The People You Gave Me

Ascension Sunday

May 28, 2017

Acts 1:1-14; Ephesians 1:15-23; John 17:1-11

The picture in your bulletin this morning is a prayer labyrinth. Has anyone ever seen one or used one? There is one over at Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital that they put in a year or two ago. Another option is to pray as you move your finger along the path. I first came across a prayer labyrinth at my sending church in North Carolina. The fellowship hall there is not a rectangle shape but a circle and during a season when the spiritual development of the church was really developing, we bought a floor-sized prayer labyrinth that took up most of the space of the hall. One year it was put up during Holy Week and you could sign up for a shift of a prayer vigil that was to last the whole week and come and pray by walking around the labyrinth during your shift. So (this is the kind of 24 year old I was), I did. There were some basic instructions for walking an indoor floor labyrinth, like wearing only socks, with a basket of socks available in case you didn’t have any on. There was soft music playing and soft lighting. And you entered the path. And then you just keep following it, and you follow it all the way around to the center, where some tissue boxes were placed and you could stop in the center and stay until you ready to follow the labyrinth back out again. I didn’t know exactly what to pray when I entered the labyrinth, and so I started to just pray for each person in my life. I said a name with each footstep, not moving to the next step until I had the next name in my mind. Nothing specific about each person, just their name, and I worked my way through my family and friends, through my students I was teaching, through my extended family, through the names of each person whose life touched mine. I reached the end of my list before I reached the center, and by then my mind and heart could move into deeper praying. But that was where I began, and where I began every time I have walked a labyrinth. It focuses my mind, by praying for and naming each person given to me.

This morning’s Scripture readings are a combination from Ascension Day and the 7^th Sunday after Easter. It was important to read of Jesus’ ascension to heaven, lest we find ourselves wondering where is he now, post-resurrection. And it was important to read this prayer Jesus prays before leaving the disciples. His prayer for his disciples, for the people given to him, is not too different from my praying for each person given to me. Jesus prays, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do.”[1] And Jesus continues, praying for his disciples, “asking for the help that his loved ones needed at that time and would need in the future.”[2] This is the same thing we ask for our loved ones, for God to help them, both now and down the road. Jesus knows that keeping the disciples “united [would be] a challenge. Without cohesion, they would not survive.”[3] Back in March I shared with y’all a quote from a change theorist who said that the best way to prepare for change and for the unknown was to attend to the quality of our relationships.[4]  I think that’s what Jesus is doing here. He’s praying for his disciples to be united because it’s the best way they can prepare for the coming change of not having Jesus with them in the flesh anymore. We prepare for change by caring for our relationships, including praying for the people given to us. There are three specific truths I want to pull out from Jesus’ prayer for his loved ones.

The first is farther on in the prayer. Jesus says to God the Father, “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from this world. They were yours…” Before anything else, we are God’s. We belong to God. The verse from 1 Chronicles, “All things come of thee, O Lord…” that we pray at the offering: that includes us. We are God’s. In a couple weeks we’ll read the story of creation from Genesis 1, when God created everything, including people. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and on the sixth day, God made people, in God’s own image. Imago dei is the Latin phrase, the image of God. God made us, intricately and wondrously weaved us together. In the words of the psalm, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, knitted together in the womb.[5] We come from God. Before we belong to anyone or anywhere else, we belong to God. You may hear the phrase, remember who you are and whose you are, and the answer is we are God’s. In one of my favorite passages, through the prophet Isaiah, God says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”[6] God calls us by name. Just like I prayed by naming each person in my life, God calls each of us by name, because we belong to God. And belonging to God means is that “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” We are God’s, and God is with us through thick and thin, regardless of where in the labyrinth of life we may find ourselves. God does not leave us or abandon us. God does not leave us alone.

Besides always staying with us, God also gives us to each other. Jesus prays, “They were yours, and you gave them to me.” We are given to each other. We are given to our families.  We are given to our communities. We are given to each other, “to have and to hold, from this forward.”[7] And it is a bit like marriage vows, being given to each other “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish.”[8] God gives us to each other to care for each other, to love each other, to pray for each other. If you don’t care for the marriage analogy, how about baptism? “Through the sacrament of baptism we are initiated into Christ’s holy church…” and Christ’s holy church promises to nurture the person being baptized, “that by your teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life.”[9] We are given to each other by God. In The United Methodist Church, both a baptism and the reception of a new member end with that person being commended to our love and care and we, the congregation, are instructed to “Do all in your power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, and perfect them in love.”[10] God gives us to each other. God commends us to each other to love and care for each other, for our families, for our neighborhood, for our church family, for our school, for our coworkers, for our community. Who are all the people you would list if you were to name in prayer each person whose life touches yours? Who are the people given to you to love and care? Let’s take a moment and name some of them out loud.

[Pause]

Amen.

Finally, to finish that sentence from Jesus’ prayer, “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me… They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”[11] We, God’s people, keep God’s Word. We give ourselves back to God by keeping God’s Word. There’s a billboard on I-95 going into Baltimore that says, “Real Christians obey Jesus’ teachings.” We are God’s; we belong to God. God gives us to each other to love and care. According to the Bible of all the rules and laws and commandments and teachings, Jesus says the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[12] Love God. Love your neighbor. Everything else goes back to those two commandments. Love your maker. Love the people given to you to love. That’s how we keep God’s Word. That’s how we honor God and show thanks and love to our creator, redeemer, and sustainer.

These three years, y’all have been the people given to me to love, and my family and me to you. Thank you. And thank God, for the privilege and honor of serving God with you these three years. We are God’s and we are given to each other. Sometimes for all our lives, like with our families. Sometimes only for a season, like in school or with Methodist pastors. I can no longer name all of my students I used to pray for. Instead, I can name y’all. And together, we keep God’s Word. We love each other. We care for each other. We encourage each other. We pray for each other.

If you ever have the opportunity to pray using a labyrinth, please don’t feel obligated to do it the same way as me. I simply shared it as an example of naming and praying for those whom God has given to me just as Jesus prayed for those God gave to him. This week, take time in your prayers to name the people God has given to you.  You can be like Paul in our Ephesians reading who never “stops giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers.” Thank God for each person God has put in your life. Thank God for each season that person has walked with you through. Whether good times or bad, sickness or health, the storms of life or a calm sea, we are given to each other to love and to cherish. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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[1] John 17:1b-4, combination of CEB and GNB

[2] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3245

[3] Ibid.

[4] http://www.margaretwheatley.com/articles/whenchangeisoutofcontrol.html

[5] Psalm 139:13b-14a

[6] Isaiah 43:1

[7] UMH 867

[8] Ibid.

[9] UMH 33-34

[10] UMH 38

[11] John 17:6

[12] Matthew 22:37-40

Love

6^th Sunday of Easter

May 21, 2017

John 14:15-21

            There’s something we have noticed watching Disney movies with our kids that didn’t stand out so much before, and that’s what we’ve taken to calling the Disney orphan phenomenon. Have you ever noticed how many main characters in Disney movies are orphans? Cinderella’s an orphan. Snow White’s an orphan. Bambi’s an orphan. Anna and Elsa are orphans. Lilo and her sister from Lilo and Stitch are orphans. Or, if not orphan, then at least one parent is gone or inexplicably missing, like The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. There’s a few main characters that come from two parent households, like Mulan and Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, yet even in those stories, the bulk of their movie still does not involve their parents. I did a little research to find out why and there are two reasons given by Don Hahn, who was the producer of many of those movies I just mentioned.[1] First, he says that no parents or only one parent help move the story along in a 90 minute movie. These movies are about growing up and taking responsibility and it’s easier when the parents are out of the picture. The second reason is that Walt Disney’s mom died. Not when he was young, but just when he was reaching the height of his fame. Mickey Mouse, Fantasia, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Snow White had just come out and he bought a house for his parents. The furnace leaked; his dad got sick, but his mom died. It sounds a little bit like Simba blaming himself for Mufasa’s death, right?

            It sounds a bit like how worried the disciples got when Jesus talked about leaving them. The whole time he’s with the disciples, he’s constantly hinting at the time when he won’t be with them. He’s only with them for a little while. You don’t fast when the bridegroom is with you, but after he leaves. This morning Jesus tells his disciples that if they love him, they will love each other as he loves them. He’s going to send them the Holy Spirit. And he’s not leaving them all alone, like orphans; he will be back. It’s more like parents leaving their kids to go to work for the day; they’ll be back at the end of the day. Jesus will be back. In the meantime, we’re to keep his commandment to love each other as he has loved us.

            Now, right there is the problem. We can love one another on our own, but we need a parent to guide us and show us the best way to do it. Otherwise, we are more prone to put conditions on our love or only love people who are like us. That’s why Jesus does NOT leave us on our own! He knows we need help. We need help loving each other in the same way Jesus loves us. That’s why Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. We’re going to celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit in two weeks on Pentecost Sunday, but we’ll do a preview now. The Holy Spirit is here to help us, to guide us, to remind us, to comfort us, to be our companion on the journey. Unlike so many Disney characters, we are not left on our own while we grow up and figure out responsibility. The Holy Spirit is always here with us. Nudging us, whispering to us, perhaps sometimes hitting us over the head like Rafiki whacks Simba. Or to use the example of another Disney movie, in the Disney Pixar production, Brave, Princess Merida turns her mom into a bear. Her mom is still around for the whole movie, but in the form of a bear. 

So, if you’re not feeling the help at first, then try again. And then try in a different way. Don’t get stuck in only one way of listening to God. I saw the Christian satire website, the Babylon Bee, this week has an article titled, “Man Sitting Literally Three Feet Away From Bible Asks God To Speak To Him.”[2] I think that’s called having something right in front of you and not seeing it. Have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. Open the eyes of your heart, open the ears of your soul. The Holy Spirit is here. As Paul explained to the people of Athens in our Acts passage, “God isn’t far away from any of us. In God we live and move and having our being.”[3] And because God in the form of the Holy Spirit is here, we have a hope at loving each other the same way that Jesus loves each of us.[4]

            Jesus loves each of us by not making it about him. Love means it’s not about you. Loves means your focus is on the other person. You know there are some people who can make everything about them? Like saying, “Happy birthday to my favorite person!” It’s not “Happy birthday to you”; it’s “happy birthday to my…” It makes it back about me instead of the birthday person. Jesus kept the focus on the other person, though. “He loved them by giving, not by taking. He asked not that they serve him, but that they serve one another. He taught them how to love with his words. And he taught them how to love by his actions. He showed how to love by the way he lived. He showed how to love by the way he acted in the world and by the things that he did. He showed how to love by continually looking for ways to give himself to everyone else in the world. He showed how to love by giving of his very life for others.  And I’m not just talking about giving his life away on the cross. The cross was only the final act. Long before the cross, in all that he said and did, Jesus gave himself in love to almost everyone he met.”[5] Yes, almost everyone. When he sent out the 72 and gave them instructions about not taking anything with them, about healing those who were sick, he also said that if anyone didn’t welcome them, then to dust the sand off their feet and move on. Can’t give love to someone who doesn’t want it. However, the point is more that our efforts are on giving away love rather than focusing on ourselves seeking to be loved. We do a lot of striving to be loved and a lot of worrying about what if people don’t like us. It takes a mature person, someone from the end of a Disney movie, not the beginning, to say I’m done worrying about whether people will like me or get mad at me. I’m going to do what’s right. And what’s right is putting others first. Not at the detriment of yourself; I read recently a quote by the theologian Frederick Buechner, “Pay mind to your own life, your own health, and wholeness. A bleeding heart is of no help to anyone if it bleeds to death.” You can’t love others if you don’t have any love to give. At the same time, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, pay mind to our life and theirs, our health and theirs, our wholeness and theirs. We are to love each other as Jesus loves us, giving away love freely to all who cross our path.

            Yes, that’s right. We are to love unconditionally. Not for what we might get out of it, not for our sake, not to use the other person, but to accept them how they are. Period. Warts and all. Differing opinions and all. Disagreements and all. That’s going to happen whenever you have more than one person. No two people are going to see eye to eye all the time. Good thing Jesus also says that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”[6] That Holy Spirit showing up, helping us to love each other so that we can move past the disagreements or work through them or work together in spite of them. That’s why we need the Holy Spirit. That’s why we shouldn’t be left alone. That’s why we’re not left alone. The Holy Spirit helps us, or reminds us, to love all kinds of people, just like Jesus.

            Jesus gave himself in love to everyone he met. “He loved the poor, the oppressed, the outcasts, the sick and diseased, the mentally ill, the deformed, the blind, the lame, the deaf, and the dumb. He loved women and children. He loved those inside his faith community and those from outside it. He loved people from cultural and ethnic groups other than his own.”[7] Jesus loves the whole world. I saw a post on Facebook this week from another pastor that said, “Less sermons, more hugs.”  Let’s put less focus on telling each other what to do, less criticism, and more building up. Less judging, more hugs. More love. And after having said “less sermons,” it’s kinda hard to keep preaching. So, we’re going to move into a time of showing love to each other. Let’s take a few minutes to greet one another this morning.

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[1] http://www.glamour.com/story/disney-secrets-beauty-and-the-beast

[2] http://babylonbee.com/news/man-sitting-literally-three-feet-away-bible-asks-god-speak/

[3] Acts 17:27b-28a

[4] Trinity Sunday is coming up, too, in three weeks.

[5] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/sixth-sunday-of-easter-preaching-notes

[6] Matthew 18:20

[7] https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/sixth-sunday-of-easter-preaching-notes

Trust

5^th Sunday of Easter

May 14, 2017

Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31; John 14:1-14

Did you ever play that trust game in youth group? Or watch others play it? I’m talking about the one where you have everyone in two lines, facing each other and with their arms out, and one person has to fall backwards into their arms, trusting that their friends will catch them? Anyone played that? Familiar with that game? How’d it turn out when you watched it or played it? Did you catch the person? I remember playing it one time in youth group when I was in middle school and thinking how cool it was that together we could catch this person that individually none of us would be able to on our own. And then it was my turn. [Pause.] They didn’t catch me. I fell. To be fair, it wasn’t completely their fault. When I fell backward, I was so confident that they’d catch me that I became completely deadweight and so I was heavier than they’d expected. The game works better when you’re a little less trusting and so you hold your body a little more rigid; it makes you easier to catch. But the whole point is to trust that they’ll catch you. I trusted; I leaned all my weight on them!

In the book of Proverbs it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”[1] We are supposed to lean all our weight on God, trusting God completely to catch us. The opening lines of our Gospel passage this morning has Jesus telling his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”[2] Except in the contemporary translation that Piney Grove uses, Jesus says, “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me.”[3] We talked a couple weeks ago about believe; today we’re going to focus on trust. Trust in God. Trust also in Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on what you think you know. Trust God. A couple months ago Piney Grove handed out pins to all their leaders that say just that, Trust God. Here’s mine.

After Jesus tells his disciples not to worry, he says that famous I am statement, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” I’m not asking this morning if you believe that; I’m asking this morning if you trust that. Do you trust Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life? Do you lean your whole weight on Jesus, and not on what you think you know? The second part of that proverb says, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”[4]

So, first, trust God will show you the way to take. Trust God, acknowledge him, “remember the Lord in everything you do and he will show you the right way.”[5] There’s a promise God speaks through the prophet Isaiah that “when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”[6] If you wander off the path, if you stray to one side or the other, you will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way. Follow this way.’ God tells us the right way to go, through his word, through each other, through prayer. And God shows us the way we should go, through his love that we see in each other, through his image reflected in us, through the example set by the saints who have gone before us. God will show you the path to take. Trust that.

Don’t be like the Israelites, who even after having been saved from slavery in Egypt, after having survived 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, after having reached the Promised Land, at the point of literally looking from the edge of the wilderness into the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey, they refuse to go in it! This is all described in Deuteronomy 1. They are at the edge of the Promised Land. God has set it before them. God has brought them to it. Their years of wandering are over. Their years of exodus are over. God sets this beautiful land before them and tells them to go on in [pause], and they say no. God has kept his promise, and they say no. Moses says, “The Lord your God, who goes before you, is the one who will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your very eyes, and in the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you traveled until you reached this place. But in spite of this, you have no trust in the Lord your God, who goes before you on the way to seek out a place for you to camp, in fire by night, and in the cloud by day, to show you the route you should take.”[7] God took care of them. God rescued them from Pharaoh. They saw with their own eyes God do marvelous signs and miracles. And even though God kept all his promises to his people, the Israelites did not trust God. And even while they were not trusting God, God was still going before them, showing them the way they should go and the path to take. You see, God doesn’t give up on us. God’s patience wears thin, but it never wears out completely. Even when we don’t trust God to show us what to do, God is still showing us what to do. There’s a reason Jesus makes the comment later on, “Let those with ears to hear, listen!” It’s because a lot of people with ears, a lot of people who are capable of listening, don’t listen.

You, also, are capable of listening. You have ears. Listen! Listen to what Jesus is saying to you. Listen to all the promises God has kept to his people. You can trust him. And, you can trust him with every area of your life. Because I know, it’s easy to say, “Oh, I do trust him. He’s brought me through so much.” Well, good. You trust him with certain areas of your life. But if you trusted him completely, then you wouldn’t try to be self-made. You wouldn’t try to be self-sufficient and do everything on your own. You wouldn’t gamble and try to provide for yourself, when God provides everything you need. Trust God to show you the way. If you don’t feel like he’s doing it, if you feel like you’re listening and all you’re getting is static, then keep listening. Keep praying. An answer will come from somewhere. Sometimes the answer is to start down a path, and then God will give you feedback about whether that’s the right path or whether his way is more a little over here. Pray for discernment. Ask God to show you the way. Ask God to show you Jesus. Trust Jesus. Lean your whole weight on him, and not on what you think you know.

Second, trust God’s truth. God’s truth is not always what we want to be true. It’s not always what we want to hear. Sometimes we don’t like the answers we get to our prayers. I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to move up here from North Carolina. I know I didn’t want to leave behind my support network. But God said, don’t be afraid. Go. I will be with you. I’ve spent the past three years rebuilding my support network, and now it will change again some as we move again. We don’t always like what God tells us. We don’t always want to be charitable toward our neighbor. Most of us would much rather hold on to our grudges and our list of how a certain person has wronged us. And God says, let it go. Yet why does God say, let it go? Because it’s healthier for us. We’ve got to let go of past wrongs, past sins, and past hurts in order to be healthy now. God wants what’s best for us, and holding on to the past is not what’s best for us. Trust God’s truth, even when you don’t like it. Even when it’s inconvenient, because it means you have to do something you don’t want to do, or something you’re not used to doing. You might have to change your habits!

Yet we know this. We know we need to spend time with God every day, to nurture that relationship. We know we should read God’s word every day, yet how many of us do that? (I expect our leaders to all say yes, by the way.) So, when you get stuck on remembering what God has said or discerning which path God wants you to follow, turn back to the Bible, back to what you know God has said. Maybe write it down in your own hand. Keep a prayer journal. Or get one of those adult coloring books that’s based on Bible verses. Write out a verse you need to hear on an index card and tape it to your bathroom mirror. That’s how I could dig up that random Isaiah verse about God saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” For a season in my life I had that verse on an index card taped on the wall next to my bed. I read it in a devotional and it spoke to me so much at the time that I wrote it out to remind myself. You can’t trust the truth of God if you don’t know it, if you don’t remember it, if you don’t have ways to remind yourself. Trust what God says, and I happen to think God really likes it when we write down what God says.

God says he is the way, the truth, and the life. Our opening prayer this morning this morning began, “Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life.”[8] So, finally, trust that to know God is everlasting life. Our first reading today was about Stephen’s death. Stephen is considered the first Christian martyr, the first one recorded to be killed for believing in Jesus and refusing to recant that belief. While the authorities were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, accept my life.”[9] Stephen knew that to know Jesus is life, and so come what may, we don’t need to be afraid of it. To quote from today’s psalm, “our times are in your hand, Lord.”[10] Our times are in God’s hands, not in our own. The verse before that one says, “I trust in you, O Lord, I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand.” I trust in God. We trust in God. That means our life is in God’s hands and knowing that God holds us in his hands means we don’t need to be scared about when our life will end or worry about change or be afraid of endings.

I know there is some anxiety over my leaving and a new pastor coming. I have anxiety about moving! And I know I shouldn’t. I know that my times are in God’s hands, and if I truly trust that, then God will work out all those details and there will be answers to all my questions. St. Julian of Norwich from the 14^th century wrote, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” I trust that all shall be well. I choose to trust that, even during times that don’t seem so well. I trust, because my times are in God’s hand, that all shall be well. For a more recent quote, from last century, well, 1983 to be exact, is a song that Christian artist Michael W. Smith wrote when some good friends moved away. The refrain says, “And friends are friends forever, If the Lord's the Lord of them. And a friend will not say never, 'Cause the welcome will not end. Though it's hard to let you go, In the Father's hands we know, That a lifetime's not too long, To live as friends.” Trust that. A lifetime’s not too long, because our times are in God’s hands. Because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Trust God. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Jesus. Lean your whole weight on him, whether today is a happy day or a sad day, lean on him in all that you do, and he will show you the path to follow. All shall be well.

May God give us the grace and the courage to trust him with every fiber of our being and with every area of our lives. Amen.

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[1] Proverbs 3:5, NIV

[2] John 14:1, NRSV

[3] CEB

[4] Proverbs 3:6, NRSV

[5] GNT

[6] Isaiah 30:21

[7] Deuteronomy 1:30-33

[8] Collect for the Fifth Sunday of Easter from The Book of Common Prayer, p. 225

[9] Acts 7:59

[10] Psalm 31:15a

Life

4^th Sunday of Easter

May 7, 2017

Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10

             The fourth Sunday after Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus is the good shepherd. This is not news to most of us. Many of us could have recited the 23^rd psalm off by heart without looking at the hymnal. We didn’t need to hear 1 Peter remind us again of how we are “like sheep that had lost their way, but now you have been brought back to follow the Shepherd and Keeper of your souls.”[1] Being compared to sheep is not a favorable comparison for us.  I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve preached a lot on sheep and shepherds. So, here’s the good news. In those verses from the Gospel of John, we didn’t actually read the part where Jesus says he’s the good shepherd. We read the part where he said he’s the gate. And 1 Peter said we follow not just the shepherd, but the guardian of our souls. Jesus is the gate; Jesus is the keeper of our souls. Knowing that Jesus guards our souls, there are a couple important things to get out of that.

One is that God knows you by name. God doesn’t say, “Hey you. Psst.”; God says, “Hey Heather Jean,” in my case, or “Hey [insert name here].” Through the prophet Isaiah God says, “I created you…, I formed you… Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”[2] God knows your name, whether it’s Conrad Cornelius O’Donald O’Dell, a Dr. Seuss character, or [insert name here]. God knows it no matter how many times you’ve changed it or what nicknames you’ve had. God knows who you are. God doesn’t call you, “Hey stupid!” God knows your name and calls you by name.

“The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” God calls each one of us by name. We may or may not respond. We may find it a little scary or unsettling that God knows us, and respond with more of a “Who? Me?” instead of Samuel’s, “Here I am. You called?” And I think that’s because unless we know who’s calling us, it can be a little unsettling. You know, it’s important to learn names and greet people by name. I try to do that at children’s time and when serving you communion. But when someone you don’t know says your name, it can be startling. How do they know me? Yet God doesn’t just know your name, God knows you. God knows you because God made you. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You know in creation when God was making everything, after each thing God said, “It is good.” Except after making people. Then God said, “It is very good.” You are very good. You are beloved. You are God’s.

And it’s a good thing to belong to God because not everyone has your best interests at heart. Thieves will try to come to steal, and kill, and destroy. The gate is the proper entrance to a sheepfold and that’s what the shepherd uses. But others will try to break in, climb over the fence or find another way in besides the gate. These others who sneak in have their own agenda, and it’s not to guard your soul. The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy. There are those who will try to steal your joy. Who will try to steal you away from God. Who will try to destroy your sense of self-worth or your ability to feel love or your ability to believe that you are worthy of love. They do not care about your soul. They have their own plan and it does not involve love or life. If they happen to steal or kill or destroy your soul, they don’t care.

You see, “the purpose of the gate is not to keep out other sheep… The purpose of the gate is to guard against all that threatens the well-being of the sheep.”[3] Jesus as the gate isn’t about exclusion and inclusion and who belongs and who doesn’t belong. Jesus as the gate is about guarding your souls, guarding your well-being. It’s not protecting sheep from other sheep; this isn’t about sheep-on-sheep violence. This is about thieves and bandits and wolves who seek to hurt the sheep. People who serve interests other than the ones from God. People who don’t take care of the least of these. People who don’t care about others’ well-being. People who don’t visit the sick, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked.

My husband and I love to watch “Doctor Who” and there was a speech Dr. Who gave in last week’s episode that when it was over, Lee turned to me and said, are you going to use that in a sermon?[4] And I said yes, not expecting to use it today. However, it fits. In this episode, Dr. Who and his companion travel to 1814 London when the River Thames is frozen, during one of the coldest freezes ever. And they meet there Lord Sutcliffe whose family secret passed on for generations is that there’s a monster who lives in the Thames who eats people and Lord Sutcliffe’s family is responsible for feeding it. The advantage to feeding it is that this monster’s dung is a biofuel that heats better and longer than coal, and so Lord Sutcliffe’s family has gotten rich because they have free and efficient heating for their factories and houses. Well, Lord Sutcliffe plans to set off a bomb on the ice when a lot of people are on it so that the monster gets a lot of people to eat. Dr. Who asks him, “What makes you so sure your life is worth more than those people out there on the ice? Is it the money? The accident of birth, that puts you inside the big, fancy house.” Sutcliffe replies, “I help move this country forward. I move the [British] Empire forward.” Dr. Who, who’s been around for thousands of years and traveled to even more times and places, says, “Human progress isn’t measured by industry. It’s measured by the value you place on a life. An unimportant life. A life without privilege. The boy who died on the river, that boy’s value is your value. That’s what defines an age, that’s… what defines a species.”

The value you place on an unimportant life. The value you place on an average sheep. Whether or not you work to safeguard the soul of that sheep. Jesus says, “The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they could have life – indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.” Abundant life. Life in all its fullness. Real and eternal life, more and better life than you have ever dreamed of. That’s why Jesus keeps our souls, so that each person can have life. By being the gate to the sheepfold it means Jesus only lets in those things that involve love, unity, mutuality, justice, and abundant life. If there is something in your life tearing you down, a voice that whispers, “hey stupid,” or “hey ugly,” or whatever you think when you’re at your worst, that is not from Jesus. That is something that stole in through the fence. If there is something tearing others down, even if it doesn’t affect you directly, that is also not from Jesus and something that snuck in.

When Jesus says that he came that we might have life, he’s not just talking about eternal life, life after death, and he’s not talking about health, wealth, and success. He’s talking about “life that begins here and now… knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. It is knowing the voice of the good shepherd who truly cares for us, [for each of us]. It is life in community, finding security and nourishment as part of his flock. It is life that abounds in meaning and value and endures even beyond death.”[5] Living life to the fullest, which does not mean do whatever you want. Nor is abundant life a zero-sum game where it means in order for you to have, others must do without. You can’t have life in all its fullness and ignore your neighbor in need. There’s the story Jesus tells of the rich man and Lazarus, where the rich man throws his scraps out to Lazarus, a beggar.[6] Lazarus goes to heaven when he dies; the rich man goes to hell. That was someone who stole from the sheepfold. No, abundant life is more like the neighbors who go to build their houses, one chooses the easy way and builds on sand; the other chooses to build on solid rock.[7] When the storms came, the house on the rock stood pat and the house on the sand went splat. In the children’s version, that is. And in the children’s version, the family in the house on the rock invited in the family who lost their house.[8] That’s abundant life, and it does not come at the expense of someone else not having life.

Jesus guards all our souls. Jesus calls us each by name and says, “Come, follow me. I will bring you home.” Home, where you live life fully, unafraid, secure that you are loved, secure because you belong to God and God loves you, no matter what.  You are not forgotten.  God wants abundant life for you.  That’s why Jesus is the gate. Yes, thieves can still get in, the fence is permeable; but don’t let them steal your life from you. Don’t let them destroy you with lies about scarcity. Jesus didn’t come that you might live in fear of not having enough. Jesus came that you might live life to the fullest. And he offers it to everyone. You don’t get to decide; I don’t get to decide. God wants life for all of creation. And each member of that creation is to help name the thieves that are hindering others from having life. We all get there together. All of creation will be redeemed; each person. That’s why Jesus came. May we trust him to continue to keep our souls safe so that we might have the life he intended for us. Amen.

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[1] 1 Peter 2:25, GNB

[2] Isaiah 43:1

[3] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3244

[4] Doctor Who, Season 10, Episode 3, “Thin Ice,” airdate 4/29/17

[5] Ibid.

[6] Luke 16:19-31

[7] Matthew 7:24-27

[8] The House on the Rock: Matthew 7:24-27 for children (Arch Books) by Jane Latourette

Hope

3^rd Sunday of Easter

April 30, 2017

Luke 24:13-35

            This morning’s Gospel continues the Easter resurrection story. In fact, it’s even the same day. Two weeks ago, on Easter, we read what happened early in the morning. Last week we read about the disciples in the upper room in the evening. And in today’s reading it’s the same day. Later on the same day two of Jesus' followers were traveling to a village called Emmaus.[1] As we are wont to do when traveling with friends, they were talking. And as we are wont to do when there has been big news, they were talking about the big news, “all the things that had happened.” And while they were discussing these things, up shows Jesus along the road and joins them on their journey. This is not something that would easily happen in 21^st century America. Except on airplanes or trains, you wouldn’t get another passenger on your trip and think nothing of it. I mean, can you imagine driving to Ocean City with friends, and there pops up another person in your backseat? You’d know right off the bat that something was up. But first century Palestine, you walked between towns. Everyone did. And so you gained traveling companions who walked with you, even if they were strangers. Then Jesus asks them what they’re talking about and their jaws must have just about hit the ground. How on earth can you be traveling on the road from Jerusalem and not know what’s been going on?! Even without telephones and social media, big news always spreads quickly. Always. Yet these two disciples patiently explain to Jesus… about Jesus. It’s kind of like the TV show “Undercover Boss.” The employees don’t know they’re talking about the company with the person who owns the company! These followers of Jesus tell Jesus about who they understand him to be and what has happened.

            They begin with the description, “Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people… Our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.”[2] I don’t think Jesus took issue with that part. Facts are facts; this is what happened, no matter how you look at it. But then comes the first subjective statement. The two disciples say, “We had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free.”[3] We had hoped. What hopes have you had that didn’t happen? What have you hoped? The disciples had hoped that Jesus was their Messiah, their Savior. What have you hoped? Perhaps you had hopes about your family or your health or your life in retirement. Perhaps you had hoped that the Orioles were going to beat the Yankees Friday night when they had that eight run lead! Now that was a completely reasonable expectation. That was more than just hope; it’s hard to come back from an 8 run deficit. What expectations have you had that weren’t met? Probably quite a few, because reality and expectation are two very different things, and that’s a hard concept to learn. You expect to go in for a routine doctor’s appointment… and it turns out not to be so routine. You take your car to the mechanic to fix something minor… and the bill ends up being $600. You expect one thing, and life turns out quite different. You had hoped. You knew what you wanted to happen. And, usually, we have a pretty good idea of what’s a reasonable hope and what’s simply idealistic. The disciples saw all the signs and miracles Jesus did. They heard him preach. They believed him. And so they had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel, just like he said. But then he died. Got the death penalty from the government.

            And yet… these two followers know that Jesus’ death was not the end of the story. They continue on, telling Jesus, “But there’s more: Some women from our group have left us stunned. They went to the tomb early this morning and didn’t find his body. They came to us saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who told them he is alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women said. But they didn’t see [Jesus].”[4] So, we had hoped, but it didn’t happen. But there’s more. And now we don’t know what to think. We were completely surprised by this news that his body isn’t in the tomb. We know the great lengths the government went to to seal the tomb and guard it and prevent anyone from stealing the body. Whaddya mean Jesus isn’t there? Whaddya mean angels talked with women? Whaddya mean they said he’s alive? [Make confused face.] What are we supposed to make of that?!

This has hit the point beyond our comprehension. Our hopes didn’t turn out. We’re grieving that loss, that things didn’t turn out how we wanted them to. And now we’ve heard news that we can’t make sense of. Where on earth would Jesus’ body be, if it’s not in the tomb? How can he be alive? We saw him die. We saw his dead body. We have not seen, just like Thomas last week, his resurrected body. We’re not even sure if we believe in resurrection. So, from this grief that what we had hoped didn’t happen, now we’re being told things that just boggle the mind. You know, if you’re at least starting off even-keel, on a good day, got enough sleep the night before, you can handle better things that don’t make sense. Your brain’s in a position to try to process it and try to make sense out of it. But starting off from grief, we had hoped, but it appears we were wrong, and now there’s more? It’s a good thing Jesus showed up on that road, because these two followers are just at a complete loss.

            You’ll notice when we get to the last hymn that it was written specifically from this Scripture. Here’s the description the author makes: “When we are walking, doubtful and dreading, blinded by sadness, slowness of heart, yet Christ walks with us/ ever awaiting/ our invitation: Stay, do not part.”[5] The disciples are doubtful and dreading, blinded by sadness, by their grief, and slow of heart. When we, too, are like that, thank God that Christ walks with us. Because when things get that bad, we are just not in a good position to do, or say, anything. And this is the point when Jesus speaks and explains to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses, which means the first five books of the Old Testament, starting with Genesis, and the writings of all the prophets. So, basically Jesus explains to them the whole Old Testament. Wouldn’t that have been a great lecture to sit in on! Or, walk along in on. Jesus explains that he had to suffer, that death is necessary before new life can happen. A seed has to die before a plant can grow. We have to eat food in order for our bodies to function and be healthy. One thing has to end before another one can happen. And both the original thing and the new thing are good things. We need seeds to plant gardens. You can’t have a beautiful flower and its seed at the same time. You can’t have a delicious-smelling fresh baked loaf of bread, and feel full at the same time. It’s a natural progression of life.

            And so, when they reach Emmaus, they are not so lost and overwhelmed that they forget their manners; they still show hospitality to Jesus and invite him in and to stay with them. “After Jesus took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them.”[6] Sound familiar? We just had that meal a couple weeks ago. When Jesus did this same ritual again that he had done at the last supper, taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, and sharing it, the disciples’ “eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”[7] Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us, as we listened to him talk and didn’t know it was him? Wasn’t it like some part of our soul recognized him, even though we, consciously, did not? Even though we were too caught up in grieving lost hope, too caught up in feeling overwhelmed, we couldn’t recognize him, some part of our of our heart, some part of us was on fire, and knew this was Christ our Lord, who did redeem Israel, who did redeem us, who did come to save the world. And with that realization, those two disciples immediately left Emmaus, this town they had just spent all day walking to, and hurried back to Jerusalem. They found the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus gathered together and shared with them, Jesus really is alive! We recognized him when he broke bread with us.

            This past week was my last Baltimore Metropolitan District clergy gathering and we began by sharing joys and concerns. Except, our concerns far outweighed our joys, and I mean far outweighed. And then our new District Superintendent as of July 1, Rev. Wanda Duckett, got up, and gathered our prayers together by saying that what she was hearing God say through us is that there’s a blessing in the breaking. There’s a blessing in brokenness. There’s a blessing in broken bread, because it means the bread is ready to be shared and eaten. You can’t eat bread without breaking it. There’s a blessing in the breaking of a seed, so that a flower can come forth. There’s a blessing in the breaking of a pastor and congregation. Y’all are ready for the next step of your journey together and it’s not my place to walk alongside you during this next season. God is sending Pastor Christine to you and sending me to walking alongside the people of Lisbon during their next season.

            Each season begins with hopes and dreams. Each season has breaking. Each season has times when we say, “We had hoped.” And then a time when we say, “But there’s more.” During each season, Jesus walks alongside us. Don’t forget to look for him. Remember, he may be undercover. And pay attention for those times when God’s words are burning with hope in your lives. And then don’t forget to tell others. Our world is full of hurting and broken people who need to hear that there’s a blessing in brokenness, that God can redeem their brokenness, that God can redeem broken hopes.

One of my best friend’s favorite bands is the punk rock group Green Day. They released a song in 2004 called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” The second half of the refrain says, “My shadow's the only one that walks beside me; My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating; Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me; Till then I walk alone.” As Christians, we know that Jesus walks with us. As members of his body, the church, we know that we walk with each other and our pastor walks with us, too. Yet that line, “Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me,” that’s what we’re called to do, is go find those persons walking on the boulevard of broken dreams, walking on the road to Emmaus with broken hopes. We are called to walk alongside each other, to bear each other’s burden, to be Jesus to each other, to love each other, to speak God’s words to each other. 

May we, like those on the Emmaus Road, find God’s words burning with hope in our lives. May God strengthen us and give us courage for the journey ahead. Amen.

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[1] Luke 24:13

[2] Luke 24:19-20

[3] Luke 24:21

[4] Luke 24:22-24

[5] “Day of Arising” by Susan Palo Cherwien, Worship & Song 3086

[6] Luke 24:30

[7] Luke 24:31-32