Sermon: Easter 4 St. Mark’s May 3, 2009
I think today that I want to preach on the bad shepherd—or at least the hired hand. I want to rail against that hired hand, the one who is not the shepherd and who does not own the sheep, the one who sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—so that the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. Of course, we all remember that I am the Border Collie and --I’m just sayin’---I am in full nipping-the-heels mode this week.
You see, this week, I have had several dear friends who were fired; the reasons were financial of course, but they were treated like criminals after decades of loyal service to their employer. They were told to shut down their computers and leave immediately without speaking to anyone, most especially not to those that they supervised and mentored. Those still working for this company are horrified and angry and devastated. They are also living in fear. No one will stand up because they are afraid that they will be next. They do not seem to understand that their not saying anything gives assent to this terrible behavior. I am not judging them, but as an outsider, I am concerned about what this fear will do. And I am grieving for the situation and the people who were made to leave in such a fashion and the people who are still left, numb and anxious.
Then there is H1N1. It is too late to not call it Swine Flu, even though I heard a pork farmer lament this week that elephant flu would have been more helpful to our economy. People are grasping at the negative [panic] and not hearing the positive pieces:
· Not severe. . .
· Not nearly in the same range of numbers as seasonal influenza. . .
It is good to be informed. It is important to understand how we can protect ourselves and each other. It is not helpful to panic. But that does not make good news copy.
Fear is all around us.
In the church, we speak of living from the perspective of Scarcity vs. that of Abundance—what is the difference? Not just optimism against pessimism, but something more.
Trust
These lessons this morning show us trust and the courage that comes from a trusting faith.
Think of Ps. 23: We all know this by heart. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
Fear itself is evil and not of God. Fear cannot really abide where God is present and recognized.
Fearing the Lord is a phrase we read but it does not really mean what we think. John Mallon writes that the "fear of the Lord" is often misinterpreted as "servile fear" (the fear of getting in trouble) when it should be understood as "filial fear" (the fear of offending someone whom one loves.) That kind of fear is really better understood as respect, as reverence.
Not trusting seems like a primary way to offend God, to me. Think of how we feel when we are not trusted by those we love despite believing that we ARE trustworthy. I can remember my mother not trusting me (even though in that instance (now, never mind the times I did not get caught- I have righteous indignation on my side this time!) but in THAT instance, I had not committed the offense that caused her to lose trust in me. I was both offended and devastated.
But we have no cause to mistrust. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “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.” This is a choice. We are shown by the action that we can safely trust.
In the letter of first John, it is just this kind of action we are to be known by: “How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
Let us walk the talk.
Peter spoke out in action in the Book of Acts when love and trust enabled him to speak despite fear of going against the crowd and sounding unbelievable. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” That is trust. That is confidence. That is fear being replaced by love.
Reading Camp had a similar challenge this last year. We were not really in a position to pay for a director but we knew that we would potentially raise more if a director were in place. It was a leap of faith. It was fear being replaced by a love for the children we were trying to help. And we know that our fear should also not control our decisions about our membership in the Small Church Ministry Consortium. Whatever we (you!) decide, it is important to remember that I am not your Shepherd and neither is the Bishop. There is one Shepherd, a good Shepherd, and in him we place all our trust. We will need to decide how that trust shows forth in our decisions.
We spoke this morning during our Christian Formation time about love and fear in the context of the Eucharist. We spoke of the Community of the Baptized and how Eucharist is not an individual act, but a communal one. We know that the alcohol content in the wine kills most of the germs, we are pretty sure that we will not come ill to church and we know that when I ceremonially wash my hands I will also use Purell. We talked about the way my sacramental theology- my feelings about one bread and one chalice—is being challenged by the fear some folks are feeling about this flu.
But ultimately, for me at least, it comes down to trust. As or Bishop says, disease is not of God; I add that neither is fear.
We come to this table in love. We come to this table because WE are loved. Our belief must make a difference in the world and we have the chance, just as Peter did, to proclaim our love and trust. For some, that may take the form of evangelism in a difficult time in our history. For some, it may be the words in 1John that inform how we use our resources to help those who have less. But for others of us, it may mean remaining calm and trusting and serene in the face of fear. We can walk the talk. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; *for you are with me,’
In our trust, when we sing the Sanctus at Eucharist, both heaven AND Earth are full of God’s Glory. The Holy Spirit that infused Paul with courage is the same Holy Spirit that has infused the bread and wine with the essence of Christ’s body and blood transforms us as we gather together to partake of God’s love for us. When we consume the Eucharist, we turn that love into action: action that is only possible because we know that Jesus has willingly taken the most loving action of all: that of laying down his life for us sheep.
Amen.
I think today that I want to preach on the bad shepherd—or at least the hired hand. I want to rail against that hired hand, the one who is not the shepherd and who does not own the sheep, the one who sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—so that the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. Of course, we all remember that I am the Border Collie and --I’m just sayin’---I am in full nipping-the-heels mode this week.
You see, this week, I have had several dear friends who were fired; the reasons were financial of course, but they were treated like criminals after decades of loyal service to their employer. They were told to shut down their computers and leave immediately without speaking to anyone, most especially not to those that they supervised and mentored. Those still working for this company are horrified and angry and devastated. They are also living in fear. No one will stand up because they are afraid that they will be next. They do not seem to understand that their not saying anything gives assent to this terrible behavior. I am not judging them, but as an outsider, I am concerned about what this fear will do. And I am grieving for the situation and the people who were made to leave in such a fashion and the people who are still left, numb and anxious.
Then there is H1N1. It is too late to not call it Swine Flu, even though I heard a pork farmer lament this week that elephant flu would have been more helpful to our economy. People are grasping at the negative [panic] and not hearing the positive pieces:
· Not severe. . .
· Not nearly in the same range of numbers as seasonal influenza. . .
It is good to be informed. It is important to understand how we can protect ourselves and each other. It is not helpful to panic. But that does not make good news copy.
Fear is all around us.
In the church, we speak of living from the perspective of Scarcity vs. that of Abundance—what is the difference? Not just optimism against pessimism, but something more.
Trust
These lessons this morning show us trust and the courage that comes from a trusting faith.
Think of Ps. 23: We all know this by heart. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
Fear itself is evil and not of God. Fear cannot really abide where God is present and recognized.
Fearing the Lord is a phrase we read but it does not really mean what we think. John Mallon writes that the "fear of the Lord" is often misinterpreted as "servile fear" (the fear of getting in trouble) when it should be understood as "filial fear" (the fear of offending someone whom one loves.) That kind of fear is really better understood as respect, as reverence.
Not trusting seems like a primary way to offend God, to me. Think of how we feel when we are not trusted by those we love despite believing that we ARE trustworthy. I can remember my mother not trusting me (even though in that instance (now, never mind the times I did not get caught- I have righteous indignation on my side this time!) but in THAT instance, I had not committed the offense that caused her to lose trust in me. I was both offended and devastated.
But we have no cause to mistrust. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “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.” This is a choice. We are shown by the action that we can safely trust.
In the letter of first John, it is just this kind of action we are to be known by: “How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”
Let us walk the talk.
Peter spoke out in action in the Book of Acts when love and trust enabled him to speak despite fear of going against the crowd and sounding unbelievable. “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” That is trust. That is confidence. That is fear being replaced by love.
Reading Camp had a similar challenge this last year. We were not really in a position to pay for a director but we knew that we would potentially raise more if a director were in place. It was a leap of faith. It was fear being replaced by a love for the children we were trying to help. And we know that our fear should also not control our decisions about our membership in the Small Church Ministry Consortium. Whatever we (you!) decide, it is important to remember that I am not your Shepherd and neither is the Bishop. There is one Shepherd, a good Shepherd, and in him we place all our trust. We will need to decide how that trust shows forth in our decisions.
We spoke this morning during our Christian Formation time about love and fear in the context of the Eucharist. We spoke of the Community of the Baptized and how Eucharist is not an individual act, but a communal one. We know that the alcohol content in the wine kills most of the germs, we are pretty sure that we will not come ill to church and we know that when I ceremonially wash my hands I will also use Purell. We talked about the way my sacramental theology- my feelings about one bread and one chalice—is being challenged by the fear some folks are feeling about this flu.
But ultimately, for me at least, it comes down to trust. As or Bishop says, disease is not of God; I add that neither is fear.
We come to this table in love. We come to this table because WE are loved. Our belief must make a difference in the world and we have the chance, just as Peter did, to proclaim our love and trust. For some, that may take the form of evangelism in a difficult time in our history. For some, it may be the words in 1John that inform how we use our resources to help those who have less. But for others of us, it may mean remaining calm and trusting and serene in the face of fear. We can walk the talk. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; *for you are with me,’
In our trust, when we sing the Sanctus at Eucharist, both heaven AND Earth are full of God’s Glory. The Holy Spirit that infused Paul with courage is the same Holy Spirit that has infused the bread and wine with the essence of Christ’s body and blood transforms us as we gather together to partake of God’s love for us. When we consume the Eucharist, we turn that love into action: action that is only possible because we know that Jesus has willingly taken the most loving action of all: that of laying down his life for us sheep.
Amen.
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