stewardship

For 21st century post modern “sheep” that attitude presents a problem. We don’t like to think of ourselves as dependent on anyone or anything else for protection. We want to be cowboys, not sheep. When danger and challenge comes knocking, it is not our nature to stand back and let a protector answer for us. This independence is reflected in the way in which we manage the resources that God has entrusted into our hands. Fear causes us to cling to all that we have. Our distorted stewardship reflects self reliance and fear of scarcity. We falter in our recognition of the shepherd’s voice and we fail to trust in the abundance of the shepherds care and strength.

Good stewardship practice and the cultivation of a generous heart lead us back to the affirmation of our proper role as sheep which belong to the Good Shepherd. Where our treasure is, that is where our heart resides. Generous sharing feels like risky behavior in a cowboy culture. But it is in that risk that our relationship with God is confirmed.

Dylan: Shepherding Justice

I wish that congregations were going to read both Acts 4 and Ezekiel 34 this Sunday. Acts 4 makes the causal connection between caring for the poor and experiencing the Spirit's presence and power that we need to hear, but Ezekiel 34 is a scathing indictment of the extent to which we who claim to follow "the good shepherd" have been doing the opposite of what a good shepherd does:

Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not
shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not
strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the
injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost,
but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered,
because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild
animals.

...Jesus, the good shepherd, calls me out of that comfortable home, away from living off of the fat available to me right here and out to the margins, so all might eat good food, drink clean water, and enjoy the privileges I have that give me access to markets and schools and the power that comes with them. He doesn't promise that it will be easy, but he promises that the journey is the way to abundant life. And I know that I will hear the good shepherd's voice and see his face most clearly when I'm living world that lives out the connection all of God's prophets proclaim, and all of God's beloved children can sing with the psalmist, not in hopeful expectation but in celebration of a present reality:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.

Dylan: Shepherding Justice

I wish that congregations were going to read both Acts 4 and Ezekiel 34 this Sunday. Acts 4 makes the causal connection between caring for the poor and experiencing the Spirit's presence and power that we need to hear, but Ezekiel 34 is a scathing indictment of the extent to which we who claim to follow "the good shepherd" have been doing the opposite of what a good shepherd does:

Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not
shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not
strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the
injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost,
but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered,
because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild
animals.

The Good Name of the Good Shepherd

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.

We are into the forth week and now we reflect on what was done Good Friday. Jesus tells us that he is the good shepherd and he lays down his life for his friends. We are reminded that he laid it down. In what he has done, he has made us a flock – his flock – called by his name, we know him. One fold, one shepherd.

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own
accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

The disciples come to know the power of the life laid down. Peter proclaims to the rules that “this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” There is no other name.

John pleads with the church. How often from the pulpit do we plead the same? Love each other! Lay down your lives for each other! Act! “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

“And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son
Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”

To own his name – that saving name, that name unmatched, the name of our good shepherd – we must love one another as he has commanded us.

Seeing is believing

Last week Thomas had to see it to believe it. This week we are invited to see him as well.

This week we do not here the mixed blessing - "blessed are those who do not see me and yet believe." This week there is an open invitation to touch, see, handle. Jesus eats before them. This is a time of experiencing - of witnessing the resurrected Lord.

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are
witnesses of these things.

Peter, in his sermon, does the same. He opens to the crowd the scriptures of the Old Testament. The meanings handed down to him by Jesus. He proclaims that he and the others are witnesses, and he preaches the message of Jesus: forgiveness of sins.

Luke isn't the only author to pick up the refrain. John tells us in believing, we see Christ. That is so powerful we are made new - children of God! He declares:

You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

What is our response? When he is hidden and obscure? When he is no where to be found, aloof in heaven? Not to shame His glory of seek false gods. We focus our gaze on him. We pray with the psalmist in desperation.

Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.

Who will roll away the stone for us?

Is it the door of the sepulcher, or of your own heart? From the tomb, or from your own eyes? You whose heart is shut, whose eyes are closed, are unable to discover the glory of the open grave. Pour then your oil, if you wish to see that glory, not on the body of the Lord, but on the eyes of your hearts, By the light of faith you will then see that which through the deficiency of faith now lies hidden in darkness.

– Peter Chrysologus SERMON 82,16

Hooker: Irony and fresh beginnings

The message is addressed to Jesus’ disciples — and Peter! — who is mentioned specifically because he has denied that he is a disciple. The message sums up the forgiveness which Jesus offers his followers. Strictly, none of them has any right to be summoned to follow the risen Lord, for all of them by their actions, and Peter by his words, have been ashamed of Jesus. But the warning of Mark 8.38 is not yet put into operation: instead of being ashamed of those who have failed him, Jesus calls them to begin again. He is going before you Into Galilee. These words echo those attributed to Jesus himself in 14.28 — words which introduced Peter’s protestations and Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s failure. In that context, the verb (I will go before) had to be understood in the sense of ‘lead’: after his resurrection, Jesus would lead the disciples into Galilee (as a shepherd leads his sheep). Here, the same verb (t has been translated in the same way, as ‘go before’, but this is generally understood in the sense of ‘go ahead’ or ‘precede’, since it is only when they arrive in Galilee that they will see Jesus. Yet the final words, just as he told you, show clearly that Mark has the earlier passage in mind, and he is certainly saying something far more significant than that Jesus will arrive in Galilee before the disciples. This no mere rendezvous, but a call to the disciples to follow Jesus once again. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus had gone ahead, and the disciples had seen him and followed. Now they are called to follow him, even though they cannot see him. What looks like an inconsistency in Mark maybe a deliberate attempt on his part to underline that this is what discipleship means, now that Jesus has been raised from the dead….
Perhaps in picturing the disciples as returning to Galilee — the place where they were originally called — Mark thinks of them as beginning again: they have failed Jesus, failed to take up their crosses and follow him to crucifixion, but now they are being summoned once again to follow him, and to learn once again what discipleship means. Mark may perhaps interpret the message as one of forgiveness and renewal….
Throughout Mark’s gospel, men and women have been blind and deaf to the truth about Jesus, and now at the end, when the divine message is delivered to the women, they are struck dumb, and fail to deliver it: they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid. Here is Mark’s final irony. In the rest of the story, Jesus has commanded men and women to say nothing about the truth they have glimpsed, and they have frequently disobeyed Now that the time has at last come to report what has happened, the women are silent!…
It is ironic that on Easter morning those who had faithfully, followed Jesus to his crucifixion should flee from the tomb—just as the disciples tied from arrest: this stupendous act is too great even for their loyalty.