus' natural rendition of the
conclusion: the grain of wheat would either submit itself to
death--falling into the fertile ground voluntarily--or would experience
dying on the vine. When the wheat grain falls into that fertile ground,
it is then, and only then, assured of a new starting point in life...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Planted Seed</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>For nine months a
mom and dad wait for an embryo to grow into a person; for the next year
or so they wait for the child to speak and walk; then they wait for the
child to master the skills necessary to begin a program of formal
education that might last up through graduate school; during the years
of adolescence they simply "wait out" the youngster; and then they wait
for the young adult to get up and running economically, so they can
recall the credit card. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Then in time, the
planted seed that became the buried seed becomes the fruitful seed. "...
it bears much fruit," (v. 24) says Jesus. The child becomes a
contributing adult; the visionary idea becomes a full-fledged program;
the trainee becomes trained; the tune becomes a symphony. And so the
process goes. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>But there is a
further twist to this. Jesus sees himself as the planted and buried seed
that will eventually bear much fruit. He models what we can call the
ministry of fading. In a culture of shakers and movers, fading may seem
to some a form of wimping out. But there is more to it than at first we
might realize. At the very least, fading is a form of courtesy. We have
all been in groups where one person tends to do all the talking; it's as
though that person has no ears and only a mouth. As we like to put it,
it's hard to get a word in edgeways. If the person's loquaciousness goes
on long enough, others begin to simmer, and still others will drop out
of the group. Interestingly, when the preacher in Ecclesiastes is going
through his litany of opposites and how each has intrinsic value, he
mentions silence before speech. Everything in its season, he says, "A
time to keep silence, and a time to speak ..." (3:7a). Minimally, the
ministry of fading has to do with good manners and allowing others their
mike time. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Robert A. Noblett, Sermons for Sundays in Lent and Easter, CSS Publishing Company</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>___________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Planting Seeds</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Every year at this
time my wife plants seeds for her flower beds. She places them in
containers that sit under fluorescent lights. She adds water every day
and waits for them to sprout. She will plant them in her flower beds
when they begin to bud. A few weeks later they will flower and by the
end of the summer, depending on the variety, the flowers will have many
blooms and eventually they will spread and fill her flower gardens.<br>
<br>
It's
amazing that tiny seeds can transform the landscape around our home
from bare ground to beautiful flower beds. Botanically, we know quite a
bit about seeds and how they germinate. We know that a seed consists of a
protective seed coat, some kind of storage tissue with nutrient
reserves, and a dormant plant embryo. We further know that under the
correct conditions the dormant embryo can be "awakened" to germinate and
grow into a mature plant. Some Botanists say that in every seed there
is an on/off switch that will let the seed grow. <br>
<br>
So at some
point the seed is turned "on" and it begins to sprout. In time, what was
once a seed is transformed into a flower, fruit or grain. Jesus used
the illustration of wheat being buried in the ground. For Jesus,
planting seeds is what it means to be faithful. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I like Eugene
Peterson's interpretation of this passage in his book, The Message. It
reads, "Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the
ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat.
But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.
In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is, destroys
that life. But if you let it go, reckless in love, you'll have it
forever, real and eternal."<br>
<br>
Keith Wagner, Planting Seeds</span></div>
</span></div>
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