Sheep and Shepherds

April 25, 2010
John 10:22-30
Psalm 23
Sheep and Shepherds
The Fourth Sunday Of Easter
Good Shepherd Sunday
Year C

It was winter-- the festival of Dedication is what we call Hanukkah.

"Hey Jesus! Come on now. We want a straight answer, not just
hearsay, not just 'signs.' We don't want to take therisk that your
actions may be our answer. We don't like ambiguity. We want a
notarized, authorized, sworn and signed statement that you are the
Messiah. Tell it to us straight, Jesus of Nazareth."

"I did tell you. I told you very clearly by changing water into wine,
by healing a blind man, by walking on water, and by saying 'I am' 6 or
8 times in all kinds of different ways. But y'all want it straight?
Okay, here it is. You're not called by me. Yeah, I AM the Messiah,
but obviously, if you don't get it by now, you're not going to. You
don't want my kind of Messiah. Because I'm the shepherd who will
actually feed the sheep, not just feed myself on the sheep. I'm the
real shepherd who is going to expose your hypocrisy and overrule your
injustices. See all these people following me? The ones you ignored,
ridiculed, and mistreated? They're following me, because they can
hear God through me. They are the sheep of shepherd. And just
wait til you see how I treat them. No more trampled down fields for
them to graze in, no more dirty water for them to drink. I know each
and every one of them, and they're listening to what I'm telling them.
And you can't take them away from me, no matter what you try. This
is what God is doing through me, because the Shepherd and the shepherd
do the same thing-- we are the same thing."
This is an important story because it speaks of an endearing question for all of us – who is Jesus Christ for us and exactly what kind of relationship should we have to this man who calls himself the son of God anyway?
This is an important story because it speaks of an endearing answer – Jesus Christ is the messiah – the one who comes to bring health, wholeness and happiness to us all. He is like a shepherd who cares for us and we are like sheep – in need of someone to look over us and to take care of us. He is the head of Christ and we are the body of Christ. He leads, we follow.
And yet that endearing questions remains – why a shepherd, and why are we sheep. The easy answer is that is the culture that the Hebrews would have understood. They were a nomadic people, traveling from place to place with their animals. It was so ingrained into their way of life was that was all that they understood – caring for sheep. That was how they understood any relationship – that was the language that they spook. The language of sheep.
The harder answer perhaps is that we are reminded that in the midst of all of our sophisticated thinking as people- our ability to think for ourselves, our ability to know right from wrong, our ability to take care of ourselves – that God is reminding us that we are still just as helpless and dependent on God as the sheep. That in spite of all of our knowledge and abilty to learn new things – that what we know is nothing compared to what God knows. That we are to remember that life is not about us and what we want, it is about god and what God wills.
The language of shepherd and sheep is the language of faith in God. It is a language that goes beyond our relationship with God and is present all throughout the church. Whenever the bishop is present and presiding- he or she brings in their shepherds crook and puts it in stand to remind us that He or she is the shepherd and we as the community of believers are the shepherd. In an individual congregation – the pastor is the shepherd and the congregation are the sheep. The pastors job is to lead and the congregations job is to trust, listen, and follow.
It is a relationship much like the one in our scripture, where the question is asked – how do we know that you are the one to lead us? When a pastor comes into a congregation how do you know that pastor is the one to lead? How do you know whether that pastor is knows what they are doing? In my interview with my new church – that was the first and most significant question that I was asked of me – how do we know that you are a leader who even believes in Jesus.
In my interview with my new church – that was the first and most significant question that I was asked of me – how do we know that you are a leader who even believes in Jesus.
I wont go into my answer – because in many ways those are questions that cannot be answered in words. Jesus himself says that it is not about knowledge, or data or proof – it is about belief. You have to believe within your spirit that this is the pastor called by God to lead in this particular place. It can be easy for us to get caught up into the humanness of the church, the personal flaws, the judgements and agendas of individuals. And to forget that underneath all of that is god’s saving acts in the world. Why should we follow a certain leader – because that is the person that God sent into the situation, to do a certain task. Whether we are in the role of shepherd or sheep – our role is not to know. Our role is to listen, trust and follow. Follow not man, but to follow god. And yet Jesus in his own words reminds us that God came to us in the flesh of a human being, to guide us, to take care of us and to save us from ourselves. Jesus himself says that his work and God’s work are one in the same for those who believe and follow his voice.
How do we know that we are doing the right thing? How do we know when we are trusting the right person, how do we know if a certain person is of God?
We have to be clear in our own faith, determined in our own spirits to follow God, and commited to following our own path. It is not always our job to judge another’s call or relationship with God – it is our job to know our job and our relationship with God.
Barbara Brown taylor writes – to be where God is - to follow Jesus – means going beyond the limits of our own comfort and safety. It means sharing the life we have been given.
Being a sheep means to be where God is – follow Jesus. To find God in all things. To be faithful in our own lives. To hear the voice of Jesus guiding us, and forsaking all other voices. We find that voice in song, in art, in beauty, and most importantly in other people. The good news is that when we listen for that voice – we hear it in some way.

Blessed are Those who See and Believe

April 11, 2010
Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 5
John 20
Blessed are those who see and believe
Year C


What did Jesus say when he arose from the grave? Tada!
Resurrection was God’s great joke on the devil. A trick that he played- when he wanted to the devil to know that no matter what was tried, he could never win. He would never have the final word. That God has the power to triumph in the midst of even the worst situation. On the cross even though we heard Christ in agony and suffering, he was in on the joke – what else was there for him to say – but tada. It worked in spite of it all.

Easter is not a day – Easter is a season. It takes us awhile to get on board and to let the joke settle in for us. It takes several appearances, several sermons, several life experiences before we finally get the joke and are willing to laugh.
This second Sunday of easter is Holy humor Sunday – the day we get to laugh and sing and dance, and settle into what Easter means for us and for the world.
So in honor of holy humor Sunday, I want to give you a short test of faith. Answer whether you think these things are true or false….
Would you believe that:
Most lipstick contains fish scales. (T)
More real money is printed in the world than Monopoly money each year. (F)
No piece of square paper can be folded more than seven times. (T)
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. (T)
The Kea bird from New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows. (T)
The weight of all the termites in the world is 10 times heavier than the weight of all the world's humans put together. (T)
The longest bout of hiccups lasted ten years. (F. Charles Osborne had them for 69 years!)
A cockroach can live several weeks without a head - afterwards it will die of starvation. (T)
Toenails grow faster than fingernails. (F) fingernails grow 4 X's as fast as toenails.
The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old. (T)


The themes for today are doubt, belief and witness. I plan for us to focus on the lessons of acts and John for the year – and those are the themes of the day. Doubt, belief and witness.
The gospel lesson for today is always focuses on the story of Thomas. Some call him doubting Thomas – because he did not believe that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead- until he had proof for himself. The nails in his hands, the hole in his side. All of which Jesus was able to provide for him. But the word for this story that we interpret as doubt actually means more distrust. He didn’t doubt that Jesus had risen from the dead, he just want not able to accept that fact right off, without some further understanding. Sort of like I would need to believe that no square piece of paper can be folded for more than 8 times. That might actually be true – but I will have to try that for myself in order to really believe that is it true.
Jesus days that blessed are those who believe but have not seen. He is not criticizing Thomas for asking for proof. He is saying that there will be times when we will have to answer whether something is true or false- and we wont have time to look at the encyclopedia – we will just have to use what we have to answer the question.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead – true or false. Do you believe that was the greatest trick that God could have played ? True of false. How do you know your answer is true or not?
It all comes down to what you believe about Christ. In researching this sermon - I came across this question – what do you think is the greatest joke that God ever played on us. It is a yahoo question, and people recorded their answers. Some people said to make everything that we enjoy a sin. Someone else said making us all different colors, races and believing in different religions. Someone else said George Bush. I think that the greatest joke that God every played on us is Easter. Forcing us to believe in the impossible, forcing us to celebrate a phenonmen that we don’t understand. Asking us to believe something that we will never see. Did Christ really conquer death and come back to life. We will never get the chance to see the nails and the hole. We cant see – we can only believe. We can only trust the witness of Thomas, Mary and Peter.
Easter is not about what happened to Jesus, it is about how those who saw what happened responded. In Each Easter appearance Jesus gives them the holy spirit and they respond. When Thomas receives the spirit he declares that Jesus is his lord and his God
During the seven weeks of Easter – we read from the book of acts – the book of what the holy spirit did. Usually it is stories of how the church grew, but this year it is stories of how individuals were affected when they came in contact with the holy spirit.
After Jesus was crucified, the disciples were told that they were to forget all about this man and what he did (as if that were really possible), yet they needed to be witnesses for the spirit an tell others what they saw. So they were jailed. When questioned their defense was that they were doing what God told them to do and they had to do what God said and not what man said. One lone Jewish leader – Gemeliail defended them, saying that if what they were doing was from God, then who could stop them, if it was not then it would stop itself. An angel freed them and they continued to be witnesses for God. Telling others that jesus was alive. God demands that task of all of us – to be witnesses of the Easter Jesus. To doubt Easter, to believe Easter and to witness Easter- tell the world what we saw when Jesus appeared to us in Easter.
My favorite story of easter and how it affects us is the story of the families of the coal miners in West Virginia. I remember in 2006, watching the tv constantly for word of what was happening to the miners. I was there when they announced that the had been found alive, and I was awake at two in the morning when the story broke tht they had been found dead. The nation went into mourning. This time there was not the same emotional coverage as there was then, but they did keep us up to date on what was going on. All day Friday they told us what they were doing to look for the 4 miners who may be still alive. The told us when they were going on and how they were going to do it. I was not near a tv when they finally announced that they had found the 4 and they they were not alive. I could imagine the roller coaster ride of all of the families, as they had not told who was dead and who was alive. And now hope was gone – they were all gone. The governor’s emotional words – we were hoping for a miracle – and it did not happen. The journey has ended and now the healing must begin.
That is what easter is all about – is being able to find hope in the deepest darkest moment and knowing that God has demanded that life must go on. Even in a tradgedy – the living Christ is there – and is saying tada – death does not get to have the final word. Because the holy spirit has a job to do. To be a witness of what God can do. God can turn darkness into light, despair into joy, a bad moment into a good, hopelessness into hope. Just as God bought jesus back to life, god does all of the work – but someone has to testify and witness that they saw the work done.
What about you – what is your easter story ? as you look for the green grass, the growing flowers, the budding trees – how do you see God at work? At play? Telling jokes, some of them funny – all of them joyful. Remember – some of god’s greatest miracles start out in the form of a question, an occasion for distrust, an opportunity to ask God how are you going to work that one out – a chance not to nessarily doubt god – but to distrust what your senses are showing you. You know jesus is alive in that situation – when you believe – believe that your lord and your savior is speaking to you, and asking for a witness that the holy spirit is at work in your and in the world – bringing about a transformation. A change- a new risen savior. Let us pray….

An Idle Tale

April 4, 2010
Easter Sunday
Psalm 118
Luke 24:1-12
An Unlikely Tale
Year C

Woodrow Wilson’s butler called him one night to tell him that the tax accountant for the government had died. Sir, I was wondering if it s okay with you if I could take his place. Now mind you this is the middle of the night – butler- tax accountant. President Wilson responds – you know it doesn’t matter to me if you want to take his place – but you should probably ask the funeral director if it is okay.
The women in Jesus life have gathered to go to the tomb of Jesus. They want to anoint the body. That’s what you do when you are family – you show love and care to the body by rubbing it in spices. They have been through a hard ordeal, traveling with the teacher, believing and being inspired by his message, watching him beaten and killed for all of the wrong reasons, seeing your family fall apart from the stress, feeling like you have to do something – only to witness the final insult – his body is gone.
Bodies don’t just disappear on their own, they don’t just walk away on their own, - something had to have happened. After all they have done to this man – how could they have deprived Jesus of his final resting place? Seeing two men near the grave – she says – sir if you have taken him, just give him back, so that I can give him that final dignity of resting in peace.
The two men were really angels. And they ask her an important question. A question that certainly should have been asked of Woodrow Wilson – but needs to be asked of us today – why do you continue to look for the living amongst the dead.
If there was a body to speak of everything would be different now. If he had a final resting place- if there was a place we could go to honor his memory – we wouldn’t need to come today or any Sunday.
Even as those who come together to celebrate the resurrection – we still find ways to look for Jesus among the dead. Knowing that we will never find him – but we look anyway.
When we seek comfort instead of righteousness – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we are in constant pursuit of pleasure and forsake joy – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we seek security and what is best for us, instead of reaching out to help others – we are looking for life in the midst of death. When we are much more willing to listen to what the world says, and forget what god says – we are looking for life in the midst of death.
Looking for the living amongst the dead. There are times when we have to do that. I think of the recent Haiti disaster. I have a picture here of the cross that survived, when the church was destroyed. (I will pass it around).
There were people in that disaster and many others – who had the task of looking for the living amongst the dead. Who had to go through that rubble of each fallen building – and look for life in the midst of death. Who had to examine every body for signs of life. And at any sign of life, they had to stick with that person until they were taken to safety. No matter how the faint the sign may be- if they are alive then they have to be nurtured back to health. We have that type of obligation to life.
Things would have certainly been different if they had found a body. If we had found a body. Our obligation to death and to life are very different. Death can take care of itself – but it is in life that we have an obligation to carry on. In the midst of our circumstances of life, our troubles, our hardaches, our questions, our destiny. Death can give us easy answers. But when we are still alive, and we don’t know what to do, or what comes next, or how things will work themselves out- that’s when we need a resurrection faith.
Faith in an empty tomb – faith in a promise of new life, faith in divine intervention in a way that makes no sense, faith that death has been conquered, so that we will have to strength to go on in life. Faith that God will succeed and conquer all.
Lenin fashioned himself as a savior of the people. He told them that communism would save them. He told them that there was no need for faith. It didn’t do anything but give false hope. He promised his people a better life, he even took the time to teach people a new way of understanding. And then he died. At his death – the question was asked – what do you do with a God who has failed you? They actually did the same thing that the women at the tomb were planning to do with Jesus. Anoint his body with spices, preserve it, give it a nice home, and put it on display as a monument so that people from generation to generation could come and see death. And yet remember to point he was trying to make. Why do we continue to look for the living amongst the dead.
The empty tomb is a witness to a God who does not fail, but who has won the ultimate victory. The triumph of life over death. There is no body for us to remember and show respect to, there is no principle for us to be reminded of.
There is a life that we are to live. There is a story that we are to tell, there is an event that we are to witness to. There is no body – there are only people. People who choose life over death anyday.
When the women went to tell the disciples what they had witnessed. No one believed them. It couldn’t be- God never intercedes like that, no one has ever been resurrected. No one who had died, has ever come back to life. Peter even went to the grave himself – he saw the empty tomb. He saw the proof for himself that the body was gone – it had indeed just walked away. And yet he didn’t believe. It didn’t make sense. He did not see the life in such a tragic event.
The world is the same – the world sees proof everyday of a god who won – a living faith. And yet they refuse to believe.
It is easier to believe in easter bunnies, and chocolate, and eggs, than it is to believe in life over death. The good news is that Easter is not a day or an event – Easter is life unfolding, and God revealing, each and every day.
Jesus came to each an every one of them – to reveal the truth and to show them proof of the resurrection. With each passing day – they understood a little bit better, and they saw a little more clearer.
The good news is the Easter is still unfolding, God is revealing, Jesus Christ is alive an still appearing to his disciples, and we still get the chance to choose life over death. There is not body – only people. When we celebrate and sing Hallelujah God wins. When we live as if we believe that Easter is a life changing event – God wins. Otherwise this all is just another idle tale- as his own disciples believed long ago.
Let us pray…
Lord,
the resurrection of Your Son
has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as new people
in pursuit of the Ways of Christ.
Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
the will to want to do it,
the courage to undertake it,
the perseverance to continue to do it,
and the strength to complete it.
New Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book

Amen.