Sermon 7 Easter - year A

Here's a sermon I gave in 2011 where I invited people to get to know one another better. It explores what Jesus was asking of us in his prayer on the last night of his life.

7 Easter - Year A

Transcribed from a sermon

Given at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

June 5, 2011

By Rev. Valerie Hart

I’d like you to imagine that the patriarch of a family is dying. He’s in the hospital and he knows his death is near. So he gathers the whole family together - the sons and daughters, their spouses, and the grandchildren. Once they are all gathered together he looks at them and he says; “I have loved you and cared for you and had concern for you, but I am soon going to be gone and my prayer to God at this moment is that you will stay together as a family; that you will love and support one another.” You can imagine that happening and that is basically what we have here today in the Gospel.

It is the night before Jesus is arrested. He is talking with his disciples. He’s giving them the last of his teachings. He is trying to prepare them for what is ahead, and he prays for them. He prays for all of those who have been given to him. Which means us too. We too are his disciples. We too are those whom God has given to Christ. He prays, and his final prayer, his last request, is that they may be one as you and I are one. Christ’s last passionate prayer is that his people will be together and united in the way that he is united with the Father. That we, as he has given his command earlier, would love one another as he has loved us. That’s his final request. And any of you that know anything about church history know that the Christian church has not been real good at doing that. But that doesn’t mean we don’t keep trying.

Today is the 7^th Sunday of Easter; it used to be called the Sunday after Ascension. On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension, which happens forty days after Easter. Jesus spent 40 days in his resurrected body interacting with the disciples, then he took the disciples up on the hillside and, as he stood there, he said to them, “you will now be my witnesses.” He said that I am leaving but you will be my witnesses. Then a cloud came and he disappeared from sight. Now throughout scripture whenever a cloud appears it represents the presence of God. It was as if a door opened between earth and heaven and Christ walked through it. Then he was gone.

In the reading today from the Book of Acts it describes this. What stood out for me was that once this happens the disciples are all looking at Jesus, where he was, and now he is gone. Then these two men dressed in white, who obviously must be angels, because they are messengers from God, appear and ask why are you looking there, where he left? Why are you staring at empty space? And so they stopped and they looked at each other. The next thing we read is that the community is gathered together in the upper room for prayers, for food, and for sharing. The whole family is there, the disciples, some of the women, including mother Mary, Jesus’ brothers and others. The whole family gathered together. It is the family loving one another.

One of the things that is interesting, if you think about architecture, is that it has a strong affect on what we can do in a church, or in a house. Think about an airplane. Now the goal in an airplane is to get lots of people in there close together and not have them cause too much of a fuss. Right? You don’t want them really interacting with each other, you don’t want them getting up and moving around, so you have all the seats lined up facing forward so the only thing you can see is the back of people’s heads and maybe the person sitting next to you. Bt you don’t look too much at the person sitting next to you because that’s not really socially acceptable. You look straight ahead or at your book. On the other hand, if you have people over for dinner you’re going to sit around a table, or gather around in the living room where you can see one another, and you can talk to one another, and you can interact with one another.

Think about how we set up a church. We have all these pews, and you are all sitting here looking up at the cross. Except for the choir, the choir gets to look at the people. But we have the cross up there, and we are all looking at the cross, and that is a fine thing to do to. But the angels said to the disciples, don’t look at where Jesus was, and they looked at one another. So I would like to invite you to be very counter cultural and turn around and look at one another. Really. If you are sitting up at the front you may have to stand up. Look behind you. Stand up and look behind. Look at these wonderful people. Look at this variety of human beings. Every Sunday I get to look at all you folks and see the smiling faces and the sleepy faces and the young ones and the old ones, the familiar and the unfamiliar as you look around at the people. Maybe there are some people here that you have never seen before. Who are they? I wonder if they are new? Or maybe there is someone you see and you think; “I recognize that face. I wonder how long they’ve been coming to church.”

You might see other people that you know their name because of the nametag they wear, but that is all you know about them. And there may be others here that you really are close to and you have come to really value and share deeply with. This is our family. This is the family that Jesus prayed that we would be one as Jesus and the Father are one. This is it. Now to be one with one another as Jesus and the Father are one with one another, we kind of need to get to know each other. When you love someone you want what is best for them. You do what you can to help them. But how can we help someone if we don’t know what their situation is, if we don’t know who they are. If we love someone we value them for who they are. We listen, we appreciate, we celebrate with them, we grieve with them, support them. In order to do that we have to know one another - a little bit more than just “hello,” a little bit more then shaking hands on Sunday morning.

So I would like to invite you to be brave and to trust the Holy Spirit. You will find on most of the pews a basket that has some little pieces of paper. There should be a writing implement in it. Here’s what I’m going to invite you to do. I will tell you the whole thing so I’m not going to ask you to do anything without knowing everything. What we are going to do is to write your name and a way to contact you on a piece of paper. It might be a phone number, or if you prefer to be contacted by email you can put your email address. Then what we are going to do is to collect all these, mix them all up, and then everyone who has put one in takes one out. And we are going to trust the Holy Spirit. We are going to trust the Holy Spirit that whatever name it is that you pick out is someone you need to get to know. I’m going to put my name in here too.

So what you will do is you will pull out a name and you will contact the person you get and you’ll say let’s get together. Maybe you’ll go get a cup of coffee together. Maybe you’ll take a walk together. If it’s someone who has physical limitations you may need to go to their house. Whatever. You can go to the beach together. Whatever it is, it is a chance to listen and get to know someone at a little bit deeper level.

I trust the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works very efficiently. Trust that the person’s name you get has something you need. Maybe a story from their life, maybe some encouragement, maybe a new idea. And trust that you have something for that person. Maybe they need a ride, or a listening ear, or a good friend. Who knows what the Holy Spirit will do with it. I had one person at the eight o’clock service who told me; “I got just the person that I know I need to talk to.” I didn’t ask any further questions about why the need to talk. I don’t know, but I’m going to be real curious to find out what happens. I’m going to be real curious to hear from people who want to share their story of who they talked to.

Now there is a small chance, a small probability that you will get yourself. And if you get yourself that means the Holy Spirit is saying you better hang out with yourself a little bit. Take some time. Listen to yourself. Love yourself. Or you may get your spouse. And once again, you better spend some time with your spouse. It might be a message that you need to do that.  You may get someone that you know well. You may get someone you have never met. But it is an opportunity to practice loving one another. And so invite you to put in your little slips.

(Time collecting the slips)

I’ll mix them all together. And we’ll pass them around. Take one and pass it on. Don’t look at who it is before you pick it. Trust the Holy Spirit.

(Time passing out slips)

Jesus said to his disciples before he went up to heaven; “You will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the world.” We will be God’s witnesses. What does that look like? We can witness with our voice, we can tell what we know, but it is a much more powerful witness when we witness with how we live our lives. When we witness Christ’s love by loving one another. Most of you may know the old song. “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Let us witness Christ in our love for one another.

Amen.

6 Easter Sermon

Here's a sermon I gave back in 1996 that considers what it means to abide in Christ and to bear fruit. Hope you find it interesting.

Sermon - Easter 6 - A

Given at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Brentwood CA

By Rev. Valerie Hart

May 12, 1996

         What beautiful and comforting words “Abide in me as I abide in you.” What a wonderful relationship we have with Christ, abiding in his love. How incredible to let ourselves experience abiding in that love. And Christ tells us that He is the vine, the source of nurturance, of food and water, of all that is necessary for the branch to grow and bear fruit. And we are the branches. We are fed by Him, nourished by him. An infinite source of love and support. How incredible, how comforting, what security. To abide in his love, to be nurtured as the vine nurtures the branch.

         Julian of Norwich, the 14th century Anglican mystic who we heard about on Monday night compares Christ’s love to mother love. Just as a mother holds us and supports us, so Christ surrounds and supports us. Just as before birth the baby is totally and physically abiding in the mother, so we abide in Christ. Just as the mother supplies all the newborn infants needs, we as the branches on the vine receive all that we need from God through Christ. Or as Paul puts it, “In him we live and move and have our being.”

         Such a sense of love and support. This God of ours, through Christ, holds us, nurtures us as a mother would. This relationship is one of total love and giving on the part of God. Jesus even says,  “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” What comforting words. What Good News, to know that we are so totally and completely loved and supported. Such courage and strength it gives us, to know, as Julian said, “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” This passage from John is one of the most supportive and beautiful in the Bible.

         And there is another theme that is also entwined in this passage. Along with the nurture and support there is the theme of bearing fruit. Not only are we to abide in Christ as the branch abides in the vine, but we are also called to bear fruit.

         When my mother was in town a few weeks ago, we went to visit her relatives in Cloverdale. She told me of when she was a girl traveling across country in the train to visit her grandfather, my great grandfather, who owned vineyards in the area. She told of helping them one day to graft new shoots onto the vines. The roots were strong and sturdy, and the grower would choose shoots that he felt would eventually bear fruit. When the shoots were first grafted on, they were carefully cared for, to make sure that they could take hold. And sometimes it would be several years before the shoots would actually bear fruit. There was a sense of faith that it would take hold and bear fruit. That it was worth all the effort and support and care at the beginning, for the fruit that would eventually arise.

         In the same way, little is expected of us when we first come to Christ. We are like small shoots grafted onto the root. The first step is for the shoot to take hold, to develop the relationship with the vine that is necessary for the branch to be nurtured and supported. But eventually, any healthy branch will bear fruit.

         What would it mean to bear fruit as a follower of Christ? Let’s see, all fruits have within them a seed. And that seed is surround by beautiful, rich, luscious fruit that is bursting with nourishing pulp that makes it attractive to people, so that they will eat of it, enjoy it, be fed, and nurtured with the hope that the seed will take hold somewhere. So it is with the fruit that Christ wants us to bear. We, nurtured by the love that flows from the vine, bear the fruits of joy and service to others that makes it so attractive that others want to be nourished as we are, so that seed of Christ’s abounding love can take hold in others.

         Christ never says or implies that it is enough just to receive all the gifts that he showers upon us. Always he speaks of sharing that which we have received with others. Christianity is not only about coming to church to receive support and love, but to prepare us to give support and love to others. As the Eucharist Prayer C states “Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal.” Christ is the vine, the source of everlasting nurture and love, but for a purpose, that the vine can grow, that the Kingdom of God may become more and more manifest on the earth. That all people may hear of the good news of God’s love

         We as Christians are called to go forth and share the Good News of Christ’s love. Just as a child is always loved and supported by the mother, there comes a time when it is expected that the grown up child will go out into the world and make a contribution. Make a difference in the lives of those it touches. That is part of how the child shares the love for the mother, by doing things that the mother would want to see, by becoming all that he or she can be. The cycle of parental love is complete when the children become parents themselves and love their children, sharing and expanding the love that they received.

         Jesus says, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. He implies here that we do not fully become disciples until we begin to bear fruit. The full journey to discipleship includes reaching out to others to share what we have found. And even those who bear fruit continue to be pruned continue to be encouraged to bear more. Pruning can be quite uncomfortable sometimes. We continue to be stretched and tested and pushed to give more to share more, to love more.

         We can also think of the individual churches as branches on the one vine of the body of Christ. Always they must abide in Christ, they cannot bear fruit unless they abide in the love of Christ. Each church gets its strength and its nurture from the one vine. And each is expected to bear fruit. To plant seeds of Christ’s love in others. To serve the less fortunate, to speak the Good News, to work toward the expansion of the kingdom.

         Today St. Alban’s is at a crossroads. We have many buds developing toward mature fruit. We have individuals who want to truly expand our ministry to the community. One would like to start a program of lunches for the elderly of our neighborhood; another wants to develop a grant to work with middle school students after school. We have an enthusiastic leader for our Sunday School program who is ready and willing to develop a program to not only serve our own children, but also bring other youngster to the love of Christ. We are in an area that is growing at an incredible rate. There are so many people who need to hear Christ’s message of love. There are so many people who are in need of our love. People who are lonely, left behind by the system. People who do not feel connected to any vine, people who desperately need nurture and love. There is so much potential for the Episcopal Church in this area. There is so much we can do together. People are hungry for the fruits that we can share. It is an exciting time to be part of the church in Brentwood. There is so much that I feel, and others in the congregation feel, Christ is calling us to be, to become.

         And we are at a crisis point. As you may remember, in January the Bishop’s Committee presented a budget to the congregation that was a deficit budget. It was clear that either additional pledging or fund raising would be essential this year. Well, our deficit is catching up with us, and unlike the federal government, we can’t just issue more money. I’ll leave it to the Bishop’s Committee members to share the details, but financially we are at a crisis point.

         In Chinese the character for crisis is the same as the character for opportunity. Within each crisis lies opportunity. St. Alban’s now has the opportunity to really consider together what our vision is and how we are to achieve it. We are being asked to bear fruit. We are being asked, for each of us individually as well as collectively, to consider what our commitment is to doing the work of Christ in the Delta.

         On the surface this looks to be a financial issue, but in actuality it is a spiritual issue. (Leave it to your priest to see the spiritual side of everything.). We have talked of stewardship, of time, talent and treasure. There are many here who give deeply of all three, but right now we are confronted with the need to give more. Are we ready to make supporting the work of Christ our first priority? Do we give of our first fruits? Or do we give of what’s left over. Do pay all the other bills first and then consider what we can do for the church, or have we made a pledge based on a percentage of our income that we pay as our first bill each month.

         I know, as do the members of the bishop’s committee, that none of us have a lot left over at the end of the month - most of us don’t have anything left after we pay all our bills. We are all trying to live in an expensive part of the world, struggling to make ends meet. That is the financial perspective. But from the spiritual perspective, we are nurtured by the great endless vine who has promised that when we abide in Him and His words abide in us we will get what we need. When we feel drained, burned out by giving of our time, stretched in the giving of our treasure must remember that we have the infinite endless source to drink from. If the branch looked only at what it had it would never dare to bear fruit, because then it would run out of moisture, but the branch does not, can not, live on its own. It receives from the vine more than enough moisture to live and to bear abundant fruit. We need to look not at our own limited resources, but at the great abundance of the creator in whom we live and move and have our being. We then realize that we can bear fruit, and more fruit, and bear it abundantly and rather than feeling drained we will feel even more abundantly nourished.

Sermon 5 Easter - Do not let your hearts be troubled

Jesus tells us to not let our hearts be troubled. That is easier said then done. Here is a sermon I gave back in 1996 on the topic. Hope you find it helpful.

Sermon

5 Easter - A

May 5, 1996

Given at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Hart

         Imagine when you were a child, oh 5 or 6 years old. You have gone on walk in the woods with an older brother or cousin or friend whom you really trust. The woods aren’t so scary when your with this person. You feel safe with him or her, you have faith that they know the way home, so even though you may not know your own way, you are not afraid. Then this person says to you that they have to hurry on ahead. They will be leaving you, in the middle of the woods, alone. You feel terrified, abandoned, unsure of yourself. Don’t leave me you protest. No matter how much your friend reassures you that he won’t be far away, that he will leave a trail for you to follow, that you will be OK and have nothing to fear, you are in a panic. Like any good 5 year old you start to cry, to scream in protest. In fact you are so caught up in your own protest that you don’t notice that your friend has left.

         Finally your crying is exhausted. It is clear that you must do something. You begin to call for your friend, and sure enough you hear his voice, far away, but clear, saying; It is OK. Just follow the trail of stones I left for you.” Just hearing his voice reassures you. You get up and wipe your eyes with your grubby sleeve and look around. Sure enough, there are the stones he promised. Pretty little stones that show the way. With some fear at first you begin to follow them, but as you get more confidence that they are indeed leading you home your footsteps become firmer. But just when things seem to be going so well, you reach an obstacle, a tree trunk across the path. You begin to panic, once again feeling lost, abandoned, hopeless. You call out your friend’s name and sure enough you hear his voice; “It’s OK, you can climb over it. It is not too much for you.”

         Once again you have the courage to go on. And after climbing over that tree your confidence begins to soar. You know you can make it, if you just keep following the stones. What a journey it has been, filled with terror, excitement, success, and then you see home. And not only are your home, but your friend had gone ahead to set up a surprise party for you. All your friends are there, cheering that you made your way home. And then you know that your friend had never really abandoned you. He had been close at hand but out of sight, all along.

         When Jesus speaks with his disciples before his crucifixion, trying to explain to them what is about to happen, they just don’t get it. They have so enjoyed having him close at hand. He has helped them to feel safe, confident, loved, they can’t imagine him leaving them. Jesus does his best to reassure them. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  But they were troubled. He told them that they know the way, but Thomas said; “How can we know they way. We don’t even know where you are going.” “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” he responds, but they are still not satisfied. They want proof. They want to “see the father”. They are like scared children who are being left. They are feeling abandoned. They feel that they will be lost without him. And they want proof that everything is going to be all right.

         Doesn’t that sound a lot like us.

         We read the scripture “Do not let hearts be troubled” but we are troubled. We are troubled at our losses, at the death of loved ones, at our own illnesses, at our aging, at our impending death. We are troubled by our concern for others, by the suffering we see around us, by the senseless violence, by the concern for our own children and grandchildren. Often our hearts are troubled.

         And we read “You know the way” yet we often feel lost. Unsure of what is next in our lives, unsure of what to do or where to go. We lose our confidence to make decisions, we get lost in a sense of hopelessness and despair, depression and anxiety.

         So like Philip, we want proof. “Show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” Just prove to me that God exists, just prove to me that there is a meaning in life. Just prove to me that I really am loved by Christ as much as I have heard, as much as I long to be. Prove to me that I have not been abandoned.

         Jesus’ response to the disciples was one of loving compassion. He answered, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” The Greek word translated a seen involves more than just physical sight, but also a sense of fully knowing, of a spiritual seeing, like a vision, a depth of comprehension. If we have seen, understood, spiritually sensed Christ, we have seen the Father, we have known God.

         So we find ourselves troubled, or we feel lost and abandoned. What are we to do? If we focus on Christ, if we attempt to “see” him, if we call out to him, if we ask him for peace, for reassurance, for direction we will discover that he is here with us. We will fidvobrt hat he has never left us, and that he is longing to welcome us home. “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” Jesus tells us. If we ask for peace, for his support, for awareness of his presence of reassurance of his love, we will find it. We will find that peace of mind, we will have an untroubled heart, we will know the way and the truth and the life and we will know that we have not been abandoned and never will be. For Christ is risen, he has conquered death, he has shown us that his love is forever and that we are never alone.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Here is a sermon I wrote a few years ago about following the Good Shepherd. It's about listening and following.

4 Easter A

May 15, 2011

Transcribed from a sermon given

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Rev. Valerie Hart

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Every year on the fourth Sunday of Easter we talk about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

The image of being a shepherd comes up often in scripture. We heard it in the 23^rd Psalm. In John’s Gospel we hear Jesus talking about himself being the good shepherd. It made sense to use that imagery, that metaphor, in those times because everyone would have been familiar with shepherds. The people of Israel were always a herding people. Abraham was a herder. He traveled from place to place with his animals and became rich because of his large herds.  When Moses brought the Israelites out of Egypt and they traveled around and wandered for forty years, they wandered with their herds. They had herds of sheep. It wasn’t just people. And David, the great King David, was originally a shepherd before he was called to be king. So the shepherd imagery was familiar to everyone. And in the time of Jesus there were lots of shepherds around. It was one of the main occupations in that area. On every hill you could see sheep. Even today, if you go to the middle east and you stay long enough, you probably at some point will see a tall man, at least he looks tall next to the sheep, standing with a staff and this group of fuzzy off white animals hanging around him. You will see that.

However on the central coast you are unlikely to see it. Very few of us have ever been shepherds. Some of us here do know something about being a shepherd, but not very many of us. Many of us have never seen a sheep, and probably for most Christians the main thing you know about sheep and shepherding is what you have heard in these sermons every year about the Good Shepherd. So it is not something that is existentially real for us. If you try to think about it in our culture, what would be similar? It is not exactly the same, but probably the closest we can come in our everyday life is our relationship with our animals, with our dogs, or our cats, or our horses. We love them and care for them, and make sure they have everything they need. You see, that is the shepherd’s job. The shepherd’s life is focused around the flock, and making sure that the flock stays healthy. He has to make sure that they find good food, that when one pasture wears out they go to another one, and that there is water. If a sheep gets sick the shepherd takes care of that sheep. When a new baby is born, and there is a little tiny lamb, and the flock has to move a long distance, the shepherd carries the baby that can’t keep up. There is total care of the sheep.

Sheep really need that, because sheep were domesticated pretty early and they were not domesticated in order to survive in the wilds. In fact domesticated sheep would die very quickly if there was not someone to take care of them. They have no defense against predators, except that they are a herd animal so if a predator comes the hope is that it will only get a few around the outside edge, not all of the sheep. They can’t fight back. They have no horns to fight back. And when they were domesticated it turns out that they don’t see very well. Sheep are very near sighted. So they only can see where they are. They can’t take a look around and see where is the next water hole. And they are kind of short so that makes looking around hard too. They are one of the few animals that will eat where they are until it is destroyed. The way that sheep eat grass is they eat it way down to the nub. And if you overgraze sheep in an area the grass won’t grow back. So, if sheep are left to their own devices, if it is green they’ll eat it, and they will keep eating until it is all gone. And then they will have no idea what to do unless they see something green over there and then they will go over to wherever that is. They don’t survive very well on their own. So they need a shepherd. They need a shepherd that can have a sense of where the rich pasture is. To know that at certain times of the year the pasture would be good here and then will take them somewhere else another time of year. Sometimes that mean taking them down into a dry valley to take them up the other side to good pasture.

The shepherd does everything for the sheep, to care for them. It is a relationship of love and affection and devotion. There is even willingness, for the good shepherd, to risks his life to protect the sheep from predators. So when Jesus talks about being the good shepherd there is that sense of love, like we would have with our animals. We know that when we have an animal we develop a relationship of caring and love. We make sure they have enough food, and we make sure they have enough water, and we make sure they get enough tummy rubs if it is a dog, and maybe a brushing and washing it occasionally. If it gets sick we take it to the vet. If it is the middle of the night we grumble, but we go to the emergency vet. And we feed them the medicine they need and we do whatever it is necessary to care for the animal we made a commitment to, for that is the nature of the relationship.

There is a relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd’s commitment is to care for the sheep. What is the sheep’s part of the relationship? What’s the sheep’s responsibility? The sheep’s responsibility is to listen for the shepherd’s voice and then follow where the shepherd leads. That’s it. To listen and to follow. It is sort of like with our dogs, we hope we can train them to come when we call. We do that. We want our animals, especially our dogs, to respond to our voices because if they are running toward the street we want them to stop and come back for their own safety. That’s my dog’s responsibility - to love me and hopefully listen when I tell it to do something. That’s our responsibility as sheep - to listen for the shepherd’s voice and to follow.

But one of the things about listening for the shepherd’s voice is you need learn to discriminate between the Good Shepherd and the other voices out there. Jesus in this passage talks about the different shepherds and the sheep recognize their shepherd voice and follow their shepherd because there has been a relationship. The sheep learn over time who to trust. Who is the one that feeds them and cares for them. Over time they learn to distinguish that voice from all the other voices.

Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish the voice of Christ. There are so many voices out there. You turn on the radio and there are voice telling us to buy things and political points of view and news and all kinds of different voices. And then there are the voices of our friends or our associates who are telling us things. And then there are the voices of our mother and our father that sit on our shoulders and talks to us and tells us what we are suppose to do. And then there are the voices of our own guilt. There are voices that come from all different kinds of places.

How in this cacophony of noise in our minds are we to discriminate the voice of the Good Shepherd? It takes time and practice and relationship. We listen to the voice of God in scripture. We come together as a community, as a flock, and we listen together. If you have the flock of sheep and you have the shepherd, if the shepherd calls out and only one of those sheep hears and starts to follow the shepherd all the other sheep will follow. But of course if one of the sheep listens to the wrong person and goes the wrong direction the sheep tend to follow too. So one of the ways we discriminate is we get to know pretty well in a community who are the ones who hear God’s voice that we can rely on and we can trust. And we learn when to say, “eh, there they go off on their own again.” Maybe that is not right. Discrimination, discernment. We come to know God’s voice as we come together to worship every week and we listen, and we hear, and we sense God’s presence, and we begin to know what it feels likes when we are in relationship with Christ. And we learn what it feels like when we are not. That takes time and practice and relationship.  But you learn to hear it better and better, then you follow, to trust that where it is going to lead is to life - to life abundantly.

Last night I was on the phone with a friend and she asked me what are you going to preach on so I gave her kind of a synopsis of what I just said to you and she said, “listening to the shepherd and then following. That sounds really boring.” And I said, “Yeah, it can be.” It can sound really boring to be a sheep that just listens to the shepherd and follows along. There are a lot more exciting voices out there. There are wonderfully exciting voices. Come and do this and have fun and party and we’re going to have a great time. The first time you have a drink it’s fun. And the second time you have a drink its fun. But by the fortieth party you go to it is starting to get a little boring and then suddenly that you are in an AA meeting and you are lost in the valley of the shadow of death.

There are lots of more exciting things then following the shepherd, although once you really start following the shepherd it can get pretty interesting. But those other voices, those more exciting voices, sometimes lead us to the valley of the shadow of death. Sometimes they lead us into places where there is no water, there is no nurturance, there is dryness and emptiness. Sometimes we find ourselves in those kinds of situations, when we are one of those little sheep have walked off the wrong direction (because that’s what sheep do) and that is what we all do sometimes. But the good news is that when we find ourselves in that valley of the shadow of death the shepherd is still with us. And the moment, the moment, we turn and say “help!” he’s right there to lead us home, to care for us, to protect us, to heal us and nurture us and forgive us.

It’s a relationship. It’s about listening. It’s about responding when we hear his voice. Each one of us will find his or her own way of discerning the voice of the Good Shepherd. Some people have a sense inside when they hear it inwardly. Others find the voice in scripture, others find the voice in worship. But with time you learn to discriminate that voice and when you follow, when you listen and you follow, what you are offered is life. Abundant life.