Who were these Greeks?

We don= t know. They are not named, and strangely, they disappear from the story immediately after making their request of Philip.

Such a simple request, too. A Sir, we wish to see Jesus.@

You wouldn= t think that was the first time someone had asked that of Philip over the years. Yet it seems to fluster him.

Instead of taking them to see Jesus, he goes to Andrew, who also seems flustered by the request, and so they both go to see Jesus.

Jesus, does not say, A Sure, where are they,@ or A Bring them to me.@ No, Jesus does not say a word about the Greeks or to the Greeks, as I said, they totally disappear and are not mentioned again.

Instead, their request triggers an announcement from Jesus.

Throughout John= s gospel Jesus has continually stated that A his hour, the hour for his glorification@ had not yet come.

Like when Mary, his mother, tells him they have run out of wine at the wedding they are attending in Cana, the next town over from their hometown of Nazareth, Jesus says, A My hour has not yet come.@

Over and over Jesus has said this, but now, when these Greeks come asking to see Jesus, he sits up and says A The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.@ This is it, time to get down to business.

Who are these Greeks?

It does not matter who they are individually.

It matters who they are as a group. And who they represent are all the people in the wider world beyond the parochial boundaries of Israel.

Jesus= teaching and healing ministry was carried out within a very small area of a few hundred square miles. (The total distance between Caesarea Philippi in the north of Galilee to Jerusalem, the southernmost terminus of Jesus= travels, is about 120 miles. That is the distance from Stuart to Miami, with Jesus spending most of his time in Palm Beach and Martin Counties until he came to the big city of Miami.)

The fact that these Greeks, whoever they are, have heard about Jesus, indicates that his teaching and work are spreading to the wider world.

Jesus knows the time has come, the stakes are being raised.

In Jesus, God was calling into being a world governed not by people in charge, authorities of any kind C political, economic, or religious C telling people what they had to do, think, believe, or controlling people through fear. Jesus represented the end of self-serving, human ways and the ushering in of a way of life governed and guided by the Holy Spirit and the way of God= s love. This is why Jesus came and the message he was trying to get across to people. God did not want people to relate to one another through any sort of controlling, manipulative ways C through commands, or dictates, or fear-mongering.

God wants people to relate to one another through love, through compassion, through mercy, through forgiveness.

God does not want us to tear one another down in order to build ourselves up, God wants us to build each other up.

For thousands of years people have traveled to Israel looking for God. This year I joined that list of pilgrims. One of the reasons I went to Israel was to walk where Jesus walked, to see what Jesus saw, to hopefully, in some way, reconnect my faith, my life, with Jesus.

But one thing I learned very powerfully, (and please, listen carefully here, because I don= t want you to misunderstand me), was that I didn= t need to make that pilgrimage in order to see Jesus. I discovered it was difficult to do that there, for many reasons: as I mentioned, they have built a church on top of almost every place associated with Jesus= life; we are also not sure where all the sites are, so we have competing locations C two spots for the crucifixion and for the tomb, three towns claiming to be Emmaus, three or more spots on the Jordan river claiming to be where Jesus= was baptized.

But as Jacob, our guide, repeated often, A this spot is holy, that spot is holy, it= s the same water, the same earth.@ What I discovered was that I didn= t get A warm, tingly religious@ feelings at many of these sacred sites. What I came to understand was that my faith does not require these sacred sites. That was not how I came to see Jesus

What the pilgrimage helped me realize about my own faith was that I came to know God, as I saw Jesus in other people. In my Baptist Sunday School teacher who had wanted to be a missionary to Africa but was unable to go there to share her love for Jesus, so she shared it with third and fourth grade children in St. Louis, Missouri. In the staunch German senior pastor at Salem Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ, who found it possible to be open and honest with the youth group about the loneliness of being a pastor, the lonely walk of a Christian in our world today, and how the love of God and knowing Jesus made it all worthwhile. And in the hundreds of other people along my life journey, church leaders, youth group leaders, various pastors and evangelists, spiritual directors, retreat leaders, and many, many others through whom I caught glimpses of the love, compassion, mercy and acceptance of God. In all these people I saw Jesus, and my faith was given birth, nurtured and grew.

More than we realize, people are seeking Jesus.

They call our name. They seek Jesus alive in us!

They want to talk to us about our role in a nation increasingly dominated by destructive greed. They wish to see in us the Jesus who comes with peace, meeting the threat of terrorism with a higher form of humanity. People are searching for Jesus.

They have heard rumors about his amazing approach to life. They are anxious about a world losing its respect for children and losing its belief in goodness, and they hope to find the spirit and resolve of Jesus in us.

That is why we are here. Dare to believe it, friends.

Dare to believe that you were beloved before you were born.

Your life is very, very special. You were sent here for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, too discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. The length of time doesn= t matter.

You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God= s chosen one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they are also beloved sons and daughters of God who belong together.

You are sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation.

You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally.

Before all the distinctions, the separations, and the walls built on foundations of fear, there was unity in the mind and heart of God.

Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to that same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity.

That is our purpose in life. Sir, Madam, we wish to see Jesus.

There= s a funny thing about a magnet. As long as a piece of metal, like a paper clip, is attached to it, the paper clip itself becomes a magnet. So, what do you think will happen when a paper clip that= s attached to a magnet comes into contact with another paper clip? If the magnet is strong enough, that paper clip will become a magnet and draw and attract others until you have a long chain of paper clips!

That is what Philip and Andrew were like.

Greeks came to them, possibly because their names were Greek, but undoubtedly also because Philip and Andrew were drawn and attached to Jesus, and they in turn, like paper clips to a magnet, attracted these Gentiles to the real Magnet, Jesus.

The world is longing to see Jesus. Let us so attach our lives to his life, through our devotion to his teachings, to being in his presence through prayer, meditation, and through worship and fellowship with others who are seeking to attach their lives to Jesus= life. The more we are connected to Jesus, that more he is lifted up in our lives, the more he will shine through our lives so that others see not our shortcomings, but his glory C God= s love, compassion, mercy and grace.