May 29 "Witness to What?" (Ascension Sunday)

 Readings: Psalm 47, Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, May 29, 2022

At the very end of the Gospel of Luke we find an event known as the Ascension. It is the moment when the resurrected Jesus calls His disciples together for one last time and lays down what was of the most importance in their calling to be disciples. As a faith community seeking to be faithful to the call of Jesus Christ, we do well to remind ourselves of what our mission should be.

Luke 24:48 states it plainly enough "You are witnesses.” Witnesses. In Greek ‘ma,rtuj’(martus) from which the English word martyr is derived. Sometimes translated as ‘heralds;’ a herald being somebody who delivers a message on behalf of their Master. So, our calling is to carry the gospel message to others… to witness. But witness to what? And how do we go about that witnessing?

This passage mentions three things.

1.    That we are to witness to Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, who suffered and died and rose again from the dead.
2.    We are to bear witness that through repentance, forgiveness and renewal is available to all people.
3.    We are to find the power to witness through the promised Holy Spirit given as we wait upon God in prayer and joyful worship.

1. We are to witness to Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, who suffered and died and rose again from the dead.

Think for a moment of Christian history as a long road that stretches back to the beginning of time. Along the road are many milestones in the story. Abraham setting out to who knows where. Moses giving the law. The prophets looking ahead to a day when a new covenant would be established. Then a flurry of activity as Jesus is born, as He ministers, as He is betrayed and crucified, as He is raised from the dead, and, the event we are thinking of today, as He ascends to the Father.

These events mark the beginning of the New Covenant. Another milestone appears at Pentecost as the disciples gather in an upper room. The Spirit will come, and the church will come alive. The people of God will spread the message of Christ’s love to all nations. For the last 2000 years the milestones have continued. Some have marked tragedies when the church has lost its way, become corrupted by politics or power. Others are reforms when the people of God have been reawakened to their mission and revival has been in the air.

Luke’s Gospel (and his complementary story in the book of Acts) sees history in just such a linear way. That Christ was the One the law and the prophets were anticipating, and the Church were the people of God to now declare the message of His death and resurrection as it was witnessed to by the earliest disciples. At the center of the biblical story is Jesus Christ… all that comes before points to Him, all that comes after flows from Him.

It is for us today to witness to the centrality of Jesus Christ, to His death on the cross at Calvary and His resurrection from the dead as being the pivotal events of human history. Through His suffering and death God enters into the suffering and defeat of all creation. Through the resurrection the power of God’s transforming love is witnessed to as being one that can turn the most God forsaken situations into occasions for hope.

The hope we are called to declare, the Good News we are commissioned to share is Jesus Christ, who died and rose again. Christ crucified. Christ Risen. The Cross and the Resurrection as witnessed to in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Everything else points to these two central events or flows from them. 

But why? 

Why are these two events so crucial, so central?

 Because without them we cannot bear witness to the second thing that Jesus calls disciples to speak of.

2. We are to bear witness that through repentance, forgiveness and renewal are available to all people.

It is Christ’s death that makes our forgiveness possible. On the Cross He prayed, “Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing.” It is His resurrection that reveals to us that our lives, however compromised, however far gone we think they may have become, can be recreated, and re-made and renewed. It is as we become aware of our sorry state before God and seek to change direction that repentance happens, and our lives are turned around… which is really what the word repentance means. To repent: to turn around and start going in a different direction.

Since Peter began preaching, repentance towards God has been the way outlined for hope to come flooding back into our lives. Think of Paul preaching in Athens in the Book of Acts and declaring to the Gentiles “In the past God overlooked our (or ‘such’) ignorance, but now God commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30)

It is Luke who gives us the Book of Acts, the same Luke in whose gospel the parable of the prodigal son is told to us. Here is the message we are called to witness to. That no matter how rebellious a son or daughter may have become, that no matter how much heartache or waste they may have caused, that no matter how low into the pig trough of depravity they have fallen, all they need to do is to come to their senses and head back home to the Father… and the Father will run to them and embrace them and offer to them all the benefits of being a child of God.

This is salvation by grace through faith. There is nothing we can do to earn it. There is no action we can perform to deserve it. It is that action of believing that in Jesus Christ God has provided all that is necessary for our salvation and allowing our heart to respond to the voice that is whispering in our ear, “Child, come home, come home.”

It is at the Cross we are forgiven. Christ died for our sins. The resurrection shows us what freedom really looks like. That though all the forces of suffering and death may fall upon us, God will raise us up. His love cannot be extinguished by hatred, His light not diminished by darkness. We are to turn towards that love.

To turn towards that light. To turn away from the manufactured gods of this age and towards the God who created us. Turn away from thinking life is just about us to the realization that God is about all of us. Turn from living to satisfy our appetite to feasting upon the Bread of Life and the new wine of the new covenant. 

But how do we find the strength for such a mission?

Surely it is beyond the likes of you and me?

3. We are to find the power to witness through the promised Holy Spirit given as we wait upon God in prayer and joyful worship.

The disciples are told to wait. Wait until the power comes. Wait in prayer. To prepare to receive what God promises as they joyfully gather together in praise and worship. It is as they wait and as they worship that they find the strength to be the witnesses God is calling them to be.

The first disciples did not have a good record when it came to faithfulness. They proved themselves to be scared to death when storms came. They slept when Jesus asked them to pray. They tried to take matters into their own hands when Jesus didn’t meet their expectations. They proved unsuccessful when commissioned to heal and cast out evil. They argued about which one of them was the greatest.

They consistently misunderstood what Jesus was teaching them and had to ask for more clarification. They ran away when Jesus was betrayed. One of them stood around the fire of the enemy and denied Him. Another sold Him out for thirty pieces of silver. They do not believe the word of the women’s testimony when they declared they had seen He was alive. One had to put his hands in the marks of the nails and the spear before faith returned.

As the church grew, things were not easy. There was persecution. Many died for their convictions. Their witnessing constantly put their lives in danger. What was it that kept them going, that transformed them and gave them courage? We find a clue in Paul’s words to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:17;  “The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth.”

Paul’s life was one filled with the acts of the Holy Spirit. He of all the first apostles felt himself ill-equipped and ill-suited for the task of being a witness. He was well aware of his infirmities, but he made his battle cry that although he was weak, the strength of God’s love, shed abroad in his heart through the Holy Spirit, provided what was needed to be a witness.

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be a witness. That calling involves waiting upon God in prayer, praise, and worship to be empowered for our mission. The power to accomplish our calling is a power that God bestows upon us. We are not to go in our own strength, but in the strength of the Holy Spirit of God.

That the need for true and faithful witnesses is great should not be a question that needs to be asked. There are so many who are desperate for a word of hope, who do not believe their circumstances can be changed, who are unaware of what God can do when given free reign in our lives.

During the bombing of London in the Second World War, some folk arrived the morning after an air raid to discover their church had been hit during the night. As the people entered, they saw a statue of Jesus with His hands broken off. Somebody had placed a card at His feet which read “Jesus has no hands but our hands to do His work today”

If we do not make a stand to be faithful witnesses, then who will? The witness we extend should correspond to that which Christ extended. 

•    Lifting up the poor.
•    Delivering from oppression.
•    Offering a healing touch and word.
•    Never seeing anybody or any situation as a hopeless case.
•    Holding high the possibility of transformation, renewal, and redemption.
•    Offering forgiveness and resurrection.
•    Seeking for ‘turn arounds,’ (for as we’ve seen, such is the meaning of repentance).
•    Seeking to be personally empowered through waiting upon God in prayer, praise, and worship.

Jesus has ascended to the Father. God watches over us and promises us the strength of the Holy Spirit to accomplish our calling. 

 1. We are to witness to Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, who suffered and died and rose again from the dead.

2. We are to bear witness that through repentance, forgiveness and renewal are available to all people

3. We are to find the power to witness through the promised Holy Spirit given as we wait upon God in prayer and joyful worship.

May God help us to be faithful witnesses to God’s wonderful love! Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

May 22 "The Weakest Link"

Readings: Psalm 67, Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5, John 14:23-29, Acts 16:9-15
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, May 22, 2022

Do any of you know a show on television, began a few years back, around 2002, called “The Weakest Link?” The original series made a star of its presenter Anne Robinson, but the 2021 incarnation was hosted on NBC by Jane Lynch.

The format featured nine contestants, who (in no particular order) took turns answering general knowledge questions. The objective of every round was to create a chain of nine correct answers in a row and earn an increasing amount of money within a time limit. One wrong answer broke the chain and lost any money earned.

I was never a regular watcher but recall one show that I saw, had a contestant who was asked a biblical question. "Matthew, Mark, Luke and... please give the name of the fourth gospel."

The contestant answered "Job." Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Job? Now, I love the book of Job, but he was the guy tempted by Satan to give upon God, but not the much-loved disciple and companion of Jesus after whom the fourth Gospel is named.

Biblical knowledge, then and now is "The Weakest Link" in many people’s lives. This is unwelcome news for our society. We are told that as we have grown more materialistic, then our hunger for spirituality has increased. But people are turning to other places than the Christian scriptures to fill their spiritual wells.

The reading we heard today from the book of Acts gave the history of Paul’s outreach to Macedonia and the account of Lydia and her household becoming Christians. At first glance it seems nothing more than one of those “Someone preaches, somebody gets saved, the gospel spreads, yadda. yadda, yadda, heard it all before” accounts. But there’s more to it than that.

Think about the struggle the early Jewish Church had in reaching out to the Gentiles. It was an action that went against everything their Jewish heritage taught them. It was 'unclean.'  There were Jews and there were Gentiles. That's the way it was meant to be.

“Not anymore” Jesus had showed them. They struggled to comprehend what it meant to go into the entire world and make disciples. They became reliant on the action of God's Holy Spirit directing and leading them. They developed a proven system of doing things. They would set out on their journeys. When the opportunity arose, usually on the Sabbath, they would go to the synagogue and there in the synagogue relate the message that Jesus, the Messiah had come. Go to town. Go to synagogue. Preach the Good News.

Then Paul has a dream, of a man pleading "Come to Macedonia." It's one of those striking moments of insight that gets his soul bubbling. He just knows it's the right thing to do and convinces those with him to be a part of it. "C'mon guys, let's go!"

So, they head for Macedonia and to the capital city, Phillipi. They had not visited Phillipi before, but they knew the drill. Go to the city. Go to the synagogue. Preach. But Phillipi was not like other places they had been. Phillipi was a little slice of Rome beyond Rome.

The people who lived there were Roman through and through. Like many ex-patriot communities, the Romans in Phillipi were more entranced with Rome than the Romans who lived in Rome. In fact, they were so Roman, they didn't even have a synagogue in the whole city. Lots of other temples to other gods, but no synagogue. Claudius, the emperor at that time, didn't particularly like the Jews, so in this Roman city beyond Rome, you could forget the synagogue.

I don't know if Paul was aware of that. You can almost picture him and those with him, getting into town. They’re wandering around and around. Of course, being guys, the last thing they are going to do is stop and ask for directions. "We'll get there, we'll find it, God's on our side." Eventually, in their frustration they stop a bystander... "Hey, Buddy, how about some directions to the synagogue."

The man just laughs. "Synagogue? You must be joking! Where you are guys from? A Philippian Synagogue! Hey, That's a good one. You guys!! What next? A woman emperor? 'gods save the queen' As if!"

So, there they are. “We go. We go to the town. We go to the synagogue. We preach. Lord, there's no synagogue here. Now what do we do?” What they do, as the Sabbath comes around is head down to the riverside. Sometimes a little walk by the river and a prayer can do wonders for the soul.

When they get there all they find is a bunch of women, who were probably washing clothes. Gentiles, remember, didn’t observe the Jewish Sabbath. For them it was just another day to get things done.

Later in his life Paul would write that in Christ male and female were one. But this Paul down by the river carried with him an upbringing and prejudice that made him see women as second-class citizens. Maybe it was one of these women that changed his views.

The disciples sit on the grass nearby and engage the ladies in conversation. One of them, by the name of Lydia, starts showing a real interest. This Lydia, far from being unimportant, is a prominent citizen within Phillipi’s community, a dealer in purple cloth, a trade which would bring in a significant income. Women in Roman society were not restricted in the same ways as those in Judaism.

God speaks to Lydia through Paul’s words. This Jesus he spoke of was, not so much the weakest link, but certainly the missing link in her spiritual journey. Lydia was no lame brain in the things of religion. But her beliefs, (and we don’t know exactly what they were) could not give her the life which Paul was explaining to her.

She accepts, along with her household, Paul’s invitation to be baptized and then insists that Paul and his companions stay at her house, as her guest. Their mission now has a center from which to expand.

The significance of this incident?

Lydia and her household were the first Europeans to accept the gospel message. From this incident Christianity would grow to become the official religion of Rome and after the fall of Rome, the European continent. Many years later, some Christian folk undergoing persecution were motivated to settle in a New Land where they could express their beliefs freely. Their faith was the driving factor. Such were the first Europeans to settle in North America.

It might never have happened had not one lady, Lydia, accepted Christ as her Savior and welcomed one of Christ’s servants in her home. Had Paul put his vision of a Macedonian calling out for help being the result of too much cheese for supper, the message would not have spread in the way it would do in the centuries that followed. This story of Lydia is one of the links in the chain that forms our history and our heritage.

The passage also teaches us about the way that God can direct our lives by the Holy Spirit. If you read the verses before our text, you’ll see that Paul has been having a challenging time. He’s set out on his mission with great enthusiasm and success, but right then, rather than opening before him, doors were closing wherever he went.

They wanted to go to Asia, but, as the scripture puts it, “The Holy Spirit forbade them.” They decide to go to Bithynia, “But the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.” It’s as though they are waiting at the traffic light, it changes to green, they put their foot on the gas, then it jumps back to red again before they have a chance to move.

I remember going through that torturous process of seeking where God might be leading us that culminated in our family emigrating to this land. For a while I really didn’t know where we headed. I did know we weren’t meant to stay where we were.

I’d applied to a church down in Louisiana. Things were looking good. They flew me over for an interview. From the moment I stepped off the plane I bonded with them like they were family. The visit went well. A couple of them even sent letters appreciating the enjoyable time we had.

For about two weeks afterward it seemed every time I turned on the T.V. or radio or picked up something to read it had to do with Louisiana. Turn on the radio, “Now here’s some Cajun music, from a Louisiana band called…. Here’s Louisiana’s rock and roller Jerry Lee Lewis.” I put on the T.V. “Now the travel program, today we go to Mardi Gras.” No! Dallas comes on. There’s someone calling J.R. “J.R. we got a problem with one of our wells over the border in Louisiana.” It was weird. We even gave our dog Lucy the second name, Anna, just so we could shout down the road, “C’mon Lucy-Anna.”

“Lord,” I’d smile,  “I guess we know where you’re leading us.”

Then one night the phone rang. It was Louisiana. “We’re sorry. You didn’t get the job.” Boy, were my navigation systems out of line? Wham. That door crashed to a close. I didn’t understand. Everything was falling into place then; “SLAM.” I went to bed thinking “Well, maybe I’m just restless. Maybe it is God’s way of saying I should stay in Wales.”

A few nights later I had a most vivid dream. If I shut my eyes, I can still see it. It was of a minister, belonging to my old denomination, (one who had been instrumental in founding the church that had brought me into the faith.) He had a picture on his wall... of America. He pointed to it and said, “You’re not going to back out now, are you?” It was only a dream, but it remains more vivid in my mind than some real-life experiences I’ve had.

It was after that I sent off a couple more letters, and ended up in the unlikely setting of Fayetteville, West Virginia. Since then, as a family, we have experienced many other adventures and wonderful places and people. To have given up after receiving a “Don't go there” phone call about Louisiana would have created a huge missing link in our life journey. We certainly would not be here in this beautiful place.

So, I urge you, don’t let the things of God and your response to God’s love and leadings be the weakest link in your life. You can go and pursue your dreams, rise to the top of your chosen career, lay on your death bed as a millionaire, and remain completely outside the will of God.

The link you don’t want to miss, is linking your life to the love of God. Jesus has made that link possible through His death on the Cross. His Holy Spirit can guide you; His Word can direct your path. But you must embrace it and allow yourself to be embraced by God.

A lady called Lydia became the first Christian in Europe and through her actions became a link to the expansion of the faith throughout the known world. Paul was faithful to the dream God planted in his soul. Inspired by such examples, may faith never become the weakest link in our hearts and our lives.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

May 15 "By This They Will Know"

Readings: Psalm 148, Acts 11:1-18, Revelation 21:1-6, John 13:31-35
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, May 15, 2022

 As a teenager in my church youth group, we used to sing a folk song based on John 13:34-35.

“A new Commandment, I give unto you,
That you love one another, as I have loved you,
That you love one another as I have loved you.
By this shall all men know you are my disciples,
 If you have love, one for another.
By this shall all men know you are my disciples,
If you have love, one for another.”

Based on the verses referenced in that passage, I want to make the following observations.

•    Firstly, that for a disciple, of Jesus Christ, love is a command, not an option.
•    Secondly, that our ability to love comes from a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ
•    Thirdly, that love is the most compelling, urgent, and challenging task of discipleship.

Firstly, Notice that for a  disciple of Jesus Christ, love is a command, not an option. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you ..."  Not a new suggestion, not a new recommendation. Not a new option. A new commandment!

Moses gave 10 commandments. The Pharisees added a few thousand more. The Romans and Greeks added a whole lot more again. Jesus acknowledged all the commandments, but He suggested there was only one that made any sense. He calls it a new commandment; "Love one another as I have loved you."

Why a commandment? Because there is a part of every one of us which finds the idea of pure, unconditional love extremely disagreeable.

Love everybody. “Right... got it.”
No, love everybody. “What, even people I don't get along with?”
Love everybody. “You don't mean like people who  interpret religion differently than I do, do you?”
Love everybody. “What, even those across the political aisle?”
Love everybody. “What, even those whose lifestyles don't fit with my idea of morality?”
Love everybody “Hey you just mean my neighbors and family, right?”
Did you not  read the parable of the Good Samaritan? Love everybody.
“What, like even ... people who oppose everything I stand for.”
Remember my mountain top sermon, the bit about 'Love your enemies?'
“Now, hold on a minute... that's dangerous talk. That's not workable. That could cost me.”
Love everybody as I have loved you. As I have loved you. As I have loved you.

Challenging, isn't it?

We are called to love others in the way that Christ has loved us. How deeply has He loved us? We place a Cross in here to remind us how far God's love is prepared to go for us. We are called to love, as He loved us, without condition. To care for, and to pray for others;  regardless of their attitude towards us, regardless of what we think they may or may not deserve, regardless of how they are related to us by blood, nationality, or culture.

Love flows from an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude that we are greatly loved by God, as shown to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Gratitude for the many blessings of life, of salvation and fellowship and answered prayer. Love flows as a response to what God has done, is doing and will do for us.

“But ... Lord... I don't think I can do that.”

You are right. That's why God sends the Holy Spirit. The Enabler. The Counsellor. The Spirit of love. The Spirit of Christ to dwell in our hearts and our lives and remake us and remold us. The moment we realize we cannot love; we are ready to move forward into love. Divine grace is a powerful thing! Some even say it is amazing. And sounds sweet. And saves a wretch like me.

So secondly, I want to say that our ability to love comes from a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

Love does not happen in a vacuum. Love is something that is passed from one person to another. It's a relationship thing. It's something that must be a shared experience. Psychologists tell us, that a child who does not receive love, will struggle to be able to truly give love. There will always be a void there, a terrible void that they will struggle to fill. On the other hand, a child who has received the proper amount of nurturing as an infant and as a toddler will have a sense of security and trust that will last them all their lives.

This is also true about Jesus’ commandment to love. If we try to keep Jesus’ commandment to love, without nurturing our relationship with Him whose name and nature is love, we are going to fail. We draw our ability to love others, in the way that Christ loves us, from our connection to God. We get it from the love that Christ can pour out upon us when we are in relationship with Him. God is love. Without that connection, without that love, our faith  has no real power. 

How?
How can we do that?
How do we open our lives to Christ?

We open our lives to Christ when we turn to God in repentance. When we come to God and say, “Look, I keep messing things up. I am not a loving person. Forgive me. Please. I'm desperate. Without Your intervention, I am lost.” We open our lives when we come before God and struggle and wrestle and reach that broken point where we say, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” We open our lives to Christ when we sing “Here I am Lord,” and we mean it.

We open our lives to Christ when we pray. If we are not prayerful, we are closing our hearts to His call. We open our lives to Christ when we immerse ourselves in His Word. If we are not reading  and digesting His Word, whose words are we following? Not His. We open our lives to Christ when we gather with others who believe that to worship Him, and to work together for Him in the world. If we will not gather, we cannot demonstrate the power of love. We need each other to serve. And it is when we serve and worship together, it all starts coming together. Love is not a solo activity. It's a group activity. But it is so much more.

The third thing I want you to notice about today's Gospel text is that love is the most compelling, urgent, and challenging task of discipleship. It is not how well we advertise our services. It is not how many programs we have going on in church. It is not how good the music sounds. It is not how many youths, or how many families or how many seniors we have. It is not how Presbyterian or otherwise we may be. People will only know we are Christ's followers if we have love for one another.

By this shall all men know you are my disciples,
 If you have love, one for another.
By this shall all men know you are my disciples,
 If you have love, one for another.

Now we all know that things happen in church life that cause faction and dissension. There are always people in every congregation whom we don't see eye to eye with. That's true for every church. If we go searching for a church where that is not so, we will not find it. If we did find a perfect church, as soon as we walked through the door, we would ruin it!

A perfect church requires perfect people and God's Word is crystal clear that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus, who loves us, let us know that we should concentrate on taking the tree branch out of our own eye, before trying to remove tiny splinters from the eyes of others.

The glory of the church is found when we, this incompatible, sometimes prickly, sometimes wrong, often hurt, bunch of frail and fragile, messed up, people find the love of Jesus in such a tangible way that we rise above our prejudices, our likes and dislikes and take the time to see each other prayerfully, carefully, and gently through His loving eyes.

The glory comes when we understand that the people, we are called to love are actually each other. When we recognize the deep, deep truth of “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself”

Every church I have ever served has skeletons in their closets. Disagreements between people, with pastors, between families or distinct groups with different ideas of what the church should be, and should be doing, and who is in and who is out. It would be easy to sweep those things under the carpet and pretend they never happened. But they did.

How much more glorious to say, through the love of Jesus Christ, the past is the past. That through forgiveness and acceptance of the God given responsibility to love each other as we are loved by Christ, we are moving on. That we are not perfect, but we are growing in the things that matter, in faith and hope and love. “And the greatest of these,” writes Paul in his impressive Corinthian hymn, "is love."

Love is the most compelling, urgent, and challenging task of discipleship. Love brings about change that nothing else can achieve. It is more than words. It is actions that build each other up in a world full of people who are hell bent on pulling each other down. It is granting to each other the dignity of children of God. It is recognizing each other’s lives as places of ongoing construction, imperfect yet full of possibility, where grace is at work.
 
Real love has defining characteristics, the characteristics of Jesus Christ. It produces a fruit that cannot be mistaken; a fruit that keeps on growing and spreading and changing your life, changing your world; changing your church. According to Paul it produces;

love
and joy
and peace
and patience
and faithfulness
and gentleness
and self-control.

“A new Commandment, I give unto you,
That you love one another, as I have loved you,
That you love one another as I have loved you.
By this shall all men know you are my disciples,
 If you have love, one for another.
By this shall all men know you are my disciples,
If you have love, one for another.”

•    For a disciple, of Jesus Christ, love is a command, not an option.
•    Our ability to love comes from a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ
•    Love is the most compelling, urgent, and challenging task of discipleship.

May we hear the one command of Jesus Christ, commit our lives to His guidance and  rise above our personal limitations. May we be the sort of people whose lives are molded by love that is stronger than death. “Help us, Lord, to be the real thing.”

To God be all glory. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J Pratt B.D.

May 8 "Shepherd and Sheep"

Readings: Psalm 23: Acts 9:36-43, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, May 8, 2022

"The Lord is my shepherd - I shall not want - He makes me to lie
down in green pastures - He leads me beside still waters - He
restoreth my soul..."

What comforting words these are. But how well do they apply to our lives?
Jesus said, "My Sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me."

You know, I really want Jesus to be my shepherd . I want Him to be my shepherd because I am told that when I am lost, He will look for me, that when I am in danger, He will comfort me.

I want Jesus to be my shepherd because He promises His sheep eternal life, because He promises that they shall never perish. "No-one will snatch them out of my hand," says Jesus, "For what my Father has given me is greater than all else and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand." As the 23rd Psalm puts it, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

I really want Jesus to be my shepherd. I really want all that the 23rd Psalm promises, all that Jesus promises to be true for me. I know from all the people that who have selected the 23rd Psalm for their funeral services, their wedding services, their times of special need or celebration, (and from all the people that I know who can recite the 23rd Psalm by heart), that many people want the same thing.

A God to watch over them,
A God to protect them,
A God to bless them,
A God to seek them out when they go astray,
A God to comfort them when they hurt,
A God to heal them when they are ill .
A God to walk with them when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
A God to bring them into paradise when they die.

That's the sort of God we all want. The God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of Mary and of Joseph, the God who says to all of us, through Jesus,"These things can be yours; these things are a love gift from God your Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd, I am the one who looks after his sheep; I am the one who loves his sheep with a love that is stronger than death, the Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep"

As we think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, it is clear to us that He and His Father are, as he said, One. That what is entrusted to Him, is entrusted to the Father, and what is entrusted to the Father, is entrusted to Him. Our God is the Good Shepherd.

The other side of the picture is, that if God is the Shepherd, then that makes us the sheep. And sheep are notoriously stupid and smelly creatures, not really a group in which we'd like to find our identity. Sheep are easy prey to almost any predator that is passing by, they are easily scattered. They have a habit, if they get into death threatening situations, to just lay back and give up.

Isaiah knew what sheep were like when he wrote, "All we like sheep have gone astray." It's not a very flattering image. The Shepherd, well great, there are a lot of positive things you can say about shepherding, but the sheep? Yes, I know they are kind of fluffy and make cute baa-baa noises, but you don't find many positive things written about sheep.

However, one skill that sheep do possess, is the ability to recognize the shepherd’s voice. At least that is how it was in Jesus’ day. They are more likely to recognize the sound of his tractor or the bark of his dogs, than a voice these days, but then it was different. Shepherds did not have tractors and sheep dogs. They lived out in the hills with the animals. They protected them. They nurtured them. And the sheep learnt to trust the shepherd and identify his voice amongst all the other voices.

Now, I know as well as you do, that our lives are not identified with sheep and shepherds, but with computers, screens, and mass communications. The number one occupation in the U.S. was once the farmer. Then it became the laborer. Now, in our time, the number one occupation is the information worker.

The majority of workers in the U.S.A. are people paid to process data or information. Almost half of the U.S. gross national product is generated by information-related activities. It has even been said that the world now has two categories of people. The information rich and the information poor. In today's world information is power.

But the irony of our age is, that the very information technology that is supposed to liberate us, has begun to control us. When I was at Aberystwyth University, in Wales, I used to go up to the National Library to study. A huge building stocked with books on everything imaginable. But it took a while to get at the information. And sometimes it was not quite what you were looking for.

These days we have disks holding libraries full of data. The 'World Wide Web'  has Internet search engines that enable you to type in a word and they find for you, more data than you could possibly use. And it is hard for our minds to deal with all this material.

I am sure those who are in school have to learn to treat information in a different way than many of us older folk did. I remember being given essays to do and all the material was in just a couple of books, so all you had to do was absorb that information, repeat it, and that was that. But these days, to thoroughly research all the data available on any topic is virtually impossible.

In a world with so much available information, it is difficult to discern just what information is central for our lives. In a world with so many voices we are beginning to wonder whose voice we should listen to.

Jesus said, "My Sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me."

The problem we stupid sheep have, is that we are not always sure which voice is the voice of the Shepherd. We do not doubt that God knows all about us. We believe that He knows us and that He knows what is best for us. We believe that life in His hands is a safe way to live our lives. But we don't always identify His voice.

We could complain that it was somehow easier for folk in Jesus’ day to hear and follow. It wasn't. There were conflicting voices in His time as well. Some said he was the Messiah, while others doubted the fact. When the folks from Jerusalem asked Him to state finally if He really was the Anointed One of God, He fired back that they should know better than to ask. After all, hadn't they seen for themselves the works He had done in his Father's name?

 Jesus used language and imagery that needed no explanation, the image of shepherd and sheep. The people knew how flocks of sheep mingled together in the hills until the moment each shepherd called out to his flock with a unique voice.

The quality of our life here and now is affected by whether we have a listening relationship with the living Christ, by whether or not we actually come when the Master calls, by whether or not we identify His voice (among all the others) and strive to do what He tells us to do.

In the eyes of God each one of us belongs to His flock. The Shepherd is calling to the sheep. God is calling out to us. God is searching for us. God is asking us to come to Him, to listen to Him, and to enter His fold. To be sheltered and made secure with the rest of the sheep. As parents call their children to themselves, so that they might bless them, so God is calling us, to know His blessing.

We were considering a weeks ago, wen our confirmands led worship, that God, in an image appropriate for Mother’s Day, is like a Mother Hen who wants to wrap her arms around her chicks. But the sting in the tale in that passage is “But you wouldn’t let me!”

What are some ways we can allow God to embrace our lives – and listen for God’s call?

Listen for the call, through maintaining an active prayer life. Some think prayer is trying to twist God’s arm into getting God to do things for us. Prayer is actually about positioning ourselves into a place where we are receptive to hear what God wishes us to say and finding the empowerment to what God asks of us.

Listen for the call through giving yourself to private reading of God's Word. Most have a bible in their home. Sadly, in many homes, it has a layer of dust upon it, because it is seldom consulted. The Psalmist writes, “Thy Word is a light unto my feet.” But a light doesn’t work if you don’t turn it on. And the way to turn the light of scripture on is by allowing the words to illuminate your life journey.

Listen for the call through joining with others for Bible Study. There are opportunities to meet with others to study God’s word. If that is something you are interested in, we can do that! There are numerous commentaries freely available online.

Listen for the call through opening your life to God in worship. I’ve heard so many times, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God.” A half-truth. From personal experience I can assure you that when we are together reveals God’s self in ways that do not happen when we act as a spiritual lone ranger. There is a reason Jesus tells us, “Wherever 2 or 3 GATHER in my name I am there in the midst of them.”
 
Listen for the call with imagination, and energy, and song. I spent time at a retreat the week before last with a group of wonderfully creative folk. Song writers, poets, dramatists. The power of words… and words linked to melodies or structure is incredible. Whenever Jesus wanted to tell us something of the most importance, He had a habit of telling it by way of a story so carefully worded that even a child could instantly memorize it. The Good Shepherd. The Lost Sheep. We hear the title, and we visualize the whole story.
 
Listen for the call through giving and receiving, reaping, and sowing. Mission is important. It’s not all about what we do inside these walls. It’s about how what we do within these walls changes the world beyond these walls. If leave this place and walk the talk and that changes everything.

I could do a sermon on each of those. But not today! Let me simply offer these three closing thoughts.

Listen and follow - and you shall not want.
Listen and follow - and you will lie down in green pastures.
Listen and follow - and your soul will be restored.

May God help us to discern God’s voice, amongst all the many that surround our lives, that we may learn to be disciples that bring glory to Christ’s Name. AMEN.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.