The Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6) - June 14

The Occasional Mission of the Church
Collect for Proper 6

I’m going to talk about Prayer Books this morning. Books, plural. There is a tie in to the propers for today that I’ll come back to later. As Episcopalians we cherish the Book of Common Prayer. It unites us and helps define us as a denomination. There is much to cherish in the rich and reverent language and in the way that “common” prayer, having the same prayers in common, brings us together as a parish community and with other Episcopalians throughout the country and beyond.

As an aside, since I’m in teaching mode, I’d also like to point out a unique aspect of our Book of Common Prayer. Something different from the books used for corporate prayer in other denominations. The Book of Common Prayer is deliberately designed to serve both as a source for our community, corporate prayers, also as a source of prayers for individual use. You should find the Book of Common Prayer not only in the pews of Episcopal churches, but also on the nightstands of individual Episcopalians.

But the Book of Common Prayer is not the only prayer book available for our use. There are other supplemental prayer books approved and available to us as Episcopalians. Like the BCP, they provide “common” prayers for denominational use and they draw upon the rich language and heritage of our Anglican tradition. One is the Book of Occasional Services. It is a resource for services used occasionally, but not universally in Episcopal parishes.

Just to introduce you to the Book of Occasional Services if you’re not familiar with it: It includes services for Advent and Christmas Lessons and Carols. We use the Christmas one. A service that is only occasionally celebrated but is a wonderful part of our heritage from the Church of England.

Some of the supplemental liturgical rites that we use during Holy Week come from the Book of Occasional Services… the agape meal, the watch in the garden, the foot washing.

All those little mini-liturgies that we do when we dedicate new vestments or a new banner or Sanctus bell… those are not made up by the Rector. They come from the Book of Occasional Services.

The special focus on healing that we use at the Wednesday Eucharist comes from the Book of Occasional Services. As does the service used by Lay Eucharistic Visitors when they take the sacrament out to those unable to be in church so that they can be included in our common worship.

And the service for the Blessing of a Home! How many of you knew we had an Episcopal service for the Blessing of a Home? A service where we pray that God will dwell in the home where we dwell. It’s a wonderful service, yet in almost 25 years of ordained ministry I can count on both hands the number I’ve been asked to do. In that service we pray that God will bless each room in the house… the living room, the dining room, the study, the garden, the bathroom, the bedroom… bless that space and bring blessing to the lives and activities of the people who dwell there. And bless the doorway and the people and the journeys that come and go.

So it was actually the Collect appointed for today that set me off on this train of thought. In that collect we pray that we may proclaim God’s truth with boldness and minister God’s justice with compassion. Unlike many of our collects where we pray that God will comfort or heal or guide us individually, in this collect we pray that we may fulfill the mission of the church. I like the simplicity and the forcefulness of this collect. Supported by God’s love, sustained by God’s grace, we pray that we may proclaim God’s truth with boldness and minister God’s justice with compassion.

I had the opportunity this past week to participate, just as a guest, in a service for the installation of a new rector at a parish in the diocese. Those are fun celebrations. They can, however, sometimes be rather inward looking, focusing primarily on the rector’s ministry within the parish and the internal relationships of the parish community. This service, however, was intentionally outward looking, focusing also on the parish’s ministry outside its walls in the surrounding neighborhood.

As a part of this service we said a Litany for the Mission of the Church (from the Book of Occasional Services.) It’s a litany we pray far too occasionally. Listen to some of the intercessions.

Savior, deliver us. From blind hearts and petty spirits, that refuse to see the need of all humankind for your love.

What is it in our lives blinds us to other peoples’ need for God’s love? What enables us to deny or ignore the profound value of God’s love in other people’s lives? What blindness, what petty selfishness insulates us from the needs of others?

Savior, deliver us. From pride, self-sufficiency and the unwillingness to admit our own need of your compassion.

Often one of the biggest stumbling blocks to seeing others’ need for God’s love is the failure to admit our own need. I can do it. I have everything I need. I am strong enough, smart enough… to manage. I don’t need anyone’s help or compassion.

Savior, deliver us. From ignorance, apathy, and complacency that prevent us from spreading the Gospel.

In my experience and observation, apathy is the big one. We just don’t care enough about the Gospel to spread it… to proclaim God’s truth with boldness as the collect says.

And then the Litany continues with intercessions for the gifts of ministry. And we need to pray to be given those gifts. It is only when we ask God for the gifts of ministry that we can do the ministry to fulfill the mission of the church.

O God, we pray for the gifts of ministry.
Inspire our minds with a vision of your kingdom in this time and place.
Touch our eyes, that we may see your glory in all creation.
Touch our ears, that we may hear from every mouth the hunger for hope and stories of refreshment.
Touch our lips, that we may tell in every tongue and dialect the wonderful works of God.
Touch our hearts, that we may discern the mission to which you call us.
Touch our feet, that we may take your Good News into our neighborhoods, communities, and all parts of the world.
Touch our hands, that we may each accomplish the work you give us to do. 

 O God, we pray for the gifts of ministry that we might fulfill the mission of the church. Amen.

Trinity Sunday - May 31

Salvation
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17

Today is Trinity Sunday. That unique day in the calendar of the church year when we focus on a doctrine. It’s really about God, of course. A doctrine about how we describe God’s indescribability.

One piece I read this week included this statement: The Trinity cannot be analogized. I didn’t know “analogized” was a word, and it may not be, but it’s still a good statement to hang on to. The Trinity cannot be analogized. No analogy is correct. Even your favorite. Some may be a bit better than others. But no analogy of the Trinity is correct. So I’m not going to try.

I’m going to preach on something “easy” instead… John 3:16. It’s a familiar verse: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Very familiar! But not really all that easy to interpret. As often as we hear it, what does it really mean?

I think the most common interpretation goes something like this: If we believe in Jesus, then God will give us eternal life. Although, what exactly are we supposed to believe about Jesus? If we believe somehow that Jesus is our Savior, in return for that belief, God will reward us with life after death.

But what if we only 80% believe? We want to believe, we want to understand, but we’re not always there 100%… Do we still get eternal life? Or only 80%?

 John’s Gospel continues: God sent his Son “in order that the world might be saved through him.” Again, what really do we mean by salvation? And is John’s proclamation reassuring or discouraging? Did God set the bar for the world’s salvation high or low? How does it look to you? All it takes is our belief.

Many people before I have noted that there is another way to look at salvation. To think about salvation as something God offers now, not just later, not just after death.

In this context, Jesus’ life and death are viewed primarily as expressions of God’s love for us. Illustrations. Look, God says, to us THIS is how much I love you. I sent my own Son to bring myself to you, to offer my own presence and love to you.

Paul is talking about this in the passage from Romans we heard today. Paul says: God loves us as much he loves Jesus. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” Like Jesus, we are children of God.

“When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” We are in the same relationship with God that Jesus is. Heirs of God’s love.

And it is the Spirit, God’s own Spirit, God’s own power, that leads us to see and understand that God loves us. It doesn’t depend upon our belief.

What would it be like to really live with that awareness of God’s love for us all day every day? That’s salvation!

To live knowing we are God’s beloved children, adopted and chosen and named co-heirs with Christ. To live with the awareness that we are unconditionally loved. That we have immeasurable value in God’s eyes. That no matter what we do; no matter what is done to us; no matter where we go… God always loves us and cares about us. To live in that love is salvation.

David Lose, whom I often find quotable, wonders if “part of the reason so many of our people have a hard time connecting faith to everyday life is simply because we don’t take God’s promises seriously enough.” We don’t take God’s promise to love us unconditionally seriously enough.

This week’s readings reminds us of God’s expansive, comprehensive, unconditional love and acceptance of us as his children, co-heirs with Christ of his love.

What if we could hang onto that promise throughout our daily lives? Really hang onto it. How would it affect our relationships, to enter into those relationships knowing ourselves unconditionally loved by God? How would it impact our conversations with others, those close to us and the casual conversations of every day? How would it affect the decisions we make and how we spend our time if we remembered that nothing can take Gods love from us? Think about it.

Think about it. Would we… Risk more? Care more? Share more? Fear less?

You have immeasurable value in God’s eyes. No matter what, God always loves you and cares about you.

Pentecost - May 24

Light a Fire Under Us
Acts 2:1-21

Today is Pentecost, the day that the church celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. I’ve been thinking about some of the hymns that we associate with the Holy Spirit.

We’ve just sung a local favorite, “Breathe on me, breath of God… Fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do. Breathe on me, breath of God, until my heart is pure, until with thee I will one will, to do or to endure…” It’s a gentle, comforting hymn.

One of the better known Taizé chants is also about the coming of the Spirit: Veni, Sancte Spiritus. Come, Holy Spirit. Those of you who know the music of Taize know that it is simple and repetitive. Meditative. Veni, Sancte Spiritus… Veni, Sancte Spiritus… Veni, Sancte Spiritus. Another hymn that is comforting, reassuring.

There’s another hymn that may not be as familiar to many of you, but it is very frequently done at ordinations (Hymn 503). “Come Holy Ghost our souls inspire and lighten with celestial fire.” (“Celestial fire” sounds so very proper and elegant). “Thou the anointing Spirit art who dost the seven fold gifts impart.” It’s tune is gentle, too. Another hymn that conveys comfort and sustenance from the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit certainly does bring us comfort, strength and sustenance. But these sound like upper room hymns. Hymns that the disciples might have sung in the upper room before Pentecost. If you think about it, we have quite a few stories that take place after Jesus’ death which show the disciples huddled together in the upper room or somewhere inside.

We heard one in the Gospel reading on the Second Sunday of Easter: “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear…” The disciples are huddled together, afraid.

Last week, in Acts, we heard a story about the disciples after Jesus’ ascension: “Then they returned to Jerusalem…. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son James.” I can imagine them coming together in prayer and singing one of these hymns, seeking comfort and strength in the face of fear and uncertainty.

Then today, again from Acts: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…” Huddled together, sitting inside a house…

And then everything changes. Pentecost changes everything.

 Of all the images that we use for the Holy Spirit, Pentecost is about fire. It’s not a comforting image. But it is a good one. We ask the Holy Spirit to do a lot for us, but maybe there’s one thing we don’t ask often enough: Light a fire under us.

So often in artistic representations of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is depicted as individual flames hovering over each of us, sort of like a personal holy pilot light. And it’s good to remember the individual, personal gift of the Holy Spirit. But let’s also pray that the Holy Spirit will light a fire under us.

After Pentecost there is no more huddling in the upper room. Pentecost is the day that the disciples and the early church changed from being primarily inward looking to being outward looking and acting. Just after the portion of Acts we heard this morning, Acts relates that: “Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.”

After Pentecost, the disciples still came together for prayer and thanksgiving, but remember that the book that tells the story after Pentecost is called “Acts.” The Acts of the Apostles.

Come Holy Spirit, light a fire under us.

It’s a vivid image… Light a fire under us. I was curious about the origin of the phrase. According to Wiki-something, the origin of the phrase came from when chimney sweeps were scared to go up the chimneys, the fire would be lit under them in order to motivate them to climb to the top.

Its contemporary meaning is “to get someone to act quickly or forcefully, especially someone who has not been doing enough before.”

Come Holy Spirit, light a fire under us.

The Holy Spirit does, of course, comfort, guide, sustain, and enlighten us in our Christian lives. But, on this day of Pentecost, let’s also remember the Spirit’s power to motivate, to light a fire under us.

As I was thinking about this, one more image came to mind. A geyser. You know how geysers work… they are quiet for some period of time while water is heated and pressure builds up under ground. Then they erupt, usually with a good bit of forth. Maybe coming to church on Sunday and praying for the presence of the Holy Spirit is a bit like that. Sitting on a geyser… Old Faithful erupts every 63 minutes. We’ve been here about 30 minutes at this point… So just about when this service is finishing…

The Seventh Sunday of Easter - May 17

Between Ascension and Pentecost
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

The reading we heard this morning from the first chapter of Acts tracks chronologically with where we are in the church calendar. Acts, as you probably know, is a sequel to Luke, written by the same author. The end of Luke describes Jesus’ death and resurrection and recounts several post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples. It is Luke who tells the story of the resurrected Christ appearing to several disciples along the road to Emmaus. Then later Jesus appears to all of the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. The next event is Jesus’ ascension when Jesus in bodily form left the earth to be with God in heaven. The ascension is described at the very end of Luke and again in the opening verses of Acts, just before the reading we heard today. In the church calendar we celebrated Jesus’ ascension this past Thursday. The next event described in Acts is the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We’ll celebrate Pentecost next Sunday. So today’s story places us, appropriately, between Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost.

So one way to look at this story is to see it as the first thing the disciples did on their own without the physical presence or direct guidance of Jesus. It tells about choosing Matthias to fill the vacancy left by Judas’ death. Discussions of this passage often focus on how Matthias was chosen and what particular qualities recommended him for inclusion as a disciple.

But I had a new insight this week into how difficult and challenging this situation must have been for Peter and the other disciples. I hadn’t really thought before about the impact of Judas’ betrayal on the other disciples and the early Christian community. How did Judas’ betrayal of Jesus affect the other disciples?

We know Judas, of course, only as “the betrayer.” Judas’ sole identity for us is as the one who betrayed Jesus. But the disciples knew him before. He was “one of the twelve,” chosen by Jesus for this special calling. As Peter says in Acts, “Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus … was one of our number and shared in our ministry” (Acts 1:16-7). They were comrades in this new and exciting and holy ministry. For years, they had closely shared their lives with one another. They would have known each other well. Throughout his earthly ministry when Jesus sent out disciples to preach, teach, and heal, Judas was among them.

Judas betrayed Jesus, but he also was a traitor to the other disciples.

What was it like for them? Those of us with some awareness of modern psychology can only imagine! The second guessing of the past, anger, confusion and frustration, a profound sense of personal betrayal.

So the disciples find themselves as a crucial time, wondering how to move into the future without Jesus. And then they have the emotional complications of Judas’ betrayal and death. Judas’ death also left their number incomplete. The twelve disciples, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, the fullness of God’s people… That completeness was incomplete.

And it was Judas they needed to replace.

The uncertainty, complicated feelings and situation, could easily have been paralyzing.

What did they have? What did they have to help as they tried to look to the future?

They had the memories of their own experiences with Jesus, the faith and conviction they had gained while with him. And they had his commission, his words commissioning them for a future. Several accounts tell of Jesus’ words to the disciples just before his ascension. In Acts, Jesus says: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The great commission of Matthew is probably more familiar. There, before Jesus ascends he says: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 27:19-20).

Go. Go forward. Witness to me. Baptize and make disciples. To the ends of the earth.

Given what the disciples faced at this crucial time, it seems to me that it is miraculous that the early Christian movement survived. It is truly miraculous that the Christian movement survived and moved forward.

They had Jesus’ commission. They also had corporate prayer. Luke and Acts tell us that after Jesus ascension the disciples came together and were constantly in prayer. Praying together. And surely in the corporate prayer they found healing and direction. And, although we don’t celebrate Pentecost until next Sunday, I think the Holy Spirit was already afoot, inspiring and enabling the disciples. They were, in a sense, resurrected given new life as the Body of Christ. To carry Jesus proclamation, healing and reconciliation forward into the world.

We are their heirs. We are also their successors, called to witness to Christ in our world.

There’s a wonderful prayer for the church in the Book of Common Prayer. It occurs in the ordination services. It also appears in the intercessions on Good Friday, when we reflect upon Jesus’ hopes for his followers. Let us pray:

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter - May 10

Intentional Love
1 John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17

For the last few weeks there has been a lot of talk about love in the Scripture readings. Especially as we are working our way through the first Letter of John, and today also in the Gospel reading from John.

The Greek word translated love in these passages is agape. It’s a particular favorite of John and others in his community. Looking at just the noun agape, one article I read this week points out that Mark never uses the word; Matthew and Luke each use it only once; John uses it seven times (three in this morning’s reading); and it appears 18 times in the First Letter of John. If you counted the verbs derived from the same word, there would be even more in the Gospel and Letters of John. Agape refers to a particular kind of love.

You may have heard before that the English word “love” is asked to cover a very wide range of meanings. Other languages, including Greek, use more than one word to talk about different kinds of loves. C. S. Lewis’ book The Four Loves outlines four different kinds of love which he labels affection, friendship, eros, and charity.

So when Jesus says, in today’s Gospel, “This is my commandment: That you love one another as I have loved you,” what does he mean? Love one another as God loves us. Nothing to it, right?!

He’s talking about agape. Agape one another as God agape’s us. A lot has been written about agape. It has been described as self-giving love. A love that always desires the best for the other. It is sometimes translated “charity” in English Bibles.

This week I encountered a slightly new description of agape that I find very helpful. Intentional love. Agape is intentional love.

If you think about it, that may seem like an oxymoron in terms of how we usually describe love. Or if not an oxymoron, a negative, like “arranged marriage.” The glory of love is that it is unintentional. Love just happens. It grows wondrously on its own. Or it’s a gift. Love is unintentional.

But not agape. To be a Christian is to say to others: “I intend to love you.” I intend to love you.

With God’s help. So often in the Book of Common Prayer when we are praying for some aspect of our own Christian behavior, we add “with God’s help.” In last week’s Gospel reading from John, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

But with me, you can do what I do. If we are the branches connected to Jesus the vine, the same sap, the same strength, the same purpose that was in him is in us. With God’s help, we can (at least to some degree) love others as he loves us.

Agape. Intentional love.

It means: Be kind to people you don’t like. Be intentionally kind to people you don’t like.

Help people you don’t know. People half way around the world. People different from you. Act to help them.

And support those you do know. Do all you can to support and sustain people you do know so that their lives and faith can flourish.

And, always remember, God intentionally loves each one of us. No matter who we are, what we do, whether we are worthy or not, God intentionally loves each one of us. Always.

The Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 3

The Blind Men, the Elephant, and Psalm 22
Psalm 22:24-30

Some of you may know the parable of the blind men and the elephant. It’s not one of the parables in our sacred scriptures. It comes from the Indian subcontinent, where apparently it occurs in several variations with various morals. It became more well known in the west after 19th century American poet John Godfrey Saxe wrote a poem about it. So since we’re just on the heels of “National Poetry Month,” I thought I’d share that version with you.

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho, what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he:
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a TREE!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong! 

The elephant, in all of its elephant-ness doesn’t change. But each man only experiences a portion of the elephant and assumes that his partial experience defines the full reality of the elephant.

Believe it or not, it is today’s portion of the psalter that brought to mind for me the parable of the blind men and the elephant. No, there is no mention of an elephant in the psalm. But did anyone raise your eyebrows listening to the portion of the psalm that we prayed today? Words of hope and praise. But this is psalm 22. Psalm 22!

Psalm 22 begins:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
and are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress?

O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer;
by night as well, but I find no rest. 

Jesus’ words from the cross. And words which express one human experience of God. A dark and profound experience of loss. The voice of the first man of Indostan. Especially as I think of the psalm and the parable in parallel, it seems like Psalm 22 expresses a list of very different human experiences of God.

Psalm 22 continues:

Our forefathers put their trust in you;
they trusted, and you delivered them.

They cried out to you and were delivered;
they trusted in you and were not put to shame. 

The second man of Indostan is angry with God. He experiences God as apparently capricious, seeming to deliver some people, but not others.

Yet you are he who took me out of the womb,
and kept me safe upon my mother's breast.

I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born;
you were my God when I was still in my mother's womb.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near,
and there is none to help. 

Yearning. A sense of God’s presence, God being woven in with all of life, and a heartfelt yearning to be with God, to know God’s presence.

Then Psalm 22 continues with words of extreme helplessness. Vivid images that express human nothingness without God.

Many young bulls encircle me;
They open wide their jaws at me, like a ravening and a roaring lion.

My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd…

Packs of dogs close me in
and gangs of evildoers circle around me… 

And yet, the psalmist persists in trust, perseveres in the conviction that God can and will rescue him. What are we up to? The fourth man of Indostan? The fourth different human experience or reaction to God.  Perseverence. Calling upon the Lord.  The conviction that God will save.

Be not far away, O LORD;
you are my strength; hasten to help me.

Save me!

Save me! 

Then finally, we are coming into the portion of Psalm 22 that we prayed today.

Praise the LORD, you that fear him;
stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel; all you of Jacob's line, give glory.

For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
neither does he hide his face from them;
but when they cry to him he hears them.

My praise is of him in the great assembly

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD

My soul shall live for him;
my descendants shall serve him;
they shall be known as the LORD'S for ever.

They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn
the saving deeds that he has done. 

Words of deep hope and praise. Another piece of the human experience of God. Unbridled praise and reassuring hope even for a people yet unborn.

Looking at Psalm 22 this way leads me to a couple of reflections. One is a warning to beware of cherry-picking individual verses of Scripture. Just like each of the men from Indostan experienced only a portion of the elephant, individual portions of this psalm only express very partially the human experience of God. God’s reality, God’s presence, are always there. But our experiences of God are always partial. A sense of abandonment… feelings of anger… yearning… hope and praise… all of these are part of a faithful life.

Be wary, in particular, of anyone who suggests that a “real” or “true” Christian will always be full of hope and praise.

I’m also aware, as some of you may remember, that we read all of Psalm 22 on Good Friday. When we stand at the cross confronting Jesus’ crucifixion but looking forwards towards Easter, we read all of Psalm 22. There is a path from despair to hope, from anger to praise. That trajectory is the Christian promise. We are on that journey. Our own relationships and experiences of God are not static, but are moving towards praise and hope. That’s not to say that individual journeys won’t loop around and back track from time to time. They will.  But persevere. We are all ultimately headed towards hope and praise.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter - April 26

The Good Shepherd
John 10:11-18

Today is one of those Sundays that has multiple identities. Formally, this is the Fourth Sunday of Easter. We are in the heart of the great fifty days of Easter. The Fourth Sunday of Easter is also informally known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Every year there is a thematic focus on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. You heard reference to it in the collect appointed for this day. And in the Gospel reading appointed for this year Jesus identifies himself as the “good shepherd.”

I know that this will sound like sacrilege, but I’ve never been a real big fan of all of the Good Shepherd stuff. I have very mixed feelings about Jesus as the good shepherd. I do understand the good in this image and why, in particular, we tend to use it with children. It is comforting. It portrays Jesus as a protector and as someone who knows us by name. Those are certainly good messages.

But, as I’ve probably said before, a necessary implication of the image of Jesus as the good shepherd is that we are the sheep. And I really don’t like being a sheep. The stuffed animal sheep we give to children are cuddly, but passive, of course. Not really helpful qualities in life. Real sheep (and I’ve been around real sheep) are dumb, dirty, herd animals. Not qualities I aspire too, either.

It seems even in Jesus’ day the image of a shepherd was more nostalgic than realistic. Most of Jesus’ followers would have been very familiar with the images of planting and sowing, but not herding, as agriculture had become dominant.

But the image of a shepherd is prominent in Scripture… in the Hebrew Scriptures that Jesus would have known. And as I’ve been reading this week I’ve come across a somewhat different slant on Jesus as shepherd. It doesn’t completely get rid of the sheep, but it helps provide a new perspective. It seems very likely that Jesus was drawing upon these Old Testament passages about shepherds. And in those passages, the shepherd is a metaphor for the king. So it isn’t about individual pastoral relationships between shepherd and sheep. It’s about political rule. It’s not about Jesus as caregiver in our church nurseries or individual spiritual care. It’s about the leader of our corporate destiny (See Sloyan, Interpretation Commentary on John).

Ezekiel 34 is important background for John 10. There God denounces the shepherds or rulers who have not cared for the flock (His people) and have plundered it, neglecting the weak, the sick, and the straying. “So they were scattered for want of a shepherd and became food for all the wild beasts… my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to seek or search for them” (34:5-6). God promises that he will take his flock away from these wicked shepherds, and he himself will become their shepherd. “I shall lead them out of the nations, and gather them from the countries; I shall bring them to their own land and tend them on the mountains of Israel… I shall feed them with good pasture… I myself shall be the shepherd over the sheep. … I shall seek the lost” (34:11-16) (Raymond Brown, John).

The good shepherd is a king who does not plunder or exploit his people, but cares for them and brings them together. It seems clear that in John’s time some of God’s people were following other shepherds, other leaders. And these worldly leaders must have been compelling or attractive, drawing the people away from following God.

The same is true in our time. Leaders other than God compel our obedience, seduce our interest and commitment. Who are they in your life? But these worldly leaders, wicked shepherds, hired hands do not truly care for their people. They plunder, scatter, and neglect the people who follow them.

Jesus reassures the people to whom he spoke and us, that he is a good shepherd. A noble or model shepherd some translations say. Jesus will not abandon the people who follow him. He will collect and care for them.

But in addition to its powerful reassurance, this passage offers a challenge to us. As a community led by Jesus, how are we to live in the world? As a parish community or as a broader Christian community who follow Jesus as our leader, what does it mean to live as citizens of his kingdom? Not as sheep so much, but as citizens faithful to his rule and committed to his work in the world.