| John 10:22-30 "What God is Doing For Us" |
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| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 28 April 2007 | |
22At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ 25Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30The Father and I are one.’ Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen. I bring your greetings this morning from Lorena Mae, the 92 year old widow whose home the 75 volunteers from Holy Covenant helped repair, scrape, caulk and paint over the last two weekends. You made me so proud to be your pastor and I want to personally thank all of you, who contributed (whether by prayer, or by providing food, or by showing up at the site to help). Special kudos goes out to our Amigos coordinators, Mike Gonzales and Dawnie Dahir. Verse 27: 1) My sheep hear my voice, 2) I know them and 3) They follow me. Confirmands, this simple statement of Discipleship represents a profound commitment! I want to unpack each of these statements as they define faithful discipleship. 1) My Sheep know my voice It’s a direct reference back to Jesus’ words in verse 2-4 of chapter ten. If you have your Bibles turn with me to verses 2-4 of chapter ten. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. Jesus is saying his true followers recognize the uniqueness of his voice. Of course, that gives us, his sheep a whole bunch of unearned and undeserved credit! I can’t tell you how often people in the church have confessed to me they wouldn’t recognize God trying to tell them something if it hit them on the head. How do recognize God’s voice? Friday I accompanied my daughter’s Advanced Art class as they toured the studios of ABC affiliate, WFAA News 8. It was fascinating to see all that goes into putting news broadcast together from reporting to writing to production. On the tour, I greeted a well-dressed man in one of hallways. He sorted of looked familiar, but it wasn’t until I heard his voice that recognition set in! Turned out to be Greg Fields, one of the station weathermen. Even though I had never met him before, I had heard his voice enough to recognize it. One of the most profound verses of scripture in the Gospels is the claim that Jesus’ disciples recognized him (post-resurrection) “in the breaking of the bread.” • In the Eurcharistic celebration of communion, we can hear Jesus’ assurance of love in the words, “my body broken for you.” • In Baptism and Confirmation God speaks to us through the church saying, “You are my child…” And in the process of assembling a library full of memories and life experiences (times when we’ve felt God speaking to us through a particular scripture, person, story or event), we learn to hear God’s voice. It is that kind of “fill in the gap” familiarity that allows us to hear and see God. There’s a provocative Hasidic story that tells of a great celebration in heaven after the Israelites, having fled lives of Egyptian slavery, crossed the Dead Sea, and the pursuing Pharaoh’s armies are drowned. The angels are cheering and dancing and everyone in heaven is full of joy. Then one of the angels asks the (Ark-angel) archangel Michael, “Where is God? Why isn’t God here celebrating with us?” To which the archangel replies, “God is not here because God has gone off to weep.” “Why?” the angel inquires. The response comes, “Didn’t you know? Today thousands of God’s children drowned…” Confirmands, do you recognize God in that story? We need to learn how to differentiate between God’s unique voice and those of wolves in shepherd clothing. My sheep know my voice. 2ndly) I know them. Q. What does it mean to be known by God? One of my favorite stories in the Gospel is the story of the woman at the well in John 4. In the aftermath of her “living water” encounter with Jesus, the woman rushes home to tell her community: Verse 28, “come and see a man who told me everything I have every done. Could he be the Messiah?” Scripture describes Jesus as one who knows everything we have ever done, and yet still loves us as-is. This is what it means to be known by God. One of the most fundamental statements of Christian faith is, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for Bible tells me so.” Do you believe that? Brennan Manning, author of the book “Calling God Abba,” once asked an audience of several thousand ministers, “Do you really, in your heart of hearts believe that God loves you?” The vast majority in attendance raised their hand. The author paused, and then asked, “How many of you really believe in your heart of hearts that God likes you?” Maybe a 100 scattered hands hesitantly popped up. Manning then related the following story to the gathering. He said the he traveled to Ireland to celebrate his Uncle’s 85th birthday. Early one bright morning, Manning walked out to the edge of the lake that bordered his uncle’s property. He found his uncle standing on the lake’s edge, with his arms wrapped around himself and swaying in the warmth of the morning sun. He glanced at his nephew, and with a smile of his face, still hugging himself, his face lifted toward the sun said, “Bren…the Father is very fond of me.” God is fond of us and that fondness should free us to be ourselves, to be vulnerable, to be spiritual. My sheep know my voice; I know them. And thirdly, Jesus says: 3rdly) They Follow me. Few words better describe the kind of lifestyle Jesus calls his Disciples to. Christian Discipleship is a radical reorienting of our life 24-7. One thing the last 8 years at Holy Covenant has taught me is that our members pretty much have an opinion about everything and you’re certainly not timid about sharing them! What I don’t often hear, and I’m going to push you on this…is how those opinions honor a life committed to following Jesus, the prince of peace! We talk about right and wrong and justice and what we believe but I don’t hear people struggling with the question of, “If I follow these opinions out to their logical conclusions, will it draw me, will it draw others closer to Jesus? That’s the “God question,” and we’re supposed to wrestle with it. What else could 2 Corinthians 5:17 mean when it says, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old has passed, the new has come…?” Soren Kierkegard tells the story of a town where only ducks live. Every Sunday the ducks waddle out of their houses and waddle down Main Street to their church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choirs waddles in and takes its place, then the duck minister comes forward and opens the duck Bible. He reads to them: “Ducks! God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings and you can fly like birds!” All the ducks shouted, “Amen!” And they all waddled home. “Following Jesus” requires that we care what he thinks, and that we honestly and open-mindedly seek to discover what that is. To follow Jesus you need to know one of three things: Either where he’s been, where he is now, or where he’s going. I see those as three stages on the way to spiritual maturity. We begin by looking at where he’s been. We see the aftereffects of his going. • We hear the stories of Jesus, • we are witnesses to the lives of the saints who have mentored us by their model of faith. • we become a part of a church committed to “remembering and reclaiming the Christian identity as our identity.” As we grow in our faith, we begin to see where he is. We see Jesus in the face of our friends and family, and if we are learning to love as Jesus loves, in the face of the stranger and even in the face of our enemies. And as we become familiar with Jesus’ ways, keeping our eyes focused on him, eventually we begin to see where Jesus is going. We see a need and realize that Jesus has us there to do something about it! • We go to those society has abandoned, pull dying out of the gutters of Calcutta, bandage their wounds, and love them for Jesus. And yes they still die, but they die with dignity. They die knowing they are precious loved children of God. • We lead a civil rights movement that acknowledges the sacred worth of all people regardless of the color of their skin. • We take our skills as dentists or doctors or veterinarians or teachers or farmers not only into our communities but to South Dallas, the Appalachias, to Costa Rica and Honduras, so that people will know that God cares about them too! In so doing, we join in the movement that is the Kingdom of God! Comparatively, confirmation is like the inside liner of a book. It provides a nice overview to a life long journey of faith. It’s your job to “Fill in the rest of the pages.” The question is, How are you going to write the next chapter? I can hardly wait to see how God bringing you to Holy Covenant is going to change this church and community through you! My sheep hear my voice; 2) I know them; 3) and they follow me. May the Holy Spirit work within you that being born of water and the Spirit, you may live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. Amen. |
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