He's Alive: His Voice Calls to Us...
Notes
Transcript
Let us pray…Speak to us o God. In these moments of reflection, may we open our ears to hear, our eyes to see, and our hearts and spirits to only feel your presence with us this day, Amen.
As we begin this morning, I have to admit that I am exhausted…aren’t you? Over the last month, it seems way longer, but at least for the last month any way, I have been doing, experiencing, and living faster and harder than I have at any other time in my life. In a time when we should be more connected and closer to God than anyone else, the one thing I am missing right now is the physical presence of those that I love and share God with me. This time has been challenging and even for someone who truly appreciates being in a space by themselves, I am feeling isolated and missing all of you. I just needed you to know that you are not alone in this time if this is how you feel as well. It’s hard not to feel this way…in time, maybe that feeling will change but for now it is where I am and how I am feeling this day...
I also need you to know that we are not alone, even though it may feel like it right now. None of us are encountering this time alone. We may not be together physically but I am oh so grateful for all of you who come to join in this worship space. You know I have always said that the building is not the most important thing or that the building is the church. I am not changing my perspective on this, don’t worry, however, being in that physical space holds a special meaning and maybe it is because I feel connected to those who have gone before us in that space and feel more connected to God through those I encounter in that space. Don’t get me wrong, to me, the building is still not the most important thing about us but there is definitely something that feels amiss by not being there together...
With that being said, I want us to envision that we are there together right now. That we are able to see one another and feel one another’s presence. I want to acknowledge, in this time of physical distancing, that when we are together, able to shake hands, hug, and just be present to one another physically, it will be a really special time for me and I pray for all of you as well. This hope of coming together physically is really important for us to hold onto, because it is what will get us through this time until we can be physically present with one another again to share God’s love...
Over the last month or so, we have spent a lot of time talking about the circumstances of COVID-19 and so today I am wanted to switch gears a bit and give you hope about what is to come…so let’s spend a few moments on the most popular and well-known images of Christ…that of Christ as the Shepherd of all of God’s sheep...
Setting the Stage...
Setting the Stage...
To get us into this imagery of Christ as the Shepherd, I want to spend a few moments to set the stage because we find ourselves outside of the period of time where Christ is making resurrection appearances. Actually, we are stepping back in time a bit to the time, according to John, when Jesus is readying himself and those who are following him for his imminent death.
Just prior to our passage from John for this morning, we have a scene that unfolds between Jesus and the Pharisees. It is a scene that comes as a direct result of the healing that Jesus performed on a blind man. You see, the Pharisees who had gathered and heard about this event, did not believe that Jesus could actually make anyone see after being born blind. Their minds were set on the idea that because this man was born blind, that his parents or ancestors had sinned and he was therefore being punished by God for the sins of those who came before him. In Jesus’ most precarious time, Jesus says something that fully enrages those Pharisees…he says...
Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Jesus, in effect, is calling out the religious leaders of his time. He is telling them that they are blind even though they claim to see. He is calling them hypocrites. It is a direct challenge to those who think they know what should be to actually open their own eyes and see what really is. I know that sounds a bit like a contradiction in terms but it is how Jesus tells those around him that he is the one they have been looking for…he is the intended Messiah and that if they would only see him for what he truly is, they would have so much more in their lives. It is in this frame that we will spend the rest of our time this morning.
In order to do so though, there is something else that I think we need to understand…what exactly a shepherd is and does…I don’t anyone that has joined us this morning that is currently or has family that might still be shepherding, at least not like those that lived at the time of Jesus. So let’s take a moment to explore what a shepherd of Jesus’ time might have done...
What a Shepherd does for their flock...
What a Shepherd does for their flock...
Here are just a few things that a shepherd would do for their flock...
Tending, feeding and watering
Keeping and protecting
Leading, not driving, sheep
Gathering animals together
A shepherd tends, feeds, waters, protects, leads, and gathers the animals under their care. In other words, Shepherds care for their animals much like we do for our children or our families. The one thing that I really want to point out about shepherds is that…shepherds had flocks who listened because the shepherd cared for them. The flock knew the shepherd’s voice and would only follow the voice of the one who cared for them.
In our scripture passages for this morning, both the Psalm and the Gospel narrative speak of shepherds and how when we listen to the voice of our shepherd, we will find peace and comfort…so let’s frame these passages in terms of how we might use them for our lives today...
What does the Shepherd do for us today?
What does the Shepherd do for us today?
The first passage, one of the most well-known and used passages, that of Psalm 23, speaks about how we are to see hope and promise in following the Shepherd of our lives. I love this Psalm for this very reason. We believe that David wrote this Psalm at a time in his life that was dark and bleak, when nothing seemed to be right in his world, not unlike how our world is today. While we may never know for certain why or what his intention was in writing this song to God, we do believe that he might have written it to remind himself of who he should be following all of the days of his life. So, I give you these words as an introduction...
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
God is our shepherd. God gives us exactly what we need (and there is another common theme we have been discussing). Like a shepherd cares and tends for their sheep, our God will tend and care for our needs (physical and spiritual) if we are open to receiving. David then goes on to write...
He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.
Just like a shepherd who leads their sheep to find rest and sustenance, our shepherd leads us to places of comfort, rest, peace. I acknowledge that we may not feel like it right now, but in time, we may be able to look back and see where those places were amid the turmoil that we face today. One last piece for us from the Psalm...
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
One of the images that comes to my mind when I think about a shepherd is their crook. In a lot of the paintings and images we see of Christ in our own time, this is the image that is most depicted. It is this idea that Jesus is our shepherd and cares for us...
Lost No More by Greg Olsen
Lost No More by Greg Olsen
This is one of the most famous of images we have of Christ
There is this idea that when we listen for the voice of our shepherd, we will know it is his voice that we are hearing because of the care we receive. In our Gospel lesson for this morning, we hear Jesus telling the parable of the Good Shepherd. It is a tale that was directed to the Pharisees to show them how wrong they were but it was also directed to the disciples and those who would follow them, that no matter what is happening in our lives, we will be cared for, tended, fed, and led to places of comfort and peace, as long as we listen to the voice of our shepherd.
Our shepherd is leading us to these places and times in our own lives today. Our shepherd, of course, is Christ. We know this because that is how he referred to himself in this passage...
so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.
While our hearts may not feel like they are burning for Christ, much like the two disciples last week, or maybe we feel like Christ is not speaking to us directly or maybe that his voice is being drown out by all the din and noise of our world today, it is there. As I said at the beginning of our time today, we are all sorely in need of peaceful time in order to open ourselves to hear Christ’s voice today. It is so easy to get caught up in the hokey pokey of our lives…you know, You put your right arm in, you put your right arm out, you put your right arm in and you shake it all about. You do the Hokey-Pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about!…or maybe I am the only that feels like their life is like this most days. And maybe now, you will be singing this song for the rest of the day, but maybe, just maybe, this song can remind us of the relentless way this world expects us to be. And I want to challenge you to be different, it is not until we fully break away from the world’s hokey pokey dance of daily life, and set aside some time for God, and truly, and I mean truly, spend time in the green pastures, we are never going to get off the merry go round or get out of the dance of in and out, in and out, spinning around, in and out, in and out…you get the idea.
So for us today, there are two things I want you to hear clearly…God expects us to stop dancing the hokey pokey and spend some time in quiet and peace, in God’s presence. And I believe that God truly needs for us to be present in those times, expecting to hear Christ’s voice. It is only in this way that we will know that we are following the Shepherd who laid down his life for us…Amen.