Sunday, April 30, 2023

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10

Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

Our texts for today revolve around the word “shepherd.” The fourth Sunday of Easter is always Good Shepherd Sunday, and we hear a piece of John 10 each year. This year, John 10:1-10 tells us Jesus is the gate and the gatekeeper, the only way to salvation, and how He is willing to lay down His life for His sheep. In the end He provides proof of His authority to be the Good Shepherd. His sheep are those who believe; they’ve been given to Him by His Father. The psalm for this day is always Psalm 23; it is a song of the sheep who is praising the goodness of the Shepherd who is the LORD. The LORD provides. The LORD directs. The LORD leads. The LORD restores. The LORD guides. The LORD protects. The LORD comforts. The LORD feeds. The LORD anoints. Life under the LORD’s care is good. Life in the presence of the Shepherd is blessed. We are called to be faithful to the LORD, to follow our Shepherd and to trust in Him. We will hear His voice and He will take care of us.

The world struggles to understand how we can be obedient to what they consider a fairy tale. They don’t understand how we can follow this life, especially in this day and age. Tithe? Aren’t there better ways to spend our money? Church on a Sunday morning? Don’t you want to sleep in? You are studying the Bible again? You have read it so many times there can’t possibly be anything new to glean out of it!

We know, however, that God will use our resources in ways we can’t even imagine, that time with God in community is more than just a place to be and that the Bible will always surprise us with something new. Yet, we also know that there are people who make claims about God’s voice that are questionable. God will never call a mother to murder her children. This is why we need to be part of a community of faith that will help us to live according to God’s Word. We need one another to help us hear God’s voice, to know that what we hear is truly God’s voice.

Community was everything to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He grew up in a huge, loving family that did everything together. He worked at creating a community to educate young men in ministry. Even after he was arrested, Dietrich found a way to create community inside the prison where he was kept. He died well before his time, but through his life we have learned what it means to dwell together in grace and love.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed for his role in a conspiracy against Adolph Hitler. A group of high-ranking military officials tried to kill Hitler so as to overthrow the National Socialist regime. He is counted among the martyrs of Christianity, having suffered a horrendous death for crimes that are seen now as founded firmly in his Christian faith and God’s call to justice.

His execution was so horrific that even some of the German soldiers refused to watch. They did not have enough gallows because so many were hung in those days. Instead, they used meat hooks from the slaughterhouse, lifting the victim slowly as they were hung with nooses made out of piano wire. The victim suffocated to death in about thirty minutes. Before the hanging, he was stripped naked and beaten, then led into the yard. It was humiliating and painful, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer last words were, “This is the end, but for me the beginning of life.” He lived his life in the knowledge that he followed the faithful Shepherd. Despite the hardship, Bonhoeffer knew that he would find himself in the presence of God in the end.

Martin Doblmeier created a documentary about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In an interview about the movie, Doblmeier said, “Most people know Bonhoeffer because of his writings. Cost of Discipleship, Letters and Papers from Prison, Life Together, these are classic books that will inspire Christians and non-Christians for generations. You feel in his words the youthful passion of a man struggling to understand the will of God, knowing the earthly price that is often paid for responding to that call. In his own time Bonhoeffer was not a widely known figure, but over the last few generations his stature has grown, and his writings have become more and more influential. I think that is because, in the language of today, he was a man who not only talked the talk but walked the walk. In the world of religion today there seems to be a widening chasm between the left and right, the progressive and traditional, especially in the Christian world. What is extraordinary is how Bonhoeffer’s appeal seems to cross over the divisions, finding wide acceptance on both sides. Conservative Christians are attracted to Bonhoeffer because he is so Christ-and Bible-based. The progressive wing is attracted to Bonhoeffer’s commitment to social justice. It is not that the two sides should be in any opposition, it is simply the fact that too often they are, and Bonhoeffer is a unifying figure, not a divisive one.”

In the life and times of Dietrich Bonhoeffer we see an example of the kind of life God calls us to live. He was neither a liberal nor a conservative; he was both. He was frustrated with the liberal theology of the Lutheran Church in Germany which caused him to eventually leave the church. He felt that it was too obliging, which is why it was no longer relevant in the society of his day. The Church was not willing to stand up for what was right against what was wrong. He was not willing to set aside his ideas, but he also understood that some of the views in his day minimized scripture.

In Bonhoeffer we can see that the sides are neither good or bad, but they are different ways of seeing the world and responding to the Gospel. We can work together for the sake of God’s kingdom, unified not by a point of view but by the amazing grace of Christ Jesus. Our work here in this world will end, but that end is not the end, it is only the beginning of life for us as we join in the heavenly community of saints for eternity. We join that community not by our own discipleship or actions, but through faith in Jesus Christ. If we remember this, eyes always on the cross and the promise that is found there, we’ll know the unity that they saw in that early church which was a diverse group of people sharing everything and living as God called His people to live.

Everyone has an opinion in the conversations, but few are willing to listen to the others. In Bonhoeffer we can see that there are different ways of seeing the world, and that perhaps the best way to deal with it is not division, but community. There is a reason that God chose the image of a shepherd to describe His character and work. A shepherd doesn’t lead one animal, he cares for many. It isn’t a hundred individuals that are under His care, it is a flock. While He knows and loves every sheep, able to call it by name, the shepherd’s world is in community.

We can work together for the sake of God’s kingdom, unified not by a point of view but by the amazing grace of Christ Jesus. Our work here in this world will end, but that end is not the end, it is only the beginning of life for us as we join in the heavenly community of saints for eternity. We join that community not by our own discipleship or actions, but through faith in Jesus Christ. If we remember this, eyes always on the cross and the promise that is found there, we’ll know the unity that they saw in the early church. We can have the kind of community that Bonhoeffer tried to build wherever He was, even if we are a diverse group because we are led by the same Shepherd.

Through the Church we live without fear as we walk together in faith, because God is with us. In Acts, the believers shared everything in common, even selling their goods to care for the needs of other brothers and sisters in Christ. They shared God’s grace, giving to those who had less and receiving when they had their own needs. They met daily for prayer and study, and often gathered to share fellowship with one another. They did all this with joy, praising God. Doesn’t that sound like dwelling in the house of the Lord forever?

There was something very unique about the Christian community in Jerusalem that made strangers want to be a part of it. Luke tells us that day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Unfortunately, today many congregations are failing, and churches are dying; we certainly aren’t adding thousands to our numbers. As a matter of fact, too many of our new members are simply Christians who are coming from another place. The church is not growing from our witness, it is just moving around as people search for the Jesus they want to trust. We are divided by our ideas and we lose sight of our Shepherd.

We have to ask ourselves what we are doing that is different than what they were doing. Are we trusting in God? Do we hear His voice and respond accordingly? Or, are we trying to get people to follow us, to go on our path, to believe in what we are doing? Are we trying to manipulate people by giving them what they think they want or coercing them with guilt or promises we can’t keep?

My husband recently got several calls from someone he didn’t know on his business phone. We were inundated for a while with calls for someone because theirs was published incorrectly. We have all had to deal with wrong numbers, although I suspect most of us don’t know anymore, unless they leave messages. With caller ID, I personally only answer those that come from people I know, but it was different when you did not know who was calling. I remember dealing with a ninety-five-year-old man looking for his sister, a teenager wanting to talk to a girlfriend, and a construction company getting back with a client. It is no trouble to tell the caller that they have reached the wrong number and it sometimes even leads to humorous conversations, like the one with the elderly man. Sometimes the people who dialed wrong will leave a voicemail and I feel like I need to inform them that they reached the wrong party.

I could easily let it go; after all, it wasn’t my mistake. But sometimes these messages seem important, so I try to let them know they reached the wrong party. One time I tried to clear up the mess, I was questioned about whether or not I knew the person and if I could tell them how to get a hold of her. I called to let them know of their mistake and felt that I had been through an inquisition about a person I had never met. Unfortunately, it isn’t always that easy, like the day I got a call from a company about a disability claim for a person that I did not know. I tried to call the company and ended up on a consumer unfriendly voicemail system that made it impossible to find a human being. I was repeatedly sent back to the main menu until I finally hung up, frustrated by my inability to find anyone who could fix their problem.

We live in a world that is increasingly becoming “people-free.” The grocery store provides “self-check-out” lanes so that the consumer can do all the work for themselves. You can take care of almost all your business on the internet, with voice mail, with text messaging. We use email instead of the phone. Gas pumps have pay points, so we do not need to pay a cashier. We don’t even have to go to the post office anymore: we can print our stamps on our own computer and put the envelope in a mailbox. We can watch church on television, order pizza on the Internet, and stream first run films on our television. Our community has become too virtual.

We need to interact with other people every day, to share our joys and pain. We need hugs and smiles. People need people. In the beginning, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone” so He created woman and at the same time a community. He drew His people together and gave them laws to help them live together. He ordained a pattern for worship that was practiced in community and a social system that made all people important to the whole.

The “people-free” society is even making its way into the church. Besides televangelists, people can attend worship at mega-churches where they are assured a sense of anonymity. Individuals get lost in the crowd, which is just as well for many of the people who attend. On the other extreme, many Christians are choosing to have a solitary life of faith, no longer attending services at the church down the street. The pandemic made it easy to find any kind of church service online. They sit in front of their television. They read and study the scriptures and have a life of prayer, but they miss the life of community that comes from fellowship with other Christians.

The earliest Christians lived in community, and they shared everything. They gathered often to pray, learn, and fellowship. They ate together, communed together, and worshipped the Lord together. They were bound together with other believers not only by the Spirit, but by a life lived in community. They devoted themselves to the work of God. They studied the scriptures and the teachings of the apostles, they gathered together for worship and praise, and they prayed. Do we do this? Yes we do, for an hour or two a week, but then we go out and live according to the ways of the world. Perhaps we spend time in bible study and daily prayer, but is it filling our lives with God’s voice to drown out the calls from the world? Do we spend time during the week encouraging one another with words of grace or by helping each other live the Christian life outside the walls of the church?

It is not enough to spend time in the privacy of our homes with God. God calls us to be obedient to Him at all times, no matter what that might mean for our lives. I think that’s what Luke means when he talks about the early Christians sharing everything they had. The Christian community in Jerusalem was not a model of literal equality, but it shows us the need to support one another for more than just a few hours a week.

I am always amazed at how quickly people respond when they see a need. A hurricane comes through a coastal town and people donate to Red Cross to help. Others load trucks full of water. Yet others go with shovels and work boots to help clean up the mess. We take casseroles to our neighbor when they lose someone they love. A charity needs a new bus to move students and the community chips in. We may not always seem as generous as we should, but when we see a need we are more than willing to help. We aren’t trying to make things equal between us, but we are share our “more than enough” so that others will have “enough.” They weren’t required to put everything into one bank account, but they were so committed to the Lord that they willingly gave up what was necessary for the sake of others in need.

That’s what the outsiders saw in the Christian community: a willingness to give to share with one another. It wasn’t forced or even expected: it just happened. When someone was hungry, someone else fed them. When someone needed a new robe, someone helped them get one. When each was comfortable, they ensured the others were comfortable, too. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a community that doesn’t worry about money and resources? Do those who do not understand how we can live a life of faith in God see us living in this kind of community?

What makes the Church unique is that it is one body, Christ’s body, working together to accomplish God’s Work in the world. And we don’t do it according to our will and purpose, but according to God’s. We trust in Him. We listen to His voice, and we respond by faith with strength and everything we have. We might fail. No, we will fail. But if we continue to work like those first disciples, devoting our time to the teachings of the apostles, worship, and prayer, then we will learn to recognize God’s voice above all the others.

Have we lost touch with His voice? Do we hear Him when He calls? Are we ready to respond with mercy and grace to meet the needs of those who are suffering in the world? Or are we following the voices of strangers? Do we trust the thief that claims to be the voice of God but who only wants to steal the gifts God has given? Are we willing to trust God even when we are suffering? Is Jesus our focus, or are we chasing after our own agendas, theories, expectations?

As we follow Jesus, listening to His voice, going only where He leads, we will find that God’s grace will multiply in ways that are beyond our ability to imagine. Even if we don’t think we have enough, we’ll be able to find more than we need to help our neighbors just as they will help us. This is the kind of community that others long to join. This is the community that Jesus created to share His Gospel with the world, so that they will become part of that community of faith and receive the life Jesus promised to those who believe.

Saint Peter was walking the streets of heaven which seemed overly crowded to him. He went to the gate to look in the book they keep when people check into heaven. He found no comfort in what he saw; he knew that there were too many people on the streets based on the information in the book. He told Saint Paul of his concern. “Paul this doesn’t look good! Are there really that many extra people in the streets? Who are these people and how did they get here? Go and see if you can find out what is happening.” So, Saint Paul ran off to investigate while Saint Peter stood at the gate personally. After a while Saint Paul returned with a report. “You are right, Peter, there are extra people here.” Saint Peter replied, “I knew it. Where are they coming from?” Saint Paul answered, “Oh, its Jesus. He’s helping people climb in over the back fence again.”

This is a funny joke, but the reality is found in today’s Gospel lesson: Jesus doesn’t have to bring people in over the back fence because He is the gate. We live in the hope of eternal life, based on the promise of Jesus rather than the sum of our knowledge. We have hope for all people, teaching them about Jesus so that they see Him as the gateway into God’s presence.

This is not to say that Peter and Paul had it all wrong and that we should ignore or reject their canonical writings as some are willing to do. The scriptures are given so that we might grow into the people God created and ordained us to be. As we follow the example of those who have gone before, we grow in faith and maturity, giving us the courage and the strength to share the message of Jesus with others. If we have hope for them, we will share the gift of eternal life with them. If we set up boundaries and judgments against them, then we will not bother to do the one thing God has commanded us to do: share the Gospel. Why bother if they don’t belong anyway?

In all things, Jesus is our focus. As we follow Him, listening to His voice, going only where He leads, we will find that God’s grace will multiply in ways that are beyond our ability to imagine. Those who were considered enemies become brothers, not because we change our mind or because they change but because we see them from a new perspective: through Jesus colored glasses. There is no reason to limit the number of people on the streets of heaven because God’s grace is big enough for all. We are reminded in this passage that the way we get there is through Jesus, whether it is over the back fence or through the front door.

Peter reminds us that dwelling with God does not mean we will never walk through the valley of the shadow of death. As a matter of fact, even our Lord Jesus suffered at the hands of men, though He’d done nothing wrong. He was crucified as a criminal, though innocent of sin. Men found it right to put Him to death, but Jesus did not turn away from their wrath; instead, He stood firmly in the will of God, doing what He had been sent to do. It was for our sins that Jesus died, and for our sake that He now lives.

Those who hear His voice will follow without fear, knowing that the Great Shepherd will provide all we need. The life we live in this world will never be perfect, even in the community He built from the disciples He gathered. The shadow of death looms over all that we do because sin still rules in this world. However, we walk in faith knowing that God has already established our home forever. We have the gift of the community of faith to support us; the Church is like that green pasture and still waters in David’s song of praise. We find peace in the care of the Good Shepherd in the community of believers who worship God and do His work that we can find peace.

Unfortunately, the Church does not look much like it did in those early days. There are few who gather so regularly for prayer and study. We do not sell our possessions to support another’s needs. We don’t eat together with one heart or constantly praise God for His mercy and grace. We are also not adding to our numbers daily those that are saved. We are, at times, like a flock of sheep gone astray. The lessons for this week remind us to listen for the voice of our Master and follow Him, so that we will know what it is like to dwell in the house of God. But even when we fail, we can be assured that our Lord walks with us and we shall have no fear of death. We shall not want for grace because through Jesus Christ there is an abundant supply, and we’ll see His Church grow in faith and in believers as God adds to our community those who are being saved.