Location
262 Main St, Norwich VT 05055
POB 306
Norwich, Vermont, 05055
Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/22/2018
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Category(ies)
Sunday April 22, 2018
St Barnabas, Norwich, VTA
Sermon by Rev Jennie M Anderson
Lord, make us stewards of ourselves, that we may be servants of others. Take my words and speak through them, take our minds and think through them, take our hearts and set them on fire, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. Good morning! Welcome!
Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!
Ursula K. Le Guin, in The Lathe of Heaven, wrote,
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
| Celebrant | Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? |
| People | I will, with God’s help. |
This is one of the most radical and life changing promises ever pronounced in faith communities! It is one that, according to my Bishop, well, three bishops ago, is working the “Episcopal Church” right out of a job! Bishop Bennison was explaining that because we have so radically stepped outside of our family, our church community, our local community, our country, our faith, we have stepped out of all the familiar ways we self-identify when we make such a bold and faithful promise. But, let me re-start with today’s gospel lesson and get us to this amazing statement in a step by leap by step process.
As the early Christians tried to make sense of the “why” of Jesus’ life, his terrible death, and his glorious resurrection, they used many images to describe the one whose love was so great that he laid down his life for them. The image of the good shepherd is much-loved in traditional Christianity. How many devotional paintings portray Jesus holding a sweet little lamb, surrounded by peaceful sheep? Any sentimentality in this image, however, is dispelled by the context of this passage. The setting isn’t a nice, quiet pastoral hillside, peaceful and calm. No, here we read of confrontation with authorities and questions about Jesus’ authority, and danger is in the air around these religious leaders. Like wolves who hunger for food among the lambs, the dangerous authorities were/are hungry for power and feel that their power was/is threatened by the peace-loving leader of the ragtag band of his followers.
Immediately before describing the hired hand who quickly abandons his charges (it’s just a job, after all), Jesus speaks of thieves, bandits, strangers and wolves, and the violence and risk those images convey. What strikes us in a very powerful way, however, is the close relationship between the shepherd who knows the sheep and is known by the sheep. The flock responds to the sound of his voice and not to the voices of strangers. The good shepherd will even die for the sheep, and this helps us, like the early Christians, to understand who Jesus is, and how he loves and knows us. This ideal or, beautiful shepherd, brings abundant life for the sheep who are united not because they believe exactly the same thing but because they are loved. Wasn’t it Henri Nouwen who said that we are not loved by God because we are precious, but we are precious because we are loved by God? [Kate Matthews]
But the part of today’s gospel lesson that stands out to me most, the part that speaks deep into my heart, every time I read this passage is the part where he says, ‘I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.’ He just finished telling us all about the deep intimacy, the perfect love between God and Jesus, and Jesus and his disciples with his shepherd story… and then he sticks in that line, ‘I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.’
I LOVE THAT LINE!!!
When I was a child growing up with the ‘28 prayer book, the message that I got was that all the people who didn’t know Jesus Christ were damned to hell and even if you did know Jesus but didn’t know Him the way that we did, you were at least damned a little, if not all the way to hell. I used to feel so badly for all the people who had never heard the stories about Jesus who, through no fault of their own, were not going to be saved… I struggled with this mightily. …the guilt… When I now come across a line in the Gospel lesson, even today, that flies in the face of our… just a minute, I had to look it up, our cultural provincialism, the first definition of that is 1. narrowness of mind, ignorance, or the like, considered as resulting from lack of exposure to cultural or intellectual activity. No matter where you stand, you are ignorant of what it is you are about to learn. The part of my spiritual growth that I struggle with most is when I learn about my ignorance, learn something new, someone new, and choose to stay in my ignorance anyway, and not step out with faith in God, the God who is my shepherd and knows I am precious because God loves me, step out of my ignorance with that faith, and be changed. Learning to meet people where they are and be changed by them through the love of God, and loving each other is the core of my growth in faith. Today when I read that line in the gospel that says, ‘I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold,’ I rejoice.
Like last week I wonder again about the form of the resurrected Jesus, a spirit, ghost or fleshy fish-eating man, this week, I wonder about how it could be true that Jesus has intimate connections with other “sheep” who aren’t of “this fold.” I went poking around resources, and, bless the Unity church; that church in which my brothers and I buried our mother. Here is a bit of wisdom for us to carry away on this beautiful morning, this Earth Day celebration morning, this sunny, relatively warm and charming day. The wisdom is from Rev. Ed, and he said that at this point in the farewell discourse of John’s Gospel Jesus seems very aware that his ultimate ministry is meant to be far larger than could be defined by the people around him. However supportive and comfortable it may be to stay within the defined limits of his very small world, he is aware that there are other sheep, on other spiritual paths, who have heard, need to hear, and are going to hear his voice. He teaches and demonstrates spiritual truths that are universal; they are not exclusively for Jews, or to be limited to any single spiritual belief system. This awareness doesn’t necessarily change what he’s doing in his immediate moment; but the universality of his message requires him to be conscious and careful of the words he chooses to teach the truth.
It’s certainly true for us today as well. We can get quite comfortable on our chosen spiritual path, feeling tightly connected to those who share our beliefs. We are ever tribal. We are human beings. But the spiritual principles of Jesus’ life and ministry are universal principles. No one owns them, and no one is apart from them. Our emphasis is not to be on getting everyone to join our little parish here at St Barnabas, but on affirming even though Jesus dropped that line, ‘I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold,’ there is “one flock and one shepherd” available on many different paths. People on many, apparently different, paths can come to realize the universal spiritual Truth of which we are all unique and wonderful expressions. In our recent history of the Episcopal Church, the place that I find the most striking evidence of the Universal Christ is in the ‘78 Prayer book’s new, unique AND transforming ritual in the rite of baptism… well 50 years old now… when we vow to strive for justice and peace among ALL people… and respect the dignity of every human being, we aren’t promising to strive for peace and doing all that respecting to just us Episcopalians, nor for just the protestant faith, nor, even for just us Christians alone…
| Celebrant | Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? |
| People | I will, with God’s help. |
We strive in this promise for ALL human beings…
This Summer we gather in Austin TX to see how we are going to progress in our ways as Episcopalians at the General Convention in the beginning stages of forming a new Prayer book. What I wonder, on this earth day of 2018, if in our new baptismal promise, in our new prayer book process, if it will lead us to respect the dignity of every creature on earth and, well… beyond.
Ursula K. Le Guin, in The Lathe of Heaven, wrote,
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
Let us pray. Shepherd of all, by laying down your life for your flock you reveal your love for all. Lead us from the place of death to the place of abundant life, that guided by your care for us, we may rightly offer our lives in love for you and our neighbors. And most challenging for us, help us to remember that you have other sheep that do not belong to our fold. Amen. [Kate Matthews]
