Moving in Love

Sermon John 10:11-18 February 18, 2018 Lent 1

Moving in Love

Our theme this year in Lent is-‘Moving Toward the Cross’. Each week we will explore a Scripture that will support the various statements on the ways in which we move toward the cross. This week our movement toward the cross is in love, other weeks we move toward it in peace, in strength, in suffering, in faith. 

As we approach Scripture with these pre-set themes it sheds new light on how we explore and examine the Word of God before us. Everything we read, hear, touch, taste, and participate in is colored by the lenses of our experience, often our most recent experience. 

And it is also colored by the thoughts and ideas we might project upon it.

As we cross over into this movement of Lent on this first Sunday in Lent, perhaps what might be important for us, is to know a few things about Christ with whom we journey and a few things about ourselves.

Our reading this morning begins with the declaration from Jesus that he is the Good Shepherd. This entire chapter 10 is heralded as the Shepherd discourse. 

In John’s gospel this evangelist writes in a manner that puts us front and center in time with Jesus. 

As he declares to his disciples, “I am the Good Shepherd”, he declares it to us. We have no doubt about the identity of Jesus in these few words. He not only declares his love but also declares his purpose and his utter commitment to his purpose no matter what the cost, even the cost of his life.

Perhaps, this is what we need from Jesus as we begin our journey along this path of Lent. 

We need Jesus to be strong for us. 

We need Jesus to be certain and not wishy washy about who he is. 

We need Jesus to lead us as a leader who is firm in the knowledge of himself, not only as we travel through Lent but as we travel through life. 

An identified Shepherd leader is one who needs his sheep to do his job and I like that and find it quite refreshing. 

Jesus and the sheep cannot be separated from one another. 

We are his sheep. 

We are his beloved. 

We follow him and he guides us through thick brush, 

into the valley of death, 

and up to the river of life. 

Just as Jesus describes his relationship with the Father, 

he bring us into relationship with him.

However, for some, these 40 days can be daunting, as one of my friends said to me, “Lent is depressing. I stop going to church and don’t come back until Easter when its happy again.” 

Perhaps it is difficult to hear about the wilderness and chaos that confronted Jesus. And perhaps it is too challenging to witness him walking among those who suffered, and those who were in despair. Maybe what we find most distasteful is his own frailty and his own suffering and loss of life.

Yet, I find that is where our lives with Christ most often intersect. 

As we began our journey on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we began with the smudge of love, the smudge of God’s eternal love that claims us and calls us by name. 

Yes, we are finite creatures, but creatures who have a Good Shepherd who lies down at the gate of our lives, protecting defending, holding, and even giving up for us. There is no one else who would defend us to the end as he does. 

Jesus proclaims he is the one sent by God and will fulfill the promises of God in order to protect the flock. Jesus is the one who draws the sheep and the Father together. As God’s sheep we are God’s most loved treasure. Not just those sheep who call Jesus by name but all sheep, the ones who don’t even know God’s name, everyone of them are God’s most loved treasure.

 Perhaps, in the wake of the murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida this week, you are angry to even hear these words about God. 

Senseless loss challenges our faith statements about the love of God. 

It throws our faith into turmoil and locks us into asking questions that have ambiguous answers. We get lost as ministers try to validate their faith in God with bad theology-such as God’s plan, and God’s purpose. We hear strange proclamations about God’s love for some and not others…As ministers we often fail those who most need to hear about God’s love in times of greatest need.

Our theology, our understanding of God might still be skewed. We aim for the bull's-eye of the target and continue to miss the mark. We seek to do well, we yearn to do well. So what do we know in times like these? 

These things we know -God too lost a child. 

God too, lost a most beloved Son. God too watched and witnessed a world that would seek to destroy love by destroying and maligning that Son. 

We know-God was there in the midst of that suffering and God is there in the midst of all of our suffering. God’s presence (no matter how it shows up) brings comfort.

One most poignant photo from the scene of the school tragedy was that of a mother embracing another mother. 

Upon her forehead she bore the cross from Ash Wednesday service. 

An author (Valerie Shultz) writes this: We receive our ashes as a sign of repentance, of our yearning for God’s forgiveness, of our intent to live our faith more truly in the face of our mortality. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return,” says the priest or lay minister, blessing us with a blackened thumb. The ashes that mark our foreheads only last for a day, but the mark this makes on our hearts is meant to endure for the entire 40 days of Lent. And so, how sadly, tragically, wretchedly fitting is the front-page photo from this Ash Wednesday. We will carry these stories with us. Again, again. 

AP photo credit Jerry Auerbach

We, as God’s sheep, have the privilege of carrying along with this mother the burdens, the barriers, the wounds, the wonderings, the fears and the failings, of our sisters and brothers throughout the community.  (Susan McGhee) That photo reminds us that we are not alone. It reminds us that we are a community that holds and acts together for the love of God through and in all circumstances. 

God’s fellowship of love with Jesus is so beautifully woven into these words of John’s gospel. It is an intimate fellowship that intertwines every movement Jesus makes and grants him assurance as he goes. This expression, this knowledge of God and Christ offers us the mystical communion with the Shepherd who knows us by name and calls us to follow. We have the knowledge of God and ourselves as we enter this season. 

Let us go together through Lent with the watchfulness and tenderness of Jesus. In our ears we hear God whisper a blessing to us as we go-“You are my beloved”. Amen.

Resources: NIB; Word Biblical Commentary; Carolyn C Brown-Preaching to Kids Too; AmericanMagazine.org "Spiritual Lessons from a School Shooting"; Rev. Susan McGhee Holy Days and Holidays-Ash Wednesday 

Open Gates

Sermon John 10:1-10 May 7, 2017 4^th Sunday of Easter year A (Portions of this sermon first preached in 2011)

Open Gates

Fences, walls, dams, sandbags, barricades, all do well at keeping things we don’t want out.

These keep bunnies from eating our vegetables, they keep out the cold drafts, they hold back water, and they prevent people from going too close to an obstacle. But they also protect the things inside the barrier.

The Bible uses walls and barriers as illustrations all the time.

God is the One who holds fast to the children God calls by name. God keeps them within the walls of security, the walls of God’s covenant love.

I remember when we had our French scouts and later our French youth group come to America; one of the first things that visually stuck out to them, was the lack of fenced yards.

They kept saying, “All these houses next to each other and no fence, no wall?”

I realized that in the towns and cities we had lived in overseas, all the yards were marked clearly with a perimeter of some sort-wall, fence, or bushes-there was no doubt where one person’s property began and the other’s stopped.

Unlike the US- in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and other ancient places- cities, towns and villages were protected by walls to keep out invaders and those who would do harm.

Here in John 10, we notice (as we do throughout Scripture) that fences, sheep, gates, and shepherds were all a part of daily life.

In the Old Testament, we first see God introduced as a shepherd to Moses. In Genesis 48:15 Moses calls God the Shepherd who has been with him all his life. In Numbers 27:17 Moses appoints Joshua to succeed him because the people will not be like sheep without a shepherd. Moses declares that Joshua is to go out and come in before them. He is to be one who will lead them out and bring them in.

Psalm 121 God is the One who guards our coming in and our going out.

It is in this context that Jesus speaks.

The people of God belonged to God and no one or no ‘thing’ was going to separate them from the power of God’s love.

In Scripture we learn, there are always those who would try to steal away God’s people. Throughout Old Testament stories God’s people were wooed away by golden images, ephods, Asherah poles, wild ways, and doubts of God’s love.

As consistent as the people were in departing from God, so even more consistent was God’s seeking them out to return them to the fold.

Even, though most of us are not familiar with this business of sheep and shepherds we’ve seen pictures, stain glassed windows, and coloring pages, all showing the gentle Jesus as a gentle shepherd. We see him holding a lamb in his arms and carrying a staff. These images conveyed a kind and caring Jesus who loved all of creation and dared to love even the smallest and most helpless of all.

So, when we get to this part about Jesus claiming to be the gate, it throws us into a tailspin.

Jesus is supposed to be the one who brings everyone into a life of freedom.

He is the one who brings the story of Exodus forward into the lives of the Gentiles and all humanity.

These words from Jesus did not set well with me.

So, once again we meet the exclusive Jesus?

Is that who he is saying he is?

Is this there where Christians go around pointing fingers at people saying, “I’m in and you’re not-nanananana!”

Is this where churchgoers, say to others, “I’m special and you’re not.”

It all seems so country club like.

I’ve got a membership that you don’t have and so I’m better than you.

I’ll have to say, this is the stuff that kept me far away from this believing in Jesus.

It seemed like a rather cruel set of folks.

I certainly knew I wasn’t good enough for a group that acted like they had it all together. I knew that I was far from having it together.

Yes, gates, to me, were very negative.

The images of gates that came to mind were those TSA booths in the airports in those early days when they were afraid of anyone and we were afraid of them.

Or, those border patrol crossings through newly organized countries, where no matter who you were, you were labeled suspicious.

I saw the giant gates to the castles in Europe, huge doors that hide secret courtyards.

I saw cattle gates and garden gates.

I viewed all of these as a bunch of rules and mean people whose only interest was to make life difficult for everyone who dared to approach their gates.

But then I taught a class, using the book called Boundaries by Cloud and Townsend. This study talked about the boundaries that God placed as a positive wonderful gift.

The authors refer to a fence around us as God’s way of claiming us and declaring that we are unique and we are God’s special creation, not more special than my neighbor, but just as special.

A fence is a way we can protect ourselves from those who would try to harm us.

This fence is the ability to set limits with others, to declare what is rightfully ours, and the ability to say no.

The fence is the boundary of love out of which we operate in order to show love to others.

This boundary of love is the corral where we are surrounded by the safety of Jesus.

A special space that we get to choose the size of it.

A space that helps us hold it together

without the threat of somebody coming in

to steal our integrity of humanity.

Jesus is the shepherd who claims us as his own.

His protective fence, his corral for the sheep, wraps us tight, or loose, depending on those who would come in the night trying to steal from us.

It protects us from harmful words,

or abuse,

or all those hurtful things from the world out there.

He is standing at the gate calling out to all and will not stop calling their names until all have heard him. He will not stop until all turn to follow him.

This gives me hope and joy to know that I belong to a God that has not and will not leave anyone out.

That is why we have the 23^rd psalm as our reading today.

The Hebrew word in the verse that God follows us all the days of our lives

actually means to pursue us.

It means that God will never give up on us

no matter how much we run.

We might be afraid for those of our loved ones

who seem to have gone a different way.

Remember the pursuit of God.

Know that God will remain with us

coming after us

with love

all the days of our lives.

Cloud and Townsend continue in their teaching to say that a fence needs a gate.

The gate is the way to freedom.

By the gate, we learn to open our hearts to others.

We learn to open up to God.

We learn to risk saying yes without losing our character or our sense of self.

The gate provides for freedom to explore and venture out; to try new ways, and discover new opportunities with others.

Jesus is the gate to freedom.

Jesus is the gate that opens up the community and grants access to God.

Through the gate of Christ,

God’s people discover immeasurable grace

and unconditional love.

Jesus is the gate so we don’t have to be.

This text follows the healing of the blind man who was barred from entrance into the Temple because of his ‘sin’ of disability.

Jesus makes it clear that disability is not a sin.

Jesus makes it clear that there are no barriers to entering into the sanctuary of God. Jesus makes it clear that all those with infirmities are welcome in the house of God.

Yes, Jesus is the gate that makes it possible for all to enter in.

By his grace, by his love and by his continuous calling

he has made room for everyone,

short or tall,

blue or green,

one eyed or peg legged.

We don’t have to be the gate that decides who can come in and worship here because Jesus has declared that is his job.

The Gate brings us to freedom.

In this freedom, Christ guides us to green pastures and brings us into safe community. Amen.

 Note: Following this sermon, communion was served. AT the invitation to the Table, it was announced that our denomination (PCUSA) has declared as part of our new discipline, our new order of worship, there is nothing that can be a barrier to the Table of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those baptized or not may come to the Table-this opening of the gate of freedom for pastors to serve, allows the Spirit to transform those who receive the bread and cup  of Christ. 

Live Like a Shepherd

Sermon Luke 2:8-20 December 4, 2016 Advent 2A

Live Like a Shepherd

The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word shepherd (esp in church) is an image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We recall the parable of the lost sheep, the words of Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, or the phrases, sheep without a shepherd are like those gone astray from God. We are familiar with shepherd language because the Bible is filled with it.

And for good reason.

Sheep were the most important domesticated animal in Palestine. Sheep were used for more than sacrificial purposes. They provided wool, food, milk, fat, skins and horns all important to the textile industry and the food market. Not only were sheep important to the people of Palestine they were important through the then known world. It only makes sense then that the Bible is filled with sheep and shepherd images. If the Bible were to be written today, can you imagine the images the authors would use to be relevant to a vast majority of people? I think it would be using technology instead of sheep, or perhaps, dogs, cats, and other home domesticated animals…who knows.

Yet, as we learn the context of the times and the people, the language of the Bible is as relevant today as it ever has been.

But, today we turn our focus away from the images for a moment and look to the manger scenes;

the crèche where we find all those characters

gathered around the infant king.

We’ve learned about the angels and the power of their presence and the presence of God through them.

What can we learn from these shepherds kneeling at the manger?

Literally shepherds were hard working men, boys, women and girls. They worked in the plains and in the hill country both day and night. They were responsible for small and large flocks of sheep. Sheep are rather docile creatures. They are subject to the elements around them and are quite inadequate of self-defense. They easily wander away and get lost. The shepherd was responsible for maintaining food and water and to move the sheep from one grazing area to another.

One might assume that the work of a shepherd was rather boring.

But it required a great deal of endurance as well as diligence.

It also required an ability to live with simple means.

There were no fast food restaurants close by so they had to rely on their own ability to pack a lunch.

They had to be willing to sleep on hard ground and to travel distances away from home. Two of the tools at the disposal of a shepherd were a staff and a rod. A staff was used to herd the flock and keep them together. A rod was used to ward off enemies. They also carried a sling (as we know from the shepherd king David).

While studying a little bit about shepherds I became aware of the value of looking at their way of life as an example of how we could live our lives today.

1.       1. Live with courageous awareness. A shepherd must live alert. It is impossible to do the job without being fully aware of the surroundings in which a shepherd works and lives. Not only does a shepherd need to be aware of dangers, despair, and disasters, but a shepherd must know the sounds and sights of his/her flock. A shepherd needs to have the patience to listen and know the voices of the flock, to learn of new places and safe places to gather the flock. A shepherd must have enough fear and awe to respond appropriately to the signs around him/her. If we have our noses in an iphone we’ll never know the sounds or sights of those around us and we’ll be completely unaware of danger or wonder if it happens right in front of us.

Courageous awareness gives us the ability to hear sounds and to discern whether they are sounds that bring joy or terror or both. Courageous awareness keeps us from running away but allows us to face what is before us and make an informed decision on how to respond.

Think of people who hunt or fish or paint or sculpt. They cannot do what they do well if they are not willing to sit still, observe, listen, be a little scared, and have the ability to be in awe.

2.     2.  To live like a shepherd is to live with faithful curiosity. “let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place that the Lord has made known to us. So they went in haste.”

Imagine having enough courage to hear the angels and then the discernment to go and check out everything they had been told?

The shepherds had just enough faith to realize they had heard the words of God through the angels. They had just enough curiosity to run and see and witness what they had been told.

If we are not curious about all that is before we will never leave our safe space to go and discover the wonders of God.

If it had not been for the faithful curiosity of the likes of Madam Curie or George Washington Carver we would not have received the healing powers of medicine and the ability of the peanut to create dyes, plastics and gasoline.

We can and we must be people of faith to be encouraged to live with the curiosity to discover the wonders around us.

We must be willing to run to seek out what is new,

have the enthusiasm to rejoice in what is different

and to always desire to be open to God sending us beyond our safe places.

3.     3.  Finally, to live like a shepherd live with Holy Boldness. “The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” These are the words used often by my predecessor (Robert Close). A Holy Boldness is what these shepherds had.

They unabashedly proclaimed God as they returned to their flocks.

They didn’t stay at the feet of Jesus and live their lives on their knees.

They went back to work with a new perspective.

They returned to their lives with a boldness to speak out.

They went back to their sheep and could share the power of God present with them as Emmanuel.

They had the audacity to speak the truth of what they saw without any hesitation and without any worries of what people would think of them.

Perhaps, this is the message of living like a shepherd that means so much to me.

These fellas didn’t decide they had to go and become something else.

They didn’t change their jobs after their encounter with Jesus.

What they did was to receive the power of God to continue in their own backyard the message of God and God’s love with a holy boldness.

Let us go from this day of kneeling at the manger and live like a shepherd with courageous awareness, faithful curiosity and holy boldness. Amen.

God’s Pursuit!

Sermon Psalm 23 April 26, 2015 Easter 4 Shepherd Sunday

God’s Pursuit!

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Six verses.

                 That’s all there are.

                            The most famous six verses of the Bible in the King James Version.

Those who have never opened the Book or ever entered into the walls of the church know these six verses.

We heard these words recited at gravesides day after day. We know these words as they are shared at the bedside of those we love in hospitals and nursing homes. We know these words in dark shadows of the night as we whisper them to calm our fears.

Psalm 23 is a psalm we know for bad and sad times. Yet, it is more than that-it is also a psalm rich for life and for good times. In it we discover the very nature of God in a way might not have imagined before.

There is a radical nature of God exploding upon us at the very end in the last verse. And so that is where we’ll begin. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

As I shared with the children, we have a God who we cannot shake. In the game of tag the end game is to catch the one we pursue. The end game is to keep chasing until we tag the intended target. Radaph or Radap in the Hebrew for follow is God’s active pursuit! God’s pursuit of us is active and unrelenting. God, like the hound of heaven, is nipping at our heels. God is chasing you and me all the days of our life!

And God’s pursuit is one of goodness and mercy.

Mercy in the Hebrew is written as Hesed. Here as we look at the letters-three letters-(to describe something about God that we lose in translation)-our English language cannot capture the fullness of this word about God.

God’s great and most amazing love, mercy, grace and kindness are all wrapped up in this one word Hesed. We aren’t being chased by judgment or a harsh God but by all that is good!

So, if we know from the beginning that God is in hot pursuit of us with goodness and hesed. God’s most fundamental nature is one of goodness and Hesed-mercy, grace, and love!!

It is then without a doubt that the psalmist could give God the most royal and kingly title of Shepherd. The Hebrew word for shepherd is ‘roi’ And so here in the very beginning this psalmist makes it clear who he is committed to and who he is loyal to-and how he is fully dependent on God. God is ours and we are God’s!

There are many names the Old Testament uses for God but in this psalm it is not Elohim or another name but the very name the Jews would not pronounce out of utter respect and awe God. The name for God used here is, the I AM, our Shepherd.

We have all learned about Shepherds and we know very well what they do and if don’t we know how to google it and find out. We heard in this morning’s reading from the gospel of John who Jesus is as the Good Shepherd and how he cares for his flock, his sheep, that he lays down his life for them.

A shepherd is responsible for a flock, to guide them and protect them. A shepherd does what it takes to keep the flock calm and keeps them from getting lost. They give their life to this occupation, they spend all day with them and if they have traveled too far to bring them home at night they will stay with them until morning. The prophet Ezekiel describes God as a loving shepherd. The prophet Isaiah also uses the shepherd to describe God’s protective care as well as God’s sacrificial love.

And isn’t that what we all need,

what we all want and

what we all hope for?

Just like children trust their parents to keep them from harm and we trust our doctors to keep us healthy and we trust our local and national leaders to keep us secure, we want to trust that our God can do the same and more.

But when bad and sad news comes close to home,

when it hits our family and our friends,

we need the promise of a psalm like this one to sustain us through these dark times.

The earthquake in Nepal,

a devastating church fire in Paris Tennessee,

a death of a child seeking a toilet in a country where homes do not have them,

a child who hurts herself because her pain within can’t find relief,

a child injured by people who are supposed to protect her,

the diagnosis of cancer,

the presence of illness and loss and pain

have done more than make the news,

they have been part of our personal family pain this week.

We need this psalm of promise to carry us through the unfairness of this world and to get us beyond the evil that seeks to prevail over us.

And that is one reason why the verse of darkness of the valley impacts us so strongly. The deep valley that has dark shadows and frightening circumstances perhaps even an abyss of threats where it seems there is no way out.

God speaks to us and affirms that even in the death shadow of the valley we do not need to fear because the I AM, t

he Good Shepherd carries a rod

that will ward off evil and knock

senseless the wild beasts who seek to attack us.

The people of Exodus remember Moses and his staff. They remember being guided through the wilderness without fail by God. The miracles of the past, the triumph over evil of the past, and the resurrection over death of the past, are the memories that strength our faith and restore our love.

Rabbi Harold Kushner tells of his son who was born with an incurable illness. He said looking back he wondered how he and his wife got through those times and he said that instead of this event shattering his faith it strengthened it. He said they used up all the resources within themselves and realized the only answer to the difficulties was to turn to God who restored their love and faith. He wrote the book “When bad things happen to good people” because of this experience. Just as God carried the people through the wilderness, God our Shepherd will bring us through our wilderness.

Jesus proclaimed that he is the Good Shepherd. He said he is the “I AM” the true shepherd that has come to gather his people and restore them to himself. As we look to God for our strength and renewal through this psalm we can also look to Christ and know that he has also been through the valley for our sake. He has come through on the other side. His death and resurrection assures us and gives us hope that he not only is there to greet us on the other side of the valley but he is with us every step of the way never letting us leave his side.

But we can’t stop here with the psalm because it is more than comfort in bad and sad times it is one that fills us with good things. So we can have a new way of using these words to refresh and fulfill us. We discover God as the one who provides us with food and drink and shelter, our most basic necessities.

We lack for nothing.

All is provided.

Our lives are fully dependent on God.

The imagery of green pastures and still waters are so strong to our senses that we can see and

feel and

even touch.

God brings us to places of healing and refreshment. The Hebrew word for lie down offers the image of being stretched out. Now those of you who do yoga, you understand this image. And those of you who have been part of one Debbie and Nina’s contemplative retreats, you get this idea of stretching out full before God.

It’s like lying on our backs, looking up at the fluffy clouds floating by in a bright blue sky while the green lush grass is beneath us filled with soft clover flowers cushioning us like a down comforter.

Some people I know who are much better at rest and quiet reflection than I am have shared with me how they have discovered the place where they can connect with God. They have a few places where they go and in those places God stretches them out and quiets their spirit.

One friend shares with me how her garden filled with flowers and working in the dirt is the way God enters as she kneels by the earth.

Another friend who goes fishing and he goes down to the river or creek he watches the water ebb and flow. He said it still his mind and refreshes him as well as a cool glass of sweet ice tea.

Another friend has an amazing workshop where he works and creates art with wood or canvas and in his workshop he finds the shelter of the Lord.

Yes, we are struck deeply by this psalm as it has become part of our own makeup, our very being ushered into the arms of a personal God. We’ve been drawn together as the flock of the Shepherd, the Church, the Body of Christ. God’s immeasurable abundant desire for us is set at the table. God brings our cups to overflowing.

God’s pursuit is unrelenting.

Goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for days without end. Amen.