Heralds of His tender mercies . . .

      I am really struggling internally with not being able to preach on the Old Testament.  It has been since the middle of Lent, but the call is to preach His Word not mine.  Though I will point out to us that, although Solomon asks for wisdom and God is pleased, for how long does Solomon act wisely?  Brian gets the gold star today, until he decides to marry the Egyptian princess to strengthen ties with Egypt.  Hopefully y’all remember that Israel was commanded not to take spouses from outside Israel or they would lead Israel from God into idolatry.  The king was subject to that as well, plus the reminder that, if the king was faithful to the Covenant and his responsibilities, God would protect him and Israel from foreign adversaries.

     It was easy for me to feel God’s nudge this week, though.  I have often remarked that I need to do a sermon series on the Collects.  Every now and again for the last eleven years, I have preached on them.  Some of you have expressed your surprise at how much Scripture is in our Collects, as if they are not part of the BCP.  But this idea of mercy was front in center of our life together the last couple weeks.  Besides the parables in Matthew are super easy this week, right?  Jesus is THE focus of Salvation History, right?  We know that by His Resurrection and Ascension, and all the miracles He performed.  Anybody want to argue?  Good.  That means Jesus is THE mustard seed of the first parable, THE yeast in the flour of our lives, THE treasure hidden in a field, and THE pearl of great value.  That’s how the Church has understood these parables.  Everybody with me, and do not be like the disciples and crowd that says yes when Jesus asks if they understand what He just said.  Lol.

     Now, in case it did not sink in on the teaching between the wheat and the weeds, Jesus is again reminding us and those in the crowd that angels will be responsible for separating the evil from the righteous.  Do we have any role in the judgement of salvation?  Good, no.  And just to remind ourselves, righteous is a term that does not mean holy or perfect.  Righteous means someone has been forgiven by God.  We know this, right?  What do we do we promise to do when we fall into sin every time we hear our baptismal vows?  That’s right, repent and return to the Lord.  What do we do right before the peace at the Eucharist so that we can come and receive the Eucharist without fear of profaning it or heaping condemnation upon ourselves?  That’s right, repent and hear the words of absolution.  Any questions?  Good.  Let’s get to the Collect and sermon.

     Our collect today is one of those written by Cranmer and used to be the Collect for the fifth Sunday after Pentecost (fourth after Trinity).  Cranmer took it from the Gregorian Sacramentary and translated the Latin into English, for those of us who like historical roots of our BCP.  Anglicans will sometimes get caught up in fights about whether we can lose our salvation as the Collect suggests, by getting too caught up in the temporal world that we lose our focus on Jesus.  Most of us would probably agree with Cranmer since Jesus teaches in the parable of the soils, which we read a couple ago, that we can get too caught up in the cares of the world that we fail to bear any good fruit.  Right?  I was not called to enjoying you to that fight today, however.  I do believe I was called to remind you of the antidote to that risk.  Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy.

     God’s mercy figures prominently in our lessons and songs today.  Thy mercies, how tender!  How firm to the end! – the end of the fifth processional hymn today.  The Gospel hymn is all about mercy, even though the word is not used.  The psalmist also speaks to it, right?  We recognize on a certain level, then, that without God’s mercy in our lives, we can lose sight of the goal.  If we become so caught up in things of this world, we run the risk of losing the real treasure that we seek, namely Jesus.   The Good News, though, is that God reinforces this all the time by His acts of mercy.  When we are aware of His mercy, when we have inwardly digested His mercy is always in play in our lives as disciples, we are better able to face the challenges and temptations the world throws at us and keep our eyes focused on Great Treasure, Jesus.

     Part of the ease of this sermon was God’s mercy in our corporate life this week.  If you are visiting, we have a feeding ministry that fed about 72,000 individuals last year and distributed north of 400,000 pounds of food.  We think of it as a vibrant, if rather crazy and overwhelming ministry of the parish.  God’s mercy is always providing us with great things to distribute.  Think of your favorite food, like your ultimate comfort food, and we have likely received it and given to others who love it, too.

     Back in the ice storm, some of you might be aware we lost a freezer full of chicken,  somewhere around 300 pounds.  What makes it weird was that everything was frozen during the ice storm.  We did not get above 30 degrees here.  What made it weirder was that the freezer was down in the basement of the parish hall, which means it was at the lowest part of the campus and, theoretically at least, should have been the coldest of the air in the building, right?  When Hilary made it down there, in part because it never occurred to Sarah or me that, since the food upstairs in the freezer was staying frozen, the food downstairs in the freezer might thaw, she discovered it had thawed and made a mess of chicken juice in the freezer and the floor.  I know, yuck.  Hilary can tell you about lots of glorious work like that in this ministry.  

     We threw the chicken away because we did not know when it had thawed and whether it was safe.  We are, after all, trying to feed people, not make them sick.

     A few weeks later, Susan Abington and Mark Hunter, a deacon in the diocese, reached out to see if we had suffered any losses that impacted those whom we serve.  Apparently trees knocking down power lines did not count with ERD.  I am teasing.  Episcopal Relief & Development does great work.  Whenever there is an emergency in the country and around the world, ERD tries to work with local Episcopal or Anglican churches to get needed supplies and other help where it is needed.  If you are able, and God puts it on your heart, consider giving to them when you want our churches ministering in devastation.

     Anyway, the chicken was the only foodstuff we lost, and I was told to get an estimate of replacement cost.  ERD wanted to help us make sure no one went hungry because of the loss and the ice storm.

     I received a call last week from a lady claiming to be from ERD.  She wanted to know if it was true that we had somehow turned our lost chicken into more chicken.  It was true.  I had asked a lady at ERD between the time we applied and the time the diocese received the grant if I had to replace boneless, skinless chicken breasts with boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  The lady with whom I spoke asked why.  I told her we serve 86 people groups or so.  Different people like different parts of the chicken.  Some like dark meat.  Some like white meat.  Some like legs.  Everyone seems to love wings, right Hilary?  She, of course, said sure.  She said I could probably get other proteins if I made the case, but I told her we would stick with chicken to make it easier.

     I headed to the local butcher that helps us during Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Michael was, as you might imagine, willing to help.  I was kind of useless to him as I told him I had about $1500 to spend and was willing to accept anything he might suggest at a good price.  Kyle had moved on as store manager, and Damon, I think is his name, needed to be involved due to some changes in company policy.  We settled on how to do it, when to pay, when to pick up, and all the details.  I told them what I preferred, but I trusted Michael to get us a good deal.  We ended up with a bit over 600 pounds of different chicken.  We got some boneless, skinless breasts; we received wings and other cuts.  We had dark meat; we had white meat.  We had bones and no bones.  We ended up with about 600 pounds of chicken.  We had only lost 300.  How did we do this, the lady asked?  I told her God did it.  She gave me the “no, seriously” response that people do when they first hear about God’s crazy and merciful provision in this ministry.  I told her, “Seriously, it IS God.”  We are not smart enough or creative enough to do the things He does.  And we know, as a result that it is Him.  All of us are vaccinated against pride and despair in this work because of God’s faithful and merciful provision.  He allows us to give the food insecure a choice between HagenDas and Ben & Jerry’s. God is the one who lets our volunteers offer the food insecure lobster or tuna steaks; T-Bones or Ribeyes; Salmon or Shrimp?  

     The people we serve would be happy with whatever we offer.  Those oppressed by hunger are often convinced they deserve nothing more than noodles or rice or peanut butter.  In truth, they are shocked when we give them a choice during their initial visit.  But those crazy choices lead to those conversations where we get to remind them of God’s love of them, of His willingness to provide His Best, in Jesus and in immediate needs, to remind us all of that Truth.  And, lest we forget, God is the Creator and Maker of all things.  We of all people in the world should expect for Him to be able to provide, but especially when His Son is being glorified in our life and witness.

     As you might expect, given ERD’s mission, the lady loved the story and asked for permission to share.  I, of course, reminded her that ERD was part of that work now.  Had they not done what they did, Michael could not have done what he did, and we could not have done what we did.  I learned they may or may not be part of the story as she thought we exceeded the grant size.  That means the bishop filled in the gap instead of ERD, but ERD was willing and did for other congregations in our diocese.  A willing heart counts for an awful lot in God’s eyes.  

     I know that some of us get tired of hearing the stories about Body & Soul or Room in the Inn.  Other ministries happen; worship happens; Bible study happens; fellowship events; and who knows what else.  It is just that God is so visible in some aspects of our corporate life that even Bartimaeus would see it.  We live in an area where we are tempted to think we deserve God’s grace, where we are tempted uncritically to think that we merit the lives we live.  I mean, most of us would never expect to have to use a food pantry.  All of us live in the United States.  Most of us live in Brentwood which might be the very opposite of privation.  But God knows us.  He knows the challenges we face; He knows the traumas that have shaped us; and He knows the attitudes we have expressed and believed.  Because He knows our weaknesses He is ever in our midst proving His mercy to us, demonstrating His merciful care of all through us, that others in the world might turn to His saving embrace.  And because He loves us and He wants us to remember our need of His mercy in our lives, He makes us heralds in the lives of others, that we might keep our focus on Him, our protector, our strength, and our focus of salvation!

In His mercy!

Brian+

Trinity Sunday 2026

      Ok, I promised 8 o’clockers I would trust them and preach a bit longer.  Why do we read the first creation story today?  If you get it correct, you can head to the Parish Hall for coffee until we partake of the Eucharist.  Don’t laugh too much, the real sermon is short.  We read it, in part, because we have finished reminding ourselves about the great works of the Gospel.  We intentionally reminded ourselves that Christ has come and will come again in Advent; we celebrate the Incarnation, we remind ourselves intentional that God manifested Christ to the Gentiles during Epiphany; we remind ourselves of our need for a Savior during Lent; we remember the Passion and Death of our Lord Christ during Holy Week; we celebrate His Resurrection and its consequences on Easter; we remember the Ascension on the Thursday service everyone skips during Easter; and we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.  The rest of the year will be spent on learning what it means to grow in discipleship, what those events we intentionally remind ourselves each year mean to our lives in this world, in this place, and at this time.  It means I could skip Trinity Sunday and jump right into that, if I preferred.

     On this day, Trinity Sunday, it could be fun to preach on the promise we have that we will one glorious Day be a part of that intimate relationship that we know as the Trinity.  Part of what we celebrated on Ascension was the fact that a part of us has ascended with Jesus back to the Godhead.  Right?

     Paul shares a wonderful blessing in Second Corinthians.  Certainly it would be good for us to be mindful of those things of which he writes the Church in Corinth.

     And the Gospel lesson is Jesus’ reminder that He has been given authority over all things in heaven and on earth and that we have been sent to baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  You would think there’d be little disagreement with that part, but you would be admitting you do not pay much attention to what is happening outside these walls.  Nowadays, when I have to certify that someone was baptized at Advent, I have to certify that no one used anything other than the Trinitarian formula for the baptism.  Anything else is considered invalid by the wider Church, and rightfully so.

     In truth, I knew I would be preaching on the Trinity before I picked up the readings.  I have shared how clergy often pass off preaching this day to assistants or seminarians.  The problem is that we are speaking of a Holy Mystery when we talk about the Trinity.  Often, no matter how well intended when we start, we begin quickly to drift off into anathemas or outright heresies as we try to explain the Trinity.  Worse, we can preach a wonderful doctrinal statement that goes on and on and on, but seems to have no practical purpose.  But as I worked my way through study this week, I was drawn back to a passion of one of my colleagues.  So I am plagiarizing her.  Well, I am giving her credit, so I am not really plagiarising.  But you get the idea.

     Before I begin, everyone turn in your prayer books to page 864.  Yes.  I am serious.  I am encouraging us all to turn to the historical documents.  Like I said, I have to stretch this out a bit.  At the bottom of the page is the Anathansian Creed.  Take your time and start reading it for comprehension.  I’ll be quiet for a few moments to let you get into it. . . . 

     Is anybody bored yet?  You are bored with God?  Lol  I am only teasing.  A number of our brothers and sisters will say this creed today, and a few of my colleagues will likely preach on it.  There will be wringing of hands because, gasp, it may not have been written by Athanasius.  In fact, our oldest copy is from the 6th Century, which means that one was not written by Athanasius.  Because you have a classicist for a priest and he makes you learn about obscure things like copyright and marketing in the ANE, you all understand that a disciple of Athanasius could have written the creed and attributed it to his master.  As long as Athanasius, or most of his disciples, agreed, it would be accepted as expressing the teachings of Athanasius.

     Athanasius is famous in the Church, sainted to be more precise, for His defense of the faith against Arius, who argued that there was a time when Christ was not.  Arius believed that Jesus was subordinate to the Father, that Jesus was created by the Father.  It was his teachings that caused the bishops to council to settle matters like this at Nicea.  The end result of that gathering was the Nicene Creed.  To be fair, the end result was that the Church accepted the Nicene and Apostles’ Creed as distillations of the Christians faith.  To be a Christian, one had to accept those creeds.  Interestingly, most of the Church accepts the Athanasian Creed as on equal footing with the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.  But that is why I am not making you recite that creed today.  Principal worship is meant to be ecumenical.  Since some in our church hold that the Athanasian Creed is not on the same level as the other two creeds, we do not honor their discernment by acting as if it is.  We want to be good hosts, if other Christians are joining us for this celebration, right?

     Look again at the length of that creed.  See how long it is.  Do you have an idea how long it would take us to recite it?  Would we really comprehend everything we said, or have you found some challenging spots?  Ok, in lieu of that, I was reminded of a passionate conversation led by the Rev. Dr. Kara Slade, the head of the Anglican House at Princeton.  Most of you know Timothy Kimbrough is the head of the Anglican House at Duke, right?  Same work, different college.

     If her name tickles your mind a bit, she has been one of our colloquium lecturers since the pandemic.  In fact, the year I missed because I had COVID, she came and taught the clergy about time being a forgotten creation.  We forget that time is made by God and, so, is something we can and should offer and not be too surprised when He gives us more.  I would describe Kara as being among those esteemed clergy who believe that the Holy Spirit can give a charism of sarcasm at one’s ordination and might think she received a double measure.  Bishop John, of course, disagrees, but he did invite her to teach the clergy of the diocese.

     Kara’s charge at Princeton is to make sure that anyone in the Anglican world of denominations who graduates from Princeton, understands the theologies of Anglicanism, both the thought and the liturgical practice, much like Dean Kimbrough at Duke.  We learned some time ago that Trinity Sunday drives her nuts.  The seminarians, far too often, were called upon to preach and rightfully stressed about it.  She is their pastor in a sense, so it makes sense that it agitated her.  This is a hard enough job without people, especially clergy, setting us up to fail.  So she asked if we assigned the preaching to anyone but ourselves for this day.  Thankfully, in that very specific community, most of us did not.

     But Kara has to engage with the wider Church, not just those blessed with a love of the Gospel and a double portion of sarcasm given at their ordination.  She refused to tell us who set her off.  In fact, I think she had a disclaimer that this was not directed at anyone in particular.  But one year, on all her social media platforms, she posted the quintessential sermon for Trinity Sunday.  This was the 8am sermon, so you can write this down in the event someone questions you about the Trinity.  The identity of God is shown to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit!  Yes, I can repeat it.  The identity of God is shown to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit!  Later, when you get home, read that Athanasian Creed in your BCP and compare it against Kara’s sermon.  You will quickly see why she is a professor at Princeton.  It is an 18-word sermon.  It describes a Holy Mystery.  Does it forget anything?

     Because 8am fussed a bit, think of the Holy Spirit.  How do we know Jesus is the beloved of God, the Anointed?  Right, at His baptism the Spirit descends like a dove. Anointing Him.  How do we perceive He is the Messiah, the Christ?  That’s right, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Her short sermon picks up the instruction that the Holy Spirit is present at His Anointing and our perceiving.  It makes more sense to us Adventers because we look back to the Nativity, reminding ourselves He came down from heaven and became fully human, and we look forward to His Second Coming, when He will come to complete the task of Re-Creation.  So now you have a great sermon to share, if anyone ever asks you about the Trinity.

     Oh, I almost forgot.  Kara shared our sermon illustrations.  Again, she is making sure Anglicans graduating from Princeton can preach and teach, and we do have a reputation to uphold, right?  She ended her posts withDon’t try and explain the doctrine, just preach the ding dang Gospel!  Us being us, you know, given a double portion of sarcasm, focused hard on ding dang that week.  Most of us assumed it was a theological term that came from an ancient language that none of us knew.  Good, you know what Princeton academics are like.  I see some of you were given that same charism as some of us clergy by the Holy Spirit by your chuckling.  Remember that when Bishop John comes, especially if you hear him arguing with me that sarcasm is NOT a gift of the Holy Spirit.

     But to the depth of her sermon, think on this: Who gives you what to say?  That’s right, the Holy Spirit.  Her sermon was so spot on, so full of Good News, that she reminded you, even though you had forgotten it, that the Holy Spirit empowers you to do the work that God has given you to do.  If someone asks you about the Trinity, you are being asked to share the Gospel, not a doctrine.  You are being asked to tell how you heard the Gospel, why you chose to believe the Gospel, and the impact the Gospel has on you as you live in this world.  People are not interested in doctrine.  When people ask, they want to know why we believe.  All we have to do is answer their question and their follow-up’s.  That’s it.  Because Christ has ascended and the Holy Spirit has come, you and I are fit ambassadors of God.  And all we need do is to tell people why we believe and live as we live and believe.  The rest is, as they say, up to God, just as it always has been!

In His peace and power,

Brian+

That Living water might spring up from within us. . . .

      I was so excited to have an OT reading and the opportunity to preach on it this week.  It was funnier to me because Brian and I were chatting about it over mulch–hey, don’t look at me like it is that weird.  What are we supposed to do to pass the time as we are shoveling and spreading 137 cubic yards of that stuff?  Brian, to his credit, even remembered the names of the two who received some of the Spirit that God had given Moses but were not in the camp when God gave it to the others.  But we chatted a bit about the Holy Spirit clearly preceding Pentecost.

     And, for those who overheard my conversation about Heidegger and the Ontology of Being with a visitor who knew professor Wood at UD, the psalm serves as an instruction why those studies can be important.  For those of you wondering how an ontology of being can impact our faith, think of Prayer C earlier this month.  We remind ourselves that by His will we, and everything around us, was created and have their being.  Remember that?  It ties into our discussions about the Name of God that Moses learned at the Burning Bush and giving of the torah.  The Name is rendered in Greek, I, I am.  People wonder whether God listens or realizes what is going on in their life.  All that combines to remind us that God is always.  God is always thinking of us if we exist.  Were He to forget about us for a split second, we would cease to exist.  And some theologians like to argue that we would never have existed in the first place place, were He somehow to forget about us.  But that is an entirely different conversation.

     Now, here is the psalmist claiming he or she will sing praises to God, I am that I am, as long as he or she has being.  What is the claim?  As long as God is thinks of the psalmist, the psalmist will have being and be able to sing those praises.  I see the elbows.  I know it would be fun one, but God gave me a better one on John’s Gospel.

     Those who are annoyed that we jump back and forth in time during Easter are not going to be happy today.  Our Gospel lesson takes us back a year or two rather than just a few weeks.  The background is the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, which was a fall festival that lasted a week and commemorated Israel’s wandering in the desert and God’s provision during the Exodus.  More importantly, it reminded them that God had dwelt among them and would, one glorious Day, make His dwelling among them again.  It is the festival that serves as the background for why Peter offers Jesus to build a tent or booth for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on the mountain during the Transfiguration.  Good, I see some nods of recollection.

     People would pilgrimage to Jerusalem from all over the ANE.  Because of the nature of the festival, tents or booths went up everywhere there were open fields.  Think of years ago, if you are of a certain age, and how Koa campgrounds would fill up on the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend after a winter of emptiness.  The acolytes are trying to figure out what a Koa is.  Lol. But we know.  We were there before the deep magic of Air BNB.  In a similar way, Jerusalem would be flooded with pilgrims, and they would set up tents wherever they could find space in and around the city.

     Now, before we get too far in, I will deal with the controversy over which day this is.  There is some academic hay made over the fact that Exodus, I think it is, describes it as a seven day festival and Leviticus describes it as a seven day festival with an extra Feast day observed on the eighth day.  Academics like to argue over such things.  That’s why they get the big bucks and the outstanding reputations.  For us, it is only important if we REALLY want to know which day is the Great Day, as John calls it.  I think it likely the eighth day feast, but I am not going to get too upset if I get to heaven and learn it was actually the seventh day.

     The festival itself would have appealed to modern liturgical Christians.  The high priest would process from the Temple with a retinue of assistants, musicians, and others to the pool of Siloam.  You know Siloam as the pool that bubbles at the stirring of an angel.  The tradition was that when the pool was stirred to bubbles, the first one in would be cured of their ailment.  Jesus famously heals the crippled man who has no one to get him into the water when it stirs with bubbles.  Remember that miracle?

     The pool of Siloam was important because it was a pool of living water.  Living water, in case you have forgotten, was water that was moving, like a creek or river.  Pools and ponds and lakes were only living if there was a source, like a spring, that fed the body of water.  Siloam was fed by a spring.  

     Those of you who have been to Israel understand the importance of water.  Israel is an arid land.  In fact, God promised the people that, if they kept the covenant, He would send the rains to give life to the earth in the Promised Land.  When the Bible notes a drought, it is more a theological observation than a meteorological observation.  Living water was necessary for purification before entering the Temple, and Living water was important for cleansing after defilement.  The need for Living water meant that Israel could not build big storage or flood control ponds to meet the needs of those coming to the Temple.  The need for Living Water meant that Israel needed to keep the covenant, and repent when they failed, else they would be unable to be purified or cleansed from their guilt.  Everyone following along so far?

     So the high priest would process from the Temple down to the pool of Siloam.  There, he would fill a dedicated container with water and process back up to the Temple.  In front of the altar, the high priest would pour the water out.  There was a prayer for rain, which was necessary for human life, animal life, and plant life.  And the high priest would ask for God’s blessings.  Just as God had given Israel all that Israel needed during the Exodus, their hope was that God would provide for all the needs for those living in the Land.

     Everybody think they understand this background?  Any questions?

     With that as the cultural background, John writes that Jesus, on the last and greatest day of the festival, the seventh or the eighth day depending on your favorite academic scholar, stood up and invited anyone who thirsted to come to Him and drink.  We have been studying the symbolism of John a lot in both the Gospel readings of Lent and the Easter Season, and those Bereans among us have really been studying the symbolism of Revelation, so Jesus saying come to Me and drink is not as crazy as it might sound in another church today or in our parish a couple years ago.  Of course, John knows how it will sound and gives us a note, but before we get to the note, Jesus teaches that, as Scripture has said, whoever believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from within them.  We are, of course, used to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a flame or like a dove.  Most of us are not used to this kind of image, this kind of symbolism pointing to the Holy Spirit.  And like Brian and I were chatting over mulch, many Christians do not know what to think of the Spirit, and lots of non-Christians think we are nuts claiming there are three persons in one unity.  We know it is true because Jesus was raised from the dead.  Had he lied, God would have left Him in that tomb.  Yes, I understand the Resurrection is the lynchpin.  John would correct us and say the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension are the lynchpin, but we would all agree that salvation history depends upon Jesus’ vindication, right?  As Paul reminds us, we are to be most pitied if it were to turn out false.

     When we think on it for a few minutes, though, it should make lots of sense.  After all, Jesus instructs us that another Advocate will come when He leaves.  Jesus promises that this Advocate will seek to glorify Jesus in our lives, that this Advocate will empower us to do greater miracles than He, and that through this Advocate, and in fulfillment of God’s promises, we will be a blessing to the world.  No longer will the Advocate be confined to one particular geographical space in a certain period of what we call time.  We will feed the hungry in His Name; we will visit the sick and imprisoned in His Name, and we will clothe the poor in His Name.  We will do those things which remind us and those in the world around us that God is seeking every single lost sheep in the great flock of humanity.  Every single one of them.  Just as He sought us when we were lost or stubbornly heading away from the pastures to which He was gently leading us and into those valleys of shadows and death.

     It is really too bad we did not read this last week, when the drought had not yet been conquered by our purchase of mulch for the playground.  Think how dry it was.  And we reminded ourselves in the prayer after Communion that, having been nourished by His Body and Blood we were being sent out into the world to do His work.  We could have reminded ourselves that, now that His living water flows from within us, we can bring Good News to those who are parched and thirst for Living water.  We could tend our little patch of wilderness and nudge it more to a plot of garden with the Living water that is welling up from within us.  It is a beautiful image, is it not?  What makes it beautiful is the truth.  God is using you and me and anyone who will seek Him to lead others to His Son, the Source of that Living water.  

     But think a bit deeper.  When Jesus finally gives up His soul on the Cross and the soldier stabs Him with the spear, what pours out?  That’s right, blood and water.  His living water is literally poured out on the earth beneath Him.  When I lead us in the celebration of the Eucharist in a few minutes, what will I add to the wine?  That’s right, water.  When we baptize people, what do we use?  Everybody starting to see it now?  Water is an important symbol to us.  Over it the Spirit brooded before Creation, through it God led His people out of slavery in Egypt, and we are outwardly immersed in water to signify the cleansing within.  Those of us studying Revelation: what is the source of the river that flows in John’s mystical vision?  That’s right, the Temple.  See, we understand the literal and the symbolic meaning of water, even if we do not always associate it with Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit the way we do fire and doves.  We understand its importance to life.

     The Jews at the festival understood it, too.  But they intentionally reminded themselves during this festival that, even when they grumbled against God, He provided food and water for them and their flocks, even in that arid environment.  Like us, they gave back to God what was His, no matter its importance to their life.  Their liturgy reminded them of the truth that all things came from Him, and that they were merely giving to Him that which was rightfully His.  Year in and year out after the Temple was built, this was the pattern of worship they observed.  And some likely reminded themselves that when Messiah eventually came, they would buy food and drink without money, just like the prophets had proclaimed and would proclaim in the years to come, that grace and blessing would flow from the Temple, the very seat of God, like Living water from a spring.  The young and the old, the men and the women, all would prophesy in the Name of God because His Spirit would have been poured out on all of them on that Great and Glorious Day.

     John, for his part, does not want us to miss this symbolism.  He tells us that this all happens before Jesus is glorified, that the Spirit has not yet come as it did eventually come.  It makes sense to us because we considered it last week.  What was Jesus’ path to glory?  His Passion, His Death, His Resurrection, and His Ascension.  At this point in John’s narrative, we are only about 1/3 of the way through, even though we have read ahead and behind these last two seasons.  The seven miracles in John’s Gospel testify completely that Jesus is the Messiah, the One through whom new birth is possible, but His glory is found in the Cross.  He walks the path given Him so that you and I might become fountains of living water through His atoning work and His nourishment of us with His Body and Blood.

     Like those who celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, you and I celebrate that He is with us.  We give those things at our altar which belong to Him, and we abandon those things which lead us from Him, reminding ourselves that He is the source of life, He is the source of redemption, He is the source of love, He is the source of grace, and He is the source of wonder.  Who else can take men and women and youth like us and turn us into heralds?  Who else can take men and women and youth like us and turn us into fountains of living water?

     We often speak of Pentecost as the birth of the Church and an important day to attend.  We break out our red and remind ourselves that we should be burning with God’s love.  But we must also remember that Pentecost was that Great Day when the Spirit came down to guide us, to lead us, and to empower us to glorify our Lord in our lives.  Pentecost is that Day when we remind ourselves that, in fulfillment of Christ’s promises, we who have drunk from His Spring have become fountains of living water, and sent back out there to offer drink and hope and love to the thirsty, that all might come within His saving embrace and drink deeply of that Living water that He offers and accept the life to which He calls them and us.

In His Promise,

Brian+

For the purpose of glorifying Christ in this life . . .

      If you are wondering why the Paschal Candle was extinguished after the Gospel, it had been the tradition of the Church to remind us that the Incarnation, Jesus, has Ascended.  Now we are in that liminal space where our Lord has returned to the Father and we are waiting until Pentecost for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  So many of our liturgies remind us of our participation in events of Jesus’ life and ministry.  We wash feet and strip the altar on Maundy Thursday, we fight sleep during our garden vigils, we stand or kneel at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday, we gather in the Columbarium on Holy Saturday, we join the shepherds and angels at the manger in the middle of the night for the Incarnation, we watch the wise men travel around the sanctuary as we speed toward Epiphany.  You get the idea.  Why we “typically” dropped the ancient tradition in the 1979 BCP is probably anyone’s guess.  Our focus is in the process of transition, so it makes sense that our surroundings remind us of that, too.

     Tonight’s homily, I suppose, has its roots in a conversation with a colleague from the diocese on Monday.  He had heard through the grapevine that I had preached on theosis for Mother’s Day, and somehow it had worked.  In truth, I had to think for a moment about Sunday’s sermon.  Theosis refers to the divination of humankind.  A more accurate understanding might be how the process of sanctification makes it possible for us to participate in the economy of the Trinity.  I’ll probably teach a bit on Trinity Sunday that the point of all this, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, makes it possible for you and I to participate in the relationship we call the Trinity.  Good, I seed nods.

     I had not thought of my sermon Sunday in terms of theosis, and I told my colleague that, but I supposed it was an accurate summation of what I did.  Naturally, he laughed.  As a preacher, he understands that sometimes, we are not aware of everything we are preaching.  If we are praying and studying, sometimes we do far more than we ask or imagine when we preach.  My colleague, though, admitted he watched the stream and thought I did a good job of explaining theosis to Adventers in 16-17 minutes, even if I was not conscious of what I was doing.

     Theologically speaking, Jesus has finished HIs work on earth.  He has ministered for three years, or so.  He has been betrayed and given over to death, as He taught and the prophets anticipated.  He has been raised from the dead and continued His instruction, reminding His disciples and us that He has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us.  Meanwhile, He will be sending another Advocate to us and, as Luke reminds us, we are witnesses to His suffering, death, and Resurrection.

     Now, I want to remind us, since our reading is from Luke tonight, that the tradition of the Church that Luke spent several years interviewing those whom you and I would call the major characters in the Gospels.  He interviewed Mary the Mother of Jesus and drew the picture that the Greeks use in the icon.  He spent time asking others their memories for what because the Gospel that bears his name and the book of Acts.  His service to Paul certainly would have allowed him some access to the big councils.  Reminded of that, close you eyes and place yourself in the scene.

     You have journeyed with Jesus for three years or so.  You have seen incredible signs, and you have heard of other incredible signs.  You were present when Jesus predicted His Death, Resurrection, and Resurrection.  You have come to understand that God is truly at work in Him before all that took place.  Still, you deserted Him when He was arrested by the Temple guards in Gethsemane.  If you are Peter, you denied Him during the trial despite your protestations earlier in the evening.  Unless you are one of the brave women, you abandoned Him on the Cross.  You have seen Him dead.  You have gathered in the locked room because you are afraid you are next.  And you have seen Him appear, but others doubt.  You have eaten fish with Him on the shores of the lake.  You have heard the stories of His appearances throughout Galilee.  Now, forty days later, you are beginning to understand.  And what does our Lord do?

     He raises His hands in a blessing.  And as He is blessing you, He withdraws and is carried off into heaven.  There are no recriminations.  There’s no mocking Thomas or any of the disciples for doubting or misunderstanding.  There’s no wiping His face in frustration over Peter’s peaks and valleys of faith.  He simply blesses and is carried off into heaven.  And that is your lasting image that you share with Luke.  Go ahead and open your eyes.

     I think part of where I have been led this Easter is to remind us that all this is for today.  Yes, the eternal destination of Heaven or Hell is significant, but many Christians forget that Jesus also reminds us that He came that we might have abundant life today.  In fact, a great deal of His teaching and pattern of living was for the here and now.  We live lives to Hs glory, recognizing that the path to His glory in through our own crosses.  We die to self that we may be raised in Him.  We feed the hungry; we clothe the poor; we visit and heal the sick; we visit the imprisoned.  That all happens in this life.  And when He returns we know that what we did to the least of these we did to Him.  Make no mistake, our faith in Him is the first step in salvation; but our works are evidence of our faith.  If we ignore or pick on people in His Name, we have a dead faith; if we do those things He did, He declares we have a living faith and will enter that place He is preparing for us who truly love Him.

     All of this is given to us at Baptism, as is the command for when we sin.  We repent.  We recommit ourselves to His purposes and try again to glorify Him in our lives.

     And as He leaves, He does not condemn.  He does not express disappointment.  He simply instructs us to live this new life He makes possible wherever we are planted in the world.

     Which brings me back to my conversation with my colleague and our discussion of theosis.  All this, all that we do from the Incarnation through Pentecost is about preparing us for that time when we will be with Christ forever, when we will be carried into heaven to dwell with the Holy Trinity; but for the rest of the year, what we euphemistically call the green or growing season, is about how Jesus Christ enables us to glorify Him in our lives in this day.  It is analogous to our understanding of the relationship between the Eucharist and the Great Wedding Feast.  We should not be too surprised.  He did, after all, teach us to pray “give us this day,” He did instruct us to let tomorrow worry about itself, and He did instruct us that it was not for us to know the time of His return.  In the meanwhile, we are called to attune ourselves to our Father, to pray fervently for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, to pick up our crosses, and to invite and love others into His saving embrace, all in preparation for that day when we are embraced into that relationship, and recreated as the sons and daughters He intended us to be since He created the heavens and earth and us.  And because He sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes on our behalf, we know those hands lifted in blessing will be the ones who make sure the Father glorifies us in Him and Him in us, until that day when we experience that embrace for eternity.

In His glory,

Brian+

On His going and the coming of the another Advocate . . .

      Apparently, we have needed a bit of work in what the theologians call pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit for those of us who prefer English.  I have reminded us with a couple offhand comments that our experiences of the Holy Spirit make us as good a witness to the Resurrection as those early disciples who saw Jesus after the Resurrection.  Modern Christians, and apparently modern Adventers included, will say things like “I need proof like Thomas” or “My faith would be great if I ate and drank with Him after the Resurrection” and other things like that.  I get it.  The world likes to keep everyone in darkness, and the Enemy seeks to undermine our faith constantly.  But for us, the experience of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, is a consequence of Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension.  We know this.  Our friends with red lettered Bibles would tell us that in red letters their Bibles include Jesus telling His disciples that it is to their advantage that He go away so that the Holy Spirit can come and dwell in them, right?  We remind ourselves at Baptisms and Confirmations that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever, right?  You know this, even if you forget it from time to time.

     Today, for those who want to follow along, I am going to be speaking a bit more about Jesus’ instruction about the Holy Spirit.  In fact, as we near the end of the Easter season and get ready to celebrate the Ascension on Thursday, Pentecost on two weeks from today, and Trinity Sunday in three weeks, I am likely doing some foundational work.  We will see where I end up on those days, but they are all related to our understanding about the Holy Spirit and are based in Jesus’ instructions.  So turn in your Orders of Worship to John’s Gospel.

     Our passage continues with the pericope that we began last week.  Remember, Jesus told the disciples He is going to prepare a place for them and to follow Him.  Thomas famously exclaims they do not know where He is going so how could they possibly be able to follow Him.  I preached mostly on the fact that Jesus identified Himself with God and reminded those gathered that He and God were the way, the truth, and the life.  Remember?  Good!  I see some nods.

     Just to remind us, this pericope takes place at the beginning of what experts call The Farewell Discourse of John.  In these few chapters, Jesus is giving His final instructions to HIs disciples, those whom He loved.  Jesus’ statement begins with a conditional clause, “if you love Me.”  If His disciples, you and me included, love Him, how will we demonstrate that love to Him?  Right!  By keeping the torah.  Just to remind ourselves, successfully keeping the torah made Jesus holy; the best you and I can do is righteousness, which is achieved by repenting and, in those days, offering the appropriate sacrifice.  If you are visiting today or have missed some of those other discussions over the years, I have greatly simplified our understanding.  I recognize that.  But that is not my real focus today.

     If we love and keep the torah, Jesus will ask the Father and the Father will give us another Advocate to be with us forever.  Who is the first Advocate.  No, the Holy Spirit is the other Advocate described by Jesus here.  Who is the first Advocate?  That’s right!  Jesus.  It is not by accident that we call Him our Mediator and Advocate in our liturgy.  Most of us understand, as well as one can understand that when we are speaking of the Trinity, Jesus is the One making intercessions on our behalf.  Jesus is the Advocate for whom Job prayed when he was arguing with His friends about His righteousness before God.

     But, the Holy Spirit is another Advocate who will be sent to us by the Father in response to Jesus’ request.  

     As an aside, this is one of those Scriptural citations to which some of our Orthodox brothers and sisters point when they are fighting with us about the Nicene Creed.  Who sends the Holy Spirit?  Jesus seems to be instructing us that He asks the Father, who then sends the Spirit.  The western Church famously adopted the filoque clause, meaning “and of the Son,”  in the Nicene Creed before the Orthodox bishops arrived.  We have been arguing about that, at the levels that really care about such things, for 17 centuries or so.

     Most of us probably care only about the outcome.  How the outcome comes to be, we are not nearly as invested.  Do we have the Holy Spirit?  We do.  Great.

     Jesus instructed His disciples that He would ask the Father and the Father would send the Spirit to them.  The Spirit has a couple of important roles.  One, and this is poor terminology about a glorious Holy Mystery, the coming of the Holy Spirit allows us to experience the grace of God throughout the world.  When the Incarnation condescended to become human, where was the grace and power of God focused?  The quick answer is in 1st Century Roman Judea in the person of Jesus (bar Joseph) of Nazareth, right?  At Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended  and alighted on this Jesus of Nazareth, and the voice from heaven spoke.  Everybody with me so far?  Good.

     Jesus spends the next three years doing the work that the Father sent Him to do, work that testified to His identity as the Messiah and, as we reminded ourselves last week, as God, right?  Jesus reminds us that it is to our advantage that He goes back to the Father because He will be able to ask for this other Advocate, who will come and dwell with us as He is preparing that place for us.  Again, everybody kind of recall this?  If your brains are fuzzy, reread a Gospel.  If you are unsure, be a Berean and reread a Gospel.

     What is happening is a kind of distribution of God’s grace and power around the world in the heart and lives of believers.  The words do not match the significance of what is happening to us.  Our hearts and bodies become the living temple, made of living stones, where God is to be found.  People are supposed to be able to look at us and notice we are different.  Our perspective is different.  Our behavior is different.  We would say that it is the Holy Spirit that is in us and dwelling in us, something made possible only through the redeeming work of the Son and the will of the Father.  We become, however poorly, little “i” incarnations of God’s grace in the world around us.  How we manifest that in our lives differs from person to person.  We each are given by God passions and concerns and abilities.  We uniquely express God’s saving grace in different ways, but we recognize that expression, to be punny and say at its heart, is empowered by the Holy Spirit, giving us what we need to accomplish God’s will in our lives.  How that looks is as different as we are in the parish level, Episcopalians in Middle Tennessee are on the diocesan level, Christians are in our country, and as different as Christians are around the world.  But you know this because you realize at a fundamental level, His sons and daughters are stamped in His infinite image.

     But there’s more.  The Holy Spirit is also the One who guides us into truth.  Maybe you accepted that the Holy Spirit came from the Father and the Son because you know the Nicene Creed by heart.  Now, though, 1700 years later sitting 6000 miles to the west, you are thinking that they made a mistake.  This is Jesus’ teaching, after all.  But maybe sitting here 1700 years later and 6000 miles to the west you decide you think the Nicene Creed way is the correct way.  I mean, can we ever think of a time where the Father is not interested in glorifying the Son?  No.  So if the Son asks that we receive the Spirit, can we imagine God ever saying to the Son, nope?  For most of us, we are not dying on a hill of fully understanding or comprehending a Holy Mystery such as the Trinity.  We may be giving thanks it is not on Peter’s admittance exam at the Pearly Gates, but neither are we consumed with plumbing as many details as possible.  We are far more concerned with trying to live our lives in ways that glorify God and repenting when we fail.

     There’s still more in Jesus’ instruction about the coming of the Holy Spirit, though.  We are not abandoned by our Father.  We remind ourselves during our Baptismal and Confirmation liturgies that God comes to dwell in us.  In some denominations, they understand that God the Son comes to dwell in their heart.  They speak of making their heart His royal throne.  Good, I see some of you are familiar with that language.  This passage combined with last week’s reminds us that Jesus is leaving but still coming to us.  How is that possible?  Through the Holy Spirit.  To the extent that God is the Holy Trinity, is the language that God dwells in us wrong?  Of course not.  And whose life will our life resemble if the Holy Spirit dwells within us and we are attuned to that Spirit?  Jesus’.

     Again, do we think that God is going to withhold His grace or power from our lives because we incorrectly guess that the way He does it is through Jesus or through the Holy Spirit.  Given the history of human beings’ relationship with God, He is probably just happy that we understand He is dwelling with us, even if we are unsure or even squabble about which Person of the Holy Spirit it is that is dwelling with us.  You are laughing, but let’s face it, we do not do a good job of getting the basics right, never mind the depp dives or challenging instructions.  Self-described Christians around us publicly express that Jesus’ teachings on the Beatitudes cannot work in this world, that He was too naive.  Christians around us in our community express that the war in Iran is to help Jesus find His way back to earth or speeds up Armageddon.  I think misunderstanding the economy or relationship of the Trinity dishonors Him far less.

      This instruction at the beginning of His Farewell Discourse is bookended by Jesus’ instruction that those who love Him keep His commandments.  Amazingly, those who keep His instructions are loved by the Father.  It makes sense.  If we love Jesus, we will seek to glorify Him.  The Father clearly loved Him, the beloved, and glorified Him.  That assurance of the proud Father’s love appears in the Baptism, is further named in the Transfiguration, is awesomely revealed in the Resurrection, and even more amazingly described in the Ascension, where the Son ascends to dwell at the right hand of God until His glorification is completed in His return.  All this you know.  It is steeped into our liturgies.  It appears throughout our readings assigned by the lectionary.  And we come to understand they are not academic ideas, but real Truth, as we experience the indwelling and power of God, however we understand and experience that.

      But, my friends, this is about the here and now.  We will not fully comprehend the Holy Mysteries of God until our re-creation.  To use the words of St. Paul, we see dimly.  But what we see is for this life, not the next.  You and I are called by God into relationship with Him thanks to the work and person of Jesus Christ.  We are sent back out into the world because of that relationship as adopted sons and daughters, heirs of those eternal pledges to use other language, to glorify the Son in our lives.  To do that properly, we need the Holy Spirit to guide us, to instruct us, to lead us into truth, and to empower us.  Our part is simply to love God, to do and to avoid what He commands, and to repent when we sin or stumble.  If we love what He commands, Jesus promises that we will be loved by God and that God will reveal Himself to us.  It is not easy work, to be sure, but thanks to God and His grace in our lives we can be sure that it is possible in and through Him.

In His Grace and Power,

Brian+

The Good Shepherd and our re-dedication

      I warned 8 o’clockers that my sermon might sound like it was different at 10:30am.  Essentially, the message will be the same, but I do have the advantage at this service of having the Baptismal liturgy to remind better of some of what Jesus is teaching us today, informally known as Good Shepherd Sunday.  No doubt you could see all the references in our readings today, but Jesus’ instruction in John’s Gospel is almost as hard to miss as Psalm 23.

     The reading from John takes us back a few weeks into Lent.  Immediately preceding this instruction, the last instruction of those in the crowds in John’s Gospel, is the healing of the man born blind from birth.  Good, I see nods.  Jesus famously heals the man born blind as a testimony to the glory of God and to Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, the six of seven miracles included by John to convince us that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing in Him we can have life eternal.  The leadership throws the healed man out of the Temple, their version of excommunication, because he dares to lecture them about what Jesus has done.

     Though this takes place in the very next chapter, we are skipping ahead in time about three months.  We do not read the identifying verse in the way our lectionary editors break up this reading, but we learn in verse 22 that this all happens during what we think of as Hanukka or festival of Dedication.

     For those of us unaware of that Festival, it is the only festival of the intertestamental period, that time between the Old and New Testaments.  In the 160s BC, Israel, like most of the eastern Mediterranean, was under the control of influence of the Greeks.  Such had been the case since the time of Alexander the Great.  Some of the Jews were synchronists, meaning they wanted to get along with the ruling power, not unlike the Herodians who mostly defended Roman rule in the time of Jesus.  The oppressors had completely defiled the Temple in the eyes of many Jews.  Idols had been erected in the Temple of God; pigs had been slaughtered; and, in general, those in power sought to convince Israel not to worship their God.  That God was silent during this period made it a bit easier than normal for Israel to be led astray.

     In the 106s BC, though, there was a Maccabean revolt.  In 165BC, led by Judas Maccabeus, the revolt was largely successful and the Temple was rededicated.  Hanukkah is the Hebrew word that means dedication.  In the course of this rededication, those who were purifying the Temple discovered they had oil only for one day to keep the great Menorah and the Holy of Holies candelabra lit.  God keep the oil supplied for eight days, and the Maccabeans were able to convince Israel to add a memorial Festival marking God’s provision and favor at the effort to return to Him.  That is the cultural and historical background to the Jesus’ new instruction.  It is important to us today, and especially to Kai’s family as they vow in a bit to lead her to a right relationship with God.  But we will talk more about that in a minute.

     We also need to understand that Jesus is drawing on God’s prophesy in Isaiah 40 and in Ezekiel 34.  In the former, God uses the imagery of the shepherd to describe HIs relationship with His people Israel.  Shepherds were well known in the ANE, and kings used that cultural knowledge to describe their relationship with their subjects.  The kings wanted their people to think they needed the king for protection, for economic growth, and for general social stability.  God did want those for His people, and he used that image to describe His relationship to His people.  Ezekiel’s prophesy, however, was a woe to those who did not shepherd His people.  If you ever take the time to read the chapter, imagine yourself as the object of God’s criticism in that passage!  It should make any king or prophet or priest or anyone in Israel want to repent and treat people as instructed by God.  All of that is background to Jesus’ instruction.

     Jesus points out that that shepherds enter through the gate.  Anyone entering by any means other than the gate are thieves and bandits.  Whether the flock is family sized or corporate sized, those who own the sheep, or rightfully hired by the owner, enters through gates.  They are the shepherds.  Jesus goes on to remind those listening that the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd.  Then Jesus describes the intimate relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.  The shepherd calls the sheep by name and leads them out.

     We live in a society that has mostly forgotten our agrarian roots and wisdom.  Most of us would be shocked to think that sheep, which we think are stupid animals, would know their owner’s voice.  I see nods.  I think I have shared at small group gatherings but I remember a great test of this from my time in seminary.  There was an article or commentary that was speaking to a recent Israel bombing and taking over of a village in Gaza.  A widow approached the pen where all the animals of the Palestinian villagers were being kept.  She asked the soldier on duty if she could collect her flock, telling them she had fled for safety during the attack.  The soldier had probably heard a similar sob story several times and told the woman there was nothing he could do.  The animals collected and herded in the pen were too numerous and mingled.  There was no way to find a couple dozen sheep in the midst of such a collection.  The woman went on to explain how her husband had died and that the flock was the means of support for the widow and her son.

     The soldier showed her some sympathy, but there was nothing he could do.  There was no way she could prove she owned the sheep.  The woman sheepishly (I know, bad father joke) asked if she could prove the sheep were hers, would the soldier let her take them home.  The soldier gave her the modern equivalent of a “sure, lady, if you can prove it.”  The lady gestured at her son.  He took out a little flute-like instrument and began to play.  All of a sudden a head went up and then another and another.  Before the son had finished the song, her flock had responded to the melody.  The soldier opened the gate for her and allowed her and her son to lead the flock back home.

     These types of stories have been tested again and again on youtube.  If you get bored some day and want to plumb the depth of Jesus’ teaching on sheep and shepherd, search and watch them.  She respond to the music or voice or however they have been taught the identity of the shepherd, and most avoid or ignore those who are not doing it right.

     Jesus’ audience does not understand the teaching.  Verse six tells us it is an example of a type of speech, rather than a parable.  The crowd needs clarification.  So Jesus spends the next set of verses describing His identity and the function of the Good Shepherd in the verses we do not include today.  Jesus identifies Himself as the gate.  One does not get to the sheep, nor does one lead the sheep out into the pastures, without first going through the gate.  We hear Jesus teach us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that no one comes to the Father except through Him, and other such teachings so often that we likely miss how this would have sounded in the ears of His audience 2000 years ago.  But the gate separates; the gate protects; the gate frees.  The gate describes Jesus’ work, right?  When we pause for a second and think, it makes sense.

     There are other parts to His instruction in the next several verses that speak to His identity that we miss or forget.  For example, the Good Shepherd leads His flock from the front.  The Good Shepherd is not sitting in the back pointing where the flock needs to go.  The Good Shepherd leads them safely, always keeping an eye out for good water, good pasture, and predators.  The Good Shepherd keeps the flock out of the briars, from falling in crevices, and from stumbling into the lair of a predator.  

     Perhaps most importantly to us, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep and always goes looking for the lost sheep!  The Good Shepherd does not count the cost of defending the sheep from a predator and say to Himself, “the wolf can have that sheep so I can get the rest of the flock to safety”.  The Good Shepherd uses His crook, His sling, whatever is available to protect the sheep from the bear or the wolf or whatever predator.  More amazingly, the Good Shepherd searches for the stubborn sheep that has left the safety and security of the flock to pursue its own desires, its own perceived needs, and returns the sheep with celebration and cheer.

     Ultimately in this section, Jesus will instruct His audience and us that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  For us, 2000 years later, the image is clear.  Jesus literally lays down His life that we might be restored to right relationship with our Father in Heaven.  By virtue of His Death and His Resurrection, you and I are assured of our Father’s love of each of us, of His care for us, and of His promise that we who call upon Him will one glorious day be united with Him and all who claim Him as Lord for eternity.  Because we know ourselves, our sins and need, we know our Father’s love for us in the Good Shepherd’s willingness to die for us.

     Which brings me back to our liturgy today.  In a few moments, baby Kai’s family will present her to be baptized.  Because she is an infant, her parents and Godparents will answer for her.  They will promise to raise her to know the depth of God’s love for her, to remember the need to attune herself to God through study and prayer, and, when she sins, to repent and return to God.  Notice the liturgy does not say “if.”  It says when.  Such was the Good Shepherd’s love for Kai that He willed Himself to hang on that Cross 2000 years ago in Jerusalem that she might have hope and abundant life 2000 years later.  It is a remarkable promise, a promise that can be made only by One with power over death and a love that transcends time and space.

     On this day when we remember the Festival of Dedication, her loved ones will promise to dedicate themselves to teaching her these truths.  We as the witnesses to all these things will commit to doing what we can to support her and them in this work.  In a real way, this is a Hanukkah moment for all of us, a moment of re-dedication.  We remind ourselves intentionally of God’s promises to us as that water is poured over her head, we remind ourselves of the love that He bore for us, and we reaffirm and rededicate our lives to Him again.  With the family we celebrate the grace of God at work in Kai and in ourselves.  Then we come to the altar to be nourished by His Body and Blood, remembering His Death, re-proclaiming His Resurrection, and head back out into that world to do the work He has given us to do until our deaths or His return, trusting that the Good Shepherd will equip each of us with the tools we need, the words we need, the actions we need in order to draw the world into His flock.

     And though Kai’s baptism is special in the eyes of her family, for her wider family, that is the Church, it is a wonderful moment of renewal in our own lives.  We have been reminded of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us.  We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd serves as the gate.  We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd is, indeed, God, who promises He will lead us through dark valleys in the shadow of death, who promises He will see us watered and fed, who promises to seek us if we find ourselves lost, who celebrates when we are rejoined to our flock, and who promises one Day we will dwell with Him, hearing our names on His lips, and following Him as He leads to those amazing places He prepared for His flock, as we share one with another the stories of His care for each one of us, from our most mature to little Bella and even those who come after.

In His Peace and His Care,

Brian+