Down to the River to Pray

"God Beamed Him Up" given 5/28/2017

 The Lay Leader of the Broadway United Methodist church in Rockford when I was I was pastor there was a wonderful man named Dick Sautel. And every time in Bible study, or Sunday School class, or when anything related to the Ascension was mentioned, Dick had a wonderful story to tell.

It seems that some years previous, that church's High School UMYF went on a mission trip to Mexico with Dick along as one of the chaperones. In Mexico, as it happens, the Feast of the Ascension is a holiday that is widely loved and celebrated, much as Easter is here. One difference though, is that the people go out into the streets and have parades and parties to honor the day. It's apparently quite a carnival atmosphere.

Well, Dick and the MYF and the other chaperones had no idea that this was the case. They had no idea that it was even Ascension Day at all. Imagine their bewilderment when they drove into a one-horse town for gas and found a simultaneous traffic jam and block party going on in the middle of a Thursday afternoon.

Firecrackers were going off, bands were playing, people were dancing in the streets, banners were flying and floats were floating. What was going on, they wondered? Since no one in the group spoke anything better than broken Spanish they had a hard time getting the idea until one celebrating individual put it pretty plainly.

"Ascension! Ascension! Jesus Christos! Zzziiiiiiip!"

As you may have guessed from this morning's sermon title, I'm a Science Fiction fan. A love for Speculative Fiction was in fact, one of the first things that Donna and I discovered we had in common, some forty-six or seven years ago when we first met. Neither one of us gets to read for relaxation as much as we like any more. And though Donna has been seduced by regency novels and mysteries in recent years, and the girls finally grew out of Harlequin romances, but still indulge in gothics and horror and historical novels now and then, but we all read at least some SF..

And we all especially love Star Trek. Donna used to sit in a rocking chair and watch the exploits of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and "Bones" McCoy in re-runs back on Chicago’s channel Nine when she was nursing our new born Jenny. We've seen all the movies and re-boots numerous of times. Jenny even took me to a Star Trek convention as a Father's Day present a few years ago.

Thanks to the science-fiction like miracle of videotape, we've managed to catch the Next Generation exploits of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Dr. Crusher, and Mr. Data, and Worf the Klingon..In Deep Space Nine,we developed a serious appreciation for Captain Sisko, Major Kira, Quark the Ferengi, Constable Odo and Chief O'Brien-- finally a non-com got to be a regular! One the regrets of my life is that I missed the episode in which Worf married Dax—and I don’t think it’s ever going to be in re-runs.

Hence this morning's sermon title. "God beamed Him up!" Sounds great doesn't it? And at first glance it does seem to fit. After all, there was Jesus standing there talking to the Disciples, when suddenly, unexpectedly, in a totally inexplicable manner.... Zzziiip!! He wasn't there anymore. Suddenly, Jesus went to be with God. And if Luke makes seem more like anti-gravity than a transport beam, what the heck. It's close enough. Right?

Weeellll...? Having finally gotten to use that great title--I'm afraid I'm going to have to shoot myself down. I really can't buy into the image of God ordering some overweight angel with a goofy haircut and a hokey Scottish accent to teleport Jesus up to heaven.

Despite some terrific values, like not meddling in other cultures, and saving whales, and exploring strange new worlds, and former enemies becoming allies, and equal opportunity for men, women and Vulcans--I'm afraid that Heaven just doesn't look like Starfleet in my mind. And despite my love of the speculative when it comes to recreational reading, I can't be so speculative to accept the seventies, psuedo-religious/scientific heresies personified by "Chariots of the Gods" and “Ancient Aliens”.

No, God does not drive a flying saucer. Our God is Creator of the Universe, but is

not an alien spaceman. Our God is the One who cares for the falling of the sparrows and numbers the hairs on our heads- -a job that gets easier every year for some of us. And Heaven is not located in some distant galactic spiral nebula, or inside a black hole.

Heaven is both a plane of existence, and a spiritual state of mutual in- dwelling with God--but it ain't a place. If that sounds vague or unclear it's because, as Paul says, “we see through a glass darkly” which is to say, our knowledge is only partial. Human words cannot adequately serve to describe the nature of the Eternal. We simply do not know. We have not experienced enough. We cannot really begin to describe the Divine reality. We don’t have the understanding—much less the vocabulary—words literally fail us.

And when words fail, human beings inevitably fall back on symbols-- familiar symbols that we are comfortable with, symbols we've learned and loved and identified with all of our lives. That's what is going on in the story of Jesus' Ascension.

Luke was striving in his Gospel, and in the Book of Acts to describe and explain some very real but essentially indescribable happenings. The facts were those faced by the earliest followers of Jesus. Simply put, He was gone. Ziiip! Gone, returned to God. He had disappeared in an unprecedented and unbelievable manner.. Now they all knew, just as you and I know that someday every one of us will disappear from the face of this earth. That's a given for all of us. Nobody gets out alive.

But this was different. Jesus’ life had something about Him that other human lives didn't have. People recognized that different-ness about Him from the very start. Maybe they couldn't always describe it--but it must have been apparent to any unbiased observer. Something unique in the world was going on in the life of this ex-construction worker.

He had been their friend, teacher, Messiah. The disciples had seen Him perform mighty acts of deliverance. They had witnessed miraculous healings. They had heard profound and moving teachings. They had affirmed Him Anointed One--Christ, Son of the Living God. Then, they had seen Him betrayed, arrested, tried, convicted and executed. Finally, they had seen Him die a real death on a cross. And yet, after He had died, Jesus reappeared to His friends and followers. They experienced the amazing fact of His Risen Presence among them. Then, He was gone once again.

What that reappearance looked like, felt like, could never be adequately described. But neither could it be ignored. And after Jesus’ second and final disappearance, so to speak, His influence was stronger than ever. His life, His mission, continues to make itself felt on this earth even to this very day through the fellowship of those men and women who had been and were to become His followers.

What conclusions were they to draw from this unprecedented new reality? They were, after all, bound to draw some conclusions. They were bound to seek some explanation for this unprecedented experience. They were, after all, human beings, with minds through which God could speak to them in the language of events. We celebrate their conclusion today.

Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus had somehow returned to God and was now with God and a part of God. The manner in which His church described and symbolized this was by saying that Jesus had ascended to Heaven and now sat at the right hand of God Almighty. They believed that Jesus would return at the end of time to judge all humanity. In the meantime, Jesus' presence was now available to them in a totally new way—through his own Holy Spirit.

The creating, saving power of God was expressed in a manner that was unique in history. God had done something profoundly new. This same Jesus, who they had personally loved and known, was now with God. And some how, He was in relationship—part of God. And yet He was also able to be with them--at any time, in groups, in any location, and in more than one place and time at once to be in relationship with them!

What an incredible leap from fact to faith! A humble Jewish peasant on the very throne of Heaven. A Cosmic Christ to whom all the Caesars would one day bow! A personal Savior who offered love and grace sufficient to any need. That was their conclusion. That was their affirmation. That was their experience. Thus was born a significant doctrine of the faith, and a holy day, and a profound revelation about the nature of God.

There couldn't be any two ways about it. Jesus they affirmed, was not buried in the ground. Jesus is not stored away in some history book, or dictionary of ethical philosophy. Jesus is not simply a shadowy figure in human memory, or worst yet, lost in oblivion. Jesus, they affirmed, is alive! And dwells and reigns with and in and alongside Almighty God, and the Holy Spirit

Jesus is here, alongside us, when His people call. There are no more human limits upon Him. He is in Heaven, and He is in our hearts. Neither space, nor time, nor any other power in the universe can contain Him, or His love for humanity.

And this is the reality that Luke wants to point out for us. That is the conclusion, the doctrine, the faith that Luke wants to illumine for me, and for you, and for Theophilus his reader, the lover of God.

And so, in order to point to that reality, Luke reaches back into the religious history of the Hebrew people and grabs hold of a symbol they were familiar with, a symbol they could identify with, a symbol they loved. Luke tells us that Jesus was taken up to be with God. Just as Elijah was taken up in a Chariot of fire, just as Moses was taken up while wandering in the desert, just as Enoch was taken and knew not death.

If he'd been writing today, Luke might well used the metaphor that God beamed Jesus up. That's a contemporary symbol many of us love and are familiar with. But it doesn't explain the reality of what happened anymore than saying that Jesus was taken up in a cloud does.

The point for us, at least, isn't so much how Jesus got there, but that Jesus is there—now—in Heaven, with God, part of God, but also within us, among us for us—here, now..

Harold Chandler Robinson makes that point in poetry, which after all, may very well be the best possible vehicle for expressing ultimate realities and concerns. You can read it in your Hymnal, # 456.

And have the bright immensities

Received our Risen Lord,

Where light-years frame the Pleides

and point Orion's sword?

Do flaming suns his footsteps trace

Through corridors sublime,

The Lord of interstellar space

And Conqueror of Time?

The heaven that hides him from our sight

Knows neither near nor far

An altar candle sheds its light

as surely as a star

And where his loving people meet

To share the gift divine,

There stands he with unhurrying feet;

There heavenly splendors shine.

I'm afraid that the Doctrine of the Ascension just doesn't inspire that kind of imagination and awe in the Church today. Though it is a fundamental affirmation of the faith, though it has come down to us from the early church, I don't think a lot of us have really grasped the significance.

It seems, I guess, either too fantastic to believe in, or too academic to matter. And just because they have more fun than we do on Ascension Day, I'm not sure that our Mexican brothers and sisters have gotten the point any better than we do. It's more personal than Jesus went "Zzziiip" up to God in heaven.

In the Doctrine of the Ascension, Luke and the earliest church are telling us something that touches us all directly and deeply. They are pointing to the fact that Jesus lives in God, as well as in our hearts. They are affirming that Jesus comes to us in the scriptures, and sacrament as well in our lives.

They are reminding us that Jesus' loving presence has power to touch us-- wherever and whenever we are in need today. Just as it touched the hearts and the lives of His earthly followers. I don't know about you, but that all feels pretty relevant to me in my life in the world today.

Maybe our Mexican brothers and sisters do indeed get the point. Maybe one of these years we uptight North American Protestants ought to consider shooting off a firecracker or two on Ascension Day, too. It seems to me like it's a day worth celebrating.

Let us pray,

Great God, Mighty God. By your power is Jesus raised to be Savior of and Ruler of the nations. We thank and praise you that He leads us into faith. We praise you for His love which embraces the world and works compassion in us. Glory to you for the gift of His life and for His Resurrection and Ascension. In the name of Christ our Savior. Amen.

Johnny Cash - "I'll Fly Away" Happy Ascension Day!

Leonard Cohen - Democracy

Just as I am - Willie Nelson

Maybe a little late.

After 15 years of study and dialogue, these Episcopalians and United Methodists have released a proposal for full communion between their churches, saying “There are no theological impediments to unity.” It is not a merger proposal, but a “full communion” plan much like what Anglicans have with Evangelical Lutherans, Moravians and others. The effort requires approval from both governing conventions and cannot go forward until 2020 at the earliest. But it’s probably best not to get hopes too high; a similar plan 30 years ago was approved by Episcopalians but rejected by Methodists, and the latter may be more divided now than they were then. (Episcopal News Service)

"The Cornerstone of the Household" given May 14, 2017

 Do you know about the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol Building? At a certain spot in the Capitol Building is a plaque that reads: "Beneath this stone is the original cornerstone for this building." For years everybody assumed that the tablet was correct. Published reports of George Washington's presence at the cornerstone laying ceremony led researchers to place the plaque at that particular site.

It was believed that all you would have to do was dig beneath two centuries of additions and debris and modifications and foundation and somewhere at the bottom of all that has been added onto the original building-- there would be this single precious rock. Maybe there’d even be a time capsule loaded valuable historical artifacts. Who knew what might be encased in such a treasure trove? The flag flown at Valley Forge? A first draft of the Constitution? An autographed copy of the Federalist Papers? The minds of Historians boggled at the possibilities.

But as it turns out, the cornerstone isn't there. They can't find it. They've been looking for a few years now. They've used all sorts of advanced scientific instruments--X-rays and Radar, and Sonar and MRIs and CAT scans-- whatever it is that you use. They've dug up the slopes of Capitol Hill. They've done everything possible short of actually dismantling and excavating the Capitol Building itself.

And the result? No cornerstone. No time capsule. No original copy of James Madison's Inaugural address. Not a even a copy of Dolly Madison's chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I think the absence of a cornerstone serves to underline all the anger and divisiveness present on Capitol Hill nowadays. The squabbling has been going on for so long now, that we’ve come to take for granted all the party in-fighting and the culture wars going on daily in the Capitol corridors. Disorder and disunity reign because our leaders lack a cornerstone of shared values and priorities beneath them. Their rancorous instincts to cut this and over-fund that, to one-up and out-macho each other, to glad hand and back-stab even those of their own party-- is symbolized by with their back-hoe operators coming up empty!

Cornerstones have always had a symbolic as well as a structural importance. They mark. They signify. The join together other stones at a crucial point. A cornerstone by its nature, is always located in the foundation-- never on the roof. When the cornerstone is missing below, the foundation will be shaky, and when the foundation is shaky, the building is inherently unstable.

Often a cornerstone bears the history and name of a building, so in a sense, a cornerstone is also a touchstone—it reminds us when the building was built, and who built it, and it reveals the original purpose of the building. That’s true for people as well.

If we were to think about it, I’m sure you and I can come up with a list of people who, based on their behavior, would seem to lack a cornerstone for the living of their lives— no center, not purpose---not faith, nor family, nor country, nor tradition, nor vocation.

There are people who just seem to drift through existence— they might be in a family—but sooner or later that will fall apart. They might end up married three, four, five times and have so many kids and step-kids and kids of their partner’s ex-partner’s partner that the kids need a program to sort out the relationships.

They might get an education—but it’s just a job ticket so far as they’re concerned. They might go to church—but their real religion is short-sided self-interest. They might find a profession, they might not, but in neither case are they committed to it. The idea of finding meaning in work is totally alien to them— work is drudgery—that’s why it’s called

“work”. Jobs are there to make you money to indulge yourself in whatever whim of the moment catches your fancy.

They probably have a garage full of expensive big people toys—many of which they don’t use very much anymore. They might indulge in immorality, or compulsive behavior or substance abuse or inappropriate relationships— whatever feels good at the moment. They might claim to believe in something bigger than themselves. They might even appear to work for that bigger something--a gang or an ethnic group, a cause or a crusade, a tradition or a philosophy. But at but at bottom they participate in such efforts exactly as long as they see those efforts as serving them.

They mock what others believe, but really believe in nothing at all themselves. The key thing about people without a cornerstone is that they have no respect for

themselves. Why? Because they have no conception of who they truly are. Consequently,

they have no respect for the rights, or values, or feelings, or convictions of others.

They use others—for pleasure or convenience, because, so far as they’re can tell, the only reason other people are around is to be used. No relationship is equitable or permanent or of value. They fear old age and curse death—but life itself holds no deep meaning for them.

Without a cornerstone, a building has no inherent stability—nothing holds it together. Without a cornerstone-- nothing holds our human existence together either.

What’s true for buildings and people is also true of churches as well—both local congregations, denominations, and the church universal as the Body of Christ.

In this morning's Second Reading the author of I Peter writes,

"Come to him, a living stone ...a cornerstone chosen and precious

...the stone the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner."

Is there any other text in Scripture that is says so much about our understanding of what it takes to be fully human—much less Christian? Or what it takes to be in and build Christian community?

The Book of Acts paints a portrait of the early church as the house of Scripture and witness-- even in Stephen's case-- witness unto death. In the passage from I Peter the faithful are exhorted to become (pillars of the church) "living stones" in the structure which is the house of God.

Actual stone of course, is not alive. So it's a different kind of stone-- living stone-- that we are called to become-- building blocks in a house that is both spiritual and eternal-- and Christ is our cornerstone, Christ is our foundation.

In this morning's Gospel, Jesus, our cornerstone speaks of the interior of that spiritual household that we call the church. At the Last Supper, He speaks of the house of God, our Eternal Parent. There are dwelling places within that house, Jesus tells us. Mansions--many of them—enough for all of us. Not only will He return to God in order to prepare a dwelling place within that house for us, but He, Himself is that dwelling place of the faithful with God.

The disciples in the Upper Room that night might well have been surprised to hear Jesus use that house imagery. This was a man, who, as best we can infer, never built or owned a house of his own. After leaving his parent's home in Nazareth at age thirty, he seems to have always been a guest in someone else's house-- Bethany, Capernaum, and elsewhere. He hadn't even been born in house-- he was born in a barn!

All this wasn't mere chance. He made it very clear to them that His homelessness was intentional. "Foxes have holes and birds have their nests, but the Son of Humanity has no where to lay His head."

Maybe Jesus had wanted to witness that none of us really has a home in this world, that we're all pilgrims, sojourners, people on the way. Maybe He had been trying to say that none of us should consider ourselves as settled in this unjust and unsettled world which is not yet a true home to so much of suffering humanity.

But now Jesus was speaking of a home-- the house of God—who loves humanity more than any human Mother or a Father. It would be, and is, a house open to all humanity, all peoples and tongues and races and cultures.

"I am the way." Jesus told them. "I am the truth. I am the life." Jesus, his teachings, his ministry, his resurrection-- is the way that leads to the reality of the Creator's House. He is the truth about the one family of the Eternal Parent. His is the life that shows us what human life can and should be about.

We all know this world in which we live—or rather sojourn. It's a world of violence, a world of injustice, a world in which it is impossible for any of us to enjoy a fully human life—because so many of our brothers and sisters must endure such wretched existence. It's a world in which children die of hunger daily and innocent bystanders are massacred in our schools by any under-aged Neanderthals with the price of an automatic rifle. It’s the same world in which Radical so-called Christian Fundamentalists regard women and children as property rather than people. It’s a world in which Radical Fundamentalist Muslims blow up buildings and Radical Fundamentalist Zionists steal land that’s been in other peoples families for centuries—all in the name of God. It’s truly a world without a cornerstone.

Yet it's also the world in which Jesus showed us how to live out the truth and worked great wonders. This is the same world in which our Creator planted us. This is the same world in which Jesus left us with His Spirit, His example, His sacraments, His community. He calls us to form a household-- built of living stones-- to form one body, one family, one home-- making true and complete life possible for all-- working even greater wonders than He did.

The household of God is being built within each of us every day with love. Every unselfish deed, every freely offered kindness, every prayer for someone else, every wrong forgiven, every cup of water offered in Christ’s name, every shut-in or prisoner visited, every hungry person fed, every child protected and nurtured, every witness for justice, every act of compassion, every prayer for peace, every endeavor for the sake of Christ’s Shalom is a brick of that house.

Sisters and Brothers, ask yourselves. What is your life about? Does it have a center? What’s your cornerstone? Is Jesus Christ and his teachings and ministry really its cornerstone? Do you live for yourself, or for Him? Have you built your life in this world around Him?

It's a home in which Christ and the Creator dwell with us. It’s a house, whose foundation is built within your and my inner hearts, a mansion whose walls stretch out into this world around us, and whose roof is literally heaven itself. Amen.

Jimi

"A Table for Me" given May 7, 2017

One of the risks of preaching on a verse as well-known and as beloved as the Twenty-third Psalm is that as soon as the preacher begins to read those familiar words, bang! Our minds shift gears from their careful listening mode to their nostalgia mode and poof! We're wafted away on a pink cloud of remembrance to our childhood.

Suddenly, there we are, squirming in scratchy, uncomfortable, unfamiliar dress clothes, sitting in short- legged chairs around a little table, listening to our big grown-up lady Sunday School teacher wearing white gloves and a pillbox hat tell us that Jesus loves us and how He protects and takes care of good little children like a shepherd.

Suddenly, we’re at Great-grandma’s funeral—hearing these familiar words and taking evocative comfort in them—but not fully grasping their total power to heal and console us in such a moment of loss.

After all, how many of us knew what a shepherd actually did when we were little—or had met a sheep for that matter? Some of the commentaries I read suggest that the most effective way to preach on this text is to use a different translation—any translation except the O-so-familiar King James Version.

But the risk with doing that is that you'll all whip out your King James Version Bibles from under your shoulder holsters and follow along, line by line, word by word, shaking your heads and clucking your tongues as a little voice way back in the corner of your minds goes: "That's not the right words. The preacher's a heretic! Somebody call the Bishop."

I know my wife doesn't want me ridden out of town on a rail-- much less burned at the stake. So please take note. We have already read the King James Version as the Psalter reading! You can relax--switch off your nostalgia buttons-- propriety has been observed. But let me invite you to consider—is reading a Bible passage for the sake of nostalgia and nostalgia alone, truly respectful to the Scripture itself—or to God?

So, I want to invite you to listen with open ears to a different translation-- not comparing, just listening, trying to hear it as if it was the very first time-- just for fun, just to see if it gives you a new slant on this text. Open your mind and heart to God’s holy word.

  O GOD, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.

    ²You have bedded me down in lush meadows,

    you find me quiet pools to drink from.

    ³True to your word, you let me catch my breath

    and send me in the right direction.

  ⁴Even when the way goes through Death Valley,

    I'm not afraid when you walk at my side.

    Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.

  

     ⁵You serve me a six-course dinner

right in front of my enemies.

    You revive my drooping head;

my cup brims with blessing.

   ⁶Your beauty and love chase after me

every day of my life.

    I'm back home in the house of GOD  

for the rest of my life. (The Message)

These images of a caring shepherd and a generous host who freely offers a joyous and abundant banquet are among the most beloved and enduring in the entire Hebrew/Christian tradition. They express the deep-seated confidence of the faithful believer in the saving grace of her God at work in the world. They offer words of comfort and hope in times of loss and pain. Even our deepest anxieties can be conquered, says the Psalm, when God is on our side.

But if we listen carefully, maybe our conventional understanding of ourselves and of our God can be stretched just a bit more in this magnificent piece of faith poetry. Our God prepares a feast for us, Other Psalms compare our God to a fortress with towers and walls. But here we are promised a feast, a nurturing, enlivening, fulfilling banquet—a holy repast in full view of those who would oppose or exploit or enslave the human spirit! It's said that this particular verse was a favorite communion text in the Churches of London during the Blitz bombings during World War II. In one instance, when a part of the church building was literally struck by a bomb, the Communion Service went on.

"You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies."

Frankly, to our rational, human mindset such an act seems risky, even downright foolish. Believers letting their guard down in orders to enjoy such a banquet would certainly be making themselves into easy targets for their adversaries! What sort of fool will not seek cover when bombs are falling? What sort of fool feasts in the face of a foe?

Yet such seeming foolishness is really nothing more than a reflection of an unshakeable confidence in the supreme wisdom and caring love of our Maker. Paul wrote that God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. Our faith tells us plainly that when we open ourselves in honest vulnerability to God and God’s Will for us, it is greater than any emotional or intellectual or psychic armor that any human belief system-- Marxism or capitalism, atheism, secularism or humanism --can generate.

Think about it! It's not through flood or fire, not through natural disaster or miracle. It's not through conquering armies or crusade. It’s not through the preaching of televangelists or missionaries, or Bishops, or even your local pastor! It’s not through our memorizing Bible verses or arguing atheists in church membership. It's through a Banquet Table that our God intends to save and transform us, and to save and transform our world as well. "Thou preparest a table before me....."

I was fascinated to learn what happened when the former East German border guards began to tear down-- not just the Berlin wall, but the whole, nation-long network of stone walls and barbed wire and machine gun towers that had divided their land for those terrible Cold War decades. They found to their surprise, mile after mile of brick and mortar and concrete and wire literally falling apart on its own as they began to dismantle it.

The years, the elements, the wind and rain and sun and snow of God our Creator had worn away and rotted and rusted this monument to human tyranny away. So much so that in places it literally crumbled to their touch and blew away with the wind.

"You prepare a table for me, a banquet in the presence of my enemies." In Central America, in China, in Cuba, in North Korea and the Middle East and so many other places the human spirit reaches out for the redeeming, saving, shepherding God who promises hope and purpose and new life. All the tanks and the propaganda, all the walls and oppression and sanctions in the world cannot contain the human spirit in it's hunger for Justice, for Freedom, for Dignity, in a word-- for the Divine.

"You prepare a table for me." Within each and every one of us, there’s an impulse if you will, to try and make sense out of our existence--a need for meaning. Michael Novak, a contemporary Roman Catholic lay Theologian writes about this deep inner yearning within in us all. He calls it,

....a drive to unify my own psyche, to perceive its harmony (or in any case relations) with others, with nature, with history.....

The drive which ultimately gives sense to all my diffuse actions is a unifying, meaning-giving drive. It is that drive which even in atheists and agnostics, I wish to call the religious drive. It ties one's life together.

In the Book of Romans, Paul simply calls this tying together, "coming into our own". St. Augustine wrote in the Fourth Century that our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in God. As a prisoner in Auschwitz, Psychiatrist Victor Frankl noticed that those who survived the Death Camps were, to a great extent, those who had found some purpose to go on living. He wrote a book after that terrible experience called Man's Search for Meaning.

The truth is, you and I are drawn, almost irresistibly to our Maker. And the wonder of this is that our God is also drawn, by our Maker’s own overflowing goodness and mercy, to us as well. If we were to imagine that we had to look for God, we might well lose heart. But as our Lord Jesus points out in this morning's Gospel lesson, The Shepherd calls the sheep, each by name and they come. Our Shepherding God seeks us out and calls us, each by name, just as we are each drawn to the sheepfold door. Our Shepherd will tie our life together.

Call it hunger for the Ultimate. Call it the religious drive within us. Call it a yearning for a Higher Power to manage our ungovernable lives. Call it the Holy Spirit at work within us. Call it the Divine spark. Call it the Imago Dei

Call it what you will--still it is undeniably there within our deepest hearts. Still it is true. Our Shepherd God calls every single one of us by name. By our very nature, we are each of us drawn to meaning, to purpose, to a sense of our place in the universe, to God. And by God's very own nature, our God is drawn to us.

We might well feel lost at times. We may well feel at times that we are trapped in the valley of death and despair and darkness. But even there, our Shepherding God is still with us. Our God--the Giver of Divine Hospitality, the Source of all Good will prepare a table before us.

In the Middle East, the shepherds often had to clean our a field before sheep could be allowed to graze in it. Poisonous weeds and thorns had to be uprooted, and snakes and scorpions would have to be killed. This process was called "preparing the table."

Then at evening, as the sheep were corralled, the injured and sickly ones would be separated from the flock. Their wounds would be treated with healing oils. They would be fed a home remedy, a curative drink made with herbs and fermented wild honey.

Christ our Good Shepherd, the Creator who is the Source of Divine Hospitality, and the Holy Spirit who works within us, has prepared a table for us--in the presence of our community and even in the presence of our enemies. At the Banquet Table you and I come to feel the Divine hospitality of our God, We feel it in the warmth and security of the Spirit we know as we find ourselves, through the Son, drawn close to the Creator's heart.

In that same spirit of Divine hospitality we are able to understand Archbishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela and the other South African Christians-- black and white-- who struggled so long and so hard against Apartheid-- as attending a wedding banquet in the presence of those who would keep them under the murderous heel of hatred and divisive tribalism. They literally invited those who supported legalized racism to put down their guns and come to the Table of our Shepherd God.

It is the same spirit we saw in the life and mission of Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King. It was the same spirit we saw in the people of the Philippines a few years ago when they faced down tanks with prayers to reclaim their country from the Marcos regime. It is that same spirit we saw in the life and ministry of the martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero who said at the last,

...I am obliged by divine command, to give my life for those whom I love--and that is for all Salvadorians, even for those who may assassinate me. If the threats should come to pass, I offer God, for this very moment, my blood for the redemption and resurrection of El Salvador.

Ours is a God who transforms lives by the irresistible power of Divine hospitality. Ours is a God who wears down walls by the indomitable power of the human spirit. Ours is a God who frees whole peoples through the gentle power of non-violence. Who could not be filled with wonder and awe to contemplate such Divine power?

The Table that our God has prepared throughout the ages, for all of us, finally culminates in Christ Jesus. His Life and Resurrection and the Sacrament he left us are the ultimate symbol of Holy Hospitality, demonstrated in full view of the enemy. Jesus, we read in John's Gospel,

"…loved those who were His in the world, loved them to the end." Yet He did so freely, John adds, “laying down his life for his sheep".

That is why for Christians this text is so well known, so loved. That is why for us the Shepherd image is so powerful, no matter how old we are, no matter whether we've ever even seen a live sheep in our life. The Shepherding God the psalmist sang about, is one and the same with Christ our Good Shepherd. And we are his beloved flock.

But Jesus also reminds us that he has other sheep—not of our fold. And we recall his command to Peter. “ Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Then feed my lambs.” Love-- family love, romantic love, sacrificial love—honest, genuine love of any sort-- is never passive. When you and I truly love, it changes us. Once we’ve experienced it, we find ourselves feeding His other sheep through our welcoming fellowship, our outreach, our charity—through the witness of our lives.

Following Jesus, giving our lives to Him and His service then, are the keys to the door to the abundant life and life eternal. He is that Door. His heavenly banquet has been prepared for you and for me by the very hand of our God. Let us rejoice. Let us offer our praise, and make our offerings. Let us believe there is still life and hope and possibility here, in this place where our Savior has planted us. Let us reach out to others in His name. Let us come to the Altar of Christ our Shepherd with reverence and thanks, our hearts and lives running over with gratitude and love. Amen.