Reflection on John 12: 20-26

John 12:20-26

24 I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.  

The author of this week asks:

A single grain of wheat is just that, unless it dies. What are the grains of wheat you are clinging to? What in you needs to die? How can you tend to the soil so that your life bears fruit?

Spiritual growth requires me to constantly ask these questions. I don’t usually come up with very good answers because I don’t like to let go of something that might be useful someday. That is my grandmother in me. I’m not a hoarder, but I am a saver. 

In the garden, I have a hard time pruning, a hard time pulling out plants that are well past their time but still producing just a little. But I appreciate Jesus metaphors of planting and tending and pruning. Gardening is a spiritual practice for me, Even if I don’t always succeed. Gardening requires pruning and weeding, removing old growth to make room for new, fertilizing, watering, waiting patiently for germination, growth, maturation, hoping and praying for the right balance of those elements that are beyond my control-sunlight and rain. All that before a harvest is ready. And when the time is ripe, I must go out into the garden to gather the fruit of my labors. It doesn’t just come to me. 

I think the questions the writer poses are also pertinent for us as a church in this time of transition as we seek to find a productive path forward. I think we want to figure out how to be a  vital church that bears fruit, doing more than just hanging on. So what church habits or practices need to die to make room for new life. I don’t know.  What church habits or practices need to be tended and fertilized to flourish and produce an abundant harvest. 

Atonement

God = Love

Love = oneness, wholeness

Jesus = Perfect manifestation of God = Love = Oneness/ Wholeness

Jesus is our atonement

As we model him, we manifest 

God

Love 

Wholeness

Shalom