This Sunday we're going to be considering a passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus begins to shed light on the impending outcome of his ministry.  He's breaking the news to his dense disciples and putting the best face on it.  In this passage Jesus compares himself to a seed.  The value of a seed is in what it produces. Using the metaphor of math, we consider death the ultimate subtraction, but, according to Jesus, death is actually a form of multiplication.  Or it can be.  It ought to be.

And the sort of death that multiplies isn't something we can only experience when we stop breathing. We get opportunities to die all day long, don't we?

And we get to see the things we bury for Jesus spring up and bear fruit for Jesus!

When, instead of cherishing and protecting my privacy, I allow it to be buried I can see that the selfless act of inviting someone into my life and home bears fruit that would have been stillborn in the cold womb of my "privacy." I'm really mixing the metaphors here, but you can see where we're going with this.

Call to Repentance

Luke 14:27 (page 1623)

Call to Worship

Psalm 71 (page 907)

OT Reading

Isaiah 49:1-7 (page 1138)

NT Reading

1 Corinthians 15:35-45 (page 1790)

Message

Planting Instructions

John 12:20-26 (page 1671)