Dying that we might live

Yesterday I preached on “Dying that we might live.”

²⁴ 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.

These words of Jesus bring us face to face with a great paradox of our faith.  In order to really live, we must die.  As Ruth Haley Barton says, “That before we can reign with Christ we must first share in his sufferings.  That when God begins to do a new thing, old things must pass away.  That in order to experience resurrection we, too, must die.”

Lent gives us a time to practice dying in small ways so that when the bigger deaths come along, we will be able to let go of that which is no longer needed.  

As I ended I asked:

“What needs to die in us in order for the will of God to come forth in our lives?  What new thing is God doing in our lives that requires some old things to pass away?  And where are we sensing God wanting to teach us obedience through the things we are suffering?”