What's Your Call Story? A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

I come to you this morning in the name of Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.

 

How did you end up here? What’s your call story?

 

During the process of seeking ordination, you spend a lot of time think about these questions. It’s a very important step on the path to ministry. As Christians, we may not think about it in those terms necessarily, but the call remains one of Christianity’s identifying features. Why are you following Jesus Christ? How did Christ call you? Why do you continue to be a disciple of Christ? Why do you have faith in God?

 

God calls us in the most unusual, unexpected, and exciting ways. This morning, we heard about two guys receiving their call.

 

First, we have Abram, a 75-year-old man, married to Sarai, and who have unfortunately been childless. Abram receives a divine commission to leave his family and go where God sends him. Abram is not a young man, and journeying off across the desert probably wasn’t high on his bucket list. But, as far as we can tell from the text, Abram and Sarai pack themselves up, grab Lot, and head off. Abram’s faith in God was so strong, that he simply trusted God knew what God was asking of them. Abram heard God’s call, listened to it, and followed it.

 

There is a bit of a snag, though. God’s call to Abram was to “make of you a great nation.” How is a nomadic man of advanced years with a barren wife supposed to create a great nation? Seems like an odd calling, don’t you think? Well, I’m sure God knows what’s best. Let’s check out the other calling being made this morning.

 

In the Gospel, we have Jesus, walking along down the street, minding his own business, when he sees a man sitting at a tax-collecting station. By all appearances this was a “chance encounter.” Jesus had just finished delivering a message to a large crowd that had followed him to the lakeside, so he was probably trying to steal some time alone in quiet contemplation. Or maybe he was on his way to his next preaching stop. All the scriptures tell us is that Jesus was walking and he saw this man. Doesn’t seem to be anything special about Matthew. Just a junior clerk in the Roman equivalent of Canada Customs, going about his daily business of collecting taxes from those who were transporting goods along the road that Jesus happened to be travelling.

 

Jesus simply says, “follow me” and up Matthew got and followed him. Just like that. Matthew gets up, leaves behind his tax collector status, and becomes a disciple of Christ. His response is immediate and total. No questions asked, as far as we can tell. And, really Jesus? A tax collector? Seems like an odd calling, don’t you think?

 

If you were to go through the bible and find all the passages that tell us about people called by God and Jesus, none of them are people you would expect to be called, and, while some of them fight it in the beginning, many of them answer the call without question. Just drop their whole lives and walk away.

 

Matthew’s story is an excellent example of the unexpected person being called into discipleship. A tax collector was ostracized, socially despised, and corrupt. They were considered to be collaborating with the Romans to make their fellow Jews even more submissive to the Empire than they already were. And they had a reputation of being dishonest, as they tended to charge more than required and would keep the difference for themselves. So being a tax collector, Matthew doesn’t seem like the kind of guy we picture Jesus calling to spread the good news of the kingdom.

 

However, the healthy and wealthy were, and are, not the ones at the centre of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus tells us that healthy people aren’t the ones in need of a doctor, the sick ones are. These are the people with whom Jesus dined that night, and invited Matthew to join him at the table. Given his background, Matthew would have blended in nicely with the rest of the social and moral outcasts. And maybe that’s what Jesus saw in Matthew – someone who could bridge the gap between the marginalized and the Saviour. Perhaps Matthew was called to spread the gospel because those at the bottom may be more likely to listen to someone sitting at the bottom with them. The divine kingdom welcomes social outcasts like Matthew, and he was chosen to be a public example of that inclusivity.

 

Jesus calls these outcasts to have a meal with him; he invites them to the table, to the intimate relationship of sharing food. While others question Jesus’ choice in dinner company and discipleship, Jesus knows exactly what he’s doing. Jesus knows exactly who he is here for. He is not here for those who use scripture and the law to secure righteousness for themselves, but for those who admit that they don’t know where to even begin or if they should begin at all. Jesus is not waiting for us to become worthy, well-studied, and perfectly religious. Jesus meets us where we are, just as we are. In mercy God invites us all to trust that we are not called because we are ready but because, in Jesus, God’s salvation comes near.

 

Like Mathew, we can choose to follow Christ. Like Abraham, we can live into the promise of God in faith. Each day we make decisions about our life. And we always have the choice to follow Christ, live a life of love, and trust that God is in full control of the situation when the unexpected people are called into discipleship.

 

And there is no one definitive way to answer God’s call, no one way to follow Christ, because there is no one call for everyone, but one unique call for each of us. God knows us better than we know ourselves, knows our potential, knows our gifts, and knows our weaknesses. Though we may not know what we might have to offer, God has unwavering faith in us, and all we need to do is answer the call, doing nothing more than bringing what we have.

 

So open your hearts and minds and ponder the questions once more – How did you get here? What is your story? At coffee time, I invite you to share your story with someone or ask other people to describe their story to you. While you are sharing stories, remember these words – God loves you, each and every one, exactly as you are, without reservation, more than you can ask or begin to imagine.

 

And that is good news indeed.

 

Amen.

Resources

fccucc.org

episcopalchurch.org

"New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament" edited by Daniel Durken

"New Collegeville Bible Commentary: New Testament" edited by Daniel Durken

"Feasting on the Word" edited by David L Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor

Bishop Michael Pryse

God is Not Binary: A Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday

I come to you in the name of Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen.

 

While some places have already started their celebrations, June is officially Pride Month. Pride started as a protest movement, born in the Stonewall riots of 1969. These riots were a series of violent confrontations that began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, between police and gay rights activists outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. As the riots progressed, an international gay rights movement was born.

 

This season has, historically, been a time of advocacy and protest for basic human rights to be shared with sexual and gender minorities. And I would love to say that things have gotten better but considering things like the anti-2SLGBTQIA+ laws continuing in the US and around the world (especially anti-trans laws), the high rate of murders against the community, and the heightened debate around the rights of transgender people, this unfortunately is a topic that needs to remain in the forefront.

 

It feels appropriate that the reading for today, as we kick off Pride Month, is the first chapter of Genesis, one of the stories of creation, a story frequently used against queer people to say that we shouldn’t exist, both from a sexuality perspective and also from a gender perspective. This creation story is a story filled with apparent binaries.

 

A lot can be said in celebration of the binary. It’s an ancient system of organization, dividing reality into complementary or contradictory halves. Binary thinking is said to be a trait of Enlightenment thinking as modernity desired to classify and categorize, and with that to control. Binaries give easy handles. Pairs. Opposites. They’re definitive, comprehensive, and universal.

 

Binaries come in handy when trying to explain and teach. Think true/false tests and yes/no answers. Male-female. Right-wrong. Conservative-liberal. First world-third world. Capitalist-socialist. Civilized-uncivilized. White-black. Rational-irrational. Human-beast. Spiritual-material. Friend-enemy. Clean-unclean. Either-or. Good-bad.

 

Arranging reality in black-and-white terms can make it as interconnected as swirls of yin and yang or as conflicted as two armies squared off on a battlefield. Dualisms are appealing but often fail to tell the whole story. The story from Genesis and all the binaries found within is a perfect example of this.

 

“God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” (1:5) Light and dark, day and night. These are two distinct and opposite binaries. But is there only light and dark, day and night? What about gray, dusk, and dawn?

 

“And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’… God called the dome Sky… Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’… God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas.” (1:6, 8, 9, 10) People used to believe that the sky was heaven and the only way to get there was to die.

History has given us airplanes to the sky and shuttles to space creating all the in-between spaces of the atmosphere. As for land and sea, who doesn’t like a good beach? If there were strictly land and sea, there would be no beaches, nor would there be swamps.

 

“And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’… And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’” (1:20, 24) Here come the fish, birds, insects, creepy crawlies, and every type of animal and creature you can imagine. According to the binary system, fish will swim and birds will fly. What about the fish that fly and the birds that swim? Insects that both crawl on the ground and fly in the air? Not so clear cut, is it?

 

Finally, after light and dark, after sky, sea, and land, after fish and birds, after insects and animals, God creates human beings. Here is the damning verse, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (1:27) When Christians think about gender, they return to this verse. If you grew up hearing these stories and living with people who seemed to fit inside these gender boxes, the existence of transgender people might seem to fly in the face of God’s created order. However, when we look just a little closer at each of the passages in the creation story, we find a much more complex and beautiful world. When God finally gets around to creating people, it’s after creating all of those other opposites. Humans, then, are also created in an opposite pair – male and female.

 

The text might set up these binaries, but God’s creation exists in spectrums. No one would argue that a penguin is an abomination for not fitting the categories of Genesis 1, or that a beach isn’t pleasing to God because it’s neither land nor sea. In the same way, God gives every human a self that is unique and may not always fit neatly into a box or binary.

 

I believe that many people understand Genesis 1 to be a story, a metaphor of how the world came into being, not a scientific paper. I think there has been enough scientific proof that the world was created over the millennia, not a week. But many Christians get stuck on the binaries listed within the text, especially with regards to gender. We don’t have to argue that dark and light mean only dark and light, or male and female mean only male and female. But they can also encompass all that falls between what is named.

 

Rather than writing Genesis 1 off as fiction that doesn’t match reality, affirming Christians recognize that the stories set down in this chapter were never meant to catalogue all of creation, but rather to point us towards God’s power and love. Not every microbe and constellation must be named in this chapter in order to have a purpose and a blessing. God’s creatures are all wondrous, strange, delightful, and surprising. All are necessary to the fullness of creation, from amoebas and spiders to buffalo and orangutans.

           

The story of creation lists many binaries, but does that mean God didn’t create everything in between? It’s as if God got bored creating binaries after a few days and began to have some fun. Despite the push to honour God’s binary creation, perhaps blurring that binary was always part of the plan. Days and nights enjoy fuzzy transitional moments we call dawn and dusk. Swamps are neither dry land nor lakes, necessitating the curious term wetland. The Genesis writer takes pains to describe the uniqueness of human beings who bear the divine image and they represent perhaps the greatest binary: not maleness and femaleness but rather the division between a species bearing God’s likeness and all the rest. As Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, once said, “Each of us is made in the image of God. That’s why we have the chance to encounter Christ in every person we meet – especially those on the margins.”

 

Binary pairs are useful for simplifying large amounts of information we are required to process. But binaries are limiting and inadequate. If binaries are part of a grand project to categorize and explain, and probably also control and restrict, it is amazing how small and limited to our time and circumstances many of our most cherished binaries actually are, especially when it comes to gender.

 

After hearing all of this, I hope we will recognize our responsibility to challenge traditional understandings of gender because of the danger they pose to some of God’s children. I want us to acknowledge our responsibility to rework our theology to remove the binary as a show of support and advocacy for transgender people. And I want you to know that your role in this is to accept all people as members of the family of God, and thus your siblings in Christ. You never know whose life you may save. Amen.           

Empowered by the Holy Spirit: A Sermon for the Day of Pentecost

Grant us your peace, we pray, as justice and love pour down upon the yearning earth. Amen.

 

I want everyone to sit tall in your seats, as you are able. Feet flat on the ground. Hands on your lap. Close your eyes, think about the readings you’ve heard today, and open your mind to any imagery that might show up.

 

Now, take a deep breath in….and let it out.

And again, deep breath in….and let it out.

Let’s do that one more time,

deep breath in….and out.

 

Excellent! How do you feel after that? What kind of images came to you?

 

Those deep breaths in and out? That’s what the church year is like. We spend six months of the year, hurrying about in high holiday mode as we muscle our way through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Eastertide, taking deep breaths and holding them in as we come into each holy season, praying that we get everything right. And then the other half of the year we get to sit in Ordinary time. And I don’t mean “humdrum” time. I mean a time to exhale, a time to reflect on all that happened in the other six months, a time to grow into the lessons we heard and learned.

 

Next week we will celebrate Trinity Sunday as the final day before we exhale and head into Ordinary time. But first, there is today, Pentecost, the fiftieth and the last day of Eastertide. You will hear some people call this the birthday of the church. But a friend of mine has a different take on it that I really like. Celebrating Pentecost as a birthday lead us to self-congratulatory reflections of “yay us!” causing us to turn inward. Pentecost is more than that. Pentecost is the “empowerment of the church. Recognizing this helps us reflect on what we are empowered for. We turn outward; we celebrate not our existence but our calling.” Which I think is an excellent way of looking at what’s going on around us, especially as we consider the baptisms we will be celebrating shortly.

 

Luke tells us that the community of disciples is gathered because of the Festival of Weeks. Jesus had promised the arrival of the Holy Spirit not long after his departure and sure enough, on the festival day itself, the Holy Spirit arrives. The scene is spectacular and chaotic: a violent, rushing sound like wind, evoking imagery of the creation in Genesis 1; and then “divided tongues, as of fire” – not a fire that destroys, but rather like the fire that Moses encountered at the burning bush, which was “blazing, yet it was not consumed” in Exodus 3.

 

You see in these verses wind (or spirit) and fire, and as each person was touched by these, we are reminded of the waters of baptism. Air, fire, water. Three of the four ancient elements. But where is earth? Well, we are earth! Human beings, the “adam”, the dust from which we are all created. We, as earth, are incomplete without the other three elements. God as Holy Spirit comes as fire, air, and water so that the dust can be moistened, the air breathed in, and the divine spark put into us so that we can become who we fully are – the messengers of God.

 

The Spirit’s immediate effect is linguistic: many are empowered “to speak in other languages,” and at the same time, each person hears each testimony in their native tongue. Think of a meeting at the United Nations, in which everyone hears the proceedings (through a headset) translated into their language.

 

The upshot of all of this is a sense of togetherness and unity: diverse as they are, everyone understands and can communicate. Accordingly, they’re dazzled, bewildered, and taken aback: “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12).

 

As if to answer this question, Peter stands and speaks. He cites the prophet Joel, adapting those ancient words to illuminate the present: the final and decisive chapter of history has arrived, the dawn of God’s joyous Jubilee that Jesus declared early in his ministry, and now comes the long-promised “pouring out” of the Holy Spirit upon “all flesh”. Jesus both heralded and inaugurated this new era, and the Spirit will empower a community through whom the movement’s message of healing, liberation, and joy will go out to the ends of the earth.

 

In other words, the church is born and the people within it are empowered! The church is more than the building, more than a gathering in a specific location. The church is God’s empowered people. All of them. And the first act of God’s Spirit at Pentecost honors the diversity and individuality of the believers. God wants the Good News to be heard by all people and in all languages, especially in God’s mother tongue, which is love!

 

This radical new community about which Joel speaks and which Peter says is realized in the earliest Christian community is remarkably inclusive. It is gender inclusive: “your sons” and “your daughters” (2:17); “servants – both male and female” (2:18). It is age inclusive: “your young people” and “your old people” (2:17). And if we are to take seriously the opening (“all people”) of this citation, then this community is also destined to be ethnically inclusive. Diversity is a blessed feature of the Christian life.

 

And we have all been joined by our Baptism into communities of faith that look for – and expect! – the Holy Spirit to come along side us and shake things up, preparing and equipping each and all of us to share the disruptive, surprising, and life-giving words of grace of the God who will not rest until all people enjoy abundant life.

 

Breath means new life; new life means growth and change. The Spirit is breathed onto us to protect, to challenge, to provoke, to push, and to call us into action. The church is on a mission, God’s mission, to love and protect our neighbours as much as God loves and protects us. The church’s ministry begins with the gift of the spirit, not for the sake simply of the church, but for the whole world. The Spirit mobilizes us and opens up new horizons for ministry. The Spirit makes visible and tangible God’s promise to be present, to empower, and to compel testimony. We, as witnesses, testify about God who interjects God’s self into diverse cultures, languages, and life situations making God’s presence felt, heard, and seen, and compelling us to interpret, as best we can, what we have felt, heard, and seen. This is what we will spend “ordinary” time doing.

 

Amen.

Resources

The Reverend Kyle Norman

Hope Revealed: A Sermon for the 6th Sunday of Easter

Grace, peace, and mercy are yours from the Triune God. Amen.

 

Peter is probably the most celebrated of all Jesus’ disciples. He is always listed first among the twelve, he features prominently in many Gospel stories, and he becomes the cornerstone of the post-Easter church.

 

Peter was ultimately martyred in Rome under the emperor Nero. Nero was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He is best known for his political murders and a passion for music that led to the rumor that Nero “fiddled” while Rome burned during the great fire of 64 CE. Nero was also a persecutor of Christians. When Peter wrote the words “always be ready with an answer”, it was a very dangerous time to be a Christian, as Nero liked to blame everything that went wrong in the Roman Empire on the followers of Christ.

 

Over the last few weeks, we have been reading from Peter’s first letter. Peter’s audience was Gentile Christians in Asia Minor (a geographic region located in the south-western part of Asia comprising most of present-day Turkey) who were suffering for their faith. The letter was meant to provide them encouragement from someone who knows a bit about suffering and who can testify to them about God’s grace. Peter pressed this community to remain steadfast in living honourably and ethically in spite of hostility from unbelievers.

 

Throughout the letter, Peter offers suggestions that might help make life for bearable for his readers. Specifically in today’s reading, Peter tells his readers that they should be ready to give a defense of the gospel that sustains them, that they must show that they are different in a positive way, that they should concentrate on conducting themselves honourably, so that those who ridicule them will see their honourable deeds and be put to shame, (or possibly converted).

 

Peter wanted his audience to remain faithful to Christ even in the face of pressures to conform to the larger world’s social and religious values. He asked his readers to have courage, to have compassion and gentleness and respect for their assailants, to live lives beyond reproach, to follow the teachings of Jesus, and to love their enemies to the point of death. Those oppressed by the empire were encouraged to respond to their persecution by imitating Christ. By saying “always be ready for an answer”, Peter was urging his readers to fearlessly defend hope, the hope given to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the hope given to us through the eternal love of God.

 

Peter knew that his people would be questioned about the way they were acting. He knew that they would be subject to interrogation about their unconventional lives. But shouldn’t our lives inspire others to ask questions? Christians are called to live just lives that are above reproach. How we live becomes our best defense against those are questioning us. Few among us live under the threat of death, but if we seek to live out our faith in the world, we may indeed encounter systems that oppose our witness. We may not be being persecuted as Peter’s readers were in 1^st century Rome, but there are likely those of us out there who have been questioned by friends, family, and maybe even strangers about why we believe in God, why we believe in Jesus, why we are Christian.

 

How do you respond when someone asks you about being a Christian? Do you become apologetic? Defensive? Do you run away from the conversation? We don’t need to have all the answers. But we need to be willing to talk about it. With each other, with friends and family, with anyone who asks us the question. Having the answer to every question doesn’t prove why we are Christian. Living our life the way Jesus taught us shows others why we are Christian.

 

Our confidence and trust in God’s absolute love for us is revealed through our actions toward others. If we work for justice, if we are doing what is right, we can be sure that our lives are in God’s hands, and that God will have the last word. Christ walks with us in our daily lives. He has already won the victory. Our task is to remain faithful and wait for God’s triumph to be revealed to the world. The author of 1^st Peter encourages his audience, and all of us, to maintain this faithfulness. No matter what trials we may endure we are not to be intimidated. We trust that Jesus lived and died for all of us.

 

We see this faithfulness also in John’s words of hope. Jesus comforts his disciples with words of promise. Once they no longer see Jesus in physical form, he will always be with his disciples through their faith. Jesus’ address in the original Greek is in the plural, meaning that he is encouraging his disciples of every age as a community, to know they will never be alone. Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit will be with them always. “You will know that I am in God, and you in me, and I in you.” This is a comfort to all of us who are challenged with the struggles in this world. For we have that divine presence in us as well. All who are willing to trust in Christ, even though he is not physically present, will be saved and embraced by the loving arms of God. Whatever struggles we face, our triune God is with us always. We who share faith and hope in Jesus Christ are assured of being welcomed into this continual ever flowing dance with the divine.

 

And that is good news indeed. Amen.

Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: A Sermon for our Youth/Young Adult Service

 

Grace, peace, and mercy are yours from the Triune God. Amen.

 

The reading for tonight is a set of verses that brings to a close Matthew’s version of Jesus’s sermon on the mount. After spending all this time listening to Jesus’ teachings, the people hear some final lessons on false prophets, bad fruit, and self-deception.

 

Scot McKnight, a New Testament scholar, urges us to turn the beginning of this text back to ourselves like a mirror and ask, “Am I the false prophet of this text?” I will admit that sometimes I’m guilty of this – being patient, kind, compassionate, and all the other qualities that make me a good priest while I’m at the office, the church, or in collar…but then at other times, I can be impatient or easily angered. In these times I pray to understand why this is happening and what I can do to rectify it.

 

False prophets are found everywhere in our world; they are all over the place. Have you ever watched a baseball player hit a homerun and when he gets to home plate, he points to the sky in thanksgiving? Or how about when a natural disaster occurs and someone goes onto social media and declares that God sent the disaster to wipe out *insert any marginalized group here*? During a natural disaster a few years ago, there were claims that God created the disaster to “wipe out the gays”.

 

False prophets are often sincere, truly believing themselves to be messengers of God. However, these are people who put on two different faces – one they know or think their friends, family, or society wants to see, and the other as their true selves. These are teachers or pastors who are “in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” who are leading believers astray. These are people who will tell you that nothing needs to be done during a crisis because God will take care of it. Pray it away! (Whatever “it” may be.) These false prophets think that every problem has a simple solution. A quick quote from the bible, some thoughts and prayers, and all will be well again.

 

But life isn’t that simple. Life is messy. Life is complicated. So, beware of false prophets who tell you that prayer alone will help. Jesus tells us that bearing good fruit, having action behind your prayers, is what will get you through this messy and complicated life.

 

This brings us to the second half of tonight’s lesson. In these verses, Matthew is telling us that simply calling out the Lord’s name won’t get you anywhere. There is no foundation to your life if you simply put God’s name in your mouth only when it benefits you. Where is your foundation if you claim disbelief in God in one breath and then call for God in times of trouble? With a solid faith foundation, you will be “like a wise man who built his house on rock.”

 

“If you think of nothing but Christ, and do not set yourselves to do his words, you but build your houses on the sand,” says George MacDonald, a Scottish Congregational minister from the 19^th century. To have God as your foundation, you must do more than just live in God’s name; you must also work in God’s name, doing the things that God wants you to do. Superficiality will get you no where with God. Using God’s name in vain will get you no where with God. It is easy to say your works are in God’s name, but it is hard to be sincere about it. If you are insincere in your work, then your foundation will be like sand, and you will sink or collapse.

 

Ask yourself this question posed by Mr. MacDonald, “What have you done this day because it was the will of Christ?” Have you fed the hungry or clothed the naked? Have you forgiven those who can’t forgive you? Have you turned back to save your enemy even though they might not have done the same for you? Simply stating that you are Christian, that you follow Jesus, that you believe in God is not enough. Yes, we have salvation by faith alone, but faith without works is dead. “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.” (James 2:26) Jesus calls for us to not only have faith, but to act on the faith, to work on being in right relationship with each other in order to have right relationship with God. Saying, “Lord, Lord” either as a cry for help or a liturgical acclamation is not enough. We must engage in doing deeds that matches the work of Jesus, or else risk hearing from him, “I never knew you.” And I’m sure none of us here want to take that risk.

 

Amen.

To God, We Are Family: A Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter

Photo Credit: Jay Moon on pexels.com

Grace, peace, and mercy are yours from the Triune God. Amen.

 

Psalm 23 is one of the most famous psalms in the world. Many people, of all walks of life, at one time or another, have heard this psalm read and can usually recite at least one line of the psalm. As Walter Brueggemann states, “The grip it has on biblical spirituality is deep and genuine.”

 

Most people associate the psalm with one common event: a funeral. But there is so much more to this psalm than sadness and death. It is widely considered that David wrote the majority of the psalms, including Psalm 23, as a reflection on events that happened or were happening in his life at the time. Because he grew up a shepherd, many of David’s writings depicted the metaphor of seeing God as a shepherd.

 

The definition of a shepherd's job is to care for his flock, making sure they are safe, nourished, calm, and happy at all times. However, the term “shepherd” has come to be used in a much broader way, describing leadership either of an individual or a group as well as referring to a “king whose task it is to protect and provide for the subjects of the realm.” David tends to use metaphors such as “rock”, “shield”, and “deliverer” but by using “shepherd”, someone who lives with his flock and protects it with his life, David is showing us just how intimate his relationship with God really is. So it is of no surprise that the imagery found in Psalm 23 is rich in metaphor and theology with the predominant metaphor being that of God the shepherd which flows throughout the entire psalm.

 

Most are quite satisfied to interpret this psalm in a way that puts the shepherd as the centre of the imagery. Christians even go as far as to say that the psalm is referring to Jesus, although the Jewish author of the psalter would not have seen it that way at all. However, Psalm 23 can be seen as being written from the vantage point of the sheep, instead of the shepherd.  Examining verses 1 through 3, you can see that David thought of God as his protector, provider, and king and knew that he would want for nothing, that he lacked nothing. David had faith that God would always provide. While a shepherd by trade, he considered himself a sheep to the shepherd God.

 

One of the most famous lines of Psalm 23 is verse 4a: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil.” You will often hear this line recited not only at funerals, but also in movies and television shows where the person feels they are about to enter a dark or dangerous time in their life. While normally associated with the hidden powers of death, verse 4 is imagery that turns away from the sheep and towards that of a traveller in a place where the roads were unsafe, perhaps either literally or metaphorically. While God doesn’t promise an easy life empty of suffering or trials, God does promise to walk with us during troubled times, providing comfort, courage, and strength. Despite being hunted by Saul, being a womanizer, and being an all-around sinner, David is convinced that the presence of God is enough to get him through all of his trials and tribulations.

 

While it is quite common to say that the shepherd metaphor flows through the entire psalm, many scholars believe that in the final part of the psalm, verses 5 to 6, the image of God the shepherd switches to the image of God the host and giver of hospitality. No greater security or comfort could be obtained by a traveler in the ancient Near East than to be offered the hospitality of a home. Not only was there shelter and food, but there was also protection. By preparing a table in front of David’s enemies, God was publicly announcing that no harm can come to David.

 

Psalm 23 is a very deep and powerful message about David’s trust and faith in God. It is loaded with theology, imagery, and metaphor. So why then do we always associate the psalm with death? Why is it such a popular piece of text even to the secular world? As it turns out, the popularity of Psalm 23 is a relatively new concept, largely influenced by the Protestant imprint on North American culture. Throughout the 19^th century, Psalm 23 became synonymous with North American views of death but prior to that, the psalm was not often seen, heard, or discussed. Sunday school literature often discussed death with reminders of discipleship in order to gain a good death. But Psalm 23 was not to be found. The Book of Common Prayer did not have Psalm 23 as a funeral psalm, instead listing Psalm 39 and 90. As well, prior to the Civil War, Psalm 23 was not part of popular culture such as deathbed scenes in novels. It wasn’t until two decades after the war that Psalm 23 began to show up in secular culture.

 

Today, Psalm 23 is firmly imbedded into our culture. Even those parents with a looser hold on their Christian beliefs will teach their children the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 in what has been called a “double summary of faith.”  Books, movies, songs, hymns, greeting cards, and wall plaques have immortalized this song of praise ahead of others in the collection of 150 psalms. It is short and easy for people to memorize and there are plenty of feel-good messages that can be pulled from the psalm. One message contained in the first three verses is one of affirmation of God’s continued trustworthiness to provide for our growth, health, and protection. The Valley of the Shadow of Death could mean either a literal road that may contain dangers or a metaphorical road full of life and death moments that occur in our lives. In either case, the psalmist wants us to know that God will keep us safe not by deflecting trouble from our paths but instead by journeying with us. The second half of the psalm has an overlying message of faith, trust, and the promise of everlasting life. A banquet set in front of your enemies shows faith in God’s protection and that by staying with God, a person will experience all of God’s love and mercy for all eternity.

 

Ultimately, when you sit back and listen to Psalm 23, you can find comfort in the shepherd imagery, knowing that if you stay with God the shepherd you will be forever safe. Shepherds are tasked with taking care of large herds of sheep, of making sure they stay alive, are fed, and are brought safely to their place of grazing, and them home again, of course. And, if even one sheep wanders off and gets lost, the shepherd will go and find that one sheep, trusting that the herd will take care of themselves for a few moments. To the shepherd, the sheep are family. The image of the shepherd can be used to describe our relationship with God. God tends to all people, cares for us, makes sure we have what we need, ensures we know we are loved, and will find us if we get lost. To God, we are family.

 

And that is good news, indeed. Amen.

Everybody Doubts: A Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Easter

O God, may the finger of your Spirit stir through the clutter of my words to point to a new understanding. Amen.

 

Today’s reading is one of four post-resurrection stories in the Gospel of John. The first is the Easter morning narrative, in which Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and finds the stone removed. She notifies Peter and the Beloved Disciple, who then come but leave for their homes. The second story in John’s Gospel relates the appearance of the risen Jesus to Mary Magdalene. Those two scenes take up the first 18 verses in chapter 20.

 

The next two stories make up the reading for today. The first takes place with the disciples gathered at a house in the evening of Easter Day in or near Jerusalem, and there is an appearance of Jesus to his disciples, when Thomas is absent. The second narrates an appearance of Jesus to his disciples a week later when Thomas is present. No explanation is given for the gathering of the disciples but the reason for the disciples to meet behind locked doors is fear. They’re hiding out because the person they thought would save them has died and they’re sure their number is up next. They’re lost and they don’t know what to do now.

 

Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples and gives them the common Jewish greeting: “Peace” (or “Shalom”). He identifies himself by showing his hands and side. The reaction of the disciples is one of rejoicing. A commissioning follows. Jesus says that he had been sent by God, which leads into the “Johannine Pentecost”. According to the Fourth Evangelist, the gift of the Spirit was bestowed on the evening of Easter Day itself, not on Pentecost some seven weeks later, as others have it. The disciples are immediately commissioned and given the Spirit as a power that will enable them to witness to Christ. Then the authorization to forgive sins completes the series of events on Easter Day.

 

All of these events are quite important, but it is the next scene that I’d like to focus on today. The scene that opens with the disciples gathered again in the house on the following Sunday, but this time Thomas is present. After Jesus first appeared to the disciples, they told an absent Thomas that they had seen the risen Lord. Thomas was emphatic about not believing unless he had the same experience. When Jesus later comes again to the house where the disciples were hiding, he invites Thomas to see and touch the wounds in his hands and side. He does not humiliate Thomas but gives him what he needs. Thomas confesses: “My Lord and my God!”

 

The final verse of the scene is a bit tricky. Jesus’ lays out a final beatitude, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Is Jesus rebuking Thomas for not believing without seeing?

 

But Thomas didn’t doubt Christ, he doubted his followers. He doubted those that gave witness to the risen Christ, perhaps because they showed no evidence. Thomas gets a lot of flak for doubting Jesus’ return, but the rest of the disciples were no different. They didn’t believe Mary when she announced that she had seen Jesus. Instead, two of them ran to the tomb to see it with their own eyes. They didn’t believe Jesus when he appeared to them in the room. They needed him to show his scars. Even after encountering the risen Christ, they were locking themselves in a room. Is there any wonder that Thomas didn’t believe them? He had to ask questions; he had to make sure. So, is Thomas really all that different from the rest of the disciples?

 

John doesn’t say why Thomas isn’t in the room for the initial appearance of Jesus. It is assumed that Thomas was a doubter and lost his faith when Jesus died on the cross. But put yourself in Thomas’ shoes. How would you feel after watching your teacher, mentor, friend die such a gruesome death? Maybe Thomas preferred to grieve alone so chose not to go to the upper room with the rest of the guys? What if Thomas, after watching Jesus die on the cross, wasn’t in the room with the others because he had already gone back to his life? Does that make Thomas a doubter, or a realist? Thomas has been told by Jesus himself that by seeing Jesus he has seen God. So, when the disciples tell him three days after the crucifixion that they have seen Jesus alive, is it any wonder he wants to see for himself?

 

He knows what seeing Jesus means. Seeing Jesus means seeing God. Ah, yes, you might say, but he doesn't just want to see him, he says he will not believe until he does see him. But, here again, we see Thomas actually being faithful to Jesus. Because Jesus has told the disciples, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and 'The time is near!' Do not go after them." (Luke 21:8). Thomas will not be led astray. He's going to test. He must see for himself. After all, seeing is believing. He must ask questions; he must make sure. Ultimately, Thomas is both the one who sees and believes that Jesus has risen and the one who has not seen, but believes beyond seeing that Jesus is Lord.

 

I can relate to Thomas. I am a questioner, a doubter. My path to standing here today is full of doubt, and questions, and searching. I have never stopped asking questions. Does that make me less faithful to Christ, to God? Some might say so, but Jesus himself tells us to not accept things on blind faith. Truly, doubt is the pathway to faith. When we doubt, we probe, question, and search. Perhaps Thomas started with doubt, but he ended with the greatest testimony of the disciples, “My Lord and my God!”

 

In Thomas, we see the pattern of Christian evangelism established from the beginning of John’s Gospel. One person encounters Jesus. Then they share their experience with the next person, who may express some reluctance. Then that person experiences Jesus on their own and becomes convinced about him and then shares the news about Jesus with the next person. Andrew tells Peter. Philip tells Nathanael. The Samaritan woman tells the townspeople. “Come and See” is the refrain.

 

With respect to the witness of the resurrected Jesus, Mary Magdalene starts it off. She encounters Jesus, shares the news; the others don’t really buy it until they have their own experiences so that they can own the experience. They become convinced and then share it with Thomas. Like the other disciples, Thomas doesn’t come to the fullest faith until he has his own experience. Then the story moves through the chain, and you and I are up next.

 

Thomas makes his confession and, through this text, testifies to us. Now what will we do? Will we hang in there with some level of interest and commitment until we encounter Jesus in a way that moves us to the next level? What evidence do we use to show that there is a risen Christ? If all we do is lock ourselves in rooms (sanctuaries, churches, institutions), then why would anyone believe that we have been changed by a miraculous experience? Do we actually believe that Jesus breathes the Spirit into us, asking to work on being disciples ourselves and then going into the world to talk about the faith and life we have in Christ? Or do we prefer to sit in our locked rooms commiserating about what used to be? If nothing else, I hope that the story of Thomas shows us that Jesus’ plan is not for us to sit in a locked room by ourselves.

 

In the end, it’s not Thomas’s doubting that matters; it’s his believing. Everybody doubts; not everyone believes. Jesus addresses us who have not been eyewitnesses to the resurrection. We are also blessed when we believe. As John affirms, the whole of the gospel is given to us to help us believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and to have new life in his name. If we are unable to talk openly and clearly about the life Christ has called us to, then we will never be able to share that message with friends, family, neighbours, and others that we meet each day. We will be less likely to believe the promise of new life that Jesus gives us. And we will be unable to share with others why our faith is meaningful to us.

 

A life of discipleship calls us to our own spiritual growth, but also to sharing that faith. We need to unlock the doors and stop hiding in familiar spaces hoping the rest of the world won’t bother us. If we take resurrection seriously, then we need to boldly and faithfully walk into the world knowing that God is waiting for us, working with us, and blessing us as we minister to all of God’s creation. And we need to trust in the promise that God has already brought us into a new life.

 

I pray that we become a believing Thomas. That while we may start in doubt, we become awestruck and moved to proclaim to world “My Lord and my God!”

 

Amen