John 21:1-25; Romans 8:31-39

I was a gymnast when I was growing up. I spent a considerable amount of time each week with a group of other girls and coaches in a gym practicing routines, learning new skills, and drilling basics. Other than school, gymnastics was my life. By the time I left the sport, I had been competing for years, spending 16-20 hours a week in the gym. Then, when I was 16, I was done, and I had to figure out what my life looked like now. What should I do with my time now? The life that I had known, the familiar routines, were gone, and I had to figure out how my time and energy would be spent now.

This week is the first Sunday after Easter, and we find the disciples in much the same place. Last Friday, we mourned. Friday brought grief and fear. Then, on Easter morning, the grief was wiped away. Jesus wasn’t dead, like we thought. He is risen; he’s alive. But he is no longer present in our midst, and we aren’t quite sure what life looks like now for us. What do we do now that we aren’t following Jesus throughout the countryside, watching him perform miracles and listening to his teaching? A week after Easter, we are in the place of the first disciples. What does life look like with a risen Jesus?

Read with me John 21:1-14.

¹ Después de esto Jesús se apareció de nuevo a sus discípulos, junto al lago de Tiberíades.^[a] Sucedió de esta manera:² Estaban juntos Simón Pedro, Tomás (al que apodaban el Gemelo^[b]), Natanael, el de Caná de Galilea, los hijos de Zebedeo, y otros dos discípulos.
³ —Me voy a pescar —dijo Simón Pedro.

—Nos vamos contigo —contestaron ellos.

Salieron, pues, de allí y se embarcaron, pero esa noche no pescaron nada.
⁴ Al despuntar el alba Jesús se hizo presente en la orilla, pero los discípulos no se dieron cuenta de que era él.
⁵ —Muchachos, ¿no tienen algo de comer? —les preguntó Jesús.

—No —respondieron ellos.
⁶ —Tiren la red a la derecha de la barca, y pescarán algo.

Así lo hicieron, y era tal la cantidad de pescados que ya no podían sacar la red.
⁷ —¡Es el Señor! —dijo a Pedro el discípulo a quien Jesús amaba.

Tan pronto como Simón Pedro le oyó decir: «Es el Señor», se puso la ropa, pues estaba semidesnudo, y se tiró al agua.⁸ Los otros discípulos lo siguieron en la barca, arrastrando la red llena de pescados, pues estaban a escasos cien metros^[c] de la orilla.⁹ Al desembarcar, vieron unas brasas con un pescado encima, y un pan.
¹⁰ —Traigan algunos de los pescados que acaban de sacar —les dijo Jesús.
¹¹ Simón Pedro subió a bordo y arrastró hasta la orilla la red, la cual estaba llena de pescados de buen tamaño. Eran ciento cincuenta y tres, pero a pesar de ser tantos la red no se rompió.
¹² —Vengan a desayunar —les dijo Jesús.

Ninguno de los discípulos se atrevía a preguntarle: «¿Quién eres tú?», porque sabían que era el Señor.¹³ Jesús se acercó, tomó el pan y se lo dio a ellos, e hizo lo mismo con el pescado.¹⁴ Ésta fue la tercera vez que Jesús se apareció a sus discípulos después de haber *resucitado.

The disciples are gathered, knowing that Jesus has risen, but probably still a little lost as to what his resurrection means for them. They had left everything to follow Jesus, and now the disciples don’t have a teacher to follow throughout Palestine. They are a little aimless, but it is in their aimlessness that Jesus reveals himself to them. They are waiting in Galilee, and Peter decides to go fishing.

And it is at the end of a long and disappointing night that Jesus chooses to reveal himself. The disciples have toiled all night to catch fish, and they have gained nothing. At daybreak, “Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, ‘Lads, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No.’ They replied. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some. The disciples get more than they bargained for when they drop that net. They have a net bursting with fish. And the Beloved Disciple gets it. He exclaims, “It is the Lord!” The Beloved Disciple has the eyes to see Jesus even through his loss, toil, and disappointment. He offers a testimony to what he sees, telling the others that Jesus is standing on the shore, and as a result, leading them to Jesus.

It is here, in the midst of the disciples’ uncertainty, that Jesus shows them what it means for them to live after the resurrection. Jesus promises the disciples that he will reveal himself to others. Peter hauls in a net full of fish, is asked if he loves Jesus more than he loves fishing, and he gets told to care for God’s sheep instead of those fish. Jesus has called Peter to be a fisher of people, and the catch is large. That morning Jesus brought fish up to the boat, but the disciples had to follow his instructions to cast in their net and then work to bring the fish to Jesus on the shore. Jesus works through the disciples, and the disciples follow Jesus. And they see a huge blessing, a huge harvest coming out of a night of disappointment.

Living in the resurrection means following the instructions of Jesus. The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus standing on the shore, but they followed his instructions anyway. When Jesus told them to throw their nets back into the water, they obeyed, and their obedience allowed them to see Jesus perform a miracle and reveal his presence on the shore. Sometimes we don’t recognize Jesus around us. Life is chaotic, difficult, busy, and sometimes discouraging. We can lose sight of Jesus and not realize that he’s standing right before us. But, he has given us his teachings, and we are to obey them, even when we can’t see God. We love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we love our neighbors as ourselves. We care for the broken and discouraged. Then, we see Jesus work miracles in our day too, in the lives of those around us and in our own lives. For the disciples, Resurrection life is a life of obedience and seeing Jesus revealed to us.

Resurrection life is also a life of proclaiming Jesus’ presence when our eyes are opened to him standing before us. For the Beloved Disciple, resurrection life means exclaiming, “It is the Lord!” when the nets fill with fish. Not all of the disciples had the eyes to see Jesus standing on the shore. They were astounded by the catch of fish, but the miracle wasn’t enough for them to catch on. For the Beloved Disciple it was, and his job was to proclaim to others what had been revealed to him. That’s our job too, in the resurrection life. It is our job to proclaim God’s presence when he shows himself to us, so we can help others recognize God in their midst as well.

Finally, Resurrection Life is inviting outsiders into our midst. The disciples gather on the shore for the third “communion” meal in John’s gospel. But this isn’t the communion meal from the upper room, enclosed from the community by walls and locked doors. This communion meal is out in the open, surrounded by outsiders, and it includes an expectation that the disciples will serve those outside, drawing in that huge catch of fish. They have food enough for everyone present, and Peter is told just after this to feed Jesus’ lambs. The disciples are to go to others.

We see here the communion meal of a church that is continually going outside its own walls because they realize that Jesus cannot be kept inside those walls. They have seen Jesus walk right through the walls to meet them inside, and now they have seen Jesus leave those walls behind to meet them on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is already out in the community, and just as he drew the fish to the boat, he draws people to himself so that Peter (and the other disciples too) can feed his sheep.

Resurrection Life means that we are to take the communion meal out into the world, surrounded by people who are not normally part of our community, and we are expected to serve out in the open. We are seeing, again, that Jesus can’t be kept locked inside walls, either the literal walls of our churches and homes, or the invisible walls of our communities and hearts. Jesus is going out into the neighborhoods, calling people to himself, and waiting for us to proclaim that “It is the Lord” to those who cannot recognize him.

Let us take communion here this morning, as a community that lives the Resurrection Life, obeying Jesus’ teachings, proclaiming his presence, and then taking his communion and his love out into all the world, loving those Jesus already loves. Amen.

Baptized into the Work of Christ

Jesus, as we remember your baptism this morning and reflect on your work in this world, guide us into our place in your redemption of the world. Amen.

This morning is the day in the church calendar when we remember the baptism of Jesus. We began the liturgical year of the church back in November, with the first Sunday of Advent being the first Sunday of the new Christian year. And it is appropriate that we begin the Christian year with the birth of Christ and the beginning of his life. Without the incarnation, without God taking the first steps to come down to earth and meet us in our stubbornness, our brokenness, and our restlessness, we wouldn’t have a Christian year to begin. The birth God in our world changed everything.

But there are other days and events in the Christian calendar that changed everything as well. This morning, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and the beginning of his public ministry, the day when he is first revealed to those around him as the Son of God. Another day that changed everything. The first act of Jesus was to leave Galilee, travel to the Jordan River where John was baptizing people, and be baptized himself.

Let’s read together Matthew 3, beginning in verse 13.

The Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Answering, Jesus said, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteous action.” Then John consented.

Having been baptized, Jesus immediately came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my son, the beloved one, with him I am well pleased.”

This is an interesting first act of Jesus. He could have done anything, gone over to the temple to talk with the leaders of his day, begin teaching in the desert himself, or challenge the political rulers. He did none of those things. Instead, Jesus leaves Nazareth, walks south past the sea of Galilee out to meet John, who is making quite a stir of his own in the desert, baptizing people for the repentance of their sins and challenging them to live holy lives in anticipation of Christ’s coming into their lives.

And John has more than a few hesitations about baptizing Christ. Just before this, John has promised that one will come after him “who is more powerful than [John], whose sandals [he is] not worthy to carry.” This one “will baptize…with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The moment Jesus arrives at the river, John seems to know that Jesus is this one who comes to bring justice on the earth. Who is he to baptize the chosen one of God?

I can only imagine what John felt like, but I remember back to a time in seminary when I was in a class, studying the book of John. It’s a memory that normally comes up in Lent, around the time of Easter, but as I thought of John’s reaction to Jesus’ request for baptism, I couldn’t help but think of this story here too. It was close to the end of the semester, and we had been studying the gospel of John together for several months. The professor was very deliberate in his teaching, bringing a candle to class and turning off the lights as we read the Scripture, so that we would have a better understanding of the first readers of John, hiding because of persecution. We left the classroom to read in locations that would evoke images of the events in the gospel. But the day that really stands out in my mind is the day we studied Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Our professor removed his suit jacket, poured water into a basin, gathered a towel, and one by one, knelt at each student’s feet, washing them carefully and then praying over each student. I vividly remember understanding how Peter felt that day, as I thought that this tenured Duke professor, at the top of his field of study, had very little place kneeling on the floor to wash my feet. I should be washing his instead.

This morning, I imagine that John felt very similar as Jesus came to him for baptism. Here was God’s anointed, standing before him, submitting himself to John for baptism, because it was necessary for the righteous action of God to be fulfilled. John knew that he was called to live in submission to Jesus, to glorify and prepare the way for this man standing in front of him. How could he possibly be the one to baptize Jesus?

Yet, Jesus convinces John that this baptism is necessary. Can you imagine his response when Jesus comes up from the water? If he had ANY doubts that Jesus was the one he was proclaiming, they would have been instantly squashed upon seeing the heavens open up and the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and upon hearing the voice from the heavens proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son. He must have wondered how in the world he had been chosen to baptize Jesus.

As I think of John, and consider his hesitation, I am struck by Jesus’ steadfast knowledge of what was necessary. When John hesitates, Jesus reassures him that it is right for Jesus to be baptized by John. Jesus says, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteous action.” John consents, and we are left with a puzzle and a clue. Why is it that Jesus needs to be baptized? If John is baptizing for repentance, and Jesus is sinless, why does he need to repent? Jesus comes to fulfill the law, but the law doesn’t require baptism. What righteous action needs to be fulfilled?

As I pondered over this question, wondering why Jesus came to be baptized in the first place, I suddenly realized that Jesus’ response to John also raises an answer to the question that it provokes. Jesus doesn’t tell John that he needs to repent, that he had sins to confess, or that he is worried he will be cut off from the Father. His answer is not about himself. Instead, his answer is about what is necessary, about what it is right for God himself to do. He is fulfilling the right action of God, the action of taking upon himself the history of humanity and redeeming it all in himself. The right action of defeating the powers that have bound his children since the fall. Jesus is fulfilling the redemption of his people, accomplishing the task set before him by the Father.

As we read the prophets, we can’t help but see Jesus written across the pages of their words. In chapter 42, Isaiah declares:

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

This is what God the LORD says – he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I the LORD have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.

If there is any doubt that the prophet is speaking of Christ, we need only turn to Jesus’ own words for affirmation. In the synagogue, Jesus took the scroll of Isaiah, and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” When John’s followers come to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus tells them, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

Jesus is called by the Father and sent out into the world for a specific purpose. Repeatedly, God shows Isaiah that Jesus, the one on whom God’s Spirit rests, will establish justice on the earth. And when Jesus has been sent out, the Lord promises that he will make Jesus a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to (and this should sound familiar) “open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” For a people who understand captivity, for a people who are bound in sin, and who so often fail to see that there is bright light shining all around us, this is truly Good News. God has come, and taken it upon himself to deliver and redeem creation.

But this morning, as we remember the baptism of Christ, let us not think for a moment that the work of God in the world lets us off the hook and frees us of any responsibility. We have been called by the Father in the name of the Son and the power of the Spirit, to be sent out by the Father for the work of God. Paul reminds us that “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body” (1 Cor). Christ is “the head of the body, the church” (Col 1:18) and our lives “are now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) because “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death[.] We were…buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life...” and we will “be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6: 3-5).

Because we live in Christ, because we are part of his body, we are called and sent to continue the work that Christ began, as we live and act in the power of the Holy Spirit. That can be a frightening prospect, considering that Jesus is sent to establish justice on earth, be a covenant for the people, a light for the Gentiles, and to open the eyes of the blind and release the captives. No small tasks for those of us who now live in Christ, yet, our participation in the body of Christ means that the Father’s charge to the Son is now also the Trinity’s charge to us.

Where are there people around you who live in darkness, who are unable to see the light of the glory of Christ and live without hope? What injustices surround you and require that you take a stand for justice? What people around you live in literal or figurative captivity? A friend of mine, Rachel, has been meeting weekly with a young man in prison for a year and a half now. This young man is incarcerated for murdering his parents and siblings. While there is some measure of mental disease, he is certainly coherent in their conversations, but he is a man without hope or knowledge of God who has spent many long days in solitary confinement. At times, his cell is searched and everything, letters or photos from the outside world, any personal object, including any object which brings hope, is taken from him never to be returned. There is often little reason given for the various punishments this man endures at the hands of his guards, except for their ability to use their position of power to remind him that he is nothing. Into this place, Rachel has steadfastly prayed with and cried with this young man, proclaiming the light, forgiveness, and transformation of Jesus Christ. She is quite literally taking a stand against injustice and proclaiming the release of God from the internal captivities which bind this young man, even as he lives out his days in physical confinement.

Rachel is living out the call of God to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and continue the work of Christ. Where are you faithfully living out the call of God to establish justice, be a light in darkness, open the eyes of the blind, and release the captives? Where in your life are you acting like the statues of the four people – one with hands over his eyes, one with hands over his ears, one with hands over his mouth, and one sitting on his hands – pretending you don’t see or hear the call of God and trying to ignore his call to speak or act the hope of God?

It is no accident that the baptism of Jesus comes at the beginning of the year. This is a time when we evaluate our lives and determine if there are things that need to be changed in the coming year. People everywhere are making New Year’s resolutions to change the way they look or the way they act. The baptism of Jesus offers us an opportunity to do something different, to remember his baptism and remember or anticipate our own, knowing that as we participate in the life of Christ we participate in his baptism which draws us into his body and connects us with his plans and purposes for the world. As we live in Christ, we are drawn into his ministry, establishing justice, caring for the broken, living as a light for those around us who walk in darkness, opening the eyes of the blind, and proclaiming release for the captives. As we live in Christ as part of his body, we too are sent by the Father in the name of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This morning, we are going to close with a special service to either remember or anticipate your own baptism as we remember the baptism of Christ. This service is a time to affirm the covenant of baptism and seek the ways in which God is sending you into the world to continue the ministry of Christ in the world through the power of the Spirit. After the liturgy, please come forward to either station as you are ready. The altar is also open if you would like to kneel with the Lord. You don’t have to be baptized to participate in this act of worship, nor do you have to be a member of this church or any church. If you are open to how God might call and empower you to continue his work, you are welcome.

We Live in Noah's Ark

Some food for thought for tonight from Telford Work:

In spite of all of their failings, "Our theological tradition is like Noah's ark: leaky, dark, smelly, confining, sometimes even oppressive. The alternative is free, light, fresh, open, - and fatal.
"What do we do on the ark? We muck out the stalls. We bail out the water. We fix leaks and try not to cause bigger ones in the process. We go up on deck to search for the land we've been promised - the back down to do the jobs on which our lives, all of our lives, depend. And we thank God for every new breath we take, even if every new breath carries a stench that 'could knock a yak flat.'"

For all of you who despair about the church, who think that Christians make Christianity unworthwhile, or who want to determine their own definition of what we should be doing because what they see God demanding of them is not good enough, perhaps there is some hope and encouragement in Telford's words. While the church is an imperfect glimpse of God's kingdom, it is a glimpse nonetheless, and it is the only one God has chosen to give to us.

Reaching the iGen/Millennial/Next Generation

I am blessed to pastor at a church that is aware of life cycles in churches and as a result is fully engaged in raising up younger leaders to continue to guide and participate in the church and God’s work in the next generation. Every aspect of our strategic plan seeks to identify and empower the leaders God brings to the church in these ways.

As we think about and empower young leaders, we share articles and research among the staff. This week, one of the articles was titled, “Storming the Castle: Reaching ‘iGens’ Means Breaking through Inflated Self-Esteems” by Scot McKnight. McKnight identifies two aspects of today’s young adult culture and two ways in which he believes we can break through these new challenges. Challenges: 1) Young adults possess inflated self-esteems and high levels of self-acceptance that are nothing short of castle walls protecting them from a need for God’s grace. 2) iGens are pre-moral, in the sense that they don’t really have a sense of sin or feel guilt. Solutions: A) Start with Jesus instead of the person’s sin and alienation from God. B) Create a community marked by justice, peace, love, and holiness to connect with iGens.

As an “iGen” (whatever that actually means) myself and as a pastor who works with them on a daily basis, I want to question some of McKnight’s reasoning and assumptions, without actually challenging his conclusions. Perhaps this deeper understanding can help us reach this generation in more fruitful ways.

Yes, we grew up in a culture of affirmation. Sports teams celebrated participation more than winning. Elementary schools resisted giving letter grades or teaching games where a person or team lost. We were told that we can do anything we set our minds to do. We believe that differences are acceptable, or perhaps even good, and we are less likely to believe that the way we do something is the right way to do it.

In addition, many of us grew up largely unchurched. Our parents are children of the 60’s and 70’s, and their attempt to encourage creativity or “allow us to make our own choices” meant that we often grew up in homes where rules were absent and beliefs were allowed but not formed. While not all of our parents raised us without rules and beliefs, and our parents’ generation is no more monolithic than our own, these are true characterizations of many of our parents. As a result, you may have a difficult time convincing us of our sin. We don’t even know what that word would actually mean, so we certainly don’t feel guilty about it.

In both of his characterizations of iGens, McKnight is absolutely correct. However, I object to his assumption that that previous methods of evangelism were the correct ones. Since the Reformation, preachers have often preached a gospel that proceeds something like this: God loves you, but you are a sinner [this assumes that you understand enough of Christianity to know what sin is]. You cannot please God, and your sin (and therefore you) angers God deeply. You deserve God’s wrath, and he is angry. You can never do any good to get to God (or heaven), and you are trapped in hopelessness and despair [or you are stupid if you don’t recognize this fact]. But there is good news. Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, and then died on a cross where God (specifically the Father, although often unnamed) put all of his punishment and anger for your sin on Jesus. So believe that Jesus died for you and rose again from the dead, and God will accept you into heaven.

Laying aside for a moment the NUMEROUS problems with this conception of the “gospel,” we need to understand that for 500 years we have been preaching this message largely to Westerners who are churched/Christianized. We only have a conception of original sin, human depravity, right and wrong, and our sin because God has revealed to us what I means to be holy. When Luther struggled with his sinfulness, he was firmly planted in the Catholic Church. When Jonathan Edwards preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he was preaching revival in the Christian communities of New England.

This message was incredibly effective. It brought people to their knees in repentance. You can remind people who understand what God desires that they are guilty. Convincing non-Christians who do not understand sin that they are guilty might be the wrong way to approach them – this message had been far less effective in unChristianized areas. There, the gospel spreads through life lived together, as God reveals himself to the people by bringing his Kingdom into their midst. We do not travel to Asia and assume that they already know that they are sinners and are looking for a way to be reconciled to God (or if we do, we are incredibly ineffective and most likely quite damaging!). Instead, we approach these people in relationship, love them, and life in God’s Kingdom in their midst. Over time, they encounter God and learn what it means to be holy.

I want to suggest that we approach this generation more like the peoples in our mission fields and less like our Christian grandparents. While our parents’ generation often walked away from the church in which they had been raised, they often chose not to raise this generation in the church. If today’s young adults don’t believe “anything” or understand their own sin, perhaps we need to remember that it was their parents’ generation which taught them to believe that no beliefs are necessary and there are no limits on their actions. We are reaping the fruit of our own actions. We have created the first unChristianized generation in American history.

This is where McKnight has everything right. We should be starting with Jesus when we reach out to young adults, not because they believe that they are perfect like Jesus (they don’t by the way), but because we should ALWAYS start with Jesus. Our attempts to tell a gospel message that make Jesus tangential to God’s work are perhaps more unfaithful than we realize. We just didn’t understand that in the midst of another paradigm that we called the gospel because it was effective in bringing those who knew the story to repentance. The Father reveals himself to us through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. Without Jesus, we have NOTHING to preach. We also present a compelling vision of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, love, peace, and holiness. The Kingdom is not an evangelistic tool to reach this generation; it is our reality as the people of God. The Spirit has drawn us into this new community. When we live this new life, it will always be compelling. When our communities do not look this way, we need to be reminded (like Israel of old) that we are saying formless words which God does not honor because our lives are not lived in obedience to him. When we live in God’s Kingdom and share the news of Jesus, we will find that this generation is transformed by the power of God.

John 17:20-26 - Jesus Prays for His Followers

John 17:20-26

²⁰"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. ²⁵"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."

Tomorrow is the day we remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the work he did to bring reconciliation to the people of this country. It is the day marked out to specially recall the transformation that was brought to our country through his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement. But Dr. King was not just a leader of a movement. He was a pastor who believed that all humans are created in the image of God, worthy of dignity, and loved by God. And he had a vision for the world that was different from the reality that was, because he had the vision and hope of God. The day before he was assassinated, Dr. King preached a sermon where he said that he had seen the Promised Land, and he knew that his people would get to the Promised Land. Dr. King was living in a time where division and hatred were the reality of his life. Yet God gave him a vision for what could be, so Dr. King had seen the promised land of God, where all people are treated like the children of God that they are. He had seen the same vision as Christ in his prayer for his future disciples.

It is the end of Jesus' life when he prays this prayer, and he is fully aware that he will die soon. And what Jesus prays for us is that we will be perfected or completed as one in the love of God. He could have prayed anything for us. Jesus could have prayed that we would stand strong under temptation, or that we would not face the hostility which would take his own life. But Jesus does not pray any of those things that he might have prayed. Jesus prays for our unity.

It seems like such a strange last prayer, but then as we remember all of the things we have heard Jesus say and do over this past year, his prayer doesn't seem so strange. From the very beginning we learn that "the Word," that is Jesus, "was God," and that "the Word became flesh and made his home among us" and that "no one has seen God except God the One and Only who is at the Father's side" from the beginning and "has made him known." To those whom Jesus revealed the Father, "he gave power to become Children of God" and he commanded his "little children" that they were to "love one another" just as Jesus loved them.

So often our love does not look much like Jesus'. We refuse to forgive our friends. We judge our own families. We take advantage of others. It is the way of the world. Our society is consumed with our wants and our goals. We step on others to force our way to the top. It is survival of the fittest, or perhaps just survival of those most willing to destroy those who get in their way. Denny said last week that it is not religion that causes division. He is so right. It seems to be our fallen human nature. We are so consumed with ourselves that we can't life our eyes from ourselves to see God or our neighbor standing right in front of us.

We live in a fallen world. From our time in the garden, we have chosen to be our own gods, and when we do that, our plans and desires are the only ones that matter, and we fear everyone else because they might take away the things that we view as our rights. So we become people who don't look much like Jesus' prayer for his followers. Our world becomes one that doesn't look much like God's plan.

Unfortunately, we are too often those people who perpetuate division or hatred, or look the other way when we see it. The reality can be so discouraging. Catholics and Protestants kill each other. African-American and Anglo classmates are refused service at a restaurant because they don't serve Black people. An African-American church refuses to join with an Anglo church for worship, or even for their annual meetings with the denominational leaders. An upstanding leader of a church joins the Ku Klux Klan, watching for Native Americans, Latinos, and African-Americans who might enter the building. Catholics and Orthodox are told by other Christians that they are not Really Christians, and they turn around and say the same things about Protestants. People who don't like drums in church say that people who do are worshipping the devil, and people who want to put art in church say that those who don't care more about tradition than about God. We don't always look very unified.

But just because we don't look like the people Jesus calls us to be does not mean that we give up that hope. WE who have heard Christ's call and seen his redemption and healing work in our own lives should recognize God's call to reconciliation. From our first rejection of God in the garden, God has been at work drawing all people to himself and to one another. He called Abraham from among the nations, so all peoples would be blessed through him. He used Rahab to tell the story of God's acts in Jericho, and both Rahab and Ruth the Moabite end up as ancestors of Jesus. God sends Jonah to Nineveh in Babylon so Nineveh will repent of their evil ways. And Christ comes to earth to set us free - free to know and love God and participate in God's life, and free to love others instead of fear them

This story of life shared with God and with others is the story of the whole Bible. It should not seem so surprising that this is Jesus' prayer for us after all. "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as I am in you and you are in me ...that they might have been perfected as one." That is a pretty impressive prayer. There is only one God, and the Father and Jesus are both completely God, and yet they are somehow distinct. But they dwell in each other, so that what one of them does, they have both done. The fellowship of the Trinity, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is somehow one of complete submission between the three persons, but which does not require any of the three to be lost in the process. Complicated, I know, but also beautiful. The God who calls us to be a part of God's life and who dwells in us fully understands what it means to be communal - to share life together. Our God is about relationship and love.

This is the God who comes to make his home among us as a baby born in a manger, all so we will know God because God can make God known to us. This is the God who calls us children. There aren't many conditions there - to those who received him, he gave the power to become children of God. As God's children, God dwells in us. That is part of what makes Jesus' prayer so amazing. Just as the Father is in the Son, God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is in us. Just as the Father and Son are one, we are one with all other humans who believe that the Father sent Jesus and receive him.

But it still gets better. Jesus reveals the Father to us, so God's love might be in us. This is not new. Jesus told us earlier that he was giving a new commandment, that we love one another just as he has loved us.

Jesus doesn't seem to leave a lot of space for our divisions. IF you receive him as God sent by the Father, you are his child. Which means all of those people that we have our church disagreements with, those people who are too liberal or too conservative, too black or white or red or brown, too Republican or too Democrat, too poor or too wealthy, too _____________, you fill in the blank. Those people are your brothers and sisters, whether you like it or not, whether you would have chosen them or not. This is God's family and you are in God's house, and all of God's children should be treated like the children of God they are.

I know that this is a big task, to live as one. Jesus seems to know it too, so he makes it his last prayer. But we don't get to make excuses for our divisions. Jesus is in us, in all of us, and Jesus is revealing God to us. And the Holy Spirit lives with us and in us. And we live in Jesus. All of us. In that same incomprehensible way that the Father, Son, and Spirit can be three in one, Jesus' many disciples can all be in the one God. We all live in him. There is after all, only one God | one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father of all.

When we understand that, and when we live that unity in the world, then we get to be part of the work of Christ, revealing God to the world. When we live as one, when we treat our brothers and sisters with the love of God, the world sees God's glory in Jesus and believes that God sent him to redeem the world. When we live in unity, we live in direct contrast to the way the world expects us to live, and the way the world does live. They see that somehow the walls that people build get torn down in God's house and they realize that something bigger than just us is at work. We become God's witnesses.

But we already acknowledged that we have all kinds of divisions in the church. How do we live as one? It is true that we still follow Christ imperfectly. Although God has called us, although God lives in us and we in him, we are not yet fully the people whom God is transforming us to be. WE have been, and we are still being, redeemed. But we are not God's children, and we see glimpses and shadows of what will one day be in fullness. One day, we will see perfectly and will dwell in a place where people of every language, every tribe, every nation, and every denomination and worship style will worship around the throne of God. For now, we work for unity, and celebrate the glimpses of hope we see. Glimpses like Dr. King, who could say, in the middle of segregation and hatred, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal. ...I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ...I have a dream that one day ...little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers."

Yes, glimpses of hope. Like Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists sitting at the same table, and being able to walk away with a statement of the things that they all believe about God. Or the churches in India, many years ago, joining together to form one Church of India instead of many denominations. We see this hope every time someone assumes charity and love in a debate, believing first that their neighbor loves and follows God before believe that the person is crazy or foolish or evil. And we see this hope every time people worry less about being right than they do about submitting to the needs of their neighbors. We even see hope in the tragedies, like in Haiti, as we watch Free Methodist World Missions, Catholic Relief Services, International Orthodox Christian Charities, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, United Methodist Committee on Relief, and Baptist Haiti Mission all work side-by-side to make sure that the people, all the people of Haiti, are taken care of.

We do have reason to hope, and we have reason to repent. While sometimes we live in unity, often we live in fear, hatred, selfishness, and brokenness. Ask God to reveal to you this morning where you have not treated your neighbor as God's child. When have you not viewed another with charity when you disagreed with them? When have you let arguments about God or personal preferences hinder your fellowship? When have you built up walls because of misunderstandings? When have you reacted to those misunderstandings with a refusal to forgive? Repent of those times this morning, and ask God to shape you into a person who brings unity to the family of God.

Time for personal prayer

{Play recording of prayer} Holy God, who calls the worlds into being, who calls us into Christ’s church, we thank you for the church that is our true home, for the mission of the church that is our true joy, and for the ministry of the church that is our proper task. We thank you for the ministry of the church in every place we go, for pastors and people who over time have named your name and lived your life. We thank you for the ministry of the universal church, for it’s steadfastness over time, for it’s faithful witness in the struggle for justice and peace and for it’s durable walk and caring ways. We thank you for the ministry to which you have called us, for the caring, eloquent, attentive ways in which we live it, for the nurturing church tradition that brought us to faith and called us to maturity, and for our families and communities that have prayed and believed and cared for us to this day and this hour. We thank you for the many ways of ministry that are faithfully practiced in praise of you out beyond our range of acceptance, for those more radical than us, for those more cautious than us, for those in traditions strange to us, for faith families who care in ways other than our own. We pray on this day, for all those who stand in need of ministry, for the sick and the dying, for the powerful who are bewildered, for the poor who lack so much we take for granted, for the brutalized who wait for relief. We pray your mighty Spirit upon us, that we may more fully engage our baptism, that we may accept the costs that belong to our life with you, that we may embrace the joys that only you can give. Move us beyond ourselves, our favorite clichés, our tired resentments, our worn habits to your newness. Make us light, make us ready, make us open, that we may become a resounding doxology through your passion and into your victory. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus crucified, the Lord of the church. Amen.

John 10:1-21 Jesus is the Gate and the Good Shepherd

I want to do something a little different this morning. I want you to close your eyes while I read the Scripture. John is writing good news to us, and I want us to hear it. You’ll have enough time later as we dig into the passage to turn the pages in your Bible to the story and read the parts which are speaking to us. But for now, close your Bible. Put your finger or your bulletin in between the pages, and just listen to the good news Jesus is speaking.

¹"Truly, truly I say to you, the man who does not enter the courtyard of the sheep by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not know the stranger's voice." ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me were thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[a] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it to the fullest.

¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd; the sheep are not his own. So when he sees the wolf coming, he forsakes the sheep and flees. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³Because the man is a hired hand, the sheep are of no concern to him.

¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this courtyard. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order that I take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

¹⁹At these words the Judeans were again divided. ²⁰Many of them said, "He has a demon and is raving mad. Why listen to him?" ²¹But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

Let us pray: Jesus, those who first heard your words did not understand. Give us the ears to hear your voice today. Let this good news be good news to us this morning. Amen.

I lived with music majors for three years during college, and while I didn’t learn much about music that was useful from them, like music theory, piano, or vocal techniques, I did learn about 12-tone music, which is really only useful to modern composers. One of the things I learned was that these pieces have something called a row. In a way, it’s is sort of like a theme that gets repeated through the piece in various ways. The first time you might have all of the notes in a recognizable order, and then it changes. So the second time, the notes might all be inverted. Then they might go up an octave, and then down, then they might be missing a couple of the notes. But no matter how it changes, it is still recognizable as the same “theme.”

In Jesus’ words today, we see a repeated theme as well. It changes slightly throughout, but it is still recognizable. The theme here is Abundant Life. Over and over, Jesus is calling us to live, not just mediocrity, but abundance, overflowing with power and joy and his presence.

We start with Jesus’ first I am statement of this passage. Jesus says, “I am the gate of the sheep.” “Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.” I think that too often our picture of salvation is too narrow. Too often we delay abundant life until we walk the streets of heaven. But salvation is not just about going to heaven! It’s about experiencing the love of God poured out on us here and now, about seeing our lives transformed by the Lord who laid down his life for us. It’s about living in the power of God to turn from the fears and sins and habits of the world into people who have the mind and heart of Christ.

Abundant life is here for us now, if only we will enter through the gate. Jesus is inviting us in. We don’t have to enter the courtyard on our own. When our host stands as the open gate, and we choose to run repeatedly into the rock wall that surrounds the courtyard, we cause ourselves a lot more pain that Jesus desires. We won’t find life or nourishment that way. We’ll just be battered to pieces.

But if we enter through the gate, we find pasture. There is good food among the flock – both inside the courtyard and out. The psalmist says that the Lord makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. These are places that are safe for us the sheep, and places where the food for our souls is more than we need. Jesus has come that we might have life, and that we will have it to the fullest possible measure imaginable.

But Jesus isn’t content to leave us with that picture of him as the gate. He’s much too involved in our lives for that. He says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.” The shepherd lives among the sheep day after day, making sure that they have everything they need, and protecting them from the people and animals that would try to harm them.

Very few of us have ever seen a shepherd. Some of us who have grown up in Southern California may never even have seen a sheep, outside of the occasional visit to a petting zoo. We may have a romanticized understanding of shepherds in our minds – the picture of little bo peep dances across our minds. And even for those of us who do know about modern shepherds, we probably have a slightly different picture in our minds than the one Jesus’ first hearers had. We think of people who live pretty much the same lives we do, except there are a lot of animals roaming around the yard while the shepherd sends the sheep dogs out to round up the sheep for the evening.

This is not the life of the ancient shepherd. First of all, ancient shepherds didn’t ride horses and send sheep dogs to round up the flock. They called their sheep by name, knowing the slight differences between each animal. And they used their voice to guide the flock, not dogs or whips or modern tools. The shepherd would walk in front of the flock, calling back to any stragglers who needed to run to catch up with the group. And the sheep followed his voice. It’s a little bit like your dog or cat reacts to your voice today. When a stranger comes through the door, your pet might growl or run and hide under a bed. But when you come home and call, your pet comes running and winds itself around your legs. These animals know their owners voice.

Jesus tells us, ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not know the stranger's voice." Then he says, ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”

Again we hear the theme of abundant life. Jesus knows us, personally, and individually. When you look at a flock of sheep, I’m guessing they all look pretty much the same to you, as they do to me. But we don’t know the sheep. We don’t know the personalities of each one, and the distinguishing marks in their wool. But the shepherd does. And Jesus our shepherd knows each one of us as well. No matter how much you look like the people around you, Jesus knows you individually. He knows what your gifts are, where you are strong and where you are weak. He knows what you are like first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and he’s okay with the fact that you maybe shouldn’t have a conversation with anyone before 10am, or that at night you get a little crazy when it’s past your bedtime. And he calls you by name to come follow him to green pastures where you can find food and rivers that are calm and clear where you can drink without being swept away. He is calling us to follow him, and when we follow we find that abundant life Jesus promises.

Unfortunately, Jesus isn’t the only one who calls us. There are many, many other voices calling us to follow them. Fame, fortune, and pride, selfishness, anger, and worthlessness, time, distractions, past failures, and present doubts all call us to follow. And there are many more. It can sound like a cacophony of voices all trying to get our attention, and all but one voice will lead us to death and destruction. We have to know Jesus’ voice if we are to follow. That means we have to spend time with him.

When my family got our dog as a puppy, she didn’t know us or our voices. She didn’t know her name. We had to teach her all of those things as we spent time with her and taught her to trust us. We had to call her over and over again. But she did learn our voices and her name, and she learned to come when we called. We are a little like that aren’t we? To know Jesus’ voice, and we have to spend time with him!

We enter the sheepfold the first time, unsure of who will call, and our time here, among the other sheep, helps teach us to trust the Lord. The other sheep sitting next to you know the shepherd’s voice, and they know that he will lead to good pasture, so we help teach each other what the voice of Jesus sounds like. And we learn to read the Bible, so recognize the other times Jesus has called his people, so that when we hear that same voice, we recognize that it is calling us. It’s why all of those spiritual disciplines – prayer, study, fasting, worship – are so important to our lives. Not just because we are told to do them, but because we meet Jesus in them, and we learn to listen to his voice and to follow him to abundant life. If we don’t know his voice, all the other voices calling out to us will lead us to death.

But when we follow Jesus’ voice, it’s actually him that encounters death, so we can encounter life. That’s the other part of being the shepherd. You place your life on the life to protect the sheep in your care. When the wolves and lions and bandits come, you stand firm against them and make sure that they can’t get to the sheep.

Jesus knows that when he tells us that he is the good shepherd. ¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd; the sheep are not his own. So when he sees the wolf coming, he forsakes the sheep and flees. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³Because the man is a hired hand, the sheep are of no concern to him.” ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; … I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. … ¹⁷The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order that I take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

Jesus knows the dangers we will encounter as we walk through life with him as our Shepherd. But that is the benefit of having a shepherd who goes before us. All of the dangers and temptations that we encounter, Jesus encounters before us. When we are following Jesus, we allow HIM to fight the wolves for us, instead of trying to fight them ourselves. We allow him to make sure that there are no thieves gaining entrance to the sheepfold and to repair the courtyard walls.

It’s a funny thing to say that the good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. It would seem that the shepherd laying down his life would leave the sheep more vulnerable than before. But Jesus knew better. He knew that the thieves, bandits, and wolves who would attack us don’t just need to be sent away once, they need to be defeated forever. And the only way for him to defeat sin, death, and the devil was to die, and then to rise from the grave. So here, before Calvary, Jesus is teaching that he has the authority to lay down his life, and then to take it up again in victory over all of the things that would attack us.

What are the thieves, bandits, and wolves in your life right now? What is trying to steal the abundant life of Jesus from you? What is trying to distract from the voice of Jesus? Is it the lie that you are too much? That you are too loud, or too strong, or too powerful, or too emotional? Is it the lie that you are not enough? Not good enough, not strong enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough? Is it the lie that you are not worthy of love because of what you have done or failed to do? The fear that even God couldn’t forgive if he knew what you had done? The fear that Jesus isn’t good enough to lead you to life? Is it lack of hope, lack of joy, lack of peace, or lack of love? Are you under attack from those who are angry, afraid, or filled with hatred? Do your besetting sins, those that always seem to be lurking around the corner the second we let our guard down, seem to be climbing right over the wall to the courtyard, ready to steal you away from Jesus, your shepherd?

That was quite a list right? Quite the jumble of lies that stand ready to jump over the wall or scatter the flock. And your thieves and wolves may be hundreds of other things. And I have some bad news for you, they aren’t necessarily going to go away. Jesus doesn’t say in this passage that once you enter the courtyard of the sheep, you will never be under attack. He says the opposite, there will still be thieves, bandits, and wolves that come to steal, kill, and destroy. And that the thieves and bandits will try to climb over the wall another way, wherever there is a crack or hole in the wall where they can gain and foot and handhold, or where they can dig through the wall until the hole is big enough to climb through. What Jesus does say is that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for us, his sheep, and that he has come that we might have life abundantly.

As we spend time in prayer this morning, ask Jesus to deal with the thieves, bandits, and wolves who are attacking you. And ask him to walk with you around the walls, so check for cracks and holes that would let those thieves into the courtyard. And as you go out from this courtyard this morning, ask him to teach you to know his voice better so you can follow, and ask him to deal with the wolves and other animals that will attack you this week while you are outside of the courtyard. Ask him to prevent the animals from destroying or scattering you. Jesus is our shepherd. That’s part of why he’s here.