Five More Minutes Mom!

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”The clock rolled over to 6 a.m. with a click and the radio started playing.  The DJ was telling the people of Jerusalem that “today’s gonna be a scorcher out there in the city of David” before spinning another harp and lyre tune.  Isaiah was not a morning person.  He fumbled to find the snooze bar even as he fought the temptation to skip work all together.  

When the radio kicked back on after the shortest five minute snooze ever, Isaiah rolled out of bed.  The shower did little to wake him up.  He got into the car and headed for the Temple.  At Starbucks he got a Grande Latte with a double shot of espresso.  If this didn’t get things running nothing would.

Isaiah, you see, was a priest in the Temple.  Just because he had trouble getting going in the morning didn’t mean he hated his job.  Actually he liked it a lot.  But lately it had become, well, predictable.  It didn’t help that this was the Temple’s slow season.  People on vacation.  Programs had wound down for the season.  Attendance down.  It wasn’t surprising.  It was just…well…predictable.  

Isaiah pulled his car into the “reserved for clergy” spot at the Temple (one of the only real perks of the job) and made his way through the courtyard.  As he walked, he heard some strange music playing.  He thought, “Dang kids playing with the organ again!”  But as he finally walked through the doors of the Temple itself, he saw absolutely the LAST thing he expected to find in God’s Temple… God.  

Don't you just love slipping into the office a few minutes late with a half drunk cup of Starbucks just to find the Boss waiting for you.  Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised him… this being the Temple of the Lord and all… but honestly, the Lord was the last thing Isaiah expected to see there.  Pews, candles, stained glass, altar… things that pointed to God… all that he expected.  But honestly, he NEVER really expected the Creator of the Universe, the Living God, the Divine self just sitting there with robes filling the Temple!

Isaiah didn’t expect to see God that morning.  How about you?  When you decided to pack the chairs in the car and drive to in-person church, did YOU expect to see God?  Or were you more like Isaiah, expecting only to see things that pointed to God… a God way off, somewhere out there, far away in time and of place.  Did you think there was even the possibility that God would be sitting up there on top of the church… carillon speakers removed for comfort of course… with the hem of God’s robes filling the garden?  Did you think you might see seraphs zooming around with hot coals and singing holy, holy, holy? 

Isaiah, pulling down his sunglasses to adjust to the dark Temple from the bright sunlight of a Jerusalem morning had just seen God!  As clergy he knew that no one could see God and live.  In that moment, Starbucks cup slowly slipping from his hand, Isaiah suddenly became aware of all that separated him from God.  It was a long list of things, but not one was distance!  He was face to face with the living God, the King of the universe.  He was in trouble.  No “Brief Order for Confession” was going to fix it, so he cried out, “Woe is me!  I am lost!”  

Perhaps there were some other words that were later edited from the story for church use, no one knows.  I know if it had been me there would have been MANY colorful exclamations modifying "lost!" Then, as he felt his double Latte slip completely from his grasp and drop to the floor, one of the Serephs came down and gave Isaiah the hot coal kiss, telling him his sins were now forgiven, blotted out forever.  At that point... the Lord spoke, gently requesting that someone (not that there was anyone else there) volunteer for an assignment.  Happy to not be dead or worse, Isaiah immediately volunteered. 

It was surprising to Isaiah to find the Lord, actually sitting in the Lord’s Temple and I think we’d all be equally surprised to find God here, but the truth is, God IS here!  No less present with us today in this garden, than God was in that Temple with Isaiah.  What would it mean for us, if we, like Isaiah, woke up today and were actually able to see that reality?

For Isaiah it meant accepting a call deeper into God’s service.  Even without the details, Isaiah immediately said “Here am I; send me”.  How would we react to God calling us directly into deeper service?  The thing is… God has done just that as well!  Called you and me and all of creation deeper each day into the mission of building the Kingdom of God through loving God and loving our neighbors. 

God is HERE!  No different than God was for Isaiah.   God has forgiven you, no less completely than with a hot coal kiss delivered by a six winged angel.  God is calling you, into the same call that God called Isaiah… to THIS day walk deeper into God’s service, deeper into love… deeper into justice... deeper into compassion… deeper into kindness on a mission to change the world!  The question then is not “is God here” or even “what does God ask” but how will we answer?  Amen.

Blown Out of Lockdown

Acts 2:1-21

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

To the people from all over the world who had gathered for the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, the disciples didn’t look at all like stoic Lutherans and they didn’t look anything like prudent Episcopalians.  Instead, they looked DRUNK… and not just “drunk” but drunk on “new” wine drunk… the cheap stuff!  

Up until that moment the disciples had been hiding in fear, expecting that what had happened to Jesus would certainly happen to them.  Even when Jesus appeared and promised them the Advocate… the Holy Spirit, Jesus left again and the disciples stayed locked down.  Not even the slightest, lightest, faintest, breeze to give them even a hint of when it might come to an end.    

We know a little something about living in that sort of heavy, breezeless sort of waiting.  A year and a half locked away in a pandemic has given us all that new perspective.  When the disciples came out of lockdown we know what they looked like.  So, when the restrictions end, what will the world see when the people of Christ Trinity Church finally emerge from our lockdown?

I suspect that they will see a whole bunch of disciples pouring out of this church looking like we're all drunk on new wine!  That's how it was before our lock down.  Happily tagging along with the Holy Spirit lighting fires of kindness on the Appalachian Trail and out in our Rainbow Chairs.  Stoking the fires for Sheffield Pride and singing hymns and drinking beer down at Big Elm Brewery.  Frankly I expect that we'll look crazy, joyful, drunk on new wine to the outside world after the pandemic mostly because that's how we've looked for years now!  

I think that's how we'll look after the pandemic but the Holy Spirit hasn't just been sleeping for the last year and a half while we've been locked down.  The Spirit's been blowing through Christ Trinity as much as (or even MORE than) it ever has before!  Now that same Holy Spirit is getting ready to once again blow this group of Lutherpalians right out of lockdown and back out into the world once again!  Now to you and me, the way we do church doesn't feel strange or look drunk.  But keep in mind, the disciples back then didn’t think their speaking in Phrygian, Pamphylian or Meedish was strange or looked drunk either!  It’s always the people on the outside looking in who assume “new wine” is involved when church people bring joyful kindness into the world instead of the sourpuss judgement that they expect.    

And since the Holy Spirit has been working overtime through us in this time and because the care and kindness we've done has made a HUGE difference in our community and beyond, the people out there… the people from Great Barrington and Lenox, Otisites and Monteray-vians,  Mount Washingtonians and people from as far away as New Jersey have all been taking notice and when we finally come out they too will likely think we've been into the new wine!  

  

The take home message for this Pentecost is that not even a year and a half of lockdown could stop that Spirit.  Even locked down, the Holy Spirit found ways to light fires and blow like the wind in spite of every hardship and challenge and fear that got in our way.  That same Holy Spirit is now on the cusp of once again lighting some new fires, whipping up some big winds and filling us again full of energy, plans, hopes and dreams to blow us all out of lockdown, and back out into the world to keep on caring for one another and our neighbors out there in the world!  

What an amazing gift it is, that this church looks to the world like we were continually drunk on new wine!  What they see is that we live joyfully.  We laugh often and loudly.  We hug each other, cry with each other, care for each other, and spread all of that wherever we go!  Not a lot of churches have that sort of reputation.  Not a lot of churches look like it live drunk on new wine!  Not every church makes the world sit up and wonder what the BLEEP is going on over there?  But that IS who we are and who we have been and who we will be for years and years to come… because the Holy Spirit has always been, is now and will be again, blowing through this place like a hurricane making us all look beautifully and wonderfully different to the world!  

Our job this Pentecost is simply once again to hoist the sail and catch that Holy Spirit wind and let God lead us from joy to joy and opportunity to opportunity, loving God and loving neighbor all along the way and to do it all with the sort of joy and love and laughter the world will once again mistake as drunken delight!  We’ve done it before!  Let's ride that Holy wind again!  Amen.

The Coveted Golden Head Scratcher

John 17:6-19

”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 

But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

THAT Gospel lesson has won “Most Convoluted” Gospel lesson for 2000 years running!  It has also won the “Clear as Mud” award, the “Huh, What?” medal, the “It’s All Greek to Me” trophy, AND the coveted Golden Head Scratcher!  Now, there actually IS something great inside that twisted tangle of words that Jesus just prayed there, but honestly what hit me first when I read this giant gospel word salad, was how much THAT lesson SOUNDS... just like I'm feeling right now as I climb out of this pandemic.  Jesus sounds like a giant, jumbled, confusing, anxious mess and THAT is EXACTLY how I feel!  

I know I’m not alone either.  When I talk to Kelly, she tells me that she too is seeing her crew members at JetBlue, as they return to work and flying schedules begin to ramp up, show up disoriented, confused, jumbled and anxious.  I hear that same thing from people here in Sheffield and online across the country.  I think a lot of us… maybe even ALL of us, have been caught off guard.  Who would have thought the END of the pandemic would be so hard? Should we all have seen this coming?  Maybe?  Change is hard.  Even when it's good.  But look at Jesus, who in John’s Gospel is portrayed as knowing every detail of God’s plan for him from before the beginning of the universe.  Even HE seems to be spinning as he prays while he walks toward the change from life to death to resurrection. 

Because of that, I think one of the BIG take-homes from this lesson, even before we try to untangle Jesus’ puzzle prayer, is that what we are all encountering now, as we emerge from the pandemic, is indeed a GIGANTIC change!  We are bound, simply by our humanity, to be anxious, confused, jumbled, and perpetually exhausted in this midst of something this huge!  None of us imagined our first trip back to the Big-Y could ever be so stressful!  And yet it sure enough is!  No-one anticipated that just sitting in a restaurant again would produce so much anxiety!  But it sure enough does!  Like Jesus was back then, I think the people of our entire world right now, in one way or another, are living through a giant, confused, jumbled, clear as mud, head scratching time in history!  Just like Jesus was back then, we're all doing this crisis the best way we can right now.  So let’s be gentle with ourselves and with our neighbors as we all walk through this jumbled, anxious, confusing time.  And if that’s all you can take in from today’s lesson, then you’ve done well and I’ll excuse you from the rest of the sermon. 

However, if you still have a bit of emotional energy left, I’ll share with you my untangled version of Jesus’ prayer that we read today.  It goes like this:   

Hello God, this is Jesus.  You gave me the gift of these amazing people so I could tell them in person what you wanted them to know.  They’ve now embraced that message and that is simply amazing!  Amazing for me, for them, and for You too!  

While I was here I protected them from a world that is all too often more interested in wielding crushing power, than in your message of abundant life through loving one another.  Now that I’m heading home, would you please continue to take care of them as they continue to live in a world that sees love, kindness, generosity, grace, mercy, and compassion as weaknesses rather than the world transforming power You and I know they are?  

This world can get pretty hate-y toward people who live their lives in a loving way and refuse to buy into the winner-take-all way the world has fallen into.  So hold them tightly as they live out your truth, using Your power of love to continue to change the world.  Love is the truth I told them.  That’s the truth they’re now telling others.  It is beautiful and holy work for sure, but it’s also really hard, so please God, hang in there with them.  Always.  Amen.

Even though this prayer came out of Jesus’ mouth as a jumbled, tortured, word puree, once you untangle it, it has deeply woven into it, that core message of God’s gift of unchangeable love.  With everything swirling around him, so much so that his words came out in this mess… he seems to have still held onto God’s transformational love… he still held onto God’s promise to always be with us… he still held onto the truth that love is mightier than hate and life is stronger than death.   

Believe me… I'm feeling all THIS too these days!  EVERYTHING is harder.  Everything is exhausting.  But I take some comfort knowing that Jesus himself had these times as well AND was still was able to hold onto God’s core of love!  We too have that same strength to hold onto God's core of love.  Together we are the Body of Christ.  So together we have the power to walk through the jumbled, exhausting, days that still lie ahead.  Together we can hold onto that same, solid core of God’s infinite love even in these head spinning times and be confident through it all, that God is with us.  Amen.  

Abiding

John 15:9-17

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

A number of years ago now… you know… BC… before Covid, Kelly and I went to New York for our anniversary.  Of course, people were everywhere… bumping together, weaving in and out... all packed in close together… headphones in, head down, don’t-make-eye-contact, in a rush… you know what I’m talking about.  At first it looked like a sea of people, but that particular sea, was only six inches deep. 

  

Then we saw this cute little girl… maybe five or six.  Bright polka dot dress… looking all around… her clear, gel sandals slapping on the cement sidewalk with each step.  With one hand she held her mother’s finger and in the other, a half-eaten sidewalk vendor’s hot dog.  She suddenly reminded me of Brandon Stanton’s project called “Humans of New York.”  Have you heard of it?  He takes pictures of people, but more importantly... he takes TIME.  He connects with people past the headphones, past the safety stare, past the bustle and the rush... and he ABIDES.  He listens deeply and intimately to a piece of their story normally stored somewhere safely deep inside.  Then, with their permission, he shares their photos and their stories and in them it’s clear that through his abiding, he and his subject have found the profound joy God which created us all to experience when we genuinely connect with another person and with God.  

That little girl reminds us all of a profound truth.  The reality is that all of us… we’re all ALREADY connected.  We’re ALL, ALREADY abiding with one another.  God has already connected all of us, deeply, intimately and permanently through God’s love.  We share it all already... the same earth, the same air, the same hopes and dreams... the same uncertainties and fears... the same tragic brokenness and the same resurrection promise.  As Richard Rohr says, “We cannot ATTAIN the presence of God, because we’re already totally IN the presence of God.  What’s absent is AWARENESS.”

I think we all do our own local version of the New York headphones in, and head down routine as we go through life.  We’ve convinced ourselves that we need to keep our heads down and push ahead, so that neither God nor the people around us will get to know who we REALLY are deep down.  No one will be able to see me any deeper than the surface.  We fear, of course, that if they actually DID get to know us deep down we would not…  or could not… be loved.  

  

But this lesson insists that at least when it comes to God, “You did not choose me but I chose you.”  God knows us completely already… deeply loves us and always WILL love us… completely, even knowing the parts we hide in the deepest recesses of our being.  God is abiding with US… right now!  When we choose out of fear NOT to return that abiding... we don’t stop God from knowing us... we only stop ourselves from experiencing the complete JOY and peace that comes from being totally connected to God.  

So… don’t do that!  Let go of the fear and bathe in the JOY!  It’s there in the presence of God, the love of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  It’s always been there, since before you were a twinkle in your mother’s eye and it will be there forever!  “Fear NOT,” as the angels always say!  You have nothing to fear and only another moment of joy to loose! 

So let it in!  Love God as God has first loved you!  Then, from there, begin to love one another in that same way.  Love one another… ABIDE with one another.  Risk a little bit more of yourself with one another each day.  With practice you’ll find that by abiding with one another… taking the time… getting to know one another more deeply… you’ll find that joy builds upon joy.  THAT is the purpose of Jesus’ command for us to love one another… Jesus wants us to fully experience the abundant life and joy we were all created to live.  Amen. 

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.