Easter 6: A Healthy Community for Sharing Jesus

“Compassion” by Joy Gonzales — © Made Seen. Used with permission. https://www.madeseen.com/

I Peter 3:8-18

Introduction

Good morning friends. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. This week I heard a podcast interview about the history of the church growth movement.[1] The father of the church growth movement was a gentleman named Donald McGavran who had worked out church growing strategies on the mission field in India. He wanted to help churches grow mature disciples and multiply so that an area would be saturated with the gospel. He brought these principles back to the US to instruct missionaries, but the principles made their way into American protestantism which had an unintended consequence. Before 1970 there were less than 20 mega churches with a Sunday attendance of 2000 or more. By 2010, there were nearly 1600 megachurches with at least 2000 in attendance in the US. McGavran’s principles had been taken over and used to grow large churches rather than multiplying church. As churches have grown larger, have they made more disciples? The proof of effective discipleship for him would not have been in attendance, buildings, and cash, but in holiness and a church’s ability to multiply itself. How are the members of a church loving one another, how are they becoming more faithful men and women, moms and dads, neighbors, colleagues? How is their testimony of Christ’s work evident in the community of faith and in their individual witness in their lives? The proof of health is in the community, and that is precisely what St. Peter is driving at in our passage this morning.

         The church is to proclaim the goodness of Christ in its communal life and in the individual testimonies of each of its members. It is not something new, but it is something to be reminded of. As we look at 1 Peter, let me pray for us:

“In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer, Amen.”

8-12 Love well — A rule of life to practice witness to Christ

         As a reminder, St. Peter is writing this letter to Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor. These Christians have changed how they live because they now follow Jesus as Lord and King. They have put their pagan ways behind them and now do not look like their neighbors anymore. Because of their difference from the broader culture , they have become a persecuted minority. Peter is addresses the church and their conduct.

         They should have a unity of spirit. This is the idea of a like-mindedness. We are not working against one another but for the good of one another. We don’t have to agree on every matter, but I think about it as a fundamental coherence in how we approach each other and the various ministries of the church. This is why, when people have good ideas, I have them work through a ministry plan form. I want them to think about how their idea applies to the unique charisms of this church so that we work together rather apart.

         He calls them to be sympathetic. When Peter uses sympathy, the picture is of someone entering into someone’s suffering with them in a way that they need for healing. It reminds me of when my son and I went fossil hunting at Calvert Cliffs state park. It was low tide and the swamp was exposed. I looked up and my son had gotten his feet stuck in the swamp and I could see his water shoes floating on top. I responded quickly and jumped in after him only to realize that what looked like solid ground was very silty mud that acted like quicksand and I went in about thigh high. I went flat onto my belly and army crawled over to him to help. It was a good lesson in what to do with quicksand and it took me jumping into the muck with him to show him the way out. The church needs to be a place where people are willing to jump into the muck of life with us and help bring us back to the one who can bring us out of it. Christ is God incarnate who jumped into the mess of humanity to bring us back to God. We continue Christ’s work of suffering with someone, to help someone knows that Jesus sees them, and we continually bring them to the one who can show them the way forward.

         The church should have brotherly love. Not every person will be equally safe or even easy to be around. That is the hard reality of being people on a healing process. But, I heard a phrase somewhere that I appreciate called “exhale friends”. These are the few people that when you’re in their presence you feel like you can breathe a deep exhale because your nervous system is calm and you know you can be vulnerable with them because they have space for you. Whether or not you have people like that in the church, aim to be that person for others. Aim to be an exhale friend. Similar to this kind of love, Peter also tells them to be compassionate with one another. The idea of compassion here reflects the ways lovingkindness is used of God’s love for his people in the Old Testament. There is a way in which we become aware of God’s love for us and give this love to others.

         Finally, he tells them to be humble-minded. Someone can’t wish or think themselves into humility: “I’m really trying hard to be humble today.” This is a characteristic of our Lord who had an accurate understanding of himself and submitted himself to his father’s will. Humility is a right estimation of oneself in the context of the will of God. It isn’t self-abasement or self-hatred. It is a recognition of who we are, our proclivities, gifts, responsibilities, and our limits as we look for Jesus’ presence in the daily things he calls us to. A humble person doesn’t live out of insecurity, but by being securely rooted in their baptismal identity, with a rightly esteemed self-understanding of their place in God’s kingdom.

         The church is to practice living out its witness of the kingdom of Jesus in community. That practice looks like growing in like-minded purpose, jumping into the muck with your brothers and sisters, becoming an exhale friend, loving as God does, and rightly esteeming ourselves and knowing our human limits in the kingdom of God. The reason he spends time on this is because this is what will hold the church together when a culture that is antithetical to the goodness of Jesus turns against the church. This will keep the church from imploding, fighting back with the depraved weapons of the world, or completely assimilating to the culture around it.

13-16 Do what is good and speak hope with gentleness — Ensuring an enduring witness to Christ

The church is called to practice these things well so that they become the presence of Jesus for the world around them. As I mentioned a few weeks back from the early Epistle to Diognetus, Christians were those who got married and had babies like their neighbors. But unlike their neighbors, they did not leave their unwanted babies exposed to the elements to die. They shared their tables in hospitality like their neighbors. But unlike their neighbors, they did not treat their wives as property or a commodity to be traded. Christians practice doing and becoming what is ultimately good in the church so that we can hold out what is ultimately good for the neighbors around us. In this way we follow what St. Peter says “but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”

         I remember growing up with videos in youth group of a guy who would stand on a platform and ask people if they’d stolen or if they’d lied. And then it was a bit of a “gotcha” moment where he’d say “well see, according to the Bible you’re a liar and a thief, if you’ve broken these commandments, you’ve done them all. You’re a sinner.” Then he’d move them to their need for Jesus to get out of hell, but not until he’s made them think about how bad they are. I’m not saying God cannot use that, but I want to move far away from that kind of 4-spiritual-laws, tract carrying, revivalist type of evangelism. It lacks connection, gentleness and reverence. At the same time, we must speak the truth because Christ is indeed Lord and we do not want to sacrifice the kingdom of God on the altar of insecurity, fearing that we might offend someone by telling them exactly what they need.

         As we create rhythms of being with God and being with others, practice the virtues that St. Peter listed out in the beginning of chapter 3, learn to listen well and hold space for others, then listen to the Holy Spirit and point them to Jesus, we gain the tools we need to help others outside the community of the church see Jesus. As we coach sports teams, deepen friendships with coworkers, and meet neighbors, we have the opportunities to listen to peoples’ desires, fears, and hopes. These are gifts to honor and to bless, and we should point out the things others are longing for and show them the goodness of Jesus in those places, just like St. Paul did in our Acts 17 reading today. This kind of evangelism is kind, humanizing, takes a long time, and enters into peoples’ mess with them to show them the one who can deliver them.

Conclusion

         To sum up, St. Peter has been helping the churches see how they live out life in Christ in community in the face of a culture that opposes them. They shouldn’t assimilate to it or fight it with the violence and abuse which it has experienced. Instead, they entrust justice to God either in this age or the age to come because, as Peter quoted from Psalm 34, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. Because we can entrust ourselves to a good and faithful creator, we are called as a church to grow in like-minded purpose, jump into the muck with our brothers and sisters, become exhale friends, love others as God does, and rightly esteem ourselves while knowing our human limits. We practice in the church what we live out in the world. The goodness of Jesus is presented to others through the testimonies of us who know Christ and who can hold others’ stories with gentleness and curiosity. Let’s bless people’s good desires and simultaneously hold out for them the goodness of what God ultimately wants to bring them into.

Let us pray:

O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace to take to heart the grave dangers we are in through our many divisions. Deliver your Church from all enmity and prejudice, and everything that hinders us from godly union. As there is one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so make us all to be of one heart and of one mind, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and love, that with one voice we may give you praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in everlasting glory. Amen.

[1]https://careynieuwhof.com/episode-802/

Easter 5: Long for Jesus and Live With Integrity

I Peter 2:1-12

CONTENT

Introduction:

         Good morning everyone. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. On this fifth Sunday of Easter we are back in first Peter where we spent some time about 3 weeks ago. As a reminder, these are converts to Christianity. Some think that they are Gentiles who may have converted first to Judaism, and then to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. They do not fit the surrounding culture they are in. These are small churches spread throughout Asia Minor as a Diaspora community in different cities. Peter writes from Rome, which he calls Babylon, as an exile to fellow exiles who are longing for home with Jesus. As they face trial and persecution, Peter writes to encourage them using two different images to help them keep focused on their life in Christ. One has to do with their longings and desires. The other has to do with their identity. What he wants them to do is to crave Christ like a newborn craves milk, to be built on Christ as the foundation of a new temple, and then to hold out the goodness of Christ by how they live. Like these churches, we are also called to desire Jesus’ presence and work and to rest in, and root ourselves in, our baptismal identity as the people of God in the midst of this chaotic world.

         As we look at 1 Peter 2, let me pray for us. “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.”

I. Crave Christ like a spiritual newborn (1-3) — And don’t get distracted with evil.

         The Apostle Peter reminds these Christians of the strange gift of their suffering and persecution, that it has a purifying effect and has a way of making them more keenly aware of the kingdom of God. Desiring Jesus like a newborn desires milk means that we don’t have time for evil and giving in to inordinate desires. In the first few verses of chapter two he tells them to get rid of malice, hatred, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Sit with that for a moment. What if the church really did that!!! I remember when I was a young intern at a church, the first part of every staff meeting would be spent reading the comment cards from the Sunday before. There were comment cards in the pews for people to give feedback...and my how they did. Sometimes it was useful: the music was too loud, or there was a misspelled word on the slide. But sometimes it became someone’s opportunity to unload their grievances: I hate the color of the carpet, someone’s child was distracting, the pastor’s tie was ugly... Aside from being an intern, I was also a referee in the church basketball league. I remember reading one from a guy who was one of the basketball coaches and I thought “who cares what this guy has to say? I have to toss him out of every single game because he has angry fits, swears loudly when he doesn’t get his way, and treats everyone horribly.” I’m not saying I had the right response, but that was my 19-year-old gut reaction. Looking back, I think that man had a lot of undealt with trauma and his family suffered as a result. But the bifurcated nature of his spirituality and actual life revealed the disorder of this man’s internal life. He cared about small details on a Sunday but seemed to neglect his own inner healing.

         If this man had a desire for Jesus as his guiding and foundational desire, I would have expected him to care about the impression he made on his team, the referees, the parents because his longing would be for them to know the Jesus he knows. Desire is good, sometimes we act on it the wrong way, or fulfill it in disordered ways. Sometimes our disordered ways keep us from looking at the primary brokenness that needs healing. We are all going to have missteps, but we still need to spend time with Jesus rightly order our desires around the guiding principle of knowing the healing presence of Jesus. Winning at all costs is not a healthy guiding principle, and it was probably a good indicator of something in his story he needed to work on. 

         There has to be a fundamental integration between the worship we offer and the lives we live. One commentator says, “When a church yearns for spiritual nourishment, that church will not be involved in bitter disputes with hypocritical showings or deceitful communications.”[1] The church isn’t a place to look nice for nice people, say nice things so people think we’re nice and to say things in really nice-sounding ways so that people are placated with hollow promises and empty platitudes. This is a place to be undone together and fully admit how much we need Jesus. This is a family who points us back to recalibrating us toward virtue and blessing what our desires show us of our longing for Jesus. As we pray for one another by name, hold space for each other’s journey of healing with Jesus, speak truth to one another in love, and listen well, we become the kind of authentic and vulnerable community where people long for Jesus together like an infant desires its mother’s milk. 

II. Ground yourself in what the church is and what it is becoming (4-10) — Jesus is the most important stone in the temple

         Our desire for Christ and to put away malice, slander and evil, comes from who we are in Christ. St. Peter now changes his metaphor from desiring milk, to being made into a temple. In verses 4-10 he is using the language of the Old Testament — which was their Bible— to encourage them in trial.[2] When you read Isaiah 43 or Hosea 2, you’re hearing the prophets look forward to a time when God would restore the nation of Israel, be her king, and her temple would be rebuilt. Peter is understanding these passages to say that all these exiles in their little gatherings are part of something much greater. It would have been a discouraging thing to be a persecuted minority because of ethical decisions they made to follow Jesus. They did these things, though, because they are part of something greater. God was rebuilding the temple, but rather than stones, it is made of people. Jesus is the great cornerstone. And not only is God making a new temple of people, it is not just in Israel. This temple is all over the world. These Christians in their little communities belong to God and to one another all over the Empire. The followers of Jesus in Bithynia are meaningfully connected to the believers in Rome and in Antioch. Just as today the Christians of this church are connected to Christians around the world.

         Over the last 5-6 years I have loved watching God build us all into part of this temple together. None of us would have known each other except that this church was coming into being. I am more of who I was made to be in Christ because I have sat with you in my office, because I have served with you on a Sunday, shared a meal with you, because I’ve played board games with your kids, hiked with you, etc. We are more ourselves as Christ has made us to be because of our connection one to another. It’s not all happy and positive. Sometimes I’ve made missteps I’ve needed to apologize for and I know you have as well. This is part of being a family in christ together that pushes each other closer to who we are meant to be in Christ.

         And this is not limited to our local community. We are actually part of something bigger. Under our Bishop’s care, we are part of a diocese with other congregations in VA, NC, MD, and DC. Our Diocese is part of a Province that has fellowship with other provinces around the world. We have been supporting missionaries who work in the Middle East to translate the Bible and resource church planting. These missionaries work both in our Diocese and in a newly formed Province that serves Christians around the world who come from a Muslim background. This connects our little mission with God’s work amongst a minority ethnic community in the Middle East. I would love at some point to connect us with these believers face to face so that we can pray for them and picture them in our minds. What an encouragement to them as they experience persecution to know that this church is connected to them and what they are doing. God is building a temple that transcends geopolitical boundaries, political alliances, subcultures, and ethnic divisions.

         We are constituted into what Israel is meant to be in the Jewish Messiah. Being built into a spiritual temple, we, the people, are the place where the nations encounter the space where heaven and earth meet because we are a people living under the reign of Christ, being newly created and transformed by his acts of love and healing. Stories of all kinds of divine image-bearers, being restored by Jesus, comprise a compelling vision that people need. This is why we are here together. We are figuring out how to live our different vocations out together: Teachers, florists, military personnel, administrators, chiefs-of-staff, philanthropists, entrepeneurs, musicians, artists, household managers, single, married, divorced, widowed, with kids, without kids, young old, from all over the world, with different ethno-linguistic backgrounds.....all of us trying to discover Jesus together in this little enclave of the Kingdom of God. And as we are discovering Jesus we proclaim in word and deed the mighty acts of the one who called us out of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son.

Conclusion

         St. Peter is encouraging the church to continue in the hard work of holding up the goodness of Jesus in face of being persecuted. To do this well they must long for Jesus like a newborn longs for milk. To do this is to put away the evil and slander that distracts people from knowing Christ. Then he roots the individual church in the larger picture of God’s plan. This picture reminds them that what they are doing matters, even when things get hard. They are being made into a temple across the world on the foundation stone of Jesus for God to inhabit so that people experience the work of heaven in our earthly lives. We are a people constituted for the praises of God’s mighty deeds, which involves the hard work of daily conversion, noticing Jesus, and naming our need for his grace and help. The encouragement for all of us this morning is to be this kind of community who longs for Jesus and lives with integrity, and to be the kind of community who roots one another in our identity as the temple of God, from which stories of God’s mighty acts paint a compelling picture of the goodness of Jesus for the nations and neighborhoods around us.

Let’s pray:

Gracious God and most merciful Father, you have granted us the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake.  Amen.

[1]                Scot McKnight, NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 104.

[2]                Exod 19:6; Isa 43; Hos 2:23

4th Sunday of Easter: The Good Shepherd and Abundant Life

John 10:1-10

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning dear friends. I’m Fr. Morgan Reed, the Vicar here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. The fourth Sunday of Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday where we focus on Christ’s good shepherding, listening to his voice, and following him into abundant life. 

         I was thinking back this week to 2008. Ashley and I had just gotten married, she had finished school, and we packed up a moving truck to drive across the country and move into a new apartment in downtown Chicago. We made it through California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and then made it half-way into Iowa. That year the  Mississippi river flooded and halfway through Iowa we started seeing more and more towns under water along the highway. We came to a sign that said I-80 closed ahead. About half of Iowa was closed along I-80 and this was before Google Maps existed. We were tired and so close! We pulled off the highway and went to a truck stop to buy another paper map and figure out our way. As we sat down and were figuring it out, a trucker came by and said, “you all can follow me across the Illinois line.” It was so kind, but also risky. We drove through very narrow farm roads through corn fields behind this truck and it felt like it would never end! Finally there was a break in the corn fields and we finally saw a main road again. We crossed into Illinois and were only a few hours from Chicago. I’m so grateful to that kind trucker! He was a reminder that God was watching over us.

         Even in getting to Chicago, we had to start over making friends and connections, we had no car, no jobs, and we were processing a lot as a couple who was still in their first year of marriage. We may not know why God’s taking us along certain paths, and we may wonder if we’re ever going to get there, but Jesus is our good shepherd who will lead us and guide us into pleasant places of peace and abundance even when the journey involves dark valleys. Perhaps you can remember times when it felt like a risk to trust Jesus. Maybe you’re on the cusp of a moment like that right now.

         We do go through deserts, trackless wastelands, and deep dark valleys — but we do not go it alone. We go through it with the one who knows the way out. There are many voices of false shepherds who will prey on our fears of scarcity. They may even promise shortcuts through the valley of deep darkness, but they do not have what is best for us in mind.

         Jesus, our Good Shepherd, calls us into abundant grazing lands, but it takes recognizing his voice and following him into the place of abundance rather than scarcity. As we look at our Gospel passage this morning, let me pray for us. “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and our redeemer. Amen.”

A. 1-5 Hear and recognize the voice of the shepherd

         Jesus tells a parable in verses 1-5 about his sheep who are in a sheep pen. Hearing his voice, they follow him. This follows the story of Jesus healing the blind man in chapter 9. The blind man, like Israel, was looking for the tender shepherding of God. But just like Ezekiel 34, the people were encountering religious leaders who only wanted to consume them and exploit them. But Jesus is the Messiah and Good Shepherd.

          Our lectionary helps us see Jesus’s shepherding here through the lens of Psalm 23. He is the one who creates the scenario of safety in which his sheep can lie down in the grass beside running water. Hebrew writers in the Old Testament didn’t make the body/soul distinction that we find in later hellenism. Rather than “he restores my soul,” the idea is “he brings me back.” In those times that we are prone to wander, to believe the lies that people have told us, to turn from God in our desire for self-sufficiency, when we wonder where we have gone wrong and if there is ever a way back, Jesus will tenderly bring us back. He suffered and died for us, and has risen to conquer death and sin for us. He has entered the dark valleys with us to show us the way out. By the resurrection, the dark valleys become the places of redemption where we become more acutely aware of our need for the shepherd’s presence.

         I would love for this to be a place and community that points people to the good shepherd. As people are formed in worship together, do Formation Groups, enjoy cookouts together, and rest with one another, I would love for this community to be a place of safety where you exhale as you walk in on a Sunday and your nervous system can calm down.

         Listen for Jesus’s voice in prayer, scripture, in the testimony of the ancient church, the sacraments, and in the spirit’s work in this fellowship. His voice is heard through others who help us see the goodness of Jesus’s shepherding and what he’s bringing us into. Knowing Christ’s voice means being able to cut through the distractions and distortions of the voices of thieves and robbers: pushing back against theological error and heresy, naming, working through, and rejecting the lies that those close to us have cursed us with, and resisting the temptation to shift the blame when an acute sense of guilt might otherwise produce works of repentance. Jesus wants to bring us back to abundant grazing lands and we need to listen for his voice.

B. 6-10 Follow the shepherd into the pastureland and find abundant life

         After hearing his voice, we follow him. In following him, we will come into the green pastures of abundant life. 

         In verses 6-10 Jesus explains the parable, which his followers don’t seem to understand. Jesus contrasts himself with robbers who exploit and do not do what is best for the sheep. They steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

         As we think about abundant life, we should consider what life looks like when we follow Jesus into good pasturelands. I watched this show once where cattle ranchers had to take their cows on a perilous journey between one of two pastures depending on the time of year and where grass is available. They had to get a herd to go across rivers, through valleys, along beaches, and ward off predators to get the cows to the places of pasture. The journey is far from fun...in fact it is unsettling and sometimes terrifying for the cows. The rancher’s presence is necessary for defense, comfort, and guidance.

         We are always in need of Jesus’ defense, comfort, and guidance as he brings us from pastureland to pastureland. Walking with Jesus as a good shepherd means that we will encounter hardships. And those hardships become the opportunities to build a deeper trust in the care of our Lord. The alternation of Jesus’s presence through the dark valleys and into the green pastures is a portrait of a growing follower of Jesus.

         Following Jesus as our good shepherd also encourages us to live in the abundance of the pasture rather than the scarcity of our grass patch. There is a word in this for pastors, but I think it is also a word for all of us because it is a disposition for any vocation. There are pastors and leaders who make decisions based on keeping specific people, especially if they give a lot of money. Prayerful vision and discernment aren’t driving the ship— instead they’re worried about staying in their little patch of grass rather than risking to see what pasture might be there for them if they’d just let Jesus lead.

         There is another scarcity lie people fall into. When someone says “I’m not going to be like my parent” or “I’m not going to be a manager like my old manager” or something similar. This limits us from the unique ways we are made and the gifts we’ve been given. Instead, we can begin with using some stories of harm experienced under a family member or boss and begin to name what happened accurately. Share those stories with safe people: a therapist, spiritual director, priest, or trusted friend. As you name accurately what happened, and Jesus begins to heal your wounds, you will begin to be more fully yourself to be the parent or manager, baseball coach, or whatever else you are called to be. This is abundance.

         Following the good shepherd into abundance will give us the courage to risk doing what is right because our fears are rightly aligned. We risk engaging in productive conflict because we fear someone not knowing the goodness of abundant life in Christ more than we fear losing a relationship. If we are parents, our longing is for our children to experience the goodness of God even if it means getting upset with us. Sometimes we have to put up healthy boundaries “Your hands were made for kindness, not hitting”. Sometimes we have to give consequences “If you break this expensive thing then I’ll be garnishing your allowance for some time.” And while we hold space for our children’s anger, we continue to help them understand that we love them when they’re angry and they’re receiving consequences. They’re anger and our fear of breaking the relationship cannot be the guiding principle of parenting. We won’t do it perfectly, but when we mess up, will we metabolize our guilt and embarrassment and risk apologizing to repair the relationship? We engage in abundance when we give thought and intention to how our children experience the world and us. We have to risk spending time to do our own internal work because what our kids experience of us will inform what they experience of Jesus. There is too much at stake to just coast along unreflectively in our brokenness.

         We all need the healing and abundant life that is beyond the borders of our little grass patch, but we often don’t want to leave our dwindling grass patch because we don’t see the pasture and we don’t know how to get there. Trust the Good Shepherd, listen for his voice, and follow him.

Conclusion

         On this Good Shepherd Sunday, some of us are in the middle of two pastures: wandering in trackless waste lands or dark and frightening valleys. Some of us might be doing the hard work of healing and we are on the edge of the valley where the sun is starting to rise on the meadows in front of us. Some of us are holding way too tightly to our little patch of grass and afraid to go on the journey with Jesus because we don’t know what challenges await us. Remember that Jesus is the good shepherd who wants to lead us to abundant life. Listen for his call in the scripture, in his saints, in the places of encountering his presence thoughtfully each day, in the sacraments, and in the voices that speak hard truths for our welfare — even if we don’t like the tone of that voice. Don’t be deceived by thieves who want to exploit and consume us — nice voices whispering platitudes that will ultimately distort our loves and ways of understanding the world and the God who made it — and make us less human. And when we hear the voice of Jesus, let’s follow him into the places that are hard because where he is taking us is a place of rest that we long for so deeply.

Let’s pray: “O God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that, when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Third Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:13-35

CONTENT

Good morning, everyone. It’s nice to see you all this fine day.  My name is Steven Myles, I am a member here at Corpus Christi Anglican Church.  So, if you are new or visiting with us today, I am not the person you would normally see in this space.  Father Morgan Reed, the beloved Vicar of our church, has invited me to speak today, which just so happens to be the 3rd Sunday of Easter. 

Several years ago – after I graduated college, I had the incredible privilege of working in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.  During that time, I worked with a relief organization that was tasked with rebuilding churches, physical church structures, that had been targeted and destroyed during the 70-year civil war.  After our team had completed all the church reconstruction in one geographic area, we would send out a scout into an unknown area, and that scout would go from village to village and collect the histories of these areas and based upon that information our organization could then identify the next villages eligible for physical church reconstruction.  For a period of time, I was one of these scouts and – I can tell you – I will never forget the stories that I got to hear.  The life of these people was so different from my own, one of the key differences I noticed was the way the Nubians were inextricably intertwined with their cattle.  Let me give you a sense of what I mean by that - There was no school in most villages, so the young boys were in charge of shepherding the cows out to find pasture and water and protecting them from threats.  While out in the fields, the young men would drink the cow’s milk to put on muscle mass and they would wrestle, wrestling was the national sport, so they would wrestle which allowed them to establish their place in the social hierarchy of their village.  They would also use the cattle urine to dye their hair a vivid orange color, and they would burn the cattle dung for heat at night and use the ash from those dung fires to cover their bodies in ash and that would repel mosquitoes, because malaria was a real threat in this part of the world.  And every so often they would come into town, for celebrations and weddings, and they would dance, the most incredible dances, and they would actually hold their arms imitating the position of their favorite cow’s horns, because every cow had varying degrees of value based on their horns orientation, coloring and patterns on their hide – hopefully you kind of get the picture - their lives, in a sense, revolved around their cows.  And all the while these young men were out in the fields living a shepherd’s life they had plenty of time to dream, and what do young men dream about – women – let’s be honest, they dream about women but specifically how they would raise the dowry price for a wife.  The average dowry, or the price a man would have to pay to his future father in-law for his wife, was between 50-400 cows and the vast majority of people didn’t have hundreds of cows, and that usually meant these young shepherds would form a group and would raid neighboring villages of different tribes.  So the history of this people is one of perpetual violence unfortunately, perpetual cattle raids.  It was common knowledge that you could tell where a man was headed based on the spear he was carrying, there was a spear for fishing a spear for hunting and a distinct spear for battle.  So I would sit in these churches of mud walls and a grass roof, or sometimes just a few logs under the shade of a large mango tree and write down the histories of these villages.  And the recurring theme I picked up on, was raiding other tribes for their cattle and then being raided in revenge, raiding and being raided, until one day light skinned men showed up– Arabs from the North- showed up with machine guns and tanks and the villagers would fight them with their spears, and when the Arabs left they got on with life as usual.  For most of the villages I interviewed, that was the extent of their experience of the 70-year civil war in their country – just 1 or 2 brief encounters.  Men and women lived their whole lives, raised families, built homes and communities but were otherwise completely detached from the broader context – this war that was going on around them.  It was a battle over which government would rule the country, the fight over which laws would be instituted upon their land and they were mostly disengaged.  I don’t think that is unique to the Nubian people though– is it?  Certainly their situation is unique, and their day to day looks vastly different from ours, but as men and women on this Earth, we share the same tendencies.  This propensity to trod along from one day to the next, and casually fall into the patterns of the world or the culture around us and all the while remain detached, oblivious or too pre-occupied to engage with the overarching struggles that surround us.  So as we approach today’s passage, I ask that you would join me in praying that we could hear the voice of God calling out to us who are so prone to wander.

OPENING PRAYER:

The grass withers, the flower fades, but Your word O Lord will stand forever.

Lord the word that goes out from Your mouth; it shall not return to You empty,
but it shall accomplish that which you purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which You sent it.  Father God clinging to that truth we ask You to speak to us this morning, that Your Word may accomplish that which is needed in each of us - in Christ’s Name.  Amen.

SERMON:

Before we jump in - I find it helpful to provide a rough outline of what the next few minutes are going to look like.  First, I want to establish where we are in the church calendar and understand the context behind the Easter season.  Then we take a close look at our gospel passage from today’s lectionary in Luke 24 and these 2 men on the road to Emmaus.  And finally I want to make the connection of how we sitting here today fit into this story – the story of Easter.

Because– when we take a step back, friends, collectively we are all a part of one story.  The story of God and who He is, and how He endeavors to communicate and relate to us– that is the greatest story there will ever be.  And to tie it back to my work in Nuba, I believe that is the battle that is ongoing and enveloping us all-whether we recognize it or not.  This battle for the truth of who God is.  Bear with me here, I’m going to start pretty far out and abstract and then slowly tighten our focus and zoom in.  Now, a lot of people take exception with how God has chosen to reveal Himself.  The most common refrain throughout all human history is mankind saying, “if God is real, why doesn’t He just show me who he is?”  Seems fair - But have you ever stopped and given that question any thought?  How should an infinite God convey to finite creatures the breadth of who He is.  Would just one look really do it?  From what I can observe and from what Scripture teaches me, God is unchangeable, He is a constant, from eternity past to eternity future He is. 

Because God is a constant, He is unchanging, He reveals Himself in A consistent and repetitious manner.  All throughout Scripture, we can trace these story lines of God revealing His character, from one generation to the next.  He reveals Himself as Holy, as a King, as a Father as a shepherd - metaphors that we can relate to.  And the absolute beauty of God’s word is the congruity or the uniformity of these revelations – each of these nuggets of truth in the Bible were recorded by different men or women, from different time periods different geographic locations, and the purpose of their writings were wildly different, some men wrote poetry about God, some recorded history, some transcribed prophecy, but despite all those variables taken together the whole of Scripture conveys the nature of an infinite God just viewed from different perspectives.  The season we call Easter, is one example of God, slowly and methodically, leaving a trail of compounding evidence which not only reveal his character but His plan of redemption for mankind.   So let’s look closely at Easter - In order to understand, we have to go back to the Jewish traditions before Jesus, there is the holiday of Passover, this commemorates the night, 3500 years ago in Egypt, Jews had to slaughter a lamb and wipe the blood of that animal on their doorposts.  In faith, the families who obeyed these instructions were saved, and the spirit of death passed over their homes.  The very next Sunday after the Passover, there is a ceremony the feast of first fruits, where a priest will collect a sheaf or bundle of wheat, the best and most perfect bunch of wheat, and he raises it up before God and thanks God and ask that the rest of the harvest would be just as good.  From that Feast of First Fruits there is a period of 50 days which ended in another Feast.  That final feast of weeks signifies ten commandments and God’s covenant with Moses.  I want to make sure you are still with me – that was a lot of words.  What I am trying to highlight – is the pattern?  There is a 1 to 1 direct connection between those ancient traditions, and our Easter season – and they all occur during the same stretch of the calendar – roughly March to May.  The pattern begins with death, few days later a raising up, a period of fifty days, and the institution of a new covenant.  Death, raising up, 50 days, and a new covenant.  So let’s make those 1 to 1 connections to really drive this home - For thousands of years Jews, before Jesus, had an annual holiday where they remembered the day a lamb was slaughtered so that they could live, and fast-forward to Jesus’ time it’s on that very same day the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, died to save the world.  Back to the Jewish traditions, three days after the Passover, the priest would lift up the perfect grain offering, fast forward to Jesus’ time and three days after his burial Jesus was raised from the dead.  Then a period of 50 days and the mark of a new covenant with the giving of the law and now a period of 50 days and the mark of the new covenant with the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.   

I don’t know what you imagined it would look like, I don’t know what you think it should like, but this pattern is God is trying, desperately trying to reveal to us, the collective us of mankind, who He is.  He is not distant, He is not far off, aloof or indifferent.  He has been engaged during this whole arc of history and He is engaged here and now.  Regardless of what time in history you were born, whether it was before Jesus, during the life of Jesus, or after His resurrection.  God has been using this same stretch of the calendar - 50 some days from March to May– for thousands of years to capture our attention.  To the Jews it was Passover and the Feasts and to us it is Easter – but the purpose of these traditions remains consistent and that is to break up our day to day and focus our minds and affections on God’s plan of redemption for mankind. 

You guys with me still – that was a lot.   That’s why I don’t do this for a living.  So that was part one, we’ve set the stage with the significance of the Easter season, and all the careful meticulous effort God has crafted into its messaging. 

So now, the second part of toady’s message, we can turn our attention to the passage in Luke 24, and I’m hoping with this context established we can better understand the dialogue that is going on between Jesus and these 2 men on the road to Emmaus.  To quickly set the stage, this is one of a dozen or so instances where Jesus appears to people after His resurrection.  We pick it up in verse 13 Cleopas and his friend are on a short 7 mile walk, downhill and to the West, from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  And these men are discussing the latest events in Jerusalem, but verse 16 indicates that their eyes were kept from noticing that the stranger who joins them was actually Jesus.  And as they are walking and talking with this stranger, the stranger inquires in v.17 “what is this conversation you are having?”  And it’s pretty palpable right, the incredulousness of Cleopas, his incredulity in verse 18 when he answers and says, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what has happened in these days?”  But Jesus’ interest is in hearing if these men have picked up on this sequence of clues, so he invites their explanation by saying “What things?”  And here I can imagine Cleopas and his friend launching into the story with excitement in their voices, finishing each other’s sentences and maybe adding details that the other neglected, in verse 19 they say “There was a man, Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and man.”  And slowly their excitement fades, and their voices drop because they inform the stranger that – v.20 “Our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be crucified, we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel, but it has now been 3 days since he died.  Women we knew went to his tomb this morning, but they did not see his body”

            Jesus’ response in v.25 might come as a bit of a surprise – it pretty cutting, “O foolish ones - slow of heart to believe”.  It’s important to distinguish that when Jesus calls these men fools, He is not making a judgement on their intellectual capabilities, he is not calling them stupid.  In scripture the term fool has a very specific definition, it’s an indictment against the aspect of our humanity that rejects wisdom and despises instruction. “O foolish ones - slow of heart to believe” Psalms tells us that “It is a fool that says in his heart, there is no God”.  And every one of us have played that fool – but why? From the time our parents ate of that forbidden fruit we have been cursed to believe that the biggest obstacle, the biggest barrier to what we perceive to be our own joy and happiness is God’s law.  So we want to do away with it, we want to be free we want the autonomy to do whatever we want to do and not what He commands us to do.  The deepest most pernicious bias of all human inclination is this bias against our blessed Creator Himself.  We are “Foolish ones – slow of heart to believe.”

            Thanks be to God that He understands us and He is patient with us.  Jesus, recognizes that these men are unaware of the situation of the context they have missed that this the unveiling of God’s plan which has been in motion for thousands of years.  So in v. 27 it tells us that, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”  And I can only imagine how riveting that must have been, to listen to the author Himself explain the intention and the nuance behind each piece of His story.  So he points to the law and the prophets, the poetry and the wisdom books, and he reveals how those writings are proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah – the one the Jews have been waiting for, the one who will save mankind.  Not only were the events of the last few days foretold, but the events of the last few days were necessary, v.26 Jesus says it “was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things.”  Because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

            But still that’s not enough - is it.  All the facts and information can be laid out in the most compelling fashion.  Men can have all the knowledge there is, and yet it will not penetrate into their day to day lives.  We will remain undeterred, we will remain indifferent, information is not enough to change a man’s heart.  So in v. 32 we hear the men remark, “did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road.”  And this my friends is a gift of God.  These men described there interaction with God as a fire burning within them, and similarly the prophet Jeremiah records his experience as a fire shut up in my bones, and the only way I can try to explain this is that when we truly hear the voice of the eternal God, it resonates with the part of us that is also eternal, our own soul and it produces a visceral response.  The history that before appeared to be just a coincidence, the man we walked with who appeared to be just a stranger.  We recognize its not just a coincidence, we recognize its not just a stranger. We see that it is God who has walked with us these many, and it is His voice calling out to us. “Do you see me?  Do you see who I am?  Do you see my love for you in this great plan I have made?  Will you not repent and turn back to me?”

            In closing, I want to quickly read from our passage in Psalms 116– the author writes “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?”  Surely this Easter season is a period of joy and thanksgiving.  It is a time to celebrate and remember the grace of God through Jesus Christ His Son.  And what a privilege to live during these days, where we can look back and connect the dots to see God’s mighty arm moving through history.  It’s said we need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed and my hope this morning we are reminded of God’s faithfulness and how He has been using the Easter season for thousands of years to break up people’s day-to day and to call them back to Himself.  As we approach the altar here to receive the elements, the body and blood of Christ, let us remember the second part of Psalm 116, the author answers his own question “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?  I will lift up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.”  If God has your attention this morning, call out to Him, He is near.  If you don’t know what to say, there are people after the service who would love to pray with you.  Happy Easter my Friends – He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!

Second Sunday of Easter: How We Build Matters

John 20:19-31

CONTENT

Introduction

         Good morning dear friends. Happy second week of Easter.

         Just this last week I was working from my office when I heard a knock on the window. One of the preschoolers, who is friends with our son, wanted to tell me something. I opened the window and she said, “Morgan, we are building a track to run on but we need sticks to make the track.” She had only found one, and she knew that my son and I like to hike, so she assumed I would know where to find sticks. I encouraged her to look under the trees. She found some sticks, set up her race track, and she and her friends ran and enjoyed running in the beautiful Springtime sun. Some days I really long for the times where my greatest challenge in a day would be where to find sticks to make an imaginary racetrack. But as time goes on, life gets more complex, we are given more responsibility, and we have to make harder decisions. If that weren’t challenging enough, we live in a world on this side of Eden, where people continue to walk along ancient, broken pathways, apart from God, cloaked in darkness and deception, looking for a way home.

         It’s into this brokenness that Jesus enters our humanity to deliver us from sin and death. This deliverance wasn’t just for the wealthy who could buy their way out of trouble, or the intellectually superior who could rationalize their way out or the darkness. This gospel of king Jesus came to every man, woman and child; slave and free; Jew and Gentile. But as people began to follow this resurrected Lord, it began to put them on a collision course with the ways their families, subcultures, neighborhoods, and nations were impacted and influenced by the kingdom of darkness. There is a risk of exclusion for the follower of Jesus as they hold out what is ultimately good in the face of deception. This was the experience of the early Christians to whom the letter of 1 Peter is addressed. What this letter shows us is that God is building a new family in Christ for a new hope where trials become a strange gift that burns away and purifies our distractions, clarifies our mission, and helps us hold out the goodness of Christ for the world. As we look at the beginning of this letter, let me pray for us.

         “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, Amen.”

1. The resurrected Christ has begun a new family of hope (3-5).

         The resurrected Christ has established a new family. Peter had been set up as a leader among the apostles, an ambassador of Jesus for the church. He served for a time in Jerusalem, but this letter is written a few decades later, probably just prior to Nero’s persecutions which would bring Peter to his death in the mid-60s. The church is about 30 years old at this point and Peter commissioned this letter to be written down and circulated by his ministry partner, Silvanus. He writes from Rome, which identifies with Babylon of old. He is in a pagan  city, part of a pagan empire and is aware that he is a pilgrim and not at home. He writes as an exile to others who are exiled, whom he calls the Diaspora (1:2) who are in various cities in Asia Minor, which is in Modern-day Turkey.

         The Christians he writes to are likely Gentiles that were converts to Judaism, then came to believe in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. They would come to be persecuted by both Jew and Gentile as a result.[1] These were not influential and wealthy people. Peter even mentions slaves and women, who would have been expected to worship the household gods of the father of the family. These Christians, who were following Jesus, though they weren’t highly influential or of high status, were a part of the new Israel, the people of God, those whom God had called and set apart to make his glory known!

         It’s these people, of which also are you and me, that have been born anew by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are all looking for the promised land together as exiles in a foreign land. The church is at its best when it becomes a community that provides refuge for the vulnerable rather than those who misuse power. I can appreciate this. It is hard to build the kind of performance that will attract and maintain the  presence of high profile individuals in a church. Some churches try; but for me, the most fulfilling moments of ministry have been with individuals or in smaller groups: coming to your homes for a house blessing, or visiting you with communion in the hospital, or sitting with you in the office and hearing your stories and praying with you, or hearing your confession. I love seeing the church enter into this with one another: creating a meal train so that you can bless one another with your cooking and your presence to one another, the ways you open your homes to one another for hospitality — including Formation Groups, watching the BBQ team smoke a brisket for the church, weeping with one another in prayer, encouraging one another, having vulnerable and sometimes hard and honest conversations, and making repair with one another when harm has been done or relational rupture occurs. This is what creates a stable outpost of the kingdom when the culture continues to shift and change. It is a gift to see this church become such an outpost of the kingdom of heaven, a divine family which provides comfort for the vulnerable and that provides an appropriate amount of discomfort for those who are far too at-home in this world.

         How one builds the household of God matters. We can say the right words to articulate a great goal, but if the means to getting there are not the way of Jesus then we have missed it. The goal of the church is not to do something, but to become something. “Success”, then, is measured by how one experiences Christ when they meet us rather than average Sunday attendance. If the pastor or leaders are abusing power, or if the church’s activism is divorced from the theology of the church, or if a church focuses all its efforts on issues of secondary or tertiary theological importance while being divorced from seeing the kingdom come in the neighborhood, or neighborhoods, around her, then how is she a community of hope where the resurrected Jesus is made known as a comfort for the vulnerable? 1 Peter reminds us to slow down and consider how we build.

2. Trials are a strange gift of purification and opportunity (6-9).

         We have seen first that the resurrected Christ has begun a new family. This is the family we need to feel “at home” in our pilgrimage in this world. Second, trials are inevitable, but they are also a strange gift. St. Peter helps the church avoid two extremes: attempting to overthrow the Pagan culture through political violence, and viewing the ethical demands of the Gospel as inconsequential and capitulating to culture. Because the church seeks to engage the world with the transforming love of Christ, they will experience some amount of persecution and trial as they hold out the goodness of the Gospel of Christ in a world content with its self-deception.

         This reminds me of a quote from one of the apostolic fathers, the Epistle of Diognetus, which says, “...They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign...”[2] The text also describes the ways that Christians safeguard their allegiance to Jesus by refusing to use their bodies and creation for disordered purposes. It says “They marry, like everyone else, and have children, but they do not expose their offspring. They share their food, but not their wives.”[3]  In other words, Christians bless what is good and walk with others as far as they can without doing harm to themselves or others as image-bearers of God. Jesus ate with sinners, but did not join their sin. He held out the goodness of the kingdom and invited them in. Those who follow Jesus will walk with their neighbors as far as they can, but will have to draw the line of shared culture somewhere. And when a follower of Jesus puts up a boundary, they risk exclusion and persecution.

         Peter’s audience became scapegoats for the ills of the area. In their day, the refusal to worship the local gods may have been seen as the reason for a lack of prosperity in a village, so it would be easy to lay any misfortune on the shoulders of the Christians in the village. But this suffering, Peter says, is hopeful. Suffering brings clarity to our mission as followers of Jesus and purifies us from what distracts us. This doesn’t mean we delight in the suffering itself, but it does mean that entering trial well reminds us that redemption is coming. It also invites the community of Jesus to come and support us in trial as family.

         It means ultimately that we live with integrity as people whose guiding principle is the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus. Nothing else deserves our ultimate allegiance other than king Jesus. We have responsibilities to our church, our country, our earthly family, and our neighbors, but everything is rightly ordered by the guiding principle of Jesus’ life, death resurrection, ascension, and his coming again — The Gospel.

         I don’t want to cheapen the persecution of these Christians by comparing religious persecution to the stripping of privilege or inconvenience. I remember a discussion once of America taking away tax benefits from clergy and churches. Would that strip away of some of our privileges as Christians? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Is it persecution? No. Babylon is going to Babylon and Rome is going to Rome.  

         There will be times where allegiance to Jesus puts us at odds with our community and leads us to exclusion. Be mindful that exclusion does not occur because of an indignant or combative spirit. Come with curiosity about someone’s story. Ask good questions, present gospel convictions with clarity, but in a way that allows others to experience the discomfort of contractions in a disordered world. Spirit-led, compassionate questions hold out the goodness of the kingdom and they don’t merely win an argument. Go slow, be patient, and be compassionately un-anxious like Jesus if they refuse to change. There may come a time when one has to risk losing a job, face legal challenges, or upset someone close to them because of their ultimate allegiance to Jesus. The hope in 1 Peter is that in the church you are part of a privileged community because it is a saved community. As we fulfill the god-given task of announcing the good news of Christ, the church becomes the ark of salvation where deliverance is found and we will experience the tender compassion of the Good Shepherd.

Conclusion

          Jesus in his resurrection has created a new family. As we show forth in our lives what we profess by our faith, we may experience some amount of persecution, or exclusion because Christians will be those who welcome other sojourners and invite them to follow Jesus too. Be encouraged if you don’t feel “at home” right now. We are those who feel like foreigners in our homeland and at home in foreign lands. We invite people to come as they are and to be changed by the power of Jesus. May those who long to be comfortable, gain power, garner influence, and be at-home in this world, find the church to be a community where they are disquieted and made to know that this world is our place of pilgrimage to discover Jesus. May the church become that place where those afflicted because of following Jesus find life and comfort from their new family in the outpost of the kingdom of God.

         Let us pray:

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1]                Scot McKnight, 1 Peter (The NIV Application Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 23.

[2]                Epistle of Diognetus, 5.4-5.

[3]                Ibid., 5.6-7.