When English King Henry III died in 1272, his son who would be crowned Edward I, was fighting in the Crusades. To avoid any chance of a civil war erupting over the order of succession, the Royal Council proclaimed: “The throne shall never be empty; the country shall never be without a monarch.” Thus, Edward was declared king immediately, and he reigned in absentia until news of his father's death reached him and he returned to England.
When French King Charles VI died in 1422, the Duc d’Uzès, the senior peer of France, declared as soon as the coffin containing the remains descended into the vault of Saint Denis Basilica, “Le roi est mort, vive le roi!” to announce the ascension of Charles VII as king. “The King is dead. Long live the king!”
The statement is an announcement that the former monarch has died. It is an affirmation that the monarchy lives on regardless of the individual who sits upon the throne. It is a prayer for a long tenure as well as a blessing for the new monarch.
Our English cousins know that Charles, the Prince of Wales, is next in line to the throne of the United Kingdom, with his eldest son, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, next, and William and Catherine’s son George, third in line. The monarchy will live on.
While the succession to a throne wasn’t always such a clear line, and indeed was occasionally the subject of intrigue and subterfuge, the durability of a monarchy was key to maintaining public confidence and decorum. We Americans pride ourselves on the orderly transfer of power from one President to the next. We too have a list of succession beginning with the Vice-President, the Speaker of the House, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Secretary of State and the remaining cabinet secretaries in a precise order. In addition a provision was added to fill a vice-presidential vacancy.
So in these various succession schemes, we may know that there is no gap in leadership. We know what we are getting.
In today’s reading from John we find Jesus trying out a different kind of succession format. And the good news is that we will get more than we ask for. God’s generosity overwhelms.
That may seem like an unlikely concept given the fact that we are only days away from Jesus’ death on the cross. But that is where we are and where we must be if we are on the same Lenten journey as our Lord.
The gospel writer John is a complex thinker. He can hold several threads of thoughts together at the same time and weave them together into the tapestry of salvation which makes his gospel so powerful. As we move towards the climax of the cross, John has broadened his focus. He is not interested in the forgiveness of individual sins. Nor is John interested in Jesus stepping in front of us to take the bullet of punishment which is intended for us. John goes cosmic. Jesus’ crucifixion judges “the world” and drives out the ruler of the world.
God always provides more than we ask for. We may pray for our personal safety, security, salvation. God doesn’t play favorites. Jesus isn’t getting chummy with his BFFs – best Facebook friends. Jesus takes on the world, that fallen realm that exists in estrangement from God and is organized in opposition to God’s purposes. It is “the System.” “That’s the way things are” is no excuse. The System exists by domination, fomenting fear and hate, and exacting violence and death.
The time for social niceties is past. The hour has arrived for Jesus to be glorified. No longer a future event, the time has come, not for kingly honor, but for death. For through Jesus’ death he will bring us to God.
“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.” Jesus didn’t pull this image of the Burpee seed catalogue. He brings it from the heart of God. We know the image. But do we really know it?
All those packets of seeds which we see at the hardware store or garden center are absolutely worthless. As long as the seeds stay in those packets, they are worthless. They are inanimate objects that do nothing. They are dead. To get anything out them, the seeds have to be put into the ground. Planted. Buried.
Jesus is speaking of himself. Jesus is the seed. Jesus is God’s seed of new life. But as long as he spends his time talking with people – as good as his talk is – and as long as he heals and exorcizes – as great as his healing and exorcizing are – and even as he defies death with bringing Lazarus back to life – there is no greater gift than that – Jesus is still a dead seed doing nothing to crack the System, doing nothing about the eternal life of the world.
I buy seed packets every year. I dream of abundant fresh radishes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, peppers, broccoli, tomatoes. I never get anywhere near what I hope for. Shade, heat, garden pests, not enough water are the garden’s powers and principalities that connive to destroy what could be. Lots of seeds never make it out of the packets. In some ways they are the lucky ones. They aren’t victims of the System. But they certainly aren’t victors. They accomplish nothing.
As long as Jesus walks the paths and byways of Galilee and Judea very little is going to happen. He is stuck in the seed packet of the world. The seed has to be buried. Jesus must be planted. Only then will resurrection happen. Only then will the life of the world be wrested from the System. Only then will life flourish and grow and produce 30, 60, 100-fold or more.
The seed is dead. Long live the seed. New life happens because Jesus died. New life happens for the world because Jesus was planted in the tomb.
Do not, repeat, do not jump to conclusion that I would like to do a lot of funerals. Yet I want us to think about the possibility of each of us being seeds which are stuck in seed packets. These packets are made of old habits, narrow thinking, limited hope, poor gospel vision, fear, or insecurity. Some fragile seeds come in a moisture-proof enclosure inside the paper packet. Are some of us so sealed in that the radiance of God’s love is effectively repelled? We need to be planted. We need to die.
Friends, I am not a botanist or a biologist. Yet I know enough to know that the only way to get more seeds to is plant seeds. Christ allowed himself to be planted in order to produce an abundance of next generations seeds, which in turn were planted to produce more. This has happened countless times across the centuries. You and I are the seeds produced from seeds which were planted years ago, or maybe only a year or two ago.
Will you be planted? Being buried in a tin box in a concrete vault won’t count. Being sealed in a marble urn won’t produce anything. Being scattered over the river or plains won’t bring a new crop. Christ calls us to be planted in the world in which we find ourselves.
The System wants us to stay in the packets of our addictions, our ideologies, our fearful silence, our set-in-our-ways-don’t-try-to-change-our-minds world views. The system wants us to be unproductive. But Christ calls us to get out of the seed packets. Christ calls us to die to the strangle hold of the world. Christ calls us to be planted in the world and to grow in spite of the world. Christ calls us to die in order to live and grow for the life he has prepared for us.
As we prepare to celebrate the bursting of the tomb by the risen Savior, I invite you to burst the seed packets which entomb you. Christ died to the idle chit-chat and grandstanding miracles. Christ was planted in order to grow a realm where the pictures on seed packets become reality, where God’s Law is written on throbbing human hearts instead of the coldness of intractable stone, where God’s people are born by Spirit and where they are drawn to the risen and glorified Human One to be honored with his eternal grace and sovereign mercy.
The seed is dead. Long live the seed!
Thanks be to God.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright 2015 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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