It is Lent and so far we haven’t really talked about dying. Not that I think that is all that Lent is about nor do I particularly enjoy talking about dying but “if we have to . . .”
Our Gospel lesson this Sunday is John 12:20-33 which contains this verse “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.” (Jn 12:24) My hand was forced. So the sermon(s) answer the question posed in the sermon title “What do you mean ‘dies’?”
I opened both sermons by saying that I don’t know enough about botany to comment on whether or not the statement that the seed “dies” is botanically correct or not but the thrust of the passage is that it is only through death, or at least a death-like transformation, that true fruitfulness is achieved.
Knox Presbyterian What do you mean “dies”?
St. Mark’s Presbyterian What do you mean “dies”?
So I am not about to guarantee that these sermons will change your life but I think I can safely say that they will make you think at least a little bit about what transformation costs and what it provides.
Blessings,
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