Ministry Matters of Nashville, Tennessee, United States preach. teach. worship. reach. lead. "They weren't supposed to teach you that in seminary | Obsessing over the end of the world | Mourning the dead sermon" for Tuesday, 21 April 2014
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They didn’t teach me that in seminary.
I meet with our music director on Tuesday. I’m not a proficient musician myself, but I took piano from the time I was 7 until I was 16. I also played in a garage band. I have a decent understanding of what it takes to make good music, and what it takes to lead people in singing. It really helps in planning worship.
They didn’t teach me that in seminary.
More than once I’ve found myself pulling cat-5 wire through ceilings, running video cables for projection systems, studying sound board electrical diagrams, and doing photocopier repair.
They didn’t teach me any of that in seminary.
Oh, and then there’s money and accounting. Debits and credits, tax codes for nonprofits, running a stewardship campaign, making a budget, setting up church accounting software.
You get the picture.
Sometimes when I’m hanging out with clergy colleagues, we ask, “They didn’t teach you that in seminary?” in a half-serious, half-mocking way. All of the diverse stuff that we call “ministry” is as varied as life. Preachers have have to be jacks of all trades. Any available skill can become a tool for ministry. There is no way an M.Div can prepare you for all possible contingencies.
We also have to be autodidacts — those who are self-taught. Thrown into ministry, we have to learn how to learn. We study how to lead a committee, raise funds, buy church buses or sound systems, work with at-risk kids or navigate local ordinances in running a food program.
I’m on our Board of Ordained Ministry, and we often have conversations about how candidates for ministry come out of seminary without the necessary skills for church leadership. We debate questions like, “How much of leadership can be taught?” and “Is it our business to provide this remedial work?”
Seminary education, like the church that resources and requires it, is in crisis. But I believe part of the tension between the church and the academy is that we are not always clear from the church’s side about the value of a seminary education and what we believe that education should produce. Why do we askordained clergy to get an M.Div instead of an MBA?
Research in Natural Church Development shows that church growth is inversely proportional to the educational level of the pastor. In other words, the more educated the pastor, the slower the church will grow (in general). As a church planter with a Ph.D, that research makes me sweat.
So, if we’re going to require seminary education for ordination, we need to be clear about a) what value that education is and b) what value ordination is. There are many ways to serve and lead the church without ordination and without a seminary education.
It is not the case that less-educated people are simply more full of the Holy Spirit, or that theological education robs us of our faith. It is not true that education liberalizes people and that liberals don’t love Jesus. But it is certainly the case that economic class, social values and education are correlated. Churches that employ well-educated professionals may have a bias that prevents them from evangelizing effectively.
It is also the case that entrepreneurial people may not have the patience to go through cumbersome ordination and educationrequirements. People with the fire to start new things often don’t want to wait three years for a seminary degree and eight yearsto be officially ordained by a mainline denomination. Our requirements may weed out leaders who are less tolerant of waiting and less tolerant of bureaucracy.
But my seminary education taught me that my Christian faith did not come straight from Jesus, through the early church, to the way we practice it today. There were 2,000 years of evolution and development, 2000 years full of specific people, events and doctrines that shape how we talk about God. I can’t stand up in front of people and honestly claim that we do church “like the early church,” as some pastors claim. I can’t lie to people by telling them that “We believe every word of the Bible is literally true.”
My education also taught me humility. Anti-intellectual rhetoric often refers to “elites” and “elitism,” but every scholar and mentor I’ve ever known has been humble about what they don’t know. The paradox of intense study is that you become more and more aware of the holes in your knowledge. I’ve found that professors, much more so than preachers, are likely to admit “I don’t know” in front of others. By contrast, it’s often folks who are insecure about their knowledge who claim to know a lot. I’m not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, so I’m not going to pose as one in the pulpit just because I looked up a word definition. I’m not going to claim I’m smarter, better or more Christian than someone else just because I disagree with them.
It’s important for the church to acknowledge that seminary education is not necessary for every form of leadership in the church. For too long we’ve labored under the implicit belief that ordained clergy were the most important leaders. But it’s also important to acknowledge that the purpose of seminary is not church growth. It is not to teach accounting, or plumbing, or real estate law, or even, frankly, leadership. It’s to teach practical theology.
What we do with that education, and how we let is shape us, is up to us.
Unfortunately, in political circles, the Bible has become shorthand for certain conservative political and cultural values rather than the vibrant, inspired, and sacred collection of history, law, poetry, proverbs, songs, letters, and parables that Christians believe the Bible to be.
Popular and political culture have hijacked the Bible to stand as a symbol without considering what it is we are really talking about. Politicians are sworn into office on a Bible. We debate whether it is appropriate to read the Bible in public schools. Anything with the adjective “biblically-based” is meant to connote traditional family values and a certain moral code. In political and cultural debates, people proof-text from the Bible, selecting individual verses to support their position as if to say, “See? God is on MY side.”
Several representatives argued for the importance of the Bible to the history and culture of Tennessee, which raises the question of whose history and culture we are valuing. Is it the history and culture of indigenous people who first made their homes in what is now Tennessee? Is it the history and culture of enslaved people or immigrants or those who do not identify as Christian? Making the Bible the state book of Tennessee appears to be less about promoting the Bible itself and more about making a statement as to what kind of values and culture a person will find in Tennessee.
Without getting into the possible political ramifications, the first error that the bill makes is to assume that we all mean the same thing when we talk about the Bible. The bibles of differentChristian denominations contain a variety of books within their biblical canon. Orthodox and Catholic bibles include books written during the intertestamental period, sometimes called apocryphal or deuterocanonical, while most Protestant bibles exclude them. The Syrian and Ethiopian Orthodox churches include additional psalms and other books. The word “bible,” comes from the Greek biblia meaning “books,” or to trace the etymology back even further, “a collection of scrolls.” As a collection of books, the biblical canon varies from denomination to denomination, hence the Bible is not a monolith.
As anyone who has spent much time with their Bible knows, it contains a multitude of genres. Reading Psalms is very different from reading Leviticus, which differs from reading Ephesians. The erotic poetry of Song of Solomon is so beautiful and moving, but that is rarely what politicians appeal to when they talk about the Bible. The Bible contains stories of child sacrifice, rape, polygamy, slavery, and war. Parts of scripture are hardly family-friendly, and yet so often in the public arena, Bible is held up as a symbol of so-called family values.
Certainly not every part of scripture is meant to be prescriptive for our lives right here and right now. Poetry, proverbs, prophecy, lamentations, and letters make up the biblical text and serve as a challenge to the efforts to make the Bible mean just one thing or support just one viewpoint.
To me, the danger of seeing the Bible as a symbol of a certain political and cultural viewpoint is that we will lose what is holy, meaningful, and sacred about the biblical text. The reality of what the Bible is and what it contains is so much richer and significant than the shallow, symbolic version that gets trotted out for political gain. After hearing random verses thrown around by people yelling at one another, will people want to read and discover for themselves how God is speaking to them through scripture? Will people be called to pray in the words of the psalms or wrestle with the parables of Jesus or enter into the immense prophetic vision of the Revelation to John? Will people fall in love with the Bible as I fell in love with this collection of beautiful, challenging texts, inspired by God and containing what is necessary for salvation? Or will we let the Bible be white-washed, becoming a representation of a certain political and cultural worldview?
Surely the Bible is too significant to us as Christians to let that happen.
Stop obsessing over the end of the world. Enjoy creation now as a gift of God.
Too often Christian reflection on the end times gets reduced to a potluck Scripture showdown wherein we use our pet verses in an attempt to read the tea leaves or the stars or the blood moons or the activities of Israel in order to determine some kind of reasonable expectation for when the end is going to come about. Our minds become so fascinated and fixed on the idea of getting raptured out of here and God’s tribulation wrath on those left behind that we fail to see that this present moment is a gift of God.
Creation, time, space, love, truth, goodness and beauty are not afterthoughts in God’s plan to save the world. Each plays an intricate role in that plan. Each contributes something the overall whole of the gospel. Each reminds us of God’s good intentions for his world and the inhabitants thereof. And no matter your eschatology, you are called to live in creation, time, space, love, truth, goodness and beauty at least until God takes you out of this world.
Now, then, understand the two claims I’m making.
Creation is, in one way or another, part of God’s plan to save the world.
God has left you in creation for the present time.
This means, therefore, that as long as you are a participant in this creation, you are receiving creation as a gift of God. Creation is a gift to those who do not believe — he causes the rain to fall on the fields of the just and the unjust. Creation is a gift for those of us who do believe — it is the stage upon which we enact and embody God’s salvation plan until he sees fit to change things.
Creation is God’s gift to us. And despite its groaning and brokenness, it still bares the marks of its Creator.
Why then do we continue to look for escape?
Through creation, God is inviting us to participate in his rescue mission. We get to be a part of his story of salvation and resurrection. The journey toward that promised salvation matters to God, else he wouldn’t have left us here. The journey is the ambiguity and the tension, the place of love and grace, into which the New Testament documents spoke. Even the reflections of Paul and John the Revelator on the end of the world were not intended to help us read the tea leaves, but were intended to teach us to be faithful right now, no matter our circumstances.
I understand there are biblical injunctions to look for the second coming of Christ, so, please, no one quote Bible verses at me to disprove what I’m saying. But the point of every one of those passages is to remind the church, whatever its present situation, to live faithfully within that situation. The Bible’s eschatological, end-times teaching never intends to take us out of the present moment and plant our hearts solely within the future or in the next world. The Bible wants ethical, good, beauty-seeking, truth-telling Christians to firmly plant themselves within this world and for this world. Because God is for this world.
Creation, despite its brokenness, despite its festering wounds, despite its mourning, is God’s gift to us. No matter your view of the end of the world, this present moment is where God has called you to live and move and have your being. So let’s stop waiting for the end of the world, let’s stop moving the political chess pieces around to manufacture our particular version of the end, and let’s start receiving creation as a gift. Let’s receive each moment and each person as an opportunity to participate in God’s salvation plan.
Tom Fuerst blogs at Tom1st.com. You can subscribe to his blog via email here.
by David PersonMemorial for Walter Scott / Image courtesy CBS Evening News via Youtube
The killing of Walter Scott, the unarmed South Carolina black man shot in the back by police officer Michael Slager, is a provocative example of law enforcement gone wrong. Cell phone video of the shooting, taken by a civilian bystander, was so compelling that Slager was fired and charged with murder after it was released.
It also reveals what continues to be wrong with Christianity in America. I say this because once again, at least so far, white evangelical pastors and churches are missing in action on protesting police shootings of unarmed black men.
Please note I’m talking specifically about white evangelical leadership, not white Christians generally and certainly not white people as a group. Plenty of whites have joined protests against the shootings and supported the Black Lives Matter movement. But those who have anointed themselves as the moral conscience of our nation — the pro-life/anti-abortion, anti-same-sex marriage, pro-personal responsibility crowd — are noticeably missing in action when it comes to these troubling, unjust shootings.
And that’s especially disturbing because these “waistband shootings” are not new. According to the San Francisco Chronicle website, the NAACP reviewed 45 of them that occurred in Oakland from 2004 to 2008. This is what it found:
37 of the people shot were black;
no whites were shot;
no weapons were found in 40 percent of the cases;
no police officers were charged in any of the cases.
Armed or not, it’s clear that black suspects are shot and killed disproportionately in encounters with the police. FBI data shows that white police officers killed about two black people every week between 2005 and 2012, according to USA Today. Nearly 1 in 5 of the blacks were under 21, compared to less than 1 in 10 of whites killed by police.
A decade-plus of white evangelical silence regarding this epidemic problem is a scathing indictment of their faith and practices.
The Rev. Jim Wallis also finds the dearth of white Christian leaders addressing waistband shootings disturbing. Wallis, the president and founder of Sojourners and himself a white man, was blunt in his criticism during the heat of the Ferguson protests last year.
“If white Christians would act more like Christians instead of like white people, black parents would have less fear for their children,” Wallis said. “My son will never have happen to him what happened to Michael Brown. Never happen.”
If white evangelical leaders need inspiration, they should look to the story of the Rev. Jonathan Daniels, a young, white Episcopal seminarian who answered Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call in 1965 for more voting rights volunteers following the infamous Bloody Sunday beating in Selma, Alabama. Daniels was so committed to racial justice that he stayed in Selma to continuehis racial justice work after the third and successful Selma-to-Montgomery march.
Shortly after being released from jail for a subsequent protest, the young, unarmed priest was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy in Hayneville. His killer was acquitted by an all-white jury, but Daniels continues to be revered. His sacrifice put a face on relevant, sacrificial faith.
Race is still America’s most challenging battleground. Just a generation or so removed from legalized segregation, wounds are still raw and many people — non-white and white — count themselves among the wounded.
History has proven that the most potent, healing justice comes in the context of faith. It’s also taught us that the justice imperative resonates more broadly when those born with white privilege sacrifice their skin color advantage to stand for what is right.
Which is why I say that what we need today is white religious leaders who are willing to stand with their black brothers and sisters in the clergy, fully embracing the words of the ancient prophet Amos: “Justice must flow like torrents of water, righteous actions like a stream that never dries up.”*
*Amos 5:24, NET
by Ron EdmondsonDiscerning a call to vocational ministry can be a tiring and trying experience.
I’ve had the privilege of speaking with numerous young people and couples who are possibly experiencing a call to full-time, vocational missions or ministry. They don’t always know what they are supposed to do — usually not — but they know their vocation is to be a part of the mission of Christ.
Talking with people at this stage of life is one of my favorite things to do. It fuels me in ministry to help others process their call.
Having also wrestled through this issue years ago with two teenage sons makes this something very personal to me. Obviously I have my own experience in this area of wrestling through a call to vocational ministry. My wrestling was a 10-year process.
The counsel I gave my boys came to me suddenly one day. I’m not pretending it was inspired, but it certainly is a product of my personal experience and time spent with God struggling through this issue. I’ve used this teaching many times since then.
Basically I like to help people understand that the “call,” in my understanding, is not a call to a group of people or a geographiclocation as much as it is to a person: the person of Jesus Christ.
That’s important, because a lot of times someone begins to sense a calling after a mission trip to a certain area and feel as if that is the place they must go to serve God. That may be the place God wants to use them, but it could be that God just wants their availability, right where they are or elsewhere and God used the specific place to stir their heart towards serving vocationally.
I’m not saying he doesn’t send people to specific places or groups of people, but I do believe he reserves the right to change that at any time, because ultimately a person is called into a relationship with God first and a location second. In fact, I’ve several times in my call sensed God was even giving me freedom to choose where I served.
After establishing that the ultimate call is to the person of Christ, I share a few principles. These are actually realities — based on my experience — of the vocational call. These won’t make the decision for the person. I can’t do that. They are intended to help someone think through their calling. The person who is sensing a call can often begin to discern that this is the call based on the way they respond to these four words.
Four realities of the call of God on a person’s life are:
Irresistible
You can’t refuse this kind of call and still live at peace with God. He will still love you. You may even be successful in what you are doing, but something will always eat at you until you surrender to this type of call. (Think of Jonah on the boat, attempting to run from God — even before the storm came.) That was the case in my situation. As much as I wanted success in business — and I had some — none of that brought me peace until I surrendered to God’s will for my life.
Irreplaceable
Nothing else will satisfy a person like this call. Nothing will fill that void — that emptiness. If God’s greatest desire for a person’s life on whom he places the “call.” I found no real joy in my work, until I was serving in the career choice God wanted me to serve.
Irrevocable
God doesn’t take this call away from a person once he has placed it on their life. At times, especially when things are stressful in ministry, I have glanced at other opportunities, but I know I cannot go backwards from this call God has placed on my life. I may serve him in a number of capacities and places over the years — I believe that could even be in business if he chose that. It doesn’t necessarily have to be as a pastor or in a local church, but I know one decision in my vocational career is solved, I work for him. My end “product” of my life is advancing his mission, not mine.
Immediate
The call of God on a person’s life begins at the moment of the call. Often people want to get the right degree or start drawing a paycheck before they live out the call God has placed on their life. I don’t believe that’s the call. The call is to “Go” and the time is now. (Jesus taught this reality in Matthew 8.) That doesn’t mean the person shouldn’t gain education, experience or even a paycheck, but if a person has received a call from God on their life the time to get started doing something toward that call is now! When I realized a vocational call to ministry was being placed on my life, I started immediately, with no promise of income or position. I simply started serving people. Opportunities and specific assignments quickly followed.
Are you feeling those four words heavy on your heart? Perhaps God is trying to get your attention.
For a biblical example of this type calling which includes each of these four points, read Jonah’s story again.
Have you wrestled or are you wrestling through a vocational call to ministry? What was your experience?
Ron Edmondson blogs at RonEdmondson.com.
    Do you want to be a part of something amazing? A truly world-changing moment inhistory? What if you could help raise $75 MILLION to end needless death and suffering from malaria – a treatable and preventable disease? You can, and you are. How will YOU #BringChange? People across the globe are taking part in a wide range of activities to raise funds for Imagine No Malaria. For the 3.2 billion people at risk of contracting malaria, every day is malaria day. ONLINE ENGAGEMENT Take this opportunity to engage your community in support of Imagine No Malaria, an extraordinary effort by the people of The United Methodist Church to end death and suffering from malaria in Africa. Order FREE donation boxes or stickers online Sign our petition online HOLD A COMMUNITY EVENT Across the United States, congregations are preparing to host fundraisers. Through creative events such as pancake breakfasts, “lemonAID” stands, 5K walks and much more, you will make difference. More than 30,000 red donation boxes are in churches and homes around the U.S. today, and soon there will be even more! Let the world know about your commitment to Bring Change through an event in your community! Register your community event Find an event near you Download event resources and guides Join us in Washington, DC on May 23rd at the Kennedy Center for a Gala Benefit Concert supporting Imagine No Malaria ENGAGE YOUR CONGREGATION Download graphics to use in worship, small groups, or community events View the Bring Change: Make a World of Difference video Download a Word document or PDF of worship resources and sermon starters Download and print a 2-page impact overview PDF to share JOIN US TO #BRINGCHANGE AND BEAT MALARIA FOR GOOD! |
by Missy Buchanan
by Fredrick Nzwili / Religion News Service
(RNS) Widely viewed as a schismatic movement, the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON, a grouping of conservative Anglicans, says it is not leaving the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Instead, the movement says it is committed to renewing the 85 million-member communion from within.
GAFCON members from Africa, Europe, America and Asia, met in London last week where they discussed the future of global Anglicanism.
“The members of our churches stand at the heart of the communion, which is why we are committing to its renewal,” the GAFCON Primate Council said in a statement at the end of the April 13-17 conference. “We belong to the mainstream, and we are moving forward.”
The movement started in Jerusalem in 2008 as a response to the consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church.
It has gained ground, planting 483 new congregations in North America since 2009, Archbishop Foley Beach of the Anglican Church in North America reported at the meeting.
Beach, who heads a rival group to the Episcopal Church, was elected to the GAFCON Council, the top decision making organ of the movement. Fellowships of Anglicans in Australia, England and Ireland are affiliated with GAFCON.
According to the statement, the movement says it has prioritizedclear theological education and training of leaders, especially bishops.
At the London meeting, the primates said they are concerned the mother church has drifted away from biblical faith. African bishops criticize the Church of England for championing women priests and bishops and being supportive of gays and lesbians.
And they added a new concern: interfaith relationships with Muslims.
“We do not regard the recent use of a Church of England building for a Muslim service as a minor aberration,” the council said. “These actions betray the Gospel and discourage Christians who live among Muslims, especially those experiencing persecution.”
Instead, the movement says it is committed to renewing the 85 million-member communion from within.
GAFCON members from Africa, Europe, America and Asia, met in London last week where they discussed the future of global Anglicanism.
“The members of our churches stand at the heart of the communion, which is why we are committing to its renewal,” the GAFCON Primate Council said in a statement at the end of the April 13-17 conference. “We belong to the mainstream, and we are moving forward.”
The movement started in Jerusalem in 2008 as a response to the consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson by the Episcopal Church.
It has gained ground, planting 483 new congregations in North America since 2009, Archbishop Foley Beach of the Anglican Church in North America reported at the meeting.
Beach, who heads a rival group to the Episcopal Church, was elected to the GAFCON Council, the top decision making organ of the movement. Fellowships of Anglicans in Australia, England and Ireland are affiliated with GAFCON.
According to the statement, the movement says it has prioritizedclear theological education and training of leaders, especially bishops.
At the London meeting, the primates said they are concerned the mother church has drifted away from biblical faith. African bishops criticize the Church of England for championing women priests and bishops and being supportive of gays and lesbians.
And they added a new concern: interfaith relationships with Muslims.
“We do not regard the recent use of a Church of England building for a Muslim service as a minor aberration,” the council said. “These actions betray the Gospel and discourage Christians who live among Muslims, especially those experiencing persecution.”
by David F. Watson
by Richard Lischer"Christ Carrying the Cross," El Greco c. 1580
Seven years ago, on the thirteenth day of April, my son called to tell me his cancer had returned. He was a grown man, but he told me his news like a boy. He said, “Hey, Dad, where’s Mom?” You would have thought he had just put a dent in the family’s new car or failed a final exam. He might have been in a little trouble and wanted his mother to buffer the rough edges. He said they had found tumors in quite a few places in his body, on his liver, chest, side, and more. Then he asked me to come to him. And that was all.
I was not expecting the call. But then you never are. You are never adequately braced with feet planted and stomach muscles clenched. Just when you should have been steely-eyed, you were caught looking away, distracted by a passing thought, and now it is too late. A police car with its rotating blue light — why in my driveway? An envelope marked “Personal” from someone you don’t know. A stranger in uniform who doesn’t say hello, but asks you who you are and where you live.
A phone call from your son.
A familiar voice emerges from a piece of inexpensive black plastic. The voice has no body, and yet it makes a claim as firm and authoritative as flesh. It says “Hey, Dad” with an end stress on Dad that has always and in every circumstance meant trouble. “Hey, Dad,” and ordinary time stands still and the room begins to turn while you wait for the rest of the sentence to do its work. “Why don’t you come over to 2 K,” it says. The ruin in his voice becomes the new truth in your life, and your old life, the only one you have ever known or wanted, simply vanishes.
We addressed each other with an economy of passion, as men will do when they are trying to curtail a feeling, as if what had just passed between us was a new piece of information and not a revelation. We spoke as if the end of the ages had not yet come upon us. I do remember later that evening sobbing into the bedroom wall and hitting it hard with my fist. “It is a robbery!” I cried. But at the moment of his call, there was shockingly little to say. Our brief conversation left no room for misunderstanding and no remainder of options to be sorted out later. I pressed End on my cell phone and began to make my way from the first floor of the hospital to the clinics in an adjoining building.
Even as I was running down corridors, weaving around gurneys, and fumbling with my cell phone to call my wife, something new and forbidden was forming in my imagination. My eyes had begun to burn with a future I was never intended to see. In an ordered world, beginnings and endings are off-limits. A parent is not designed to comprehend the child’s life in its entirety, any more than the child is meant to experience the parent’s early days or youthful indiscretions. It is a sensible arrangement. Children are not permitted to witness the passions that produced them, and parents are not allowed to observe their children’s final hours.
It follows that a father has no business writing a book about his son’s death. This is proper work for sons, perhaps when they themselves are graying and secure in the world — to sum up, round off, and memorialize their fathers. These sons write out of a profound sense of duty toward the generation that preceded them and formed them.
With me it is different. My son has become one of the fathers to me.
When I survey my dad, he is always old; he appears as solid and factual as history. But when I steal a glance at my son, what I feel is closer to enchantment, which is a more complicated subject than history, and more compelling. When I look over my shoulder expecting to face the stable and monumental figure of my father, I see an open-faced boy smiling back at me.
He was so young and inexperienced he thought he had discovered a new way to die. All my wife and I could do was keep him company and follow him on what he somewhat dramatically called his “new path.” His new way, which was actually a very old way, carried him beyond the stars to the very origins of his universe and to the source of everything he loved. We traveled the path with him, but at a respectful distance behind him, learning from him and trusting him to show us the way. The last leg of his trip took him exactly ninety-five days. We never imagined how much grace would be required for so brief a journey. Now we rely on it every day.
It wasn’t until he got sick that I walked the Stations of the Cross for the first time. Until then, I had never thought of them as anything other than a ritual for pious Catholics and a few venturesome Protestants. But as his illness wore on, the Stations began to loom in my imagination, perhaps because cancer itself leads you from one obligatory shrine to the next. It is a disease that teaches incrementally.
In most churches the Stations are so graphic in their depiction of Jesus’ suffering that they leave little to the imagination: he staggers, he falls, he bleeds, he dies. The ribs protrude from his corpse like piano keys. This is what a young man’s death looks like. A few summers ago, when I was teaching at Saint John’s University in Minnesota, I noticed something different about the Stations in the abbey church. They were nothing more than plain crosses cut into the granite pavement. They were not designed to restrict the imagination but to expand it and make it more inclusive. When you stand or kneel on one of these cross-shaped slits, as brutal in their own way as the medieval gore they were meant to replace, they remind you that anyone’s pain, including your own, can find a place in something larger than itself.
It all begins with the Stations. You have to make every last one of them. You have to go with him for his labs and scans, hang out in the coffee shops, walk the dogs, listen to the same old stories, share the same old jokes, and carry on with him for hours about nothing in particular. And when things get serious, you have to keep your part of the bargain and try not to cry. When he wants to talk about God, you have to hide your own damaged faith, clear your palate of clichés, and find a witness deep within yourself.
Some pretending is involved. You have to nod sagely when he says, “Time is irrelevant,” even when you have secretly begun to date your own life from a single telephone call. You have to pretend that you are not counting out his days like silver dollars.
All this requires a lot of love, and love is a harsh comforter, because only love makes genuine loss possible. You can’t lose what you never loved.
A man said to my wife and me, “We can give your son back to you.” “No,” she said, and nearly took the poor man’s head off. We were sitting in a richly appointed office around a mahogany desk. “You will not give our son back to us.” It was a low point. Still, the man was only following a natural if professional instinct, the human instinct to keep, hold, and restore. It’s what the poet Julia Kasdorf had in mind when she wrote, “Grieving a loss is not only the process of letting go, but it is also the process of keeping, like writing, through acts that allow you to continue to consummate the other.”
Those who grieve have no illusions about denying death or making it into a beautiful experience. We only want to remember in a saving way so that something whole and complete may come into view. To remember in this way is the work of God. My religious tradition calls it Resurrection. If you obey the human instinct to keep and to consummate, you are doing the work of God whether you know it or not. Remembering is a sacred act.
And a saving act. “How can we know the way?” a skeptic once asked Jesus. The time comes when everyone repeats the same bewildered question with the same shattered implication: there is no way. And even if there is, how can anyone know it? My son asked the question, and in my own good time I asked it too. Neither one of us ever got a straight answer, but we were both shown a path. His was marked “To Blessedness.” Mine was a bit more obscure and overgrown, but it eventually took me to a better place as well. It led me from the bitter gall of losing him to something like a settled sorrow. From “It is a robbery” to “He was my son, and I give thanks for him.”
Excerpted from “Stations of the Heart” by Richard Lischer Copyright © 2013 by Richard Lischer. Excerpted by permission of Vintage, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
by Steve HarperI am on thin ice. I do not read music, and I am not a trained musician. So, whatever I have to say about it arises more fromintuition than from knowledge.
But even with my limitations acknowledged, I am convinced there is a strong link between music and spirituality — that in some sacred and observable ways, music is a language of the soul. There are numerous ways to describe this, but for today I will look at music itself.
Among other things, music has tune, harmony, tempo and style. We can learn something about spiritual formation from each element.
The tune of music is what identifies it regardless of where we hear it or what instrument is used to play it. We can whistle the National Anthem or hear it played by a full military band. But when we hear the tune, we immediately know what song it is.
The spiritual life has tune. It comes to us through the classic doctrines of Christianity, revealed in Scripture and interpreted by tradition. We are not free to make up the tune; it has been given to us.
The spiritual life also has harmony — what we might call sub-tunes that align with the basic tune to produce a rich and expansive piece of music: bass, alto, tenor, soprano, etc. Harmony cannot violate or compete with the tune; otherwise there is discord. But with harmony the tune is enriched.
I take this to be the fundamental expressions of Christianity (Roman, Orthodox, Protestant) and the orders and denominations which have emerged over the centuries. Let everyone sing! We get a fuller sound than if everyone sang the same tune.
Music also includes tempo. This not only means that some songs are faster or slower than others, but that the beat of songs varies as well. Most people appreciate multiple tempos, even if they have a favorite. And they may select music with a tempo that reflects a mood or spirit they are in at the time. No problem — music is ready to “soothe your soul” in more than one tempo. So too, the spiritual life varies as to its pace, tempo and beat. No problem.
Finally, there is style. Again, there are many. Some (e.g. opera and country) have been around a long time; others may have only recently been named. But every style attracts fans, even if people enjoy a variety of styles.
And so, we find style in spirituality. The sacred silence, followed by chants at the monastery or in a Taizé service. The pulsating liturgy week after week at an Episcopal Church. The good old Gospel songs at a revival service. A classical or contemporary anthem sung by a choir. You name it. Styles — that touch us in ways no single form could do.
Ending this meditation and realizing I have tried to use words to describe the spirituality of music, leaves me feeling a bit awkward. I think I will stop writing and start listening to some music — and allow it to speak for itself.
Steve Harper is the author of “For the Sake of the Bride” and “Five Marks of a Methodist.” He blogs at Oboedire.
Fourth Sunday of Easter-COLOR: White
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
Scripture Texts:
Acts 4:5 The next day, the people’s rulers, elders and Torah-teachers assembled in Yerushalayim, 6 along with ‘Anan the cohen hagadol, Kayafa, Yochanan, Alexander and the other men from the family of the cohen hagadol. 7 They had the emissaries stand before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”
8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.
11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”[Footnotes:
Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22]
Psalm 23: (0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai is my shepherd; I lack nothing.
2 He has me lie down in grassy pastures,
he leads me by quiet water,
3 he restores my inner person.
He guides me in right paths
for the sake of his own name.
4 Even if I pass through death-dark ravines,
I will fear no disaster; for you are with me;
your rod and staff reassure me.
5 You prepare a table for me,
even as my enemies watch;
you anoint my head with oil
from an overflowing cup.
6 Goodness and grace will pursue me
every day of my life;
and I will live in the house of Adonai
for years and years to come.
1 John 3:16 The way that we have come to know love is through his having laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers! 17 If someone has worldly possessions and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how can he be loving God? 18 Children, let us love not with words and talk, but with actions and in reality!
19 Here is how we will know that we are from the truth and will set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts know something against us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts know nothing against us, we have confidence in approaching God; 22 then, whatever we ask for, we receive from him; because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him.
23 This is his command: that we are to trust in the person and power of his Son Yeshua the Messiah and to keep loving one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands remain united with him and he with them.
Here is how we know that he remains united with us: by the Spirit whom he gave us.
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. 13 The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me — 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. 16 Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again! 18 No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”
Acts 4:5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
Scripture Texts:
Acts 4:5 The next day, the people’s rulers, elders and Torah-teachers assembled in Yerushalayim, 6 along with ‘Anan the cohen hagadol, Kayafa, Yochanan, Alexander and the other men from the family of the cohen hagadol. 7 They had the emissaries stand before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”
8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.
11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”[Footnotes:
Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22]
Psalm 23: (0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai is my shepherd; I lack nothing.
2 He has me lie down in grassy pastures,
he leads me by quiet water,
3 he restores my inner person.
He guides me in right paths
for the sake of his own name.
4 Even if I pass through death-dark ravines,
I will fear no disaster; for you are with me;
your rod and staff reassure me.
5 You prepare a table for me,
even as my enemies watch;
you anoint my head with oil
from an overflowing cup.
6 Goodness and grace will pursue me
every day of my life;
and I will live in the house of Adonai
for years and years to come.
1 John 3:16 The way that we have come to know love is through his having laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers! 17 If someone has worldly possessions and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how can he be loving God? 18 Children, let us love not with words and talk, but with actions and in reality!
19 Here is how we will know that we are from the truth and will set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts know something against us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts know nothing against us, we have confidence in approaching God; 22 then, whatever we ask for, we receive from him; because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him.
23 This is his command: that we are to trust in the person and power of his Son Yeshua the Messiah and to keep loving one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands remain united with him and he with them.
Here is how we know that he remains united with us: by the Spirit whom he gave us.
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. 13 The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me — 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. 16 Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again! 18 No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”
John Wesley's Notes-commentary for
Acts 4:5-12
Verse 5
[5] And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Rulers, and elders, and scribes — Who were eminent for power, for wisdom, and for learning.
Verse 6
[6] And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Annas, who had been the high priest, and Caiaphas, who was so then.
Verse 7
[7] And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
By what name — By what authority, have ye done this? - They seem to speak ambiguously on purpose.
Verse 8
[8] Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost — That moment. God moves his instruments, not when they please, but just when he sees it needful.
Ye rulers — He gives them the honour due to their office.
Verse 10
[10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Be it known to you all — Probably the herald of God proclaimed this with a loud voice.
Whom God hath raised from the dead — They knew in their own consciences that it was so. And though they had hired the soldiers to tell a most senseless and incredible tale to the contrary, Matthew 28:12,15, yet it is observable, they did not, so far as we can learn, dare to plead it before Peter and John.
Verse 11
[11] This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Psalms 118:22.
Verse 12
[12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
There is no other name whereby we must he saved — The apostle uses a beautiful gradation, from the temporal deliverance which had been wrought for the poor cripple, by the power of Christ, to that of a much nobler and more important kind, which is wrought by Christ for impotent and sinful souls. He therein follows the admirable custom of his great Lord and Master, who continually took occasion from earthly to speak of spiritual things.
Psalm 23
Verse 2
[2] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Lie down — To repose myself at noon, as the manner was in those hot countries.
Green — Where there is both delight and plenty of provisions.
Verse 3
[3] He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Restoreth — Heb. He bringeth it back; from its errors and wandering.
For — Not for any worth in me, but for the glory of his justice, and faithfulness, and goodness.
Verse 4
[4] Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thy rod and thy staff — Two words denoting the same thing, and both designing God's pastoral care over him.
Verse 5
[5] Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
A table — Thou furnishest me with plenty of provisions and comforts.
Oil — With aromatic ointments, which were then used at great feasts; thy comforts delight my soul.
Runneth over — Thou hast given me a plentiful portions, signified by the cup, given to the guests by the master of the feast.
1 John 3:16-24
Verse 16
[16] Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
The word God is not in the original. It was omitted by the apostle just as the particular name is omitted by Mary, when she says to the gardener, "Sir, if thou hast borne him hence;" and by the church, when she says, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth," Song of Solomon 1:2; in both which places there is a language, a very emphatical language, even in silence. It declares how totally the thoughts were possessed by the blessed and glorious subject. It expresses also the superlative dignity and amiableness of the person meant, as though He, and He alone, was, or deserved to be, both known and admired by all.
Because he laid down his life — Not merely for sinners, but for us in particular. From this truth believed, from this blessing enjoyed, the love of our brethren takes its rise, which may very justly be admitted as an evidence that our faith is no delusion.
Verse 17
[17] But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
But whoso hath this world's good — Worldly substance, far less valuable than life.
And seeth his brother have need — The very sight of want knocks at the door of the spectator's heart.
And shutteth up — Whether asked or not.
His bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him — Certainly not at all, however he may talk, 1 John 3:18, of loving God.
Verse 18
[18] My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Not in word — Only.
But in deed — In action: not in tongue by empty professions, but in truth.
Verse 19
[19] And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
And hereby we know — We have a farther proof by this real, operative love.
That we are of the truth — That we have true faith, that we are true children of God.
And shall assure our hearts before him — Shall enjoy the assurance of his favour, and the "testimony of a good conscience toward God." The heart, in St. John's language, is the conscience. The word conscience is not found in his writings.
Verse 20
[20] For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
For if we have not this testimony, if in anything our heart, our own conscience, condemn us, much more does God, who is greater than our heart - An infinitely holier and a more impartial Judge.
And knoweth all things — So that there is no hope of hiding it from him.
Verse 21
[21] Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
If our heart condemn us not — If our conscience, duly enlightened by the word and Spirit of God, and comparing all our thoughts, words, and works with that word, pronounce that they agree therewith.
Then have we confidence toward God — Not only our consciousness of his favour continues and increases, but we have a full persuasion, that whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him.
Verse 23
[23] And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
And this is his commandment — All his commandments in one word.
That we should believe and love — in the manner and degree which he hath taught. This is the greatest and most important command that ever issued from the throne of glory. If this be neglected, no other can be kept: if this be observed, all others are easy.
Verse 24
[24] And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
And he that keepeth his commandments — That thus believes and loves.
Abideth in him, and God in him: and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us — Which witnesses with our spirits that we are his children, and brings forth his fruits of peace, love, holiness. This is the transition to the treating of the Holy Spirit which immediately follows.
John 10:11-18
Verse 12
[12] But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
But the hireling — It is not the bare receiving hire, which denominates a man a hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge: yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel:) but the loving hire: the loving the hire more than the work: the working for the sake of the hire. He is a hireling, who would not work, were it not for the hire; to whom this is the great (if not only) motive of working. O God! If a man who works only for hire is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at all? The wolf - signifies any enemy who, by force or fraud, attacks the Christian's faith, liberty, or life.
So the wolf seizeth and scattereth the flock — He seizeth some, and scattereth the rest; the two ways of hurting the flock of Christ.
Verse 13
[13] The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling — Because he loves the hire, not the sheep.
Verse 14
[14] I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
I know my sheep — With a tender regard and special care: and am known of mine - With a holy confidence and affection.
Verse 15
[15] As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father — With such a knowledge as implies an inexpressible union: and I lay down my life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole life was only a going unto death.
Verse 16
[16] And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
I have also other sheep — Which he foreknew; which are not of this fold - Not of the Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles.
I must bring them likewise — Into my Church, the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven.
And there shall be one flock — (Not one fold, a plain false print) no corrupt or divided flocks remaining.
And one shepherd — Who laid down his life for the sheep, and will leave no hireling among them. The unity both of the flock and the shepherd shall he completed in its season. The shepherd shall bring all into one flock: and the whole flock shall hear the one shepherd.
Verse 17
[17] Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
I lay down my life that I may take it again — I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their justification.
Verse 18
[18] No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
I lay it down of myself — By my own free act and deed.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again — I have an original power and right of myself, both to lay it down as a ransom, and to take it again, after full satisfaction is made, for the sins of the whole world.
This commission have I received of my Father — Which I readily execute. He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his own glory, after it. Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life. For this he had in him self, as having an original right to dispose thereof, antecedent to the Father's commission. But this commission was the reason why he thus used his power in laying down his life. He did it in obedience to his Father.
Acts 4:5-12
Verse 5
[5] And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Rulers, and elders, and scribes — Who were eminent for power, for wisdom, and for learning.
Verse 6
[6] And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Annas, who had been the high priest, and Caiaphas, who was so then.
Verse 7
[7] And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
By what name — By what authority, have ye done this? - They seem to speak ambiguously on purpose.
Verse 8
[8] Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost — That moment. God moves his instruments, not when they please, but just when he sees it needful.
Ye rulers — He gives them the honour due to their office.
Verse 10
[10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Be it known to you all — Probably the herald of God proclaimed this with a loud voice.
Whom God hath raised from the dead — They knew in their own consciences that it was so. And though they had hired the soldiers to tell a most senseless and incredible tale to the contrary, Matthew 28:12,15, yet it is observable, they did not, so far as we can learn, dare to plead it before Peter and John.
Verse 11
[11] This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Psalms 118:22.
Verse 12
[12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
There is no other name whereby we must he saved — The apostle uses a beautiful gradation, from the temporal deliverance which had been wrought for the poor cripple, by the power of Christ, to that of a much nobler and more important kind, which is wrought by Christ for impotent and sinful souls. He therein follows the admirable custom of his great Lord and Master, who continually took occasion from earthly to speak of spiritual things.
Psalm 23
Verse 2
[2] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Lie down — To repose myself at noon, as the manner was in those hot countries.
Green — Where there is both delight and plenty of provisions.
Verse 3
[3] He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Restoreth — Heb. He bringeth it back; from its errors and wandering.
For — Not for any worth in me, but for the glory of his justice, and faithfulness, and goodness.
Verse 4
[4] Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thy rod and thy staff — Two words denoting the same thing, and both designing God's pastoral care over him.
Verse 5
[5] Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
A table — Thou furnishest me with plenty of provisions and comforts.
Oil — With aromatic ointments, which were then used at great feasts; thy comforts delight my soul.
Runneth over — Thou hast given me a plentiful portions, signified by the cup, given to the guests by the master of the feast.
1 John 3:16-24
Verse 16
[16] Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
The word God is not in the original. It was omitted by the apostle just as the particular name is omitted by Mary, when she says to the gardener, "Sir, if thou hast borne him hence;" and by the church, when she says, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth," Song of Solomon 1:2; in both which places there is a language, a very emphatical language, even in silence. It declares how totally the thoughts were possessed by the blessed and glorious subject. It expresses also the superlative dignity and amiableness of the person meant, as though He, and He alone, was, or deserved to be, both known and admired by all.
Because he laid down his life — Not merely for sinners, but for us in particular. From this truth believed, from this blessing enjoyed, the love of our brethren takes its rise, which may very justly be admitted as an evidence that our faith is no delusion.
Verse 17
[17] But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
But whoso hath this world's good — Worldly substance, far less valuable than life.
And seeth his brother have need — The very sight of want knocks at the door of the spectator's heart.
And shutteth up — Whether asked or not.
His bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him — Certainly not at all, however he may talk, 1 John 3:18, of loving God.
Verse 18
[18] My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Not in word — Only.
But in deed — In action: not in tongue by empty professions, but in truth.
Verse 19
[19] And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
And hereby we know — We have a farther proof by this real, operative love.
That we are of the truth — That we have true faith, that we are true children of God.
And shall assure our hearts before him — Shall enjoy the assurance of his favour, and the "testimony of a good conscience toward God." The heart, in St. John's language, is the conscience. The word conscience is not found in his writings.
Verse 20
[20] For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
For if we have not this testimony, if in anything our heart, our own conscience, condemn us, much more does God, who is greater than our heart - An infinitely holier and a more impartial Judge.
And knoweth all things — So that there is no hope of hiding it from him.
Verse 21
[21] Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
If our heart condemn us not — If our conscience, duly enlightened by the word and Spirit of God, and comparing all our thoughts, words, and works with that word, pronounce that they agree therewith.
Then have we confidence toward God — Not only our consciousness of his favour continues and increases, but we have a full persuasion, that whatsoever we ask we shall receive of him.
Verse 23
[23] And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
And this is his commandment — All his commandments in one word.
That we should believe and love — in the manner and degree which he hath taught. This is the greatest and most important command that ever issued from the throne of glory. If this be neglected, no other can be kept: if this be observed, all others are easy.
Verse 24
[24] And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
And he that keepeth his commandments — That thus believes and loves.
Abideth in him, and God in him: and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us — Which witnesses with our spirits that we are his children, and brings forth his fruits of peace, love, holiness. This is the transition to the treating of the Holy Spirit which immediately follows.
John 10:11-18
Verse 12
[12] But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
But the hireling — It is not the bare receiving hire, which denominates a man a hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge: yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the Gospel:) but the loving hire: the loving the hire more than the work: the working for the sake of the hire. He is a hireling, who would not work, were it not for the hire; to whom this is the great (if not only) motive of working. O God! If a man who works only for hire is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at all? The wolf - signifies any enemy who, by force or fraud, attacks the Christian's faith, liberty, or life.
So the wolf seizeth and scattereth the flock — He seizeth some, and scattereth the rest; the two ways of hurting the flock of Christ.
Verse 13
[13] The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling — Because he loves the hire, not the sheep.
Verse 14
[14] I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
I know my sheep — With a tender regard and special care: and am known of mine - With a holy confidence and affection.
Verse 15
[15] As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father — With such a knowledge as implies an inexpressible union: and I lay down my life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole life was only a going unto death.
Verse 16
[16] And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
I have also other sheep — Which he foreknew; which are not of this fold - Not of the Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles.
I must bring them likewise — Into my Church, the general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven.
And there shall be one flock — (Not one fold, a plain false print) no corrupt or divided flocks remaining.
And one shepherd — Who laid down his life for the sheep, and will leave no hireling among them. The unity both of the flock and the shepherd shall he completed in its season. The shepherd shall bring all into one flock: and the whole flock shall hear the one shepherd.
Verse 17
[17] Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
I lay down my life that I may take it again — I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of men, to the end I may rise again for their justification.
Verse 18
[18] No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
I lay it down of myself — By my own free act and deed.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again — I have an original power and right of myself, both to lay it down as a ransom, and to take it again, after full satisfaction is made, for the sins of the whole world.
This commission have I received of my Father — Which I readily execute. He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his own glory, after it. Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of his power to lay down and resume his life. For this he had in him self, as having an original right to dispose thereof, antecedent to the Father's commission. But this commission was the reason why he thus used his power in laying down his life. He did it in obedience to his Father.
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Upper Room Ministries, a ministry of Discipleship Ministries
PO Box 340004
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-0004 United States
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Sermon Story "After Healing" by Gary Lee Parker for Sunday, 26 April 2015 with Scripture: Acts 4:5 The next day, the people’s rulers, elders and Torah-teachers assembled in Yerushalayim, 6 along with ‘Anan the cohen hagadol, Kayafa, Yochanan, Alexander and the other men from the family of the cohen hagadol. 7 They had the emissaries stand before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”
8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.
11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”[Footnotes:
Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22]
As we come to today's lesson from Acts, we see that Peter and John are accused of using authority not given them to heal tha man who was disabled. We look and listen and hear the charges that this man just should have been given some money, but Peter in not having any evoked the Name and Power of Jesus the Messiah to heal the man. The religiious leaders could not believe that they healed in God's authority, but Peter went on to share how and by whom he healed. First, he brought up the man Jesus from Nazareth who certainly was the Promised Jewish Messiah. This man not only lived, taught, and di miraculous works, but he suffered and died like a criminal even though he was not. Then, they shared that God did indeed raise this Jesus from the dead to give us life to us who believe and love al other people. How do we really understand the healing that occurred? How do we understand that it was Jesus that healed, not themselves? How do we see that in today's world? How many times do we really seek the healing of people who are disabled when the God-healing comes when we embrace the people who are disabled as whole people made in the full image of God for the building of God's Kingdom on eart as it is in Heaven. How you doing as we come to eat the Body of Jesus and drink His blood as we partake of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist? We come to receive from God His healing grace as we come singing the Hymn "Like A Healing Stream" by Little Britain United Church
8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.
11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”[Footnotes:
Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22]
As we come to today's lesson from Acts, we see that Peter and John are accused of using authority not given them to heal tha man who was disabled. We look and listen and hear the charges that this man just should have been given some money, but Peter in not having any evoked the Name and Power of Jesus the Messiah to heal the man. The religiious leaders could not believe that they healed in God's authority, but Peter went on to share how and by whom he healed. First, he brought up the man Jesus from Nazareth who certainly was the Promised Jewish Messiah. This man not only lived, taught, and di miraculous works, but he suffered and died like a criminal even though he was not. Then, they shared that God did indeed raise this Jesus from the dead to give us life to us who believe and love al other people. How do we really understand the healing that occurred? How do we understand that it was Jesus that healed, not themselves? How do we see that in today's world? How many times do we really seek the healing of people who are disabled when the God-healing comes when we embrace the people who are disabled as whole people made in the full image of God for the building of God's Kingdom on eart as it is in Heaven. How you doing as we come to eat the Body of Jesus and drink His blood as we partake of the Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist? We come to receive from God His healing grace as we come singing the Hymn "Like A Healing Stream" by Little Britain United Church
Like a healing stream in a barren desert
Spirit water bringing life to dusty earth
God is trickling through our lives as in a dream unfolding
promising revival and rebirth… like a healing stream
Like a gentle rain on a thirsty garden
Spirit water come to nourish tiny seed
God is bubbling through the soil to coax a new creation
yearning for an end to want and need… like a gentle rain.
Like a river strong with a restless current
Spirit water rushing on to distant shore
God is carving out a channel in a new direction
calling for an end to hate and war… like a river strong.
Like a mighty sea reaching far horizons
Spirit water with a love both deep and wide
God is working in our hearts to shape a new tomorrow
God will always challenge and provide!
Like a mighty sea… Like a river strong… Like a gentle rain… Like a healing stream.
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Gary Lee Parker
4147 Idaho Street, Apt. 1
San Diego, California 92104-1844, United States
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John 10:11-18; Psalm 23
I have often heard that sheep are among the simplest of livestock. That is to say, sheep are quite vulnerable without a shepherd. They are vulnerable to their enemies such as wolves and the thieves mentioned in John 10. They are also vulnerable to themselves as they tend to wander from the flock. Although I have limited knowledge of sheep, it seems that a sheep that ventures from the watchful eye of the shepherd is bound for trouble. As dependent as they are on a watchful shepherd, I seriously doubt that sheep realize their dependence on the shepherd. They probably scarcely notice the shepherd’s presence until they feel the pull of the staff when they are pulled from danger. At the other end of the spectrum, human beings are creation’s most complex thinkers. We have the capacity to understand and process amazing quantities of facts and information. We can make complicated decisions. We are not very much like sheep. Yet, Jesus uses the parable of the good shepherd to teach his followers about the relationship offered and sought by God with God’s creation. Jesus recognized an important tendency of humanity. Perhaps we are more like sheep than we realized.
The image and metaphor of the shepherd is a familiar one throughout scripture. It is utilized so often probably because it would have been easy to understand for contemporary recipients of the stories and teachings. Perhaps the best-known use of this metaphor is Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd” is probably one of the best-known verses of scripture in the Old Testament. The image of God as our shepherd through the valley of the shadow of death is an image of comfort that indeed comforts many throughout life and death. In John 10, Jesus uses this metaphor as he attempts to teach his followers and the Pharisees about his role in their lives as well as his futurewith them. In the verses preceding today’s passage, Jesus refers to himself as the gate that separates the sheep from danger. In verses 11-18, Jesus returns to the metaphor of himself as the good shepherd. The good shepherd is different from a hired worker because he is willing to lay down his life for the sheep. A person who is hired to watch the sheep is not invested in them like the shepherd and will likely desert them when danger approaches. Jesus suggests that as the good shepherd, he will not desert the flock and will indeed be willing to lay down his life. Jesus also alludes to the universal reality of his eventual sacrifice. In verse 16, Jesus acknowledges that there are more sheep that are not inside the sheep pen. These sheep also need him as shepherd and will be brought in to join the rest of the flock, and all will have the same shepherd. Finally, Jesus alludes to his own choice in laying down his life. Not only is it his choice to lay down his life, but his choice to take it up again. Through a postresurrection Christian lens, we can clearly see this allusion to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus indeed could have chosen to forego his death, but chose instead to face death and return from the dead.
As you can imagine, the religious authorities did not respondwell to Jesus’ depiction of himself as the good shepherd who has come to both lie down and take up his life for his sheep. Although some were challenged toward belief, others thought Jesus was crazy, and worse yet, blasphemous. I imagine there was another facet of this metaphor that would have been difficult for Jesus’ listeners. We are accustomed to the concept of the Lord as shepherd and us as sheep. Jesus’ listeners would have been less accustomed to this idea and would have had firsthand knowledge of the sheep and shepherd relationship. For Jesus to describe himself as the shepherd of the sheeplike people was probably difficult for the people to hear. They probably mistook his wise teaching for egotism. We have the advantage of knowing the rest of the story. We can see the gentle wisdom in Jesus’ teaching. We know that he did just what he said and chose to lay down and take up his life for us.
I will admit, however, there is something a little disheartening about being described as a sheep. It is difficult to admit our likeness to animals that so depend on a shepherd for survival. We are much more accustomed to being shepherds in control than sheep so in need of leadership. Yet, when it comes to our relationship with God, Jesus understands our human tendencies better perhaps than we understand ourselves. When it comes to our faith, we are very much like sheep in need of a shepherd. Like sheep, we have the tendency to follow. Like sheep, we often confuse true leadership with the kind offered by hired hands (shepherds who are in it for the wrong reason). Like sheep, we are endangered by those who prey on our vulnerability, the spiritual wolves. Like sheep, we are perhaps most vulnerable to ourselves and our tendency to wander away from the care of the shepherd and the safety of the flock. We certainly need a good shepherd, like Jesus, who is willing to care and sacrifice for us. Accepting that we are indeed like sheep is the hardest part for many people. It is our human nature to want to be in control of our lives. Yet, to be a follower of Christ, we must accept our spiritual likeness to sheep and our need for a good shepherd. As we continue to ponder the great news of the resurrection, may we be ever aware that to fully experience Christ, we must allow Christ to be the shepherd of our lives.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
COLOR: White
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
THEME IDEAS
The fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday, and each year the scripture readings include the twenty-third Psalm and a reading from John 10, describing Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The image of Jesus assures us that we are known and cared for. In Acts, Peter affirms Jesus’ power to heal and names Jesus as the cornerstone of faith. First John points to the human response to the shepherd’s love, reminding us to love one another in truth and action.
INVITATION AND GATHERING
Call to Worship (Psalm 23)
Come, walk in green pastures.
We follow the Shepherd.
Come, lie down in green pastures.
We trust the Shepherd.
Come, dine at the table of abundance.
We are fed by the Shepherd.
Come, dwell in God’s house.
We live in the Shepherd’s care.
Opening Prayer (Psalm 23, John 10)
Loving Shepherd,
you know our names;
you care for us.
When we face darkness and death,
walk beside us.
When we hunger for your love,
fill us with your presence.
When we are fearful,
feed us at your table.
May we dwell in the house of goodness and mercy
all the days of our lives. Amen.
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
Prayer of Confession (Psalm 23, 1 John)
Good Shepherd,
we take your care for granted.
In the midst of your many blessings,
we complain of not having enough.
In the presence of danger,
we fail to trust your abiding love.
When you set a table before us,
we turn aside from you.
Call us back into your care
and help us trust your caring presence,
that our actions may proclaim your truth. Amen.
Words of Assurance (Psalm 23)
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us
all the days of our lives.
God forgives our failures and calls us back
into the flock.
Passing the Peace of Christ (1 John 3)
God calls us to love one another as God loves us. In this we know the truth of Christ’s peace. Share signs of Christ’s peace with one another.
Response to the Word (Psalm 23, John 10, 1 John 3)
Good Shepherd,
we are the sheep of your pasture,
you know us by name.
We offer grateful thanks for your loving care.
Open our hearts and minds
to the guiding of your Spirit in our lives.
Lead us in right paths,
that we may serve you in truth and action. Amen.
THANKSGIVING AND COMMUNION
Invitation to the Offering (Psalm 23, 1 John 3)
The Shepherd cares for us, providing all that we need in abundance. The Shepherd calls us to love one another in truth and action. May our gifts reflect our trust in the Shepherd’s care. May our offerings show our willingness to love one another.
Offering Prayer (Psalm 23, 1 John 3)
God of love,
you abide with us;
you provide for all our needs
and guide us in your ways.
Out of gratitude for your care,
we bring our gifts before you.
Use them for your work of caring,
that all may feast at the table of abundance,
walk without fear,
and drink deeply
from the cup of compassion. Amen.
Invitation to Communion (Psalm 23, John 10)
God prepares the table for us, offering us a feast of abundant love. Our cups overflow with the bounty of grace, for our Shepherd knows us as no one else can — restoring our souls, healing our brokenness, nourishing us with bread and cup for the life of ministry. Come to the table and feast with the Shepherd.
SENDING FORTH
Benediction (1 John 3)
Nourished by the Shepherd’s abundant love,
go forth to walk in the paths of righteousness.
Love one another in truth and action.
May God’s abundant blessings abide in you forever.
CONTEMPORARY OPTIONS
Contemporary Gathering Words (Acts 4, Psalm 23)
Come to the shepherd!
Walk in the paths of righteousness.
Come to Jesus Christ, the cornerstone!
Ground your life in Jesus.
Come to the Spirit, who abides in us!
Feast at the table of joy!
Praise Sentences (Acts 4, 1 John 3)
God is our shepherd! God cares for us.
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone!
He is the foundation of our lives.
The Spirit abides in us!
And we abide in the Spirit.
From “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2012,” edited by Mary J. Scifres and B.J. Beu, Copyright © 2011 by Abingdon Press. “The Abingdon Worship Annual 2015” is now available.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
COLOR: White
SCRIPTURE READINGS: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
CALLS TO WORSHIP
Call to Worship #1
L: The God of all shepherds has called us here.
P: We come today, celebrating God’s love for us.
L: The Good Shepherd has given his life for us.
P: We come today, thanking Jesus for his witness and his teaching.
L: The Shepherding Spirit moves through us, bringing us new hope.
P: We come today ready to celebrate and to praise God. AMEN.
Call to Worship #2
L: Come, walk with the Lord this day.
P: We seek places of peace and rest from the stresses of our lives.
L: The Shepherd will lead you to places where your soul may be restored.
P: We come, sometimes fearful of the hostilities of the world.
L: In the midst of all the turmoil, The Shepherd will provide for your needs abundantly.
P: Surely these wonders will heal and restore our spirits. AMEN.
Call to Worship #3
[Using THE FAITH WE SING, p. 2058, "Shepherd Me, O God" (refrain only), offer the following call to worship]
Choir (singing): Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.
L: Our great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, has gone before us, preparing our way. He has given his life for us, his sheep. We can follow him with confidence and safety.
P: Lead us, Lord. Lead us in your paths of life.
Choir (singing): Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.
L: The world can be a frightening place in which to live, but in the very presence of all that is evil, God will offer to us a feast of hope and peace.
P: Lead us, Lord, Lead us confidently in your path of peace.
Choir (singing): Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.
L: Abundance will be placed before us. We will be called to witness to God’s presence and love. We will praise God’s Spirit.
P: Lead us, Lord, Lead us joyfully into paths of service in your name. AMEN.
Call to Worship #4
L: What a joy it is to welcome you this day!
P: We are grateful and happy to be here.
L: Christ, the Good Shepherd, invites you to walk with him.
P: We accept that invitation, confident in his guidance.
L: Be ready to serve the Lord in all that you do, for his love has been poured upon you.
P: Open our hearts and spirits this day, Lord, to receive your holy words and to be challenged in our service to you. AMEN.
PRAYERS, LITANY, BENEDICTION
OPENING PRAYER
Thank you, loving God, for bringing us to this time of worship. Refresh us and heal us again. Remind us of the many ways in which you have blessed our lives with your abundant love and your presence. Guide our hearts and our spirits that we may hear your words and our souls may be stirred into active service to your people. In the name of the Good Shepherd, who leads us to life, we pray. AMEN.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
We grumble and complain about our daily lot in life. We read the newspapers, watch the broadcast news and moan about the evil which flourishes in the world. And we wonder, "Where are you, O God?" We turn our backs on the needs of the poor or give only a cursory acknowledgment of their plight. We throw our hands up in the air and act as though we are defeated. And we cry, "Why isn’t God taking care of all this?" Forgive us, patient Lord. Forgive our arrogance, our ignorance, our pettiness. Forgive us when we could have done something to help someone else, but chose instead to turn away. Forgive us when we, by our attitudes and language, our thoughts and actions, have gone against your will. You are with us, Lord. You lead us daily in right paths and offer to us the bread of life. You stand with us in times of trial and in the presence of those whom we fear, giving us your abundant love. And then you offer to us a place in your eternal home. How can we doubt your presence? Help us to trust you. Help us to praise you and remember that you have called us to be your witnesses and workers in this world. Give us strength and courage, joy and peace for all the work that you have for us to do. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for us, his sheep, we pray. AMEN.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
In the midst of all that you fear, God is with you. God will not abandon you. Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life for you and offers you hope and peace. AMEN.
PASTORAL PRAYER
Our souls are weary, O God. We hear to easily the loud clamor of the world. We witness the terror and trauma all around us. We long for the "good old days" when life seemed so much safer and simpler; when we felt cherished and protected. In this spirit, we have come to this time of worship, seeking your peace and hope. The Psalmist wrote of green pastures and refreshing springs of water, places of rest. Offerings of quietness and comfort flood our thirsting souls. What we would give for such places in the heart! In the midst of all that is difficult, there is one who leads us to these places where, when we have gathered strength and healing, we are prepared to go forth in confidence to serve again. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows our name and our needs. He listens for our cries and responds in love. We can have great assurance in that. We have offered today the names and situations of illness, mourning, stress, and concern which touch our lives and our souls. We have breathed our heart’s desire for their healing and restoration. God’s abundant love shall flood over them until they are more than filled. God will be with all these dear ones in their situations and needs. And God will be with us, strengthening us, restoring us, healing us, challenging us, to witness to the Good News of Salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. Open our hearts this day, O Lord, and enter into our lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.
READING
[Note: This reading may be done responsively, with the congregation reading the #1 portion and the worship leader reading the #2 portion. It may be done antiphonally, right side of congregation, left side of congregation. It may be done as a "readers’ theater" presentation, by two readers. Choose what fits your worship setting the best]
Reader 1: I am person, hear me roar! I can do anything! I am confident and powerful! I don’t need anything or anyone! I am sufficient unto myself!
Reader 2: Listen. Wait. Rest. Quiet your spirit.
Reader 1: I don’t have time to listen to drivel about peace and patience. I want to do what I want right now.
Reader 2: Listen, Wait, Rest. Quiet your spirit.
Reader 1: Why should I listen and wait?
Reader 2: Your spirit is in distress. You are trying to do too much all by yourself.
Reader 1: Well, so what! Whenever I have counted on anyone else, I’ve been let down.
Reader 2: That hurts, doesn’t it. There is one who really won’t let you down.
Reader 1: Who is that?
Reader 2: Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd
Reader 1: You think I need a shepherd, like some stupid sheep who doesn’t know which direction to go? You think that I need someone to watch over me? You think I am weak?
Reader 2: We all need to know that we are not trying to live life absolutely alone, without anyone.
Reader 1: Look, the world’s a messy place, and it’s either "eat or get gobbled up yourself". I have to watch out for number one, you know.
Reader 2: The Good Shepherd watches over you.
Reader 1: Why?
Reader 2: Because he loves and cherishes you. He will keep you safe. He will provide for you.
Reader 1: For free?
Reader 2: He freely gave his life for you. Sure, you’ll have to work and strive; but you will have the assurance that Jesus is with you, every step of the way. He won’t solve your problem, but he will ease your soul so that you may know the right path.
Reader 1: What about when times get really tough?
Reader 2: That’s when you will find his presence strongly in your life. In the middle of all the difficulties, he will provide for you and comfort you.
Reader 1: I don’t have to do this alone?
Reader 2: No.
Reader 1: He won’t let me down?
Reader 2: No.
Reader 1: I can count on him being with me forever?
Reader 2: Absolutely.
Reader 1: Lord, help me to trust in you. Help me to be open to your presence and not to claim my own power but to celebrate your power and compassion in my life.
Reader 2: Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life and you will dwell in God’s loving care forever. AMEN.
BENEDICTION
The Good Shepherd leads us forward, from this place, into the world to serve God’s people, to witness to God’s love in all that we do. Go in peace and God’s peace will go with you. AMEN.
ARTISTIC ELEMENTS
[Note: Whenever you create a worship setting, it is advisable to put a small paragraph in the worship bulletin explaining the setting and symbolism used. This is a good teaching opportunity]
The Traditional Color is White for this season. (However, for this setting, I have chosen green to give the impression of coolness and life)
SURFACE: On the main worship center, place several risers of various heights. Place a riser in front of the worship center, slightly to the right of center.
FABRIC: Cover the worship center with green fabric, making sure that it covers all risers, including the riser in front of the worship center. The fabric should "puddle" on the floor. With a strip of blue silky fabric, approximately 6 yards long, weave it from the center riser around the other risers on the table and down beside the riser in front of the worship center. This fabric should be able to be puddled and spread out at the bottom and should give the appearance of a stream which ends in a pool.
CANDLES: Place a white pillar candle in front of the center riser on the worship table. This candle represents Christ. You may place votive candles elsewhere at your discretion.
FLOWERS/FOLIAGE: Using ferns and soft leafy plants place plants throughout the worship center and on the floor beside the riser and the "pool" of blue fabric. Do not over-do it, but give the impression of leafy coolness (not a jungle)
ROCKS/WOOD: Using seven or eight rocks, place them around the "pool" of blue fabric. You may also place some pebbles near the rocks for contrast.
OTHER: On the top riser of the worship center, place a cross of your choice.
From a Child's Point of View
First Reading: Acts 4:5-12. Children do not understand this story unless it is read in the context of the healing of the lame man (vss. 1-11). They also need to be told that the Temple leaders were not happy about the healing because they felt that God should work only through them. They were, after all, the Temple officers! With this background, children are quite impressed by the bravery of Peter and John.
Before they can understand the Old Testament reference, children need a description of the function and importance of a cornerstone. (If your building has a cornerstone that really is a cornerstone, rather than a decorative inset, it makes a good example.) Even then, children will count on the preacher to explain Peter's point.
Psalm: 23. The Good News Bible's translation of this familiar psalm is most child-accessible and also offers adults even those who prefer more aesthetic versions some fresh insights. The poet's trust in the shepherd's care (vss.1-4) can be understood by all worshipers, even those with minimal knowledge of shepherding. But the banquet images of verses 5-6 speak uniquely to children. Children, often sent to eat in the kitchen or at a special table for youngsters, appreciate being welcomed to the banquet table as honored guests. Those whose cups are often half-filled (to avoid spills) long for the day when they will be given cups filled "to the brim." (Translations are critical in verse 6. While The Good News Bible promises something a child desires a cup full "to the brim" the NewRevised Standard Version promises something that gets most children into trouble a cup that "overflows.")
Epistle: 1 John 3:16-24. Children quickly become lost in this string of abstract pronouncements. They depend on the preacher to select one or two for illustration with everydayexamples. Probably the most influential with children is the teaching that we are to put our love into action. Love is not just what we say, but what we do. To say we love a person, pet, or possession, but then fail to treat it lovingly, proves that we do not really mean what we have said.
Gospel: John 10:11-18. John's point, that we can trust Jesus because Jesus is a shepherd/owner rather than a hired shepherd, makes great sense to adults but is puzzling to children, who are interested in the various jobs people do and are learning to do all their assigned jobs well. They assume that any good worker will do the very best on any job. So children are more impressed by Jesus' statement that he loves us enough to risk his life to save us (like a shepherd, protecting the sheep from a wolf).
Watch Words
Children who attend church school usually collect shepherd vocabulary fairly early. But do not count on all children understanding it. Rod is most often a boy's name. The staff is the group of adult leaders at the church or daycare center. And the only shepherd most urban kids have met is a large, sometimes fierce, dog. Remember too that a sheepfold is a pen or yard for sheep.
To lay down my life for you means to be killed while protecting you.
Let the Children Sing
Sing the version of Psalms 23 that is most familiar to your congregation. Choose other shepherd hymns carefully. Children have trouble with the complex theological language of "He Leadeth Me" and "The King of Love My Shepherd Is." The more concrete language of "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" makes it a better choice.
"Go Forth for God" is a good hymn with which to send worshipers out to imitate the brave witness of Peter and John. The simple language and the repeated opening and closing lines in each verse are easy for middle-elementary readers.
The Liturgical Child
1. Before reading the Gospel, call a small group of people to sit or stand with you. If there are steps leading to the chancel, ask them to sit around you. Carry a Bible from the lectern to open in your lap. Point out that these people, by their presence, remind everyone that though Jesus was speaking about sheep, he was really talking about how he cares for each of us. While reading the appropriate phrases in verses 14-15, reach out to pat an adult or older child on the back, or give a younger child a hug. If possible, include people of all ages.
2. Before reading Acts 4:5-16, read or tell about the healing of the lame man and briefly point out that the Temple leaders were not pleased. Then read today's text dramatically. Assuming an authoritarian posture, read about the gathering of the important leaders. State the question in verse 7 with appropriate condescension. Then turn slightly to take the role of Peter. Read his words with persuasive enthusiasm. Use your hands to emphasize both the leaders' contempt for Peter and Peter's strong feelings about what he was saying.
3. Create an Easter Affirmation of Faith based on the rejected stone. The worship leader cites a series of the ways Jesus, though he was rejected, turned out to be right. Some statements can focus on what Jesus said, while others focus on what happened. To each statement the congregation responds, "The stone the builders rejected turned out to be the most important of all." For example:
Jesus said, "Love one another." But everyone replied, "No, it is smarter to love your friends and hate your enemies." (RESPONSE)
The Temple leaders turned Jesus over to the Romans to be crucified. But on the third day, God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus is Lord! (RESPONSE)
Sermon Resources
1. Our care of pets is today's parallel to the shepherd's care of the sheep. Pet owners provide food, water, and shelter for their animals. In cities they take them for walks in all kinds of weather, and many carry scoops to clean up after them. When they are injured or sick, people pay to take pets to veterinarians and may even take time off from work or school to care for them. Newspaper pictures of firemen rescuing kittens from tall trees illustrate the lengths we go to for our pets. (If you have pets, speak specifically of your loving "shepherding" of those animals.)
2. And Now Miguel . . . , by Joseph Krumgold, offers interesting information about the care of sheep (esp. chaps. 4 and 5). Miguel and his family are shepherds in New Mexico. One task at lambing time is to paint matching numbers on the lambs and ewes so that they do not become separated in the crowded sheep pens.
3. Set the banquet images of Psalms 23 in a school lunchroom. Often the problems and joys of children's interpersonal relationships are emphasized there. Who one eats with is critical. All children know the humiliation of being crowded out of the group with which they wanted to sit and the joy of having a seat saved for them by a desirable friend. They truly do eat "in the presence of their enemies" every day. The poet says that God is like a friend who welcomes you and treats you as the guest of honor every day, no matter who is watching or what they think.
No Other Name
Acts 4:5-12
Peter and John are in a predicament familiar to persons in public life—teachers, preachers, government officials. These persons often have to defend their actions that produce change.
Peter and John had previously healed a man lame from birth—in fact, they had dramatically changed his life. The crowd was amazed by what they had seen and wanted to know how all this had happened. Peter recounts the many and various things God had done for the people by the teachers of the law and the prophets, who had urged the people to change their relationship with God.
In the midst of the sermon, Peter and John are interrupted by a group of religious authorities who are annoyed by what they believe is false teaching. What may be more at stake was their perception that these two were urging a change in the status quo. These religious authorities had the two arrested and put into custody of the civil authorities. In spite of the religious and civil authorities, however, “many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand” ( Acts 4:4).
The leaders asked, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” (v. 7). The Holy Spirit fills Peter and he begins to address those in authority in what looks to us like a courtroom scene. Peter tells those assembled that it was not his power that restored the lame man, but rather the life-giving power found in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Peter is determined not to take the credit for the healing, but rather credit the power of God at work in the one whom the people had crucified. It is God and God’s Christ that has the power to heal, make whole, and give salvation. And only in God can these blessings be acquired by mortals. In a sense, Peter shares deeply the gospel’s conviction that only God can raise up what people have struck down.
What is interesting about Peter’s speech is his connection of both the physical and the spiritual aspects of healing. Not only is the lame man healed of his affliction, but also those who are lame or sick in the spiritual sense can also be healed. This is the ultimate hope that God holds out for God’s people.
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), an English philosopher, once said: “A living thing is distinguished from a dead thing by the multiplicity of the changes at any moment taking place in it.” Change for the sake of change is not a worthy goal, but change that improves our effectiveness is what we seek.
This is true of the church as well. It is naive to believe that today’s church can be just like the church depicted in Acts, though there is much to learn from the earliest church. In each generation, we as the church of Jesus Christ must learn how to take the gospel to a new group of persons who need to hear the good news. Our task is “to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
Three people had adjacent businesses in the same building. At one end of the building the businessperson put up a sign that read: “Year-End Clearance Sale.” At the other end of the building, another merchant followed suit with a sign that read: “Closing-Out Sale.” The store owner in the middle of the building knew he had to do something to keep his business from being hurt, so he put up a sign that read: “Main Entrance.”
I’m not suggesting that Christians change their signage, but I am suggesting that believers in Christ are alert to a new generation of pagans, who have yet to hear the life-giving word of the gospel. This is because, as Peter told us all long ago, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” (David N. Mosser)
The Secret of Love
1 John 3:16-24
To his contemporaries, Jesus was a rabbi, a teacher of the law; such men were expected to spend their time interpreting the law. No wonder he frustrated the Pharisees so much, for instead of discussing the law, Jesus kept talking about love.
“Rabbi, is it okay to pull an ox out of the ditch on the Sabbath . . . or to pay taxes to Rome . . . and can we stone a woman caught in the act of adultery?” And each time, Jesus challenged them to quit focusing their mental microscopes on the letter of the Law, and to see the divine spirit of the Law. Jesus wants us to understand that you can keep the law in detail without loving, but you cannot love without being obedient to God’s law.
Jesus was motivated by love. It was the unifying principle of his earthly life. And the message of John’s letter is that Christ’s followers must also choose love as a life principle if we are to walk in his steps. If we are to share his life, we must share his love. What are the characteristics of such love?
I. Love Is of God
True love is not a human characteristic; its source is God. John talks about “God’s love” (v. 17)—he is talking about God’s kind of love. It is the love that has a divine author.
We use the word love too loosely in this culture. We love our wives, husbands, children; I love my cat, my dog, my new boat; I love my carpet, my new curtains, my furniture. What we refer to as love is often really infatuation, affection, lust, concern, or a bad case of heartburn!
Love is not something you learn in a seminar or from a book; it must be experienced in our own lives. That is why John says “we know love”—we know it because we have experienced it in Christ. The cross of Christ is the supreme expression of love; to know Christ’s sacrificial love, and to accept that cross as our own, is to open our lives to truly experience love for the first time.
If our culture knows so little real love, it is because we know so little of God. He is a God of love, and if we wish to know him we must be willing to be loved and to love.
II. Love Is Action
Love goes beyond words. It is very practical—it must be applied in daily life, sometimes with people who are not very loving or lovable. Real love requires us to take our eyes off ourselves and see the needs of others.
We Christians can be guilty of talking about love but showing very little. One Christian author recalls his first encounter with a Christian. He was walking down a high school corridor when a young woman stepped into his path, held up a Bible to his face, and exclaimed, “You’d better get right with the Lord or he’ll condemn you to hell!” For years, his impression of Christians was wild-eyed fanatics carrying thirty-pound Bibles in wheelbarrows and screaming at people. His impression of Christ wasn’t one of love, but of anger.
What impression of Christ do we give? Loving, caring, concerned for people and their needs? Or is our Christ moody, distant, legalistic, disconnected from daily life? And is our love given freely, or does it carry expectations that must be met before we show our love?
Just as the source of love is God, the reality of love is action. As I demonstrate love, God makes himself more and more real in my own life.
III. Love Is Costly
Love is not cheap. God’s love came at the expense of a cross—and we must also expect to pay a price if we are to show authentic love. There is risk—of vulnerability, of misunderstanding, of rejection. We must take a chance in order to love others. Some will reject it, others will misuse it, but there will be those who respond to it, and who experience Christ’s presence in our love. Psychiatrist Karl Menninger said, “Love cures. It cures those who give it and it cures those who receive it.”
The life of love is not an easy or a common one, but it is the road that leads to Christ, and to the abundance of fellowship with him. (Michael Duduit)
Our Leading and Loving Lord
John 10:11-18
The good news of Christianity is God’s unconditional love for us in Jesus. Regardless of who, what, where, or when, God loves us. He loves us no more and no less than he loves anybody else. He lived, died, rose, and reigns in Jesus for us no more and no less than he lived, died, rose, and reigns for anybody else. His love is inclusive. Or as he said, “God so loved the world.”
Even people who are not yet in relationship with God through faith in Jesus are wanted by him. Jesus said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (v. 16). Our Lord does not want anyone left out of the wholeness, happiness, joy, and eternal security of life in the kingdom.
That’s why he is the Good Shepherd. He leads and loves people into confident living and eternal life.
I. The Good Shepherd Leads
Shepherds don’t follow sheep. That’s especially true with our Lord. He knows who he is (sovereign God), who we are (people in need of his salvation), and what we need to be and do (exemplified in Jesus and explained in the Bible). He is Lord! We are his people. He is the Good Shepherd! We follow where he leads. He knows what we need and leads the way (John 10:14).
It’s like the old song, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” He leads. We follow.
Shepherd is a metaphor for king. Jesus is the Shepherd-King. Describing the decision to become a disciple, Peter wrote, “You have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:25 NIV).
Practically, it means our Lord doesn’t solicit suggestions on how to run the kingdom. He doesn’t ask if we’d like to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and all of the rest (Matt. 25). He directs us into the social responsibilities of the gospel. He leads as Lord.
II. The Good Shepherd Loves
He is the Good Shepherd. Unlike a hired hand, who is paid to do a job, our Lord willingly, sacrificially, and selflessly wants to help ( John 10:11, 14-18).
John Calvin wrote, “Christ declares that He is the Good Shepherd, who keeps His Church safe and sound, first, by Himself, and next, by His agents” (John, 1553).
He leads because he loves, and those who know him follow him. (Robert R. Kopp)201 8th Avenue South
Nashville, Tennessee 37202 United States
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