Sermon ideas

• For up-to-the-minute comment, see PostScript.
• The RAF teaches its personnel that ‘flexibility is the key to air power’. Flexibility is also a great asset for any of us to have and possibly the key to many things. Current thinking in management training similarly suggests that to be effective we must develop the capacity to move comfortably from one area of skill to another. A calling to follow Jesus is unsettling, it involves being prepared to change. Verses 24 to 26 of today’s Gospel are unequivocal: our fundamental instincts will be challenged and we will be called to be ever on the move. It is no coincidence that the disciples here, who are asked about seeing Jesus, are among those who were called fi rst: Andrew and Philip. What aspects of ‘following Christ’ do we find difficult?
• Cardinal Newman said ‘To live is to change; to be perfect is to have changed often’. We are all affected by the environment we find ourselves in and we must develop the capacity to adapt,nurturing the capacity to judge how we can bring life to a situation rather than seeking comfortably to fit in. A seed must develop roots as well as shoots. 
• ‘Father, glorify your name’, we hear Jesus say in verse 28. How can we ‘glorify’ God in the twenty-first century? It has been suggested that we give glory to God by being what we are, when we need to be it. 
• The image of shoots sprouting is particularly evident at this time of year. The renewal of the earth can challenge us to consider our own renewal. This organic metaphor of growth and development may be more accessible to some than the idea of a sudden conversion. Nevertheless, this passage is challenging. What is it about hating this life in order to inherit eternal life that sits uneasily with us? Is this statement the complete opposite of what Jesus says in John 10.10: ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’?
• In a globalised economy, the question of who rules the world is once again topical. It certainly isn't kings; some would say that it is bankers rather than politicians; other might suggest that it is personal ambition or human greed. Do these suggestions connect more readily with the questions that Jesus is asking here? Those of us who might have been mistrustful of the language of spiritual warfare might see a different expression of this idea here.