4th Sunday of Easter: Follow the Leader

Lectionary Readings for Sunday, April 29th

As a child did you ever play follow the leader?  I did and I pretty much didn't like it unless I was the leader.  It got really old, really fast otherwise.  As adults, I don't think we much like playing that game either.  And I'm not talking about playing the actual game with our kids.  I'm talking about life.  We tend to like being our own leader.  We like to be in control of where we are going and what we are doing.  Of course freedom is a value we hold dear in this country and freedom and equal opportunity are good values to uphold.  But we have to be careful about hyper individualism.  Take a look at something Jesus recognized.

As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36 (GNT)


Sheep without a shepherd.  When faced with the problems of this world and what lies behind them, I think one could make the argument that we are just sheep without a shepherd.  We are lost, worried, and helpless when it comes to fixing what ails us.  The fourth Sunday in Easter is known as the Sunday of the Good Shepherd.  On it, we always read or sing the 23rd Psalm.  We read from John 10 about Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  Jesus, the Good Shepherd.  Good = Morally excellent, virtuous, righteous.  Shepherd = A person who herds, tends, or guides sheep.  And it is used metaphorically as one who protects, guides, or watches over a person or group.  So if one could argue that the main problem of this world is that we are sheep without a shepherd, one could also argue that we need a Good Shepherd.  Not any shepherd, but a truly Good Shepherd.  In John chapter 10, Jesus lays claim to that title.  He says,  "I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep." (v.14)  He is truly good, because He is free from ego.  He has no selfish motivation.  He is truly good because He loves the sheep sacrificially.  Their interest and well being is above His own.  

Now if we all could be led by Jesus into loving the way He does, this world would be a much different place.  It is in that sense that I believe that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life." It is not in an exclusive sense where only those who have prayed a prayer of agreement with a concept of a Jesus, the personal Savior Who will snatch them from the fire of Hell and set them on the path to Heaven, are saved.  No. Jesus is the One Good Shepherd who truly can lead the world to salvation, and in fact is alive and is doing it.  

Jesus also said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27 (GNT)  Jesus identifies two characteristics of His sheep.  First, they listen to His voice.  Second, they follow Him.  Both of these require faith.  Notice that I said faith and not belief.  There is a difference.  Perhaps when we feel we are struggling with faith, we are really struggling with belief.  I constantly struggle with belief.  My theological beliefs have evolved tremendously and I'm sure will continue to do so.  Yet, as I look at my life, I have come this far by faith.  Why?  Because faith is action.  It is movement.  It is faithfulness in following.  Faith has more to do with the true meaning of belief.  Look up the etymology of the word, "believe" and you will find that its root meaning is "to hold dear, love" as in "beloved."  What motivates my faith are not ever changing concepts.  It is rather an ever deepening love for the Good Shepherd who is willing to lay down His life.  


How then do we come to know His voice and thus listen and follow?  Unfortunately, I think we often read the Bible, and are taught to do so, in the wrong way.  We construct systematic theologies based on various precepts and principles we think we have found in the Bible.  Then we use what we have constructed as a way to cage in the Living Word.  Jesus cannot and will not be jailed by our systematic theologies.  Jesus jumps right out of those theological prison doors when we read the Bible and specifically the Gospels as a story.  I don't mean as a fairy tale, but a story.  Jesus himself did less "in your face" preaching and a lot more story telling.  Why?  Because a good story has a way of pulling us in.  We suspend disbelief and find ourselves IN the story.  We relate to various characters.  In fact we ARE certain characters.  And those characters always stand in some way relative to the story teller, Jesus Himself.  At times, I have realized that I am the older brother in the Prodigal Son story left asking myself, am I going to join the party called God's Kingdom being thrown by my Heavenly Father, or am I going to stand outside in judgment?  At other times, I have definitely realized that I am not Peter willing to jump out of the boat in faith.  At other times, I have realized that I am the Pius Levite of the Good Samaritan story.  On my way to doing "God's work" will I avoid the person most in need of compassion?  The Good Shepherd's stories confront.  They challenge.  Most of all they show us the state of our hearts and call us to true repentance.  Therefore they have the power to change our hearts so that we become like our Shepherd.

Let's not trap Jesus, the Living Word, inside of our man made ideas.  Instead, let's allow the gentle voice of the Good Shepherd to tell us life changing stories and may we always seek to follow Him so we can hear His voice! 

  

3rd Sunday of Easter: Scandalous Worship

This Sunday's Scripture Readings

See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children… 1 John 3:1a (NRSV)

John could boldly make this claim because of Jesus. The religious elite of Jesus’ day had constructed elaborate walls that excluded those deemed outsiders, unclean, or unworthy from access to God. They were excluded from both Synagogue and Temple worship. They were excluded from upstanding society. But Jesus came along and started busting down those walls. Jesus welcomed outcasts (sinners) and ate with them. (Luke 15:2) Scandalous!

There is a powerful story of scandalous worship offered by a sinful woman found in Luke 7:36-50.

36 A Pharisee invited Jesus to have dinner with him, and Jesus went to his house and sat down to eat. 37 In that town was a woman who lived a sinful life. She heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house, so she brought an alabaster jar full of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus, by his feet, crying and wetting his feet with her tears. Then she dried his feet with her hair, kissed them, and poured the perfume on them. Luke 7:36-38 (GNT)

It would have been common in those days for people to enter a home to hear a well known rabbi. The woman had heard that Jesus was going to be at this Pharisee’s house and was no doubt drawn there by Jesus’ reputation for accepting people like her. Although the Pharisee was probably bothered by her presence in his home, he did not prevent her or anyone else from coming in to hear Jesus. However, he surely kept a close eye on her to make sure that she was kept in her place as an outsider. Probably as she listened to Jesus speak, she was overcome by His openness and acceptance. She, for once, did not feel hostility, but hospitality. As a result, as she stood by Jesus she began to weep and I imagine big tears fell creating small blotches of mud on Jesus’ dusty feet. Her heart swelling with love and gratitude, she then dried His feet, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. Kissing of the feet was, in no way an erotic act but an expression of reverence.

But this woman was most likely a prostitute and as such an outcast. “Respectable” people would not associate with her, let alone allow themselves to be touched by her. She was unclean and to be touched by her would make the person touched unclean as well. Notice the Pharisee’s reaction.

When the Pharisee saw this, he said to himself, "If this man really were a prophet, he would know who this woman is who is touching him; he would know what kind of sinful life she lives!" Luke 7:39 (GNT)

Of course Jesus knew what kind of woman she was. Jesus would have also known the kind of bad news injustice that trapped this woman in her “sin.” Perhaps she, like most prostitutes of her day, were faced with the choice of selling their bodies or starving (and watching their children starve). It would not be surprising if there were upstanding men in that same room who might have been secret customers of this woman. Yes, Jesus knew what kind of a woman she was. In fact He knew what kind of people everyone in the room were. Yet there was one person in the room who showed great love and worship. It wasn’t the “saints” in the room. It was the “sinner” who offered worthy worship as scandalous as it might have been to the onlookers.

How do we feel about scandalous acts of worship in our own houses of worship? I wonder if we are ever like the Pharisee, who in the presence of Christ, offers little but is scandalized by the “sinner” who dares to pour out his or her best effort to express Him honest love. I’m talking raised eyebrows when someone who doesn’t fit the perception of a worthy worshiper attempts to offer or even lead others in offering honest worship. Thoughts start rushing through the heads of Pharisees. “Wait, but that person is living in sin. How could they possibly lead me in worship?” But in that Pharisee's house that day, the sinful woman was the example of worthy worship. She was the worship leader.

The fact of the matter is that none of us are “worthy worship leaders.” In that Pharisee's home that day was assembled a group of sinners. One of them was a well known sinner. Some were secret sinners whose sins were only known to themselves. Some were sinners but had forgotten it. Jesus knew the heart of each one and told a story to remind everyone of what is most important in worship.

40 Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Yes, Teacher," he said, "tell me." 41 "There were two men who owed money to a moneylender," Jesus began. "One owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other owed him fifty. 42 Neither of them could pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Which one, then, will love him more?" 43 "I suppose," answered Simon, "that it would be the one who was forgiven more." "You are right," said Jesus. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your home, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45 You did not welcome me with a kiss, but she has not stopped kissing my feet since I came. 46 You provided no olive oil for my head, but she has covered my feet with perfume. 47 I tell you, then, the great love she has shown proves that her many sins have been forgiven. But whoever has been forgiven little shows only a little love." 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, "Your sins are forgiven.” Luke 7:40-48 (GNT)

Two words come to mind here; hospitality and gratitude. Simon, the Pharisee failed to show proper hospitality because he failed to comprehend the hospitality that was offered by his most important guest that day. After all, he did not need acceptance from Jesus. He was a respectable religious elite. He had spent so long showing everyone how perfect he was that he began to believe it himself. He had no need for forgiveness and thus had no gratitude for the grace extended. The woman, on the other hand, was accepted and forgiven by no one except by Jesus, and as a result she realized for the first time in her life that she was accepted by God. She experienced the Good News and she was overcome with gratitude.

How do we approach worship? Do we approach it as religious elites who have got the rules and rituals all figured out and thus possess the status of worthy worshipers? Or do we approach the worship setting as sinners overwhelmed with gratitude for the hospitality given us? The real scandal of worship is not when people who don’t have their lives all together offer God their hearts in the best and most honest way that they can. It is when those of us who know the acceptable rules and rituals of church worship fail to appreciate the hospitality of God given to us through Jesus Christ. When we fail in this area, we will always fail to be hospitable to others. We will find ourselves judging the worthiness of other worshipers rather than focusing on the worthiness of the One Who is worthy.

2nd Sunday of Easter: Kinship

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! Psalm 133:1 (NRSV)

Who are the kindred? In the past and still in many cultures today, your kindred group is dictated by your birth. But in our culture, we often have more freedom to choose our kindred. And who do we usually choose? Those we like. Those with whom we easily relate. Those who "get us" and those "we get."

But I think one reason God invented the Church was to afford us an opportunity to come into kinship with those who we don't get, those to whom we may not choose to associate, and those who don't get us. You see, we all have something in common. That is that God desires kinship with me as much as He desires kinship with the person I can't even begin to imagine being in kinship with. Therefore, we have much more in common with each other than we would probably like to think. Why then do we continue to be snobs? Why then do churches tend to be hotbeds of snobbery? Before you deflect by wholeheartedly agreeing with me, stop and look in the mirror. I know that when I take an honest look at myself, I have a snobby attitude with some people. Of course, I do a good job hiding that fact, especially at church. But the fact of the matter is that my heart has a long way to go when it comes to understanding the kind of kinship that God offers each of us the same. It has even farther to go when it comes to learning how to drop my snobby attitudes so that I can be in true kinship with others. Kyrie Eleison!

I know that I need to keep moving into the light of God. God's light is truth and grace. Only God has perfect truth and offers perfect grace. He sees all of the truth about us yet offers us infinite compassion and grace. He offers us kinship. When I choose to stay in the shadows, I imagine that what I am seeing about others is the truth. I get judgmental as if I can see into a heart. Being judgmental is snobbery. Grace is not extended. I am up here and you, who I judge, is down there. I am in the right, you are in the wrong. I think I am enlightened and you need to be enlightened. No! What we all need is to be enlightened by the pure light of God's truth and grace. When we stand there, we understand that we are all on equal ground before the cross. We leave judgment up to the One who has the ability to judge but who made a way for mercy to triumph over justice. We allow the light of God's truth and grace to shine into our own hearts. When we all begin to step into that light, we begin to have true fellowship with one another.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7 (NRSV)

What fellowship is there between light and darkness? Our fellowship with one another happens when we step out of the darkness of our own faulty judgment of one another and into the light of God's truth and grace.

Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles (pictured above), speaks of kinship in the video link below. His actual talk is about an hour long, but it is an hour well spent. I promise! (You can scroll past the first 5 minutes of introduction and the last 15 minutes is Q&A which can also be skipped). I highly encourage you to watch and listen. Alert! He does use some colorful language, so you might not want to listen with kids around.

Father Boyle - Tattoos on the Heart: Lessons from the Barrio