A WORD FOR TODAY, May 4, 2022
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, May 4, 2022
Lectionary Scriptures for May 8, 2022, Fourth Sunday of Easter: Acts 20:17-35; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27, WEB
Glencoe (Gleann Comhann in Gaelic) is a beautiful valley in Scotland, with rugged hills and rocky cliffs where hikers and climbers love to visit. It is a challenging place even for the most experienced adventures. Though Glencoe is known for its rough beauty, it is more well known for its history. In the year 1692, government troops tried to massacre and entire clan of people.
The chief of the MacDonald Clan was late in making a vow of loyalty to the king of England. The men in charge were glad to have an excuse to be rid of those people. The betrayal was incredible. The government troops moved into the homes of the MacDonalds and enjoyed their hospitality for ten days. Then one bitter winter morning, the order was given to slaughter the entire population of Glencoe. Most managed to escape, thanks to the warnings of the troops. Only 38 people were killed that day, including children and elderly. Some also died in the harsh weather. Those who survived returned to Glencoe to restart their lives, however the place was never the same.
The name Glencoe most likely means “narrow valley”, but it has come to be known as “valley of sorrows” or “valley of weeping.” It has even been referred to as “the valley of the shadow of death.” Glencoe is a place of beauty, but the pain of death lingers on in our minds as we remember the massacre of 1692. It is equally impossible to walk through this life without being reminded of the pain of sin and death, especially when we hear the daily news stories of violence and hatred all over the world. As we face these valleys in our life, we are reminded in the words of this psalm that God is with us, He loves us, and we have nothing to fear in this life. Life does go on, even in the most desolate places.
Those desolate places are different for everyone. For some, it is the grief they are experiencing over hearing about the horrific death of a friend. For another it is in the news recently received from the doctor of an illness. Some are suffering with questions about the future and their financial well-being. Others are facing separation from loved ones as they begin new phases of their life. Our desolate places might not seem so horrible to someone else, but for us they are the places where we deal with our fear and our expectations.
It was not very long ago that palms were an important part of our worship experience. On Palm Sunday we gathered and processed with palms as they had done on the day Jesus entered Jerusalem. The Romans would have understood this to be a victory parade, since palms were used to reward returning heroes and the champions of the games. The Jews were also known to carry palms at festive times. As a matter of fact, palms played an important role in the Feast of Tabernacles; as the people waved palm branches as they presented their offerings in thanksgiving to God, rejoicing over His blessings.
The palm branch means many other things. In Judaism, the palm is a symbol of peace and plenty and the Tree of Life. The Muslims believe that Mohammed built his house out of palm branches and is therefore considered a symbol of hospitality. To the ancients, palms were a symbol of the connection between heaven and earth and were also a symbol of longevity. In Egypt at the thirtieth year of a Pharaoh’s reign, the Pharaoh was given a handful of palm branches to hold. The marks on the midrib indicated the number of years the Pharaoh would continue to rule.
The midrib of the palm was strong enough to be used as a walking stick. Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and though there is little verifiable information about him he was said to have been a very large man, like a giant and that he worked shuttling people across a bridgeless river by carrying them. There is a legend that one of the people he carried across was a child, who was a much heavier burden than he expected. It was the palm branch he was carrying that helped him stand through it. When he arrived at the other side of the river, the child told him to put the stick into the ground and it suddenly became a beautiful palm tree. The child was the Christ child, and His weight was due to the great burden of the entire world He carried. This miracle was a catalyst to Christopher’s conversion to Christianity.
Today’s passage from Revelation describes Jesus as the Lamb of God whose blood sets us free. In this vision of heavenly worship, a great multitude from every nation and tongue are standing before the throne of God in white. They are waving palms, just as been done in religious ceremony for generations. The symbolism can mean many things: God’s victory, His hospitality, His peace and strength. It can represent the joy of the multitude and their thanksgiving for God’s blessings.
The white of their robes does not come from their own righteousness; they have washed them in the blood of the Lamb. They cry out, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” They sing praise and thanksgiving to God for to Him belongs the blessing and honor and glory for ever and ever.
The Lamb is the Good Shepherd who will guide His people to the springs of the water of life. They will no longer hunger and thirst; they will not mourn as God wipes the tears from their eyes. This is such a vision of hope and promise; that God is with us. In the legend about Christopher, when they arrived at the other side Christopher berated the child for nearly killing him. “Had I borne the whole world on my back,” he said, “it could not have weighed heavier than thou!” “Marvel not!” the child replied, “for thou host borne upon thy back the world and him who created it!” We are reminded that it is not by our power that we are saved, but by God’s grace. Though Christopher carried the child, it was only by the strength of God that He was able to make it to the other side. And so it is with all those who will be standing at the throne of God praising Him; it is by His grace that we will wave those palms and proclaim thanksgiving for His blessings.
We all get a little nostalgic for the world as we remember it as children. I remember having the freedom to just go outside to play, running all over the neighborhood with my friends. I never told my mother where I was going to be every second of the day; it would be impossible because we were constantly jumping from one house to another, from one pool to another. We went to the woods behind our street. Or we ended up at the ball field a few blocks away. Or we walked to the store to buy candy. here was even an arcade just around the corner. We didn’t know where we would end up; we just went. It would have taken too much time to go home with every change to let Mom know where I was going to be. We didn’t wear watches. We didn’t worry.
Mom yelled out the door when it was time to go home. I was usually within hearing distance, but not always. Sometimes I was in a friend’s house or just beyond the sound of her voice. She would yell until I went home. She didn’t worry about me, but she was often annoyed when she could not find me immediately. I wish I could have given my children the same sort of freedom, but the world seems so dangerous these days. I can remember my reaction whenever I would hear my mother’s voice calling to me to come home. I was usually disappointed because I was having too much fun with my friends to stop playing, and I confess to having selective hearing occasionally. I wasn’t so patient as a mother; I worried if one of my children took so long to come home when I called. There are so many voices calling our kids and they all too often hear what they want to hear.
Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Festival of Dedication; He was the presence of God incarnate in the flesh of man. He was the light of the world and He told them so. He spoke with authority and performed miraculous deeds of healing and forgiveness. Yet, there were those who did not recognize Him. “Tell us plainly,” they said. Jesus answered, “I have told you.” They did not recognize His voice. When He called, they did not hear.
His sheep are those who hear, but hearing is not a passive verb in the scriptures. Hearing is doing, it is acting, it is following, it is obeying. Those who have children are quite familiar with selective hearing. Kids hear what they want to hear. I am sure I had selective hearing when I was a child. There were times when my mom called me more times than necessary because I did not hear. The last thing a child wants to hear on a pleasant summer evening is Mom’s voice calling them to go home. Perhaps they hear it with their ears, but they don’t hear it with their mind or their body. They don’t respond.
Jesus clearly declared with word and deed the truth of His identity and purpose. He was the Good Shepherd. He was the Light. He was the presence of God they so desperately were seeking in their oppression, and they did not hear because He was not the Messiah they wanted or expected. He could not be a king; He could not deliver them from their enemy. His teachings were different than the teachings of the religious leaders. They did not want to hear because they had rejected Him, they ignored His voice. They were not His and it was not because Jesus rejected them. They rejected Him.
Paul never shrank from doing the work God called him to do, even when it was difficult work. I suppose in some ways God didn’t give him much choice. After all, he was called in the most unusual fashion, with a vision that was beyond description and beyond rejection. Can you say “No” to God when He comes to you in such an intense and real way?
In today’s passage, Paul told the elders of Ephesus that despite his love for them and for the work he was doing among them, he had to go to Jerusalem. It was not going to be a pleasure trip: the Spirit was clear that Paul would face imprisonment and afflictions. He wasn’t concerned. He knew that everything he experienced was under the control of God.
We often talk about Paul’s arrogance, if that’s the right word for it, but Paul was really a very humble and obedient man. He said, “But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.” His flesh didn’t matter to him; the ministry did. If scourging or martyrdom would spread the Gospel of Christ and glorify God, then he was willing to go through it.
Though he knew he did not have a choice but to go to Jerusalem, Paul was concerned for the people of Ephesus. He knew he would never see them again, and he knew that their future would be full of similar difficulties. Paul was talking to the leaders of the Ephesian church, those who had been given the responsibility to take care of the flock. They were the shepherds, God’s helpers. But the duty of those leaders was to be the voice of Christ, to speak His Word to the people and to keep them safe from those who would come to twist the scriptures to their benefit.
The Church was bought by a heavy price: the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. He took the life of His people very seriously. He is concerned that they stay on the right path, that they live as He has called them to live. If we think about the history of God’s people, we can see that it isn’t as easy to live according to God’s Word as we want it to be. After all, generations of people have come before us. It only took a few generations for the people to turn away from God and follow the ways of the world. Though there were faithful judges and kings to shepherd the people, their sons often turned to other gods. It took catastrophic events to bring God’s people to their knees so that they might seek His grace and return to Him. And then they’d be faithful for a generation or two, quickly forgetting all that He’d done for them.
We might think that because we live under the grace of God that we will be more faithful than those previous generations, but we face the same temptations. We can be led astray by the expectations of the world and the ways of those who have selfish or self-righteous ambitions. The fierce wolves about which Paul warned the Ephesian elders were men who would try to twist the Gospel and lead people astray.
Paul may have been talking to a specific group of Christians, but it is a warning for us all. It does not take long for a false gospel to sound right, especially when it tickles the ears of those listening. We can see examples of this in the church today. Leaders get rich selling a gospel that is far from the one Jesus taught. Some churches ignore the reality that we are sinners in need of a Savior and teach that God came so that we might have everything we want. Others put the emphasis on our good works. Many of these leaders seek fame or a following and will do whatever is necessary to get it. They create division in the church to ensure that they will keep their position and power. They are no different than the leaders in Jesus’ day that killed him for their own sake.
But the leaders of God’s church are meant to be like Paul: humble, obedient and unafraid. He spoke the truth with passion, despite the reality that it would get him killed. Are any of us willing to do the same? Are we willing to tell those wolves that they are wrong? Are we willing to go against the expectations of the world and do God’s will over those of men? As leaders of today’s church, we must be shepherds that protect the flock from the wolves. We must be Christ-like, doing His work as God intends.
Our scriptures this week talk about the life of a Christian who has followed Christ’s voice. Peter willingly went into the presence of a dead woman, prayed for her and God blessed his faith with a resurrection that brought joy to the community of faith. John, exiled on Patmos, wrote about a vision of heaven that was not like last week’s image of an inner sanctum separated from the world. In this week’s vision, a great multitude, more than anyone could count, from every nation praised God with palm branches in their hands. In this vision, very earthly cares like hunger and thirst, pain and suffering are no longer concerns for God’s people for the Lamb in the Shepherd and He will lead them to living water and wipe away their tears.
This image of God as the Good Shepherd is a comforting image for most people. Though we do not know what it is like to be a shepherd, we do know that the shepherd loves his sheep so much that he takes care of their every need. He protects them from danger, ensures that they are fed and leads them to the best food. We see those images in the Psalm for today, along with some other aspects of the life of sheep and shepherds. Sometimes we do not consider the importance of those other things, since water, food and shelter are so vital to our existence.
Yet, the Good Shepherd provides all the needs of his sheep. He makes the sheep lie down. How many of us could use someone to tell us to go to rest, especially when we get ourselves caught up in so many activities? He leads the sheep beside still waters. Our hectic lives are often chaotic like the churning waters of a fast-running river. We need someone who will make us slow down, walk carefully along a better path, a safer path. He leads the sheep in right paths; He helps us to make the right decisions, to do the right things according to His Word. The most comforting thing about this Psalm is the reminder that God is with us. He is with the sheep.
That’s the key message for this week: God is present among His people, His sheep. He is there doing miraculous things, and yet He is doing them in ordinary ways with ordinary people. And He calls us to do the same among His people. We are tempted to offer so many activities that we are constantly busy, but perhaps we should be encouraging one another to practice a Sabbath rest. We are tempted to go our own way, but we are called to follow a very narrow path. We are called to be God’s presence among the people and in the world, and to do so demands a faithfulness that is extraordinary. We cannot go our own way.
Jesus who is the Lamb and the Good Shepherd was at the Temple for the Feast of Dedication. The people wanted to know: are you who we think you are? “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They, like all of us, wanted it spelled out in easy-to-understand language. Jesus was the Messiah, but they couldn’t see it because they were looking for someone to do it their way. They couldn’t understand how the Messiah could really accomplish anything if He failed to live. They didn’t understand that God’s work was not to conform to the world, but to overcome the world. Suffering and death don’t fit when we are looking for prosperity and success.
Jesus was concerned about life, true life. We might want this life to be filled with the fulfillment of all our wishes and dreams; we want to be satisfied. But that’s not why Jesus came. He didn’t come to make life easy or to give in to all our whims. He didn’t come to make our foolishness acceptable to God. He came to restore us to Him, to overcome sin and death and to provide us with a new life. That life is meant to be lived under the care of God, following His path, doing His work. That means giving up the world. That means being a sheep, but not the kind of sheep that follows every voice. His voice is the only one that will lead us down the right path.
His voice is hard to hear in the cacophony of noises that we hear every day. Every generation faces it, but I think it might be even harder for us. We can’t go to the market without being inundated with temptations. We even carry it with us, on our phones and tablets. Everything is acceptable and embraced in our entertainment. Faith is ridiculed as something that is a way for people to blind themselves to the reality of life. God is a myth. Jesus is just another prophet or teacher. The Church is filled with hypocrites and sinners.
Of course, they are right about that last one, but what we don’t see is that God embraces those who hear His voice, and He gives them forgiveness and life. Yes, we fail, but Jesus died so that we might be forgiven. Yes, we wander away, chasing after our own wishes and dreams, but Jesus the Good Shepherd calls our names and draws us back into His presence. Those who do not believe do not hear His voice. They aren’t sheep, they are of this world. And while it is up to us to share the Gospel with them, we must never allow ourselves to be conformed to the world. When the wolves come, we must be sure to remember the true Gospel, not follow the false gospels that lead us astray.
One of the hardest words of Jesus for us to understand is in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus says, “I told you, and you don’t believe.” I think this is hard for us to understand for two reasons. First, I’m not sure I have found anywhere in the scriptures where Jesus tells us plainly that He is really the Messiah. He says many things that lead us to believe in Him and know that He is indeed the Messiah, but plainly? The other thing that bothers me is that they do not believe because they are not Jesus’ sheep. Doesn’t God love all His creation? Doesn’t He promise His grace to all? How can there be sheep that do not belong to Him?
His sheep are those who hear, but hearing is not a passive verb. Hearing is doing, it is acting, it is following, it is obeying. Paul heard and he believed. He went out and began preaching the message of the Gospel to all who would hear. The Jews heard, but they did not believe. They demanded proof. They wanted to see Jesus do and say what they expected from the Messiah, but Jesus didn’t fit their mold. He refused to conform to their expectations because God had already proven Him to be who He said He was. Jesus’ authority and power were established in the signs (especially in John’s Gospel) and in the words He spoke. Saying “I am the Messiah” would not change their hearts.
Paul knew the truth: it is all about God. He is the shepherd. He is the healer. He is the Savior. Are we ready to be His sheep, to follow Him wherever He leads? Our story might not be as extraordinary as Paul’s, but we are called to do the same thing: to speak the truth, share the Gospel and live faithfully in this world. We might even be called to die. But whether at the hands of nature or man, death will bring one thing: the eternal life God has promised us.
Do not fear, for the Good Shepherd is near. Hear and believe. Go and speak and do as He has commanded. Who knows? Perhaps God has chosen you to be the vessel through which He will guard and protect and provide His sheep with everything they need. Or you might be the one to help them join the fold. Then we will spend eternity together singing God’s praise and thanksgiving at the foot of His throne.
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