God’s Great, Green, Grape-y Earth

 John 15:1-8

”I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Last week, Jesus was the Good Shepherd and we were the sheep... and maybe a sheepdog.  This week Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.  Last week it became clear that as sheep and a dog, the idea of questioning and second guessing the Good Shepherd was a pretty silly thing to do… as if some sheep and a dog know better than the Good Shepherd where to go and how best to live.  

This week we’re the branches.  Not the Vinegrower and not the vine with roots.  We’re branches.  This week we have even LESS grey matter than a sheep or a dog!  Last week our job as sheep was not to debate the Good Shepherd as to the correct shade of green for the pasture or the appropriate level of stillness for the waters but to simply follow… trusting that this wasn’t just any old shepherd leading the Way, but the GOOD Shepherd.  

This week our job as the branches to Jesus’ vine, is simply and only to ABIDE in the vine.  We don’t even have to walk to find grass or water this time around!  This week, we just need to be still and know… know that we abide in the True Vine… Jesus.  Think about that image for just a minute.  Jesus is the vine.  He’s the one with the roots.  He’s got the trunk.  He’s got the cordons… the two parts of the vine that form the top of the “T” shape of a grape vine.  That’s all Jesus.  You and I… we’re the branches.  We’re what modern viticulturists call the “Spurs”… the little two inch stub that comes off the cordons.  Then, on the other side of our two inch stubby selves, we’re also not the shoots that grow new each year nor are we the fruit which only grows on new shoots coming out of the branches. 

We’re the branches.  The small, little, stubby two inch bit that just sits there in-between the vine and the fruit.  We don’t have the roots.  We don’t have the leaves.  We don’t have the fruit.  So what in God’s great, green, grape-y earth are we good for then!?  We are good, it turns out… for ABIDING.  We are the connection.  We are the grape version of the interstate highway system connecting… well, everything!  Connecting the vine with the fruit… connecting the Divine with the world.  

Our job is not to MAKE the good stuff our world so desperately needs.  Our job is not to BE the good stuff our world so desperately needs.  Our job is to take all the good stuff that God is gifting to the world without condition… all of God’s love, grace, kindness, compassion, and patience... and then, through Christ, transport ALL of that out into the world around us.  We’re God’s vehicle baby!  Great God in heaven you know I love you!  The Divine Vinegrower has chosen us, you and me, to connect the Divine with the world.

What all that really means, is that for us as a congregation our job is simply to stay deeply connected, both to the vine… to Jesus… and to the world around us.  Here at the church end of our two inch little branch-y selves we’re fed and cared for with the sacraments and by our loving, supportive, and caring community.  Here on this end we take in all the love, compassion, grace, and generosity that God in Christ first brings to us without condition. THEN as a congregation, our job is to take ALL that we have first received and turn right around in the length of our short two inch branchyness and send it all out into the new-this-year shoots where, the sure and certain hope is that those new shoots will make fruit and that fruit will bring a little grape sized packets of God’s sweetness into a world that is all too often bitter.  

That’s what we do.  Take it in and then send it out.  Sending new shoots of kindness into a hurting world.  And when they bear fruit… WOW!!  The AT ministry, Beer and Hymns, Feeding Sheffield, a Bicycle Hospitality Station.  It is SO good to look down those shoots we've sent out and see the fruit growing and see the people come along and be fed by it!  Very cool!    

That feels SO GOOD!  This little story also reminds us however, that no matter how good one particular shoot looks to us (and we've got some awesome shoots growing for sure) but no matter how that shoot looks… it’s not our shoot… it’s not our project… and it’s the Vinegrower, not us, who knows when one particular shoot needs to be pruned away to make room for the next new shoot.  Watching that beloved old shoot get pruned can be hard but remember, we’re just two whole inches of xylem and phloem covered with bark, and as much as we would like to believe we know best, it continues to be true… God knows better than sheep or branches.  

So my fellow branch mates, let us celebrate the truly excellent vintages that have passed through us over these last few years!  Let's mark them, celebrate them and remember their wonderful sweetness!  And then, when the Vinegrower says it’s time, let us simply trust the One who created branches and sheep and everything else, really DOES know what's best and through that pruning, is making way for the next, new, amazing vintage of love, compassion, grace, and generosity to flow through us and out into the world.  I for one simply can’t wait to taste and see the next new vintage that God is even now entrusting us with to pass on to the world!  Amen.    

It's a Dog's Life... and a Sheep's Life too

John 10:11-18

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

I’ve been called lots of things.  Some I can even repeat in church!  Erik, Pastor, Father, Reverend… that one makes me feel like a televangelist, which as Bishop Jack pointed out last week, I guess is pretty accurate these days!  But every once in a while, someone will say that I’m a shepherd.  Now, you all might be sheep, but I’m no shepherd.  Sheepdog maybe... I do love naps and treats after all, but the sheep belong to the master, and that's not me.   

Thankfully all us, dog and sheep alike, have a deeply loving and committed master… The Good Shepherd... who is Jesus.  When we listen to the Good Shepherd, the flock, dog and Shepherd all move together as one toward life.  We’re a community... bound together… walking the Shepherd’s Way.  And we really are like sheep and dog, because neither sheep nor people nor dogs were created to go it alone.  We were created to live together... together is where we thrive… together keeps us safe when the nights get cold and the wolves start to prowl.  Together as a flock led by the Good Shepherd we have life!  Going off alone... we stop being a flock and become wolf chow.  

The funny things is though, even though we KNOW that without the Good Shepherd we’re wolf take out, we still always seem to want a say in where we’re going.  It’s funny really... a bunch of sheep and a drooling mutt wanting the Shepherd to consult with US about his plans for the flock!  The truth is, neither sheep nor dog has any say or any control over what tomorrow might bring.  I know… none of us like it… because, let’s face it, we KNOW there’s some dangerous and scary stuff out there!  But if we’re honest with ourselves, we really are just a bunch a sheep and a dog... we don't know the best way forward!  But still we keep asking, don't we?  “Are you sure that’s the best way?  That pasture looks more seafoam than truly green.  Are you sure it’s really the greener pasture?  I liked the old still waters better.  These waters look a bit too sparkling.  I really need still waters!”   

The promise of the Good Shepherd though is not that each of us will have our preferred shade of green grass or favorite brand of still waters.  The promise of the Good Shepherd is that he will be with us always through peaceful meadows and shadowy valleys… always.  To fulfill that promise means the Good Shepherd will be constantly calling us and coaxing us, sometimes even poking us with his staff or maybe sending a sheepdog to nip a stubborn sheep right in the tail!  

But if we're honest, that's what we sheep and dog really NEED in a Shepherd.  That’s what it takes to make sure that even the WORST sort of valley that we ever encounter is ONLY a valley of the SHADOW of death.  That we don't end up in a valley of Death.  That possibility of Death is gone when we follow the Good Shepherd because the GOOD Shepherd would NEVER lead sheep or dog to a place where death still resides!  And… here’s a little Good Shepherd inside information… since Easter, THERE ACTUALLY IS NO PLACE WHERE DEATH STILL RESIDES!  

The path ahead of us for sheep and dog out of this pandemic time and into whatever comes next is not very clear to dog or sheep.  And along the way the Good Shepherd will consult with neither dog nor sheep about which way WE think might be best.  BUT, the promise is that following the Jesus way will always lead to the best way forward.  It may look different.  It might very well feel scary. The path may feel cold and sometimes, as we all know too well, the shadow times, deep in the valleys can leave us without the warmth of the Sun for quite some time!  But as we walk this life in both shadow times and sunny times, the truth really is that death is no more and even though we still walk through shadowy parts of life, they just don’t stand a chance of lasting forever because we all know the Sun has risen!

Admitting we aren't in control and just following along is really hard, but we all dog and sheep alike need to remember that we’re not just led by any old shepherd.  We’re being led by the GOOD Shepherd so when those times arise, both for sheep and dog, and we all begin to worry about what is coming next… when those worries begin to happen… and I’m preaching both to sheep AND dog here… we all need to remind each one another that for a bunch of sheep and a drooling mutt, with not just an average shepherd but a GOOD shepherd, we really ought to worry less and follow more, confident that the Good Shepherd is leading us to a place where souls will be restored, where our heads are anointed with oil and our cups run over with abundance.  

When we can do that... when we stick together, reminding one another to just take one step and then another in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd, we will inevitable find that our storms are calmed, our hungers fed, our wounds bound up, and even at the bottom of the most shadowy valley… even THERE… the Good Shepherd will find for us all a little green pasture nestled beside still waters and even there… we will find that we're not just existing… but experiencing a real and abundant LIFE. Amen.

Fear and Snacks

Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Let’s say… completely hypothetically, mind you… that something enormously awful had happened.  Something so bad that your closest friend had died.  And let’s say the exact same, enormously awful thing that had happened to your friend was VERY likely to happen to you if you went outside.  So you decide NOT to leave your house.  Not to see other people.  Not to travel.  Just hunker down, order enormous amounts of toilet paper and bleach, and just wait the danger out.  No matter WHAT happened.  You were NOT going out!   

Now, the crucifixion of Jesus back then, and the pandemic we’ve been living through for the last year or so now, are not exactly the same thing, but I do think that because of our experience with the pandemic, we can better relate to the disciples who locked themselves away just hoping to survive another day.  They had just seen that their strongest, bravest, most full-of-life friend catch crucifixion and die!  They, very correctly mind you, concluded that if they went outside, they might too catch a fatal case of the crucifixion!  

Do you remember how you felt a year ago?  When the hospitals in the city were bursting at the seams? Pictures of truck trailers brought in as make shift morgues?  THAT level of worry, fear, and impending doom, may be as close to how those disciples felt back then as I EVER want to feel.  

But it was into that level of fear… that Jesus just showed up and said, “Peace be with you!”  Just imagine!  Being as on edge as you were at the very beginning of the pandemic, looking up and suddenly seeing a guy just SHOW UP in your living room and saying “Peace be with you!” without a mask? We would have all been screaming and hosing him down with the last two cans of Lysol we had hoarded away!  A can in both hands, like it was the Wild Germ-y West!  Pshuu! Pshuu! Pshuu!

So how did Jesus respond to that level of mindless, panicked, fear?  He said, “Hey, you guys got any snacks?”  Wait!  Huh?  “Jesus Christ!  Do you see us here?  We’re probably the most freaked out people in all of history… AND YOU WANT SNACKS!”  But with that question, seemingly out of nowhere, we see that Jesus isn’t just resurrected from the dead (which admittedly is quite a thing) but he’s also STILL really smart, super clever, and totally compassionate as well.  

Do you see what he did there?  I’ve talked about this before but what Jesus did here is SO GOOD that it stands up in reruns even 2000 years later!  By asking the disciples this everyday question, “Hey, you guys got some snacks?”  Jesus helps them get un-stuck from being locked in fight or flight mode.  Human brains can’t resist thinking about a question.  It happens subconsciously.  A question asked… is automatically a question wondered about.  AND the part of the brain that wonders about questions is NOT in the part that only gives you two options… punch it or run from it.

Asking this question unlocked a mental door… which then gave the disciples the possibility of opening the physical door they were hiding behind as well.  With that simple question, Jesus was guiding their minds toward the peace they needed, so that they could then embrace the possibility of stepping out from behind those locked doors and taking one first step and then maybe even another on The Jesus Way of living which they had suddenly abandoned out of fear on Good Friday.  

This story also helps us see, however, that walking The Jesus Way on THIS side of the resurrection wouldn’t look EXACTLY like it did when they walked the Jesus Way before Good Friday.  Would the physical aspects of Jesus’ ministry be left behind?  Were the healing and the feeding and the working for justice only things they did before Good Friday?  Was this side of Easter only supposed to focus on Spiritual things? 

 

This story shows us that things are indeed different (Jesus just “appears” in rooms now, no doors required, after all!).  But with Jesus showing his wounds, inviting them to touch his flesh and bones, and hear his growling stomach, the disciples learn that even after Easter, Jesus is still concerned with physical things.  And if Jesus is concerned with those physical sorts of things, like showing up in person to deal with wounds and stomach growling hunger, so must his disciples be as well. 

The same earthly concerns Jesus had before Good Friday for bringing peace through justice to the world, feeding the hungry, healing the sick and caring for the least, the lost, and the last are STILL Jesus’ concerns on this side of the Resurrection.  HOW those things are addressed may change, but the concerns themselves do not.  

For you and me today, this story helps us understand that we too will never be able to go back to EXACTLY how things were prior to the pandemic. As we slowly and cautiously emerge from our own locked doors of this past year, this is a really good story to keep in mind.  The exact details of how the world and our church will work on the other side of the pandemic is currently as clear as mud.  BUT, as we slowly emerge, we will still be called to reach through our fears and touch the wounds and heal the wounded of our world.  We will still be called to open our doors and go out… through our fears… and feed the hungers of our community with meals and with radical inclusion, and with acts of compassion both large and small that inject kindness into our community. 

HOW we do that will not be EXACTLY the same as we crack open the doors of our church after this pandemic and begin to step out onto the Jesus WAY in person once again.  But WHO we are as Christ Trinity Church, and WHOSE we are as Children of God, and our hope for our world will not change.  May we, in the days to come, like those disciples did back then, move through our fears and embrace our new walk on the other side of the door, always following along the same Jesus Way... and remembering always... to bring snacks... Jesus will, after all, want snacks.  Amen.