Easter 4 2021

Hallelujah, Christ is risen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people.

Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name and follow where he leads.

Who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns one God, now and forever.

Amen.

A reading from Acts.

The rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem with Annas the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all those who were of the high priestly family.

When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this?

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick, and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders.

It has become the cornerstone.

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

You make me lie down in green pastures.

You revive my soul.

How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?

Little children, let us love not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us.

For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

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

All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them, and by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit that He has given us.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

The hired hand runs away because the hired hand does not care for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father.

I lay down my life for the sheep.

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.

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.

I have received this command from my Father.

The gospel of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Just a reminder that we are now in the fourth Sunday of Easter.

It is not the third Sunday after Easter.

Easter is 50 days long, 50 days to contemplate what resurrection and discipleship looks like.

And today we get to hear a very familiar story about shepherding.

This is one of the Bible's favorite images for how it is that God interacts with folk.

Have any of you raised sheep before?

I didn't think so.

Me neither.

Turns out that we usually get this all wrong.

Once upon a time, I listened to a 12-hour lecture series on the difference between wild and domesticated animals, and I'm going to bore you with that for a second because most of us don't realize that wild sheep are in fact different at the DNA level from domesticated sheep, just like wolves are different at the DNA level from dogs.

Cats, it turns out, are wild animals.

You can tame a cat, but they have not been domesticated.

That is to say, they don't need human beings.

Consider the dog, though.

We have bred dogs over millennia to make eye contact with us in a non-threatening way.

You can't do that with a wolf.

Dogs rely fundamentally on human beings to care for them, and so it is with domesticated sheep.

This is something we don't often get, but a wild sheep actually does okay on its own.

You can put it up in the mountains and it knows things like do not overload the carrying capacity of the land.

What do I mean when I say that?

A wild sheep will eat the blade of grass, but not the root.

If you eat the root, guess what?

No more grass.

Domesticated sheep, on the other hand, will eat the blade and the root.

They will literally eat themselves to death.

Wild sheep have things like horns and their spry on mountains, and they understand when they smell a wolf not to make noise.

Domesticated sheep, on the other hand, smell the wolf and they make noise.

And you realize why they're bleeding, it's not because they're foolish.

They're bleeding because we have trained them as human beings over millennia to call for our help.

We have bred the sheep to trust us.

Without a shepherd, domesticated sheep will die.

They will find water and they will forget where it was to be found.

They will eat the blade and the root, and they will create a desert where once there was lush land.

They will make noise, and of course, domesticated sheep have many more offspring than wild sheep.

They rely on the shepherd to take them from place to place.

And so it's very possible you've heard about sheep in church before, and you've heard about how sheep are a great metaphor for how dumb people are, but I want to correct that narrative.

We made sheep this way, and God made us this way, to rely on God as our shepherd, to rely on shepherding one another.

And just to really get this point across, most of you realize that a human child cannot be self-sufficient until the age of 10 or 12, that it takes something like 120 million calories to get them there.

In case you're wondering, that's 4,000 jars of peanut butter.

This is the way we've evolved.

We've evolved to require care from shepherds.

And so we can say to our children how useless and helpless you are, but of course, nobody would say that to a child.

We understand that children need care of parents.

So it is with sheep.

They require a shepherd.

And in this story, we hear that the resurrected Jesus, that God is not just a shepherd, but a good one.

In fact, God is the good one.

Now John does something different in Bible study from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

In the book of John, Jesus does seven miracles.

They're called seven signs, like changing the water to wine or resuscitating Lazarus from the dead.

And each sign is associated with a saying in which Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, or I am, we'll hear this next week, the vine, you are the branches.

It's really significant because this is John trying to do something impossible.

He is trying to refer to God's name in Hebrew by using it in Greek.

In Hebrew, God's name, reminder, goes like this.

And it means I am, the ground of all being.

Each time Jesus says I am, he is saying, God, existence, the ground of all of our being, is to be detected and made manifest in good shepherding.

And here's part of the mystery and the miracle we get this week.

And you can see it over there.

It's quite lovely.

There's not another depiction that I know of like it.

Normally you see Christ the Good Shepherd, and frankly, he seems pretty put out.

He's kind of got this little concerned frown, and he usually has a lamb on his shoulders, and it's hard to tell whether the lamb wants to be there or not, just to be honest.

What I love about this image is you see that Christ is saying, Come on, and there goes the lamb, hopping right into his arms.

And there's just one thing I'd correct about that image, and of course you can't mess with it or nobody would get it.

Christ, a good shepherd, didn't come as a human being among sheep.

The mystery of the incarnation is this Christ came as a lamb among sheep.

And if we understand this carefully, I've heard that priests are like sheepdogs.

And you know that we're sheep dogs because we have a collar attached to the bishop's leash.

And all of that is silly.

Because the mystery and the miracle of the incarnation of Christ the Good Shepherd is we're just lambs like you.

And we're called in these seven weeks of Easter to perceive the voice of the Good Shepherd, to follow it, and to create resonance with it.

Until what happens?

Jesus says really clearly, until there's one flock.

One.

Now I have trouble with one flock in my own family, just to be honest.

I like to mix the metaphor around myself because there's family members I know who are like goats, and sometimes I think of them as skunks.

But what Jesus is really saying here is that those other folk are sheep like you and I.

And what makes the good shepherd different from the ordinary shepherd is that the good shepherd is able to see, even in the most difficult folk, God intends us to be one flock.

And that when people who bother the heck out of you are bothering the heck out of you, it's a reminder that we're in need of a good shepherd.

A good shepherd who is actually a lamb just like you and I.

A good shepherd to see, I see you've lost your way.

Let me help you.

I see.

You are hungry for food, you're thirsty for water, you're hungry for attention.

You need compassion.

Let's go together.

There are forces in this world, says Jesus, who are like wolves, and they would in fact destroy and devour.

And let's just call those wolves what they really are: racism, ageism, sexism.

And of course, what they would like to do is isolate lambs from God's flock.

But Christ, the Good Shepherd, is unwilling for there to be any collateral damage among the flock.

And our call in Easter is to join the Good Shepherd in saying no to collateral damage.

There's this interesting bit that we get today that Jesus says that I think rounds up the message we got to consider last week about what it means to give.

And I gave you this quote: Giving from the hand is completely different from giving from the heart.

When you give from your hand, you give until it's empty.

When you give from your heart, you give until it's full.

But here Jesus says a helpful corrective because I have to be clear, this message of giving everything you have has been inflicted upon women in the church to the point that they're supposed to give their very lives.

And it has preyed upon primarily women and not men.

Perhaps you've heard of this poem by Shell Silverstein called The Giving Tree.

In some ways it's a lovely poem, except it has been inflicted to say women should give everything they have.

Jesus makes a rather different point here.

Jesus says, I lay down my life and I can take it back up, and I choose to do it.

And I don't want to overdo the animal imagery, but this is exactly why we've got this picture here on the frontal.

This was, at the time of Queen Elizabeth and the Reformation, in which the Anglican Church really found its feet, the most popular symbol of discipleship in Elizabethan England.

It is, of course, a pelican feeding its chicks.

It was thought, and by the way, it's not true, it was thought that in a time of drought or famine, a mother pelican would prick her breast and literally share her blood, symbol of life, with her chicks so that they could live.

What I love about the symbol, and what I love about the story of the good shepherd, is that we're invited to think about sharing our life seriously and not confusing that with literally.

If a shepherd gets eaten by a wolf, do you know what will happen to the sheep?

The wolf will kill all of them.

So throwing your life away on behalf of the flock doesn't serve the flock.

If the mother pelican pokes herself and shares all of her blood, do you know what will happen with the chicks?

They will die.

This is not an image, Jesus says, of self-destruction.

It's not an image of just being a martyr for martyrs' sake.

We all understand that sometimes people like firefighters and police officers, there are instances where that can happen.

But it's not a prescription that you go out and throw your life away.

This is Jesus saying the good shepherd chooses to share life and does it on behalf of the flock.

The bad shepherd sees the wolf and just runs.

The good shepherd might fight the wolf off, but if the shepherd dies, so do the sheep.

This is not about forfeiting your life.

It's about choosing to share your life for the sake of other folk who were in the flock with you.

Now just to underscore this, I was really lazy for most of my life.

It turns out I absolutely hate needles.

And it took me until I was about 33 to get over that and start sharing my blood with other people in the flock I've never met and never will.

Turns out I have about two pints of blood more than I need to survive.

So do most of y'all.

Every two months I go in and I give two pints of that blood, so that people I've never met who need blood can have some.

And that would help people, I guess, in the short term.

But you know, if I stay alive and go back every two months, I'll give more than a hundred gallons before I'm 75.

Now that little bit that I give, that I don't need, I could say that's doing my duty.

I could say it's being nice.

Jesus says that's being a good shepherd and it's sharing your life.

It's laying down your life.

And guess what?

After two pints, I pick it up again and I leave.

Sometimes we make this so theatrical.

We think, oh, this whole faith life is about being really extreme.

And when I was a teenager, it meant something like smuggling Bibles into Russia or something like that.

And what we forget is that this resurrected journey we're called to live out in our own lives, sometimes about big things, but in general, it's about everyday faithfulness.

Everyday ways in which we choose to share our life.

Not because we have to, but don't you see what Christ the Good Shepherd says?

Because I choose to.

I choose to.

And in choosing to share my life, I pick it up again and I find it in a new way.

This is part of that journey.

I don't know which ways you choose to share your life.

But I want to encourage you to think really small.

Like I walk the neighborhood all the time.

I've got a really large dog.

If I don't walk her, I don't know what she'll do to my house.

So I'm out on the road.

And one of my practices is to wave and say hi to folk.

I really like doing it when they return my greeting.

But I have to be real honest with you.

Some people don't.

I'd like to say I'm mature.

I am not.

When people don't return my greeting, it makes me madder than I can possibly share.

And so I have this opportunity to think, you're not worthy of my gift.

Or I have this opportunity to think, this is life I've chosen to share.

And boy, wasn't it fun to choose to share that.

Especially if someone doesn't return my greeting, which by the way could happen for any reason.

Maybe they've got headphones in, or maybe I look scary.

I don't always wear a shirt.

I've got a big dog.

Maybe instead of looking for them to give me something I want, like hello back, the question is: do I share my life and actually wish them well regardless of how they respond?

This is what giving from the heart is about.

I choose to wish you well.

Many of you are doing much bigger things than this.

Many of you know that this is something that we do for our children and our grandchildren.

We don't call it this, but in Jesus' name start calling it this.

When you pick up a crying child, you have laid down your life for that child.

That's the gospel today.

When you feed a hungry infant, you have laid your life down for that infant.

Oh, Mike, that's just ordinary, exactly right, it's ordinary.

And that's where God would meet each and every one of us.

When you put a spoon of food in your parents' mouth because they can't do it themselves, you have laid down your life.

Whether they even know you've done it or not, that's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's what it means to belong to one flock with Christ the Good Shepherd.

And there's this holy invitation we have when we see a wayward sheep, whether it's a politician, a criminal, a police officer, a pundit, to open our hearts and our eyes to Christ the Good Shepherd, so that we can see them not as wolves or skunks.

They are neither of those things.

They are lambs in God's one flock.

And if we can open our eye to see as God sees, then don't you see we not only hear the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd, we magnify it.

And this is the call of faith.

To help our brothers and sisters, both known and unknown, both liked and disliked, to help them find the nourishment in the one flock that God intends.

And we do it because we choose to do it.

We do it because Christ the Good Shepherd has done it for us.

And hear this really importantly that we decide when to pick our life and back up.

And God is not interested in a bunch of hungry chicks having no mother to feed them.

Not interested in that.

That's why we're in this together.

The more together is that when I need a break, there's one of you.

And when you need a break, there's another one of you.

Or maybe even me.

And this is how it is that we choose to live into the resurrected life.

It's resurrected because even though, don't you see, there's life sharing, which sometimes hurts, just to be honest.

Sometimes I love laying my life down.

It's really fun.

It's like an adventure.

But you know, when you have to do it day after day after day, it can be embittering, it can be challenging, but it can also be ways in which we join Christ the Good Shepherd.

And that's the mystery of Easter that we're invited to contemplate and live into and cast out the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd.

So when you're walking some by somebody known or unknown, hated or liked, listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd.

We believe in one God.

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father, in your compassion forgive us our sin, known and unknown, things done and left undone, and so uphold us by your Spirit, that we may live and serve you in newness of life, to the honor and glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Almighty and Merciful Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

There's some tables with these little cards that say welcome.

And we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out so we have a record of your visit.

And again, thank you for worshiping with us today.

There are a few uh announcements that are uh coming up that are ways to engage in in the community here that I want to draw to your attention.

Um one, sometimes uh sometimes you don't always find sheep, sometimes they find you.

And uh many of you know back in November uh we met a guy called Johnny Ward who had earned a master's degree while incarcerated.

He's written a book as his thesis.

And um Johnny has been such a blessing to us, uh, continues to be actually.

His book is going to be read this Thursday in some snippets.

So it's it's a reading and frankly, some insight into prison you may not wish you had, but that your life will be enriched for having.

This is Thursday night at 6.

You'll see a link on our Facebook page, or if you don't see it, I'm happy to pass it on to you.

But this is a fantastic way to learn about something that ordinarily you don't hear from an insider about life and how it is that we can shepherd folks badly in need of it, to be honest.

This coming Saturday is an opportunity, uh, it's our first Saturday of the month, so we're doing our fresh uh mobile food distribution.

Uh a truck comes laden with food, we don't bring any ourselves.

It comes and we pass that food out to about a hundred cars in two hours.

You do not have to sign up, you can just sort of come as you are Saturday morning at 745.

We'll set up tables.

We're always done by 10.

Again, that's this coming Saturday.

Sunday is the chick the chicken catchatory of all services.

Uh, there are many, many ingredients happening, including baptism of children and adults, confirmation, reaffirmation, and reception, and our Bishop diocesan Andy Doyle will be here to do that with us at 10:30.

I am confident you will enjoy his preaching and celebration.

Uh, the other thing I want to make sure you mark on your calendars is that Bishop Doyle is doing a live adult ed with us at 9 a.m.

We're gonna do this on Zoom.

We have Wi-Fi in the church if you'd like to bring a computer.

Uh Bishop and I'll be back in my office, but there's Chris Tall in the hallway.

And this really is a great opportunity that Bishop Doyle has given us for you to ask anything you want.

And that's what he said.

So I would encourage you, bring, I mean, we're not trying to stump the guy, bring the questions that you're interested in.

Some people might ask, tell us about the sabbatical you're getting ready to take in June, Bishop.

Tell us about what the diocese is doing around uh racial reconciliation and justice.

Some people might ask, hey, I've had a real trouble with penal substitutionary atonement theory, and I'd like you to explain to me how I can be faithful and not believe in that.

Um, whatever your question is, Bishop Doyle said the door is open, so please take him up on it.

It actually is delightful, both for priests and bishops, when you ask questions that are hard and meaningful to you.

That's at 9 a.m.

and it'll go till a little bit after 10 in the morning on Zoom.

We'll record that and it'll be available on our YouTube page as well.

Uh one other thing that bears bears uh noting, a few folks have asked, hey, what's going on in here?

Reminder that thanks to your generosity, we've not only paid off our debt completely, but we are in the process of finishing our flooring.

We'll be done with the sanctuary, I think, tomorrow, including the sacristy.

Some folks have said, why isn't it done here?

We're waiting on a mosaic that is being made for us by our friends in the country Jordan.

And International Mail is just what it is.

So when that's here, it'll go down and be done, and I'm hoping it's done this week.

Meanwhile, watch your step.

The other thing to raise up to you is that uh thanks to Bob Ketchum and Herb Meyer, who have worked really, really hard, not only in researching things, um, but being here in person, uh we've changed our speakers.

So there used to be these big old boxes up here, and thank God they're gone.

And uh we're gonna get this better and better, but I hope you're enjoying the clearer sound even this morning.

And um, I don't know if you noticed, it's actually like bright up here because instead of having two lights that work, we have 13.

So if you see these guys, thank them on your behalf, and as always, thank you for your generosity and being good stewards of this building.

I'm very happy to say that Houston Symphony League Bay Area is gonna be back here having concerts in two weeks.

And to have a room that is beautiful, inspiring, and has clear sound is our ministry to the community as well as to ourselves.

So thank you.

Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.

You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.

Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.

He invites you to meet him here.

The Lord be here with you.

Let us give thanks to the Lord.

It is right to give God thanks and it is truly right to glorify you, Father, and to give you thanks, for you alone are God, living and true, dwelling in light inaccessible from before time and forever, fountain of life and source of all whole goodness, you made all things and filled them with your whole blessing, you created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance.

Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve you night and day, and beholding the glory of your presence, they offer you who unseasing praise, joining with them and giving voice to every creature under the heaven we acclaim you and glorify your whole name as we sing.

We acclaim you, holy Lord, glorious in power.

Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love.

You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that in obedience to you, our Creator, we might shepherd and serve all your creatures.

When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.

In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.

Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.

Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.

Incarnated by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin.

To the poor, he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy.

To fulfill your purpose, he gave himself up to death, and rising from the grave destroyed death and made the whole creation new.

And that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died and rose for us, God sent the Holy Spirit, God's own first gift for those who believe, to complete Jesus' work in the world and bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.

When the hour had come for Jesus to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

At supper with them he took bread.

And when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption, recalling Christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory and offering to you from the gifts you've given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.

We praise you, we bless you, we give thanks to you, and we pray to you, Lord our God.

Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts, sanctifying them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people, the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.

Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit.

A living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your name.

Remember, Lord, your one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, redeemed by the love of your Christ.

Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace.

Remember Michael, our presiding bishop.

Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops.

In the diocesan cycle of prayer, Redeemer Houston, San Pablo St.

Paul's Houston, and San Pedro St.

Peter's Pasadena, the priests in our community, Mike, Craig, Jim, Bill, and Lillian, and all who minister in your church.

Remember all your people and those who seek your truth, especially Chris, Sean, Jerome, Mark, Leslie, and Patrick.

Remember all who have died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone.

Bring them into the place of eternal joy and light, and grant that we might find our inheritance with all the saints who have found favor with you in ages past.

We praise you in union with them, and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through Christ and with Christ and Christ, all honor and glory are yours, Almighty God and Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.

Our Father, who is give us this day of the prayer, and forgive us our trespasses, and those who trespass against us.

And give us not temptation to give us the kingdom and power and glory.

Amen.

These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.

Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.

And I invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down forward and returning to your seat on the far side.

He makes me side.

Do not pray for an easy belief.

Pray to be more faithful followers of Christ.

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, but for faithfulness equal to your opportunities.

And the living of your faith will be no miracle.

You will be a miracle.

Every day you will be a living sign to the world of resurrection, of God's grace and an ending compassion.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be evident in your life this day and remain with you always.

Amen.