4th Sunday after Easter
April 21, 2013
Revelation7: 9-17; Psalm 23
In the famous Tosho-gu shrine in
Nikko, Japan, there is a carving that dates back to the 17th
century. Part of that carving depicts
three very well-known monkeys, known as the Three Wise Monkeys. You may never have heard of this carving, but
I’d guess you’ve heard of these guys.
Their names are Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru, otherwise known as the
“See No Evil” [cover eyes], “Hear No Evil” [cover ears], and “Speak No Evil” [cover
mouth] monkeys. Now, there is an old
joke that the fourth monkey is Have No Fun.
However, from the 23rd psalm, which is older than the old
joke, I think that the fourth monkey should be Fear No Evil. That’s the middle line and the turning point
of Psalm 23, and yes, I have to quote it in the King James, just like I had to
memorize it in my first grade Sunday school class – “Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear
no evil.” Why? “For thou art with me.” Thou, of course, being God. God is with me, therefore I will fear no
evil. That is Good News.
We have not heard a lot of good news this week, between the Boston
Marathon bombing, the plant in Texas exploding, and a certain college basketball
player leaving early to go pro [Reggie Bullock, for any non-UNC fans reading this]. It’s
been a rough week. It kinda makes it
feel like we’re back in Lent instead of the Great 50 Days of the Easter season
that run from Easter to Pentecost. Today’s
the 4th Sunday of Easter, but does it feel like it? Does it feel like it’s still the Easter
season? We still have our beautifully
decorated cross up, white paramounts in the sanctuary and the “He is risen”
banner in the Fellowship Hall. It’s
definitely springtime outside, now that our cars have turned yellow from tree
pollen! But are you feeling it? Or does it almost feel like we’re back in
Lent? Does it feel like we’re being
disciplined? Like we’re
back to waiting for redemption, back to waiting for good news? This week we heard lots of tragic news and
many of us said a prayer, waited to hear more, and then moved on. Others, though, have not moved on. Can’t move on. Others, and perhaps yourself, too, have been
thrust back into Lent. Back into a time
of pruning and a time of waiting. So,
what’s the good news? The Good News is
that the lectionary psalm for today is Psalm 23. The Good News is that the Good Shepherd leads
us and takes care of us. The Good News
is that because of the Good Shepherd, we do not have to be afraid. “I will fear
no evil.”
Part of not fearing evil is not fearing others. We do
not fear others. “Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.” “The valley of the shadow of death.” No matter where you go, no matter who you
see, no matter what happens, you do not need to be afraid. We do
not fear the world. The world is the
Lord’s, and all the fullness thereof. God made it and called it good. And those others, who we don’t know? They’re our brothers and sisters. We don’t need to be afraid of them, even if
we can’t communicate with them or don’t know their customs or don’t understand
why they do what they do. We are called
to love them, not to be afraid of them. Yes,
sometimes there is hostility, sometimes there is oppression and injustice that
undermine well-being, sometimes violence hits very close to home. But too much we descend into bickering over
things that don’t matter in the long run, into partisanship, into a
stubbornness to be right and best and first. Too much we fear the unknown, whether an
unknown place or language or culture or person.
And the answer to all that is: Enough!
Enough being scared and criticizing what we don’t understand. We build walls even as we tear others down,
but Christ Jesus, who is our peace, has torn down the dividing wall of
hostility among us. That’s from Ephesians chapter 2 and a couple
verses later Paul writes: “through Christ both of us have access in one Spirit
to the Father. So then you are no longer
strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of
the household of God.” Both of
us have access, you and me, you and your neighbor, whether it’s a neighbor
you know or don’t know. Someone was
lamenting to me recently how in the small town where she grew up, she knew
everyone on her street, but now, she’s lucky if she knows two of her
neighbors. Whether you know your
neighbor or not, you don’t have to be afraid of them. Indeed, you shouldn’t be afraid of them.
And the best way to stop fearing others is to get to know them. In my mom’s old neighborhood in Cary, a place
with a lot of transience, they used to have two neighborhood-wide get-togethers
each year. One was a cook-out in the
cul-de-sac in June, the other was a Christmas cookie-exchange hosted by the
coordinating neighbor in December. I
think the cook-out went better, because it involved whole families, wheeling
out their grills and chairs and tables and setting up in the cul-de-sac. Kids ran around and played while adults
talked and families got to know each other.
In a few weeks we’re going to have our own variation of that here at
Orange. You’ll get more details soon,
but we’re going to have a time of hanging out in our own cul-de-sac – our
parking lot – and getting to know folks here at Orange who we don’t know very
well yet. Remember, a stranger is just a
friend you haven’t met yet. So do not
fear others; they have the potential to become your friend.
Instead, keep in mind this beautiful vision from Revelation. It was given to an exiled apostle, a vision
of the church yet to be. And guess
what? It includes everyone – from every
nation, tribe, people, and language – all worshiping God together. This is the future; this is the end-game. Therefore, we do not need to fear the future, either. We know where we’re going in the long
run. We know what’s going to
happen. People from every nation, tribe,
kindred and language are going to worship God with one voice. Might sound a
little cacophonous to us, but it is music to God’s ears. There is a new Bible translation that came
out last year called The Voice. Its
purpose is to make sure the Bible story reads like a story and in places has
dialogue separated from the text like in a play. For this passage from Revelation, it says “A
huge crowd of people, which no one could even begin to count,
representing every nation and tribe, people and language, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and waving palm branches. They
cried out with one loud voice. Crowd: ‘Salvation comes only from our God,
who sits upon the throne, and from the Lamb.’” Every language; one voice. Sounds a little bit like Pentecost, where
everyone heard the Good News in their own language. Only here, everyone’s praising God in their
own language and it rises up to God as one voice. Pretty cool, huh? This is the future of the Church. The Church here is a mixed assembly gathered
from every nation in praise of God.
So, the questions is: What’s Orange going to do to live into this
vision? This is the Church down the
road, what are we going to do in the meantime?
Who do we need to include who is not here? Whose voice is not being heard at
Orange? Who does not have a place at the
table? We don’t need to be afraid of the
future because we know where we’re going.
We don’t need to fear for the future of the Church because the Church is
God’s instrument and he will ensure
its future existence. He already knows
what it’s going to look like in the future.
The fear of others and of the future stem from the basic fear of
fearing for ourselves. Our own
well-being. But guess what? We
don’t have to fear for ourselves.
God has provided everything we need and will continue to do so. The first line of Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” In Spanish it’s often translated as “nada me
faltará” – literally, nothing is lacking to me.
Nothing. We do not have to fear
for our physical provision. Even those
of us participating in the solidarity study.
We have altered our diet in some way, whether restricting the types of
food we eat or the amount of money we spend on food or both, and we will still
have enough to eat. God does provide. We do not fear for ourselves.
The Good Shepherd guides us and protects us and provides for us. We have children’s time at the 9:30 service
and last week I asked about who takes care of sheep, thinking to talk about
farmers or shepherds. But, nope, these
kids know that the answer to almost every question at church is Jesus. When asked who takes care of sheep, one
little girl said, “God.” Well, end of
story. There was not much left to say
after that. We are God’s flock and God
takes care of us. We do not need to
worry for ourselves or fear for ourselves, not for our safety, not for our
physical provision, not for providing for our needs, and not for being
hurt. This doesn’t mean life is
easy-peasy and we’ll never get hurt.
Every kid skins their knee at some point in time. But God is good and will lead us through difficult
times to still waters, to places of peace.
God will renew us and restore us as we endure suffering and
distress. We do not fear the unknown, whether in the form of other people or the
future and we do not fear for ourselves.
And should you find yourself overly fearful for yourself, the best way
to overcome that fear is to focus on others.
Whether that takes the form of serving with one of our outreach projects
at Orange or another community service event or attending a prayer vigil or
writing a letter to an old friend or volunteering at the local elementary
school, focusing on others takes the focus off yourself. And when you’re not focused on yourself, then
you’re not afraid for yourself. So we do not fear for ourselves.
I never dreamed I’d quote a hockey player, not because jocks are dumb
but because the media tends to quote them when they lack eloquence. However, I was reading about the Boston
Bruins’ game this past Tuesday and the article included an interview with their
forward, Jay Pandolfo. He was with the
New Jersey Devils during the attacks of 9/11 and he said that Monday “brings
back memories you don't want. It's
something you don't want to think about. You want to go ahead with your life. You
don't want to live in fear.” Well, the Good News is that you don’t have
to. God offers something better than the
Three Wise Monkeys. He loves you and
knows you and is always at your side, and so you can be assured that you need
fear no evil. Thanks be to God.
