Easter 4

Here is a sermon I preached on this day, years ago. It was nothing like my sermon today that really was about sheep and shepherds. But I share it with you this Easter 4 Sunday.

EASTER 4, 2006 (The Good Shepherd….)

          The 4^th Sunday of Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. The Gospel is always from the 10^th Chapter of John, the OT reading—as in Ezekiel today—always refers to sheep and shepherds and the Psalm…O’ the Psalm…is usually the 23^rd Psalm (“The Lord is my Shepherd”) and when not it is Psalm 100 (“we are his people and the sheep of his pasture”).

          I was ordained in 1975 and in the years since then I have preached on “Good Shepherd Sunday” nearly two dozen times. And I’m here to tell you today that the well is dry, I’ve told you everything I know about sheep and shepherds, I’ve emptied the tank and exhausted my reservoir of Biblical, historical and personal information about herding sheep and tending sheep and sheep in general, never mind the shepherd who herds and tends them. I’m finished. I have nothing to say about “the Good Shepherd”. I hereby swear off sheep and shepherds for the rest of my preaching life! I am dry and finished with that metaphor.

          So, enjoy the music and come to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, but don’t expect me to talk about sheep and shepherds today….I’m taking the day off….

          However, I’m an old English major, so I’m never through with metaphors.

          A metaphor, according to my dictionary, is: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.

          The English word, “metaphor” comes from the Greek “meta-pherein”, which means, literally, “to bear”. A metaphor “bears” a second meaning.

          “You are my sunshine,” is a metaphor. Even though a person CAN’T BE “sunshine”, we all know what the metaphor means. It means that the person referred to “lights up my life”, “gives me warmth”, provides joy and comfort and meaning to life.

          (OK, if you aren’t an old English major, I’m making your eyes glaze over. But this kind of conversation “is food and drink to an old English major.” That, by the way, is a “metaphor”. Obviously a conversation about figures of speech isn’t really “food and drink”, but we all know what that means.)

          One thing about metaphors—they all eventually fall apart. A person, no matter how much you love them, ISN’T “sunshine” and a conversation about metaphors ISN’T “food and drink”. Metaphors all fail eventually.

          Jesus’ metaphor: “I am the good shepherd” falls apart on a couple of levels. First of all, and most obviously, Jesus wasn’t a shepherd and we aren’t sheep. Secondly, unlike metaphors about “sunshine” and “food and drink”, both of which we all have intimate knowledge about, you and I don’t know much about sheep and shepherds. We just don’t.

          So, what is the reference Jesus is making? What is the likeness and similarity of “who he is” that is comparable, in the metaphor, to being “the Good Shepherd”? What is he trying to tell us?

          There was probably something obvious to those who heard Jesus’ metaphor first hand, or those who read the metaphor in Ezekiel when it was first written, and to David as he wrote the psalms about sheep and shepherds that is not obvious to me and most likely, not obvious to you. And here’s what I think that obvious thing is: the shepherd, in their culture and experience, wasn’t just a “caretaker” of the sheep…the shepherd and the sheep were interdependent…the shepherd’s well being depended upon the sheep’s well being.

          So, what Jesus is trying to tell us in this metaphor, it seems to me, is that his relationship to us is like that as well. Jesus feels interdependent with those whom he loves. His well being depends on our well being. And for love, he was willing to lay down his life for us.

          Remember Jesus’ parable about the shepherd who would leave the ninety and nine sheep and go seek the one that was lost? That too is a metaphor for the love God feels for each one of us. No matter what happens, no matter how far away we roam, no matter how lost we get—God will come looking for us, seek us out, risk all for each of us.

          In most every funeral homily I give, at some point I will say that the person who died is “in the nearer presence of the one who loves them best of all.” I don’t have any idea what that means, realistically, but I “trust” with all my heart that it is so.

          That, in my mind and heart, is a Truth we shouldn’t have to wait to “trust” in. God loves each of us—each of us—“best of all”. We are never alone, no never, not ever alone. And God’s love is so eternal, so wondrous, so unfathomable that God really can love each of us “best of all….”

          I’m going to date myself now. How many of you know what a “Slam Book” is?

          When I was in grade school and even junior high school, people would circulate spiral notebooks for everyone to fill in. The book would ask all sorts of silly questions like: “What’s your favorite food?” and “What TV show do you like best?” and “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

          And always, always there would be a question like this: “Who do you like best of all?” That was the question about pre-adolescent and adolescent unrequited love.

          When I was in 5^th grade, Donna Comber gave me her Slam Book to fill out. The great thing about Slam Books was to read what other people wrote. And as I read it I saw that Anna Maria Osborn wrote “Jimmy Bradley” under the question “Who do you like best of all?”

          Anna Maria was the prettiest and nicest girl in our school and I was this dorky kid with a crew cut, Coke bottle thick glasses and goofy clothes. My heart leapt up! I was as close to heaven as I’d ever been! Anna Maria liked me best of all….There was nothing life could throw at me that I couldn’t handle!

          We were 10 years old and I was dorky and Anna Maria’s parents moved away that summer. But it was so incredible and astonishing to know she liked me “best of all”.

          God’s Slam Book is coming around. And when it comes to you under God’s line at the question “Who do you love best of all?” you will find, wonder of wonders—YOUR NAME. Your name and no other.

          Each of us is the one God loves best of all.

          That is what Jesus’ metaphor is trying to tell us. And we should listen. We should listen and trust that it is so….

         

         

 

At last, a Spring day

After the coldest, wettest April I can remember, May 2 was Spring--finally.

I talked to our three next door neighbor families today. We have 3 'next door neighbors' since Mark and Naomi live beside us, but at the end of our shared driveway and their are two neighbor houses on either side of us.

Everyone was outside doing yard work they would have done weeks ago except for the chill and rain. Plus, Mark is stripping and repainting the trim on their house. He spent much of today on a ladder, on top of a twenty foot high scaffolding at the apex of the front of their house. I get dizzy just watching him up there.

David and Sharon, to the west of us, had a drive-by birthday party yesterday, handing out cupcakes to those who came to tell her 'happy birthday' with an long wooden thing like the things used to take pizza out of the commercial ovens. I watched from our front porch as people with signs and balloons and honking horns.

The virus makes us more creative, it seems to me.

M and N have a daughter, J, who is a nurse. She volunteered to leave oncology and work with Covid-19 patients. A brave and valiant young woman. Our health care providers are the bravest and most dedicated people on the planet.

I saw on-line a group of fire-fighters (brave and committed as well) outside a hospital applauding the health care workers. And behind the firefighters, up in the sky, we two rainbows.

Even nature is applauding the folks who are taking such risks!

The sun was worth the wait.

Ah, Spring (I pray) has sprung!!!

Things get easier as we go along

Home bound is not so bad.

Our bishops told us today that we are shut down for church until after May 20, if not longer.

Zoom and Facebook is working for church nicely.

I haven't put gas in my car fr over two weeks! How weird is that?

But every day gets easier to be confined.

I go for groceries once or twice a week. And wine, of course.

I went to have blood drawn for a 'virtual' visit with a doctor next week. Very odd. One person in front of me signing in. I signed in, with a glove and went to sit in one of the 5 chairs in Quest Diagnostics. Usually there are a dozen people waiting. The woman I came in behind was called, by the one technician who seemed to be in the place. And I was called before the man who came in behind me had signed in.

Bern and I watched two episodes of "Afterlife" tonight. Really funny. I recommend it .

Three books came from Amazon, so I have something to read. I reread books from long ago and realize I don't remember much from books I read from long ago.

I talked to Mejol on the phone for 40 minutes.

Bern made a great fried meal--cod, squash and onion rings and slaw. Delicious. I kept eating after I was full.

I miss seeing and interacting with people--especially our kids and grand-daughters.

But other than that, it's not so bad.

It seems to get easier as we go along.

Strange, isn't it?

Wash your hands. Stay well.

I have a friend who knew Dr. Fauci in high school

My friend, Michael Delia, went to the same high school in Brooklyn with Dr. Fauci.

Fauci was a few grades above Mike, but he knew him because--get this--Fauci was the captain of the high school basketball team!

Anthony Fauci, that guy towered over by every one--even the women--on the podium for the briefings, was 'captain' of the basketball team in high school....

A leader of others even then.

I wish he and Dr. Birx (what last names they have!) were the only people who told us what was going on with the virus.

I truly wish that.

For all our well being.

Basketball--for goodness sake's!

Bern makes banana bread--the president makes no sense

Bern makes banana bread. As soon as a loaf is gone, she makes another.

It is really good. It has nuts and chocolate bits and pear in it.

I've not looked at the recipe, but she makes it in the clean glass loaf pan the last one came in.

I'm interested to see if and when she stops. She is a serial eater. She eats something every day for weeks and then stops.

This banana bread has gone on for several months--longer than most things.

We'll see.

The President, on the other hand, makes no sense.

He and henchman Jared continue to tell us what a 'great job' they've done as over a million are sick and 60,000 are dead.

He continues to push 're-opening' the country while every public health expert says 'slow down, not so fast."

Plus, he said today that he has 'evidence' that C-19 came from a Chinese lab! But he can't 'share the details'!!!!

He says Biden needs to address the sexual harassment charges against him. Does he forget who he is--the guy who paid off porn stars and mistresses right and left?

Bern's banana bread is infinitely better that what the President makes: 'no sense'.

How many lies can one man tell?

Hard to say....

Different stokes for different folks

Bern and I have different strategies for dealing with isolation.

She plays solitaire on line. I play hearts.

She watches TV series on Netflix (today she's watched 6 episodes of an Australian show call Quirk in which dead people rise from their graves, not as zombies, but as who they were, from all periods of history).

I watch news videos on line.

She works in the yard on warmer days--not many this April.

I look at you tube videos.

She goes on line with zoom with her women's group.

I do church on line with zoom and face book live.

We do both cook and read books. But I read mysteries and she reads zombie books. (She's a zombie fan--watches zombies on TV...I don't like zombie shows.)

She goes to bed early--9 or 10 and wakes up at 7 a.m..

I go to bed late--11 or later and wake up at 9 or so.

She feeds and takes Bridget out after breakfast. I feed Brigit dinner and take her out the last two times each day.

But we are both doing well, doing our own things.

We spend time together every day, but not that much.

But all this was like that before the pandemic.

We're just doing what we do.

And it works for us.

Hope you find the rhythm  that works for you in these confusing times. We need a rhythm that keeps us sane and safe.

OK, I beat up on the President

Today I want to beat up on the Vice-President.

Mike Pence went to the Mayo Clinic today (THE MAYO F-ing CLINIC!!!) and ignored their rule that everybody (I mean EVERYBODY!!) must wear a mask.

Everybody, I guess, except the Vice President.

His explanation was he is tested regularly and is always negative.

That's not the point.

He was in parts of the hospital with C-19 virus and he didn't have on a mask! The patients did, and every medical staff person and everybody in the whole hospital besides him.

He was risking 'getting infected' by not wearing a mask.

And he was being an A-hole.

I guess he was showing off for his boss, who said, after saying everyone should wear a mask, he wouldn't.

Risking getting the virus to mimic his boss.

Pathetic.

And why are all those demonstrators against the 'stay at home' orders in several states not wearing masks (most of them)? Because their President and Vice-President lead by example....

As the President says. "Sad...."