The Lord is my What?

A Sermon for the 4^th Sunday of Pascha & First Holy Communion Sunday 4-29-2012

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

Themes:         the good shepherd, first communion, God feeds us

Title:               The Lord is my What?

Today is called “Good Shepherd Sunday” and it is a day when we remember and celebrate Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

You heard it in the famous 23^rd Psalm, in which our First Communion children led us this morning.

“The Lord is my Shepherd.” And you heard this in our Gospel reading.

Here is a copy of an ancient icon, which shows Jesus as the Good Shepherd, carrying the lamb on his shoulders. Please pass it around so that everyone can see it.

But here is my question for all of you: Has anyone here ever seen a real, living shepherd at work?

Not on TV, not in the movies, not in stories, but with your own two eyes?

Well, neither have I! I’ve heard stories about them, of course, and I’ve seen images of them in movies.

But never with my own eyes. They are just not very common in this part of the world.  

It’s a famous and familiar image only if you grew up in the church. But if you did not, the idea of Jesus as our Good Shepherd probably doesn’t mean hardly anything to you at all.

So this got me thinking about what this Psalm might sound like today, if it were written by someone living in Bellmawr/Gloucester City today.

What is it that a shepherd provides for the sheep?

Three things: protection from predators and other dangers, guidance to stay together and to stay in good pastures, and the provision of food and water.

Three things: protection, guidance, and provision.

So where in our world today do we see this kind of figure?

How would someone express this today? 

The Lord is my Nurse? Well, that gets a bit at the idea of someone taking care of me when I need help. And I suppose a nurse might feed me, but a nurse does not protect me from danger and does not guide me in the right way.

The Lord is my Flight Attendant? These folk feed us when we fly on airplanes, but they do not provide us with guidance in decision-making, and they are not always good at protecting us from danger.  

The Lord is my Coach? The coach guides me, perhaps a coach might protect me from a dangerous situation. But a coach does not really provide food and water for me on a regular basis.

What do you think? Any ideas out there?

You know, the only answer which seems to work in replacement of the Shepherd is this:

“The Lord is my Parent.”

That just might be the best option of all, at least when we think of parents as they are supposed to be! The Lord is the one who plans the meals, buys the groceries, prepares the table, brings dinner out when it’s hot, and makes sure that everything gets cleaned up and all ready for tomorrow, when the cycle starts over again!

This metaphor makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, what is the prayer given by Jesus to the disciples?

“Our Father in the heavens…”

Jesus taught them, and he teaches us, to look to God as a child looks to her parents.   

And of course, God is both Father AND Mother: both roles are seen in God.

But how do you know that your parents love you? Can you see it?

No, love is invisible. But you can see the things that are supplied by love!

If your mother loves you, she makes hot soup for you when you are feeling under the weather.

How do you know that God loves you? Can you see it?

Of course not. Love is invisible. But you can see the food that is supplied by love.

Now, I understand that there are some of you who have experienced what it is like to have a bad father or a bad mother. Not all parents handle these duties well: protecting their children, guiding their children, providing food and the basic needs of life for their children.

There are many human parents which fail at this. But that it why Jesus is called the Good Shepherd: the One who does not run away when things are difficult, the One who goes all out in order to protect us, guide us, and provide for us.

This morning, we have here a few of our children who spent some time with me yesterday learning about Communion and preparing for this day.

And together, we talked about how God feeds us and gives us the nourishment that we need to live a full and healthy life in this world.

That is what the Sacraments are for: to feed us, to strengthen us, to prepare us for the challenges of life.

And we talked about the three things that are required in order to have a sacrament.

Do you remember what those three things are?

That’s right: the people – the community, the congregation; the Word of God – the promises of Jesus; and the elements – the creation that is blessed and shared.

In Holy Communion, we have the gathered community in which we all have a role to play; the words of institution from Jesus about his body and blood given for us; and of course, we have the elements of bread and wine.

To me, one of the classic touchstones of life as a child is this: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

In order to have a PB&J, you must have three ingredients: the bread, which I think of as the community, the congregation which provides the structure; then there is the peanut butter, which is like the Word of God – it’s the really meaty part with all the protein; and then there’s the jelly, which are the basic elements of the sacrament.

Take out any of these three, and you do not have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Take out any of those three basic ingredients, and you do not have a sacrament!

But put them all together, and you have something wonderful!

And what is the point of the sacrament of Holy Communion after all? A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible gift.

We cannot see that our parents love us, but we can see the gift of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which they make for us, which they provide for us. And they are good!

We cannot see that God loves us, that God provides for our needs like our parents.

But we can see the gift of this bread and wine, the sign of that nourishment, that grace which feeds us and gives us strength.

And do you know why we need this? Why we need this constant reminder, this continual sign of God’s love and care as our divine Parent, as our Father in the heavens?

Because life is hard. Every day, every week we have to face new challenges. New problems come our way which we cannot predict, and which we cannot control.

These things challenge our faith. We know in our minds that God loves us, but what about in our hearts? Do our hearts know it?

Coming to the Lord’s table week-by-week gives us an opportunity to renew our trust in the Father’s love over and over again, to taste and see that God is good week-by-week.

We hear the promise: “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”

But here we can taste it, and feel it, and allow it to penetrate even into the depths of our hearts.

Let it be so that each one of us can say it with our whole heart: “The Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing. “ Amen. 

Such Good Things

YOUTH SERMON for 6 Pascha C RCL 5/9/2010, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10,22-22:5; John 14:23-29

Good morning kids! Do you know what happened on July 20, 1969? Here’s a clue: this event did not take place on the planet earth.

On July 20, 1969, the lunar module of the Apollo 11 mission landed on the surface of the moon and for the first time, a human being walked on the surface of the moon. Do you know his name – the name of the first to do this? Neil Armstrong. Did you also know that Neil Armstrong is a Christian?

And check this out – did you know that Neil Armstrong brought Holy Communion with him to the moon? Yes, as Armstrong got ready to leave the lunar module and to take his first step, “one giant leap for mankind”, he and Buzz Aldrin stopped to share Holy Communion together. The very first liquid ever poured by humans on the moon, and the first food ever eaten there was the wine and bread of Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

There is something so incredibly powerful about this gift of Jesus that it touches people at the deepest spot. That's because this gift of Holy Communion is all about love.

We just heard Jesus say that “those who love me will keep my word.” That means that if we love Jesus, if we are thankful for what he has done for us, then we will follow his instructions.

I bet you know already how that works. If you really like your teacher, if your teacher is good to you and fair and kind, then you will probably do what the teachers asks of you.

But if your teacher is mean, maybe calls you names, or embarrasses you in front of the whole class, then you won’t love that teacher, and I imagine that you’ll not want to do what that teachers asks. But if you like your teacher, you follow her instructions. That’s one of the main ways that you show her that you like her, right? By following what she says.

This is how it is with Jesus. If we love Jesus, then one of the main ways that we show this is by following his instructions, right?

Well, at the Last Supper, on the last night with his friends, Jesus gave us two main instructions. Do you know what they are? We heard about one just last week.

“Love one another,” he told us.

AND, he told us to share communion together to remember him. He said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Today we have a few young people who are celebrating their First Holy Communion. They are making a promise that they will do this in remembrance of Jesus – that they will be faithful in receiving Holy Communion as a way of showing their love to Jesus. They will keep his word.

But today is also something else, right? (Something that many men fear and dread!) Yes, today is Mother’s Day. So today, we celebrate Communion as the way that Jesus feeds us spiritually as his family, AND we celebrate that person in our family who most often feeds us physically!

650 years ago, there was a great woman in England who loved Jesus greatly and who wrote about him in amazing ways. We call her Dame Julian of Norwich, and she wrote this:

“A mother can give her child to [drink from] her milk, but our precious Mother Jesus can feed us with himself, and [he] does, most courteously and most tenderly, with the Blessed Sacrament, which is the precious food of true life.” A mother can feed her child right from her own body and give her infant child everything needed to grow and to be healthy. And so it is with Jesus. He feeds us with his own body so that we can grow and be healthy.

She also wrote this: “This fair lovely word ‘mother’ is so sweet and so kind in itself that it cannot truly be said of anyone or to anyone except of [Jesus] and to [Jesus], who is the true Mother of life and of all things. To the property of motherhood belong nature, love, wisdom and knowledge, and this is God.”

(60th Chapter, Long Text, Revelations).

Do you know that your mothers love you and would do anything to protect you, to make sure that you are healthy, to help you to grow up to be smart and strong?

This is how it is with the Lord Jesus also. Jesus loves you even more than your mothers ever could! And what has he given to us to make sure that we grow up healthy and smart and strong? He has given us the Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament.

It looks like simple bread and wine, and it may not taste very good to you. But that doesn’t matter. Because this bread and wine is the food of new and unending life, the nourishment of our true heavenly Mother. This food is what our souls need to live.

Thanks be to God for this great gift! Amen.

A Blessing for our First Holy Communion Candidates

Let us ask for God’s blessing upon these young people.

May God the Father, who made you and gives you this special day to celebrate his love, smile upon you and shelter you in the shadow of his wings. AMEN.

May Jesus, who invites you to share his life in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, grace you with his lasting presence. AMEN.

May the Holy Spirit, who teaches you everything you need to know to truly live, fill your hearts with abiding joy. AMEN.

And  for all of us gathered here today: may the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among us all of us and remain with us forever. AMEN.