The One where I reference the Biebs in a sermon

I’ve just finished a two year theology degree in which I’ve done a lot of thinking, growing, reading and writing. My hope is that the degree will infuse my writing, rather than that I take on a role in a church. It’s been a real pleasure to be a student again. And because this blog is about writing, I thought I might share a couple of pieces of writing I did. This one was for a course on Sermons which I took partly because it terrified me and partly because it was taught by a friend. It was both terrifying and fun. I took it –remotely — while I was living at a retreat centre where I did a placement. The retreat centre is just around the corner from where Justin Bieber has a cottage and where he spent the first months of lockdown. Folks at the retreat centre said they always know when Justin is in residence because you can hear his sports car coming long before you see it.

So, Jesus and the Biebs.

First, let me give you the Bible passage I used for my sermon:

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. (John 12:20–26)

And now, Jesus and Justin:

When I read John 12, I kept thinking about Justin Bieber. Not because Jesus is particularly like Justin, but both were celebrities who went to hide out in the countryside – Justin spent months of the pandemic near the retreat centre where I work, while Jesus and his disciples escaped to a village when the Pharisees began to see him as a real threat. Now Jesus has emerged and ridden into Jerusalem, and the Pharisees say, “Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

The scene in John 12 shows how popular Jesus was. And not just with the locals. A group of Greeks visiting Jerusalem for the Passover came looking for an audience with Jesus. Interestingly we don’t know if they ever got that conversation, but the person who DID get an interview with the celebrity, Jesus, was his disciple Philip.

If Jesus is Bieber, and the Greeks are the groupies, Philip is the connection between them – he’s the guy who knows Jesus and he’s the only disciple with a Greek name which may be why the Greeks approach him with their request. Clearly Jesus is the main event, but Philip styles himself as that influencer, the guy who can connect you with Jesus. The Greeks even call Philip Sir.

Philip also has a particular brand throughout the Gospel. When Jesus first calls Philip to follow him, Philip invites his friend and says, “come and see.” When there’s a crowd of hungry people, it’s Philip who looks around and does a head count to figure out the cost of bread. At the Last Supper, Philip will say to Jesus, “Show us the Father and that will be enough.” Philip is all about appearances, looking and seeing. So the Greeks are speaking his language when they tell him they want to see Jesus. But are they talking Jesus’s language?

At first it sounds like Jesus is with them. When Jesus starts to answer the request Philip brings from the Greeks, he says: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” It sounds like the celebrity is about to explain his rider—that he wants only green M and Ms or white tulips – but then Jesus flips the script to show Sir Philip what glory is really all about in God’s Kingdom.

And Jesus doesn’t draw on images of a rich and powerful guy staying in a secure country estate; instead Jesus points to the fields around such a place where it’s mud one day and glorious green shoots sprouting up the next – if and only if the seed is planted in the ground. In God’s Kingdom, the seed isn’t kept in a safe place and it isn’t called Sir. There’s no growth unless the seed – or Jesus – or Philip – agrees to die.

At the end of their conversation, Jesus tells Philip the Father will honour the one who follows him in being willing to fall into the ground and die. This is a hard teaching all by itself. No one is eager to die. But it wasn’t long before this that Jesus said he came to bring abundant life so I don’t think he’s against life in all its growing glory. Instead Jesus loves life enough not to hoard it. Jesus knows that a seed remains alone if it doesn’t fall into the ground. Jesus is less interested in appearances, in what can be seen, and more interested in what can be known deep down in the ground. He calls Philip to know him and be like him.

And so, us.

But you might say, surely we MTS students don’t aspire to be like Justin Bieber or to be called sir. But I don’t know. This past weekend, I led a workshop for… three people, and a church service of four. I’m no Christian influencer and I’m okay with that. Mostly. But some days I’m not. And it isn’t fair to Philip or me to think this desire to influence is all superficial. Sometimes a person has something they want to share. Sometimes I wish I could make more of a difference.

And maybe you’re frustrated with working in a small church as a solo pastor or having your time taken up with the demands of a young family or not getting published or having only a handful of social media followers. Or perhaps you’ve come to terms with a come-and-see-this-great-guy-I-know approach to ministry.

Jesus says we can have influence but not the way we think, that it happens if we go where Jesus goes. But Jesus says this with sympathy because he is headed toward his death. He is about to die and his soul is troubled and he’s wondering whether there’s another way. But he has spent time in the fields and he knows this IS the way of God’s Kingdom. He’s willing for his life to be literally planted in the ground so that resurrection can happen.

For us, death may be more metaphorical but it’s still hard. And yet, we only need to look at crops growing in the fields to know that death is actually good news, that if we want to have the hope of an abundant harvest, we have to risk throwing all the seed we have into what might look a lot like dirt.  And we do this, trusting that just as God takes a seed buried in obscurity and multiplies it into many seeds, and just as he brought resurrection to the crucified Jesus, so he can and will do a miracle among us wherever we’re planted.

And now, Jesus and the Biebs.