Sermon 4th Sunday of Easter Year B April 21 2024
“I know my own and my own know me.” Amen.
In this week’s readings we are reminded again of the power of God in Jesus Christ. This power stands in stark contrast to often what some people experience of Christ through the church. In the Easter Season we hear readings from the Acts of the Apostles, the book in the bible with stories of those early believers who personally knew Jesus when he walked the earth. Today we hear how Peter and John are arrested for healing in the name of Jesus Christ. They are arrested not because they performed healing or were doing good, but they were brought before the religious leaders over issues of power. The leaders asked Peter and John “By what power or by what name did you do this?” They are not looking at the effect of the healing they were concerned about where the power came from…. most likely because if it came from outside of their own authority… the power of the religious leaders would have been in jeopardy or in question.
These issues of power and authority are at the heart of who people no longer come to church. It is little wonder to me why so few people seem interested in what we have to say in the church anymore.
The church’s track record has not always been very good in living out the gospel of Jesus, but has been more concerned about power, authority and being right. As award winning author and Wesleyan University professor Annie Dillard quipped, “What a tragedy that so closely on the heels of Christ… come the Christians.”
I cannot tell you the number of times I have found people coming to my office who may be visiting church for the first time in a long time. They often come saying they see and hear good things about St. Peter’s Church because of your good work so they become curious. Then they go on and recite a tale of some church experience in which they have been judged, shamed. abused, or in some cases asked to leave. Nearly always these deep hurts and offenses levied by religious leaders at a time when what they needed from their community of faith or faith leaders was understanding, forgiveness, a time maybe to confess something on their heart. What they needed was kindness and love extended to them. Instead they got judgment of some sort that kept them away from the doors of a church for a very long time. It took each and every one of those folks great courage to even bother to come into our place. I think this is a bit of what Peter and John experienced in our reading today.
Yet, I believe they come and take a chanee again because of what we read in our gospel today. It is because the voice of the Good Shepherd beacons them and will not let them go. These encounters I’ve had are often people knowing something was fundamentally wrong with the way they were treated. However, the Good Shepherd won’t let them go calling them again to return to the flock.
In our gospel, Jesus tells us he is the Good Shepherd, the one who lays down his life for his sheep. In this passage Jesus also says “I know my own and my own know me.” He doesn’t define it more than that. He goes on to say, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice….there will be one flock and one shepherd. The great sin of the church is that we keep defining who we think is in this fold and who is not. It’s all about power.
The Rev. Dr. Stephen Montgomery, pastor of Idelewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, put it well in a sermon. “But let’s face it, many of the critics of the church make valid points. All too often we have put the purity of dogma ahead of the integrity of love. All too often we have taken the rich, sparkling wine of the gospel and turned it into the dull, dreary dishwater of everyday culture, reversing the gospel. All too often Christians have misused faith as a substitute for thought, when faith, in fact, is what makes good thinking possible. And so it goes without saying that the stumbling block for most sensitive nonbelievers is not Christ, but Christians. Dr. Montgomery ends by saying, Especially when Christians are so tied to issues of control and power that they don’t allow room for the Spirit of Christ to liberate lives and even institutions.”
Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry addressed this issue. In a study commissioned by the Lilly Foundation. They found 84% of American Christians and non-Christians said that of Jesus of Naareth is comeone worth listening to. When asked about Jesus’ followers the words used by 50% of non-Christians was judgemental, self-righteous, arrogant. The churches simply do not always mirror the message of Jesus and it is seen with the empty pews in our churches.
We who claim to be Christians are seen as often put stumbling blocks in front of people rather than simply rely on the power of God in Christ to transform lives and go where the Spirit leads.
We make up rules. For generations people who did not get baptized by the right denomination, or did not die in the faith were barred from being buried in church cemeteries… deemed holy and special for use only by the church people of that denomination. Or being told that their child who died in childbirth is in limbo rather than with God. Those who experienced the pain of divorce rather than find consolation and help were not allowed to receive communion. Not only did we bar people on earth from access to the Holy Table of God inside our walls, but forbade them entrance into heaven. No wonder people question, whether we have anything to say to the world? Are we simply a relic from ages past or are we relevant today.
We forget that Christ’s created a community based solely on a message of love… simply to love… and this means to love all and everything in this goodly blest world as God intended it. Christ the Good Shepherd invites all the sheep, even those from different flocks to be part of one flock. May we extend that invitation on behalf of the Shepherd with everyone we meet and live as followers of Jesus so all can see it in our lives.
I know my own and my own know me.” Amen.