Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 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. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.” John 12:20-36

If there was ever a text for the “spiritual but not religious” crowd, this may be it. Before jumping into John, however, perhaps a word or two on SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) is in order. In general, we use this term rather broadly to indicate variously those who no longer affiliate with religion, the “nones” who seem open to spirituality defined broadly, and those who actually checked the SBNR box on a survey. Which means that SNBR can mean almost anything, and at times seems to encompass a little bit of everything.

So here’s how I think of it:

SBNR denotes those folks who are indeed open to a sense of mystery, curious about the divine, wonder about God and the spiritual life…but have not found those inclinations and needs met by traditional religious institutions. In this sense, they remind me of the Greeks in today’s passage. They don’t come to Philip asking for information about Jesus. They don’t inquire about a new member’s class or ask to join a committee. They don’t request a statement of beliefs before joining. They simply want to see Jesus. To really see him, person to person, face to face. Interestingly, they make this request on the way to a religious celebration: Passover. But even though they have probably grown up religious, right now they want to see Jesus. I have no idea if they were dissatisfied with the faith of their parents or if they were looking forward to another joyous Passover celebration but also intensely curious about all they’d heard about Jesus. And to be honest, I don’t think it really matters. What they want just now is an encounter with, and experience of, Jesus.

Which brings me to my question: If those Greeks were to show up in our congregations today, would they be granted their heart’s desire? I don’t say this to put you (or me) on the defensive. Of course we are preaching Jesus each week and we craft and lead worship that we hope will mediate an experience of God for those who gather. No, I ask for another reason.

Let me explain:

Thirty or so years ago, pollsters interested in the practice of religion in America began to ask folks to self identify in one of four categories: religious but not spiritual, spiritual but not religious, both, neither. The big swing thirty years later, as you might guess, is between the first two options. Whereas a large number of folks used to indicate they were “religious but not spiritual” and a much smaller one check of SNBR, that ratio has flipped. Which means, among other things, that most of our congregational practices and patterns (including how we preach) were shaped for, with, and by a generation of people who were pretty clear that while they really liked religious practices, they weren’t necessarily all that interested in a spiritual experience of God. Which is why I wonder at times whether our carefully crafted (and largely scripted) liturgies, our manuscript driven sermons, and our performance-oriented worship reach those who simply – and perhaps desperately – want to see Jesus?

Again, please don’t get me wrong: Can manuscript preaching and classic liturgy mediate a living encounter with the Lord? Of course they can…and regularly do, for us and for many of our people. At the same time, I think we can argue that they aren’t reaching a whole lot of people, people that we love and care about and wish were with us. So I wonder how much of “the way we’ve always done” we’d be willing to change or adapt to make room for the SBNR who are our children, grandchildren, and friends. And I wonder if we’d be willing to enter into genuine conversation with folks who used to attend but don’t, or who we’d love to see come but haven’t, in order to ask what might make a Sunday morning experience more meaningful to them. Would be we be willing even to entrust our worship planning to our youth, for instance – not just once a year so we can pat them on the head – but regularly, hoping and trusting that we might all be drawn more deeply into the faith by figuring out together how we can help people see Jesus in and through our Sunday morning gathering.” (David Lose, …in the Meantime, Spiritual But Not Religious, March 16, 2015)

How have you been made alive together with Christ this week? Every Sunday, during the seasons that are not Lent, we hear these words, or similar words, as part of the absolution – the corporate forgiveness of sins. What helps us to be alive in Christ is that “by Grace we have been saved.” “What is Grace?” you may ask. Grace is a gift – it is Jesus going to the cross to die for us so that we can be made right with G*d. There is nothing we can do to earn such grace – as I said it is a gift. It was given freely to us.

So what do we do with gifts? We open them – we take time to assess what they might mean to us, how valuable they might be to us – and then we put them to use. If we get a cheap flashlight from a dollar store, we may find that we do not cherish that gift very much, and if it breaks, we most likely will discard it. But if we get a gift that is priceless, or at least very, very expensive, then we treat it with care, we protect it, and if it is damaged, we spend the money to get it fixed.

Recently I received the gift of a “OOga” horn. What is that? It is one of the old horns that was on a Model A or T car. It has a lever on the top of the horn that you depress and you get that classic “OOOOOGA” sound. The gift came from my parents. It may not be worth much to some people, but to me it is priceless. When my father had the horn, it did not work – it was broken. He either worked on it himself, or he had someone else work on it, took it completely apart and reassembled it, and now it works beautifully. This gift connects me to my parents: it comes from my past, and more importantly it connects me to the now, and so the gift is priceless.

The greatest gift we ever received was the cross of Jesus Christ, who died for us so that we all may be saved. The cross connects you and me to G*d, it connects us to the past, but is ever-present in the now. If this gift means something to you, the gift of the cross of Jesus Christ and your relationship with him, cherish this gift: take time this Lent to repair it – if it is broken; to protect it, if you have been careless with it; and to show that you value it, if you have been taking it for granted.

Pastor Dave