The Seed Of Grace

 The Seed Of Grace

 “Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.  Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.” John 12:23‭-‬25 NLT

The COVID 19 pandemic has dramatically revealed our need to learn how to live in a VUCA world - a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. We need a “negative capability” defined by John Keats as “the ability to accept uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Brene Brown noted that we are in a spiritual crisis when our belief that’s there is something greater than ourselves, something rooted in love and compassion, is broken. The problems in our  modern society - hate, the dehumanization of others, the tolerance of bullshit, the profusion of fake news, the politicization of the pandemic and the commercialization of medical care are but symptoms of the loss of faith in a loving God.

We need to wake up from the illusion and futility of living a materialistic lifestyle - everything we are chasing to be successful in life is meaningless. We need to die to a lifestyle formed by a caterpillar mindset if we want to live a life with the mindset of a butterfly. We need to die to self in order to be spiritually fruitful in our living and in our dying. We are living in a world of spiritual poverty and in need of Grace - God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense - the power beyond ourselves to empower us to love one another and to bring God’s kingdom on earth.

We need to reframe our understanding of spirituality. Rabbi Yerachmiel described spirituality as simply paying attention to what God is doing in our daily lives:

“Spirituality is being present to what is happening around and within you. Spirituality is living in the world with compassion and justice. Spirituality is making the world a little better for having being born into it. Spirituality is meeting God in the ordinariness of our everyday lives.”

Genuine spirituality, according to Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketchman, looks outside the self and beyond the immediate and the subjective and not at its nose nor in a mirror. It is the very looking beyond ourselves that we are taken away from the self-centeredness that is the human trap. Lent is a time to recapture our childlike sense of awe and wonder by receiving the seed of God’s grace into our hearts:

 “The Lord hath promised good to me,
  His word my hope secures;
  He will my shield and portion be
  As long as life endures.”

The past few weeks of Lent had been a time to prepare my heart to be the fertile soil to receive the seed of grace. Passiontide is a time to transform our EGOs from Edging God Out to Embracing God Only by following Christ to the cross and to die to our egos so that we can experience the truth:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 NKJV

The subject of death is taboo to many which is most unfortunate. The dying have taught me the truth that to live well we need to learn how to die well. The most important message of Easter is that Jesus has conquered death to set us free from the fear of death. Lent is the perfect time to learn how to die well so that we can live well. We are called to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our lives:

“Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.” 2 Corinthians 4:10‭-‬12 NLT

The fifth week of Lent marks the beginning of Passiontide leading to the events of the Holy Week of Easter. It is a time to reflect on the mystery of the Cross - confronting and embracing death - so that we can live our lives in such a way that our deaths will be fruitful. It is a time to give the broken pieces of our lives - the heartache of losing a job, pain from broken relationships, suffering from a serious illness - to God, and trusting that He will turn our brokenness into a kintsugi pottery of golden repair. And all our brokenness together are turned into a beautiful mosaic story of God’s restorative love.

We need to search our hearts for the weaknesses and imperfections which we hide from ourselves. We do not have to be perfect to be a child of God. Lent is a season for letting go of our weaknesses and imperfections, our addiction to control and our hidden resentments. It is not a time of trying to be perfect but a time to become aware of our imperfections and our need for God’s grace. It is the time for the seed of grace to bloom into a garden of love in our hearts as we journey with Christ to the Cross.

SDG