EASTER 4

John 10:11-18... (Sermon 1: “Anxiety and the Good Shepherd”)

1 John 3:16-24...

Acts 4:5-12... (Sermon 2: “God First with Style”)

Psalm 23

ENTRY INTO WORSHIP

In the name of the Living Christ, I greet you.

In his name we come together

in faith, hope and love.

Today is the fourth Sunday of the Easter season

The key theme is Christ the Good Shepherd.

The living Christ is among those who love him.

He is the Good Shepherd to all who trust him.

Let everyone praise the Lord.

The Lord’s name be praised.

It is time to stop looking at difficulties and worries,

time to lift up our eyes and hearts to a beautiful God

who is awesome in pastoral care and painstaking with our salvation.

It is time to put aside ego and focus on the one Holy Friend

who, in earth or heaven, is worthy of our worship.

Lord, make me to lie down in your green pastures,

and lead me beside still waters,

Restore my soul and lead me on the right paths

for your name’s sake.

PRAYER OF APPROACH

From the break of day to its close,

We would praise you, God of Christ Jesus.

In sunlight, or under the heaviest clouds,

We would serve you, God of the Good Shepherd.

With you we do not fear either the day or the night,

For darkness and light are alike to you.

In you we place our whole trust, loving God,

You are our God; our times are in your hand.

Let your face shine upon your servants,

And satisfy us with your boundless grace.

Let everyone celebrate and praise our God!

God’s name be praised forever!

CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE

Let us come to God, trusting the tireless mercy which ever awaits us.

Let us pray.

God our most holy Friend, we come before you as wanderers who need to come home to familiar ground and saving grace.

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

We come compromised from seeking a living in a ruthless world, in need of facing our failures and regaining our bearings.

Christ have mercy. Christ have mercy.

We come seeking that shepherd-love that gave Mary Magdalene back her sanity, Zacchaeus back his self respect, Peter a second chance, and Paul a totally new life.

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

And now, holy Friend, please lift us out of our pre-occupation with our own needs

Allow us to trust you with all that is past and to commit to you all that is to come.

Make us joyful in all the goodness we have received from your hands.

And let us seek the same grace and joy for those who live and work beside us.

Create in us a new gratitude for all people who are loving, true and beautiful.

Awaken in us a longing for the qualities of Christ Jesus

Please make us aware of the mighty crowd of people surrounding us, both past and present, and all those who are yet to come, who trust, love and worship you, world without end.

Through Christ Jesus our Saviour. Amen!

FORGIVENESS

Family of the Most High God, by the priceless mercy of Christ we are a new breed, forgiven and restored to declare the wonderful works of the God who brings us out of darkness into light.

Thanks be to God!

PRAYER FOR CHILDREN

Lord Jesus,

you are the best!

Like a good shepherd

you lead us

and feed us

and know each by name

Like a good shepherd

you stand up for us

when we are in trouble,

and give us a place to rest

when we are tired or bruised.

Thank you, Lord Jesus,

for loving us

as much as you do.

Amen!

PSALM 23

* Please note: for public worship I mostly stay close to the precious original text.

but occasionally I transpose it to post-Easter as below.

You, loving God, are my best Friend,

I shall never walk alone.

When I rest on green lawn and gaze up at the clouds,

you are there beside me.

When at dusk I stand and look out upon still waters,

you revive my spirits.

You lead me in the paths of grace and truth,

and your name is my warranty.

Even when I walk in the shadows of death valley,

I am not afraid of any evil.

You are there with me every step of the way,

your cross and empty tomb comfort me.

You prepare a banquet table for me

in the presence of my enemies.

With your own hands you heap blessings on my head,

and you fill my cup to overflowing.

Nothing but goodness and grace shall surround me

all the days of my life,

and I shall live at home with my God

throughout time and eternity.

Ó B D Prewer 2002

SOME RHYMES ABOUT SHEPHERDS

False shepherds smile

their way around

wolves in sheep’s clothes

always abound.

***

Political masters

steal sheep and goats

jumping the fences

buying our votes.

***

Stock exchange gurus

backing the odds

laundering their souls

for many gods.

***

Experts for all things

on TV screen

smoothly dogmatic

proud to be seen.

***

Voices more voices

filling the air

shepherds for hire

deal if you dare.

***

One lonely Shepherd

out on a hill

bearing the load

footing the bill.

Ó B D Prewer 2002

COLLECT

Good Shepherd,

source of innovation and perpetual faithfulness,

guide us to the places where we should be

and nourish us with the food that restores the human spirit.

By your strong arm subdue our temptations

and override our foolish decisions,

that we may find ourselves at home with you

even when we are in unexpected territory.

To the enrichment of those who live and work around us

and to the glory of your saving name.

Amen!

SERMON 1: ANXIETY AND THE GOOD SHEPHERD

* Too wordy. Shorten by one quarter.

John 10: 14

I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me.

Against the rich imagery of Jesus (and his God) as the Good Shepherd, I want to speak about anxiety and hope.

ANXIETY IS THE HALLMARK OF OUR ERA

Surveys in Western countries verify this statement. [Maybe poorer countries haven’t the time or energy to devote to surveys!] Anxiety and forms of depression are a major malady of our culture and times. The reason? Many!

The rapid pace of change. One renowned geneticist commented recently that he has never experienced anything like it; almost weekly he has to revise some key aspect of his thinking. That applies to many scientific fields these days. At the same time social changes are happening which leave many somewhat bewildered. We are facing questions that no other era has ever faced. This gives rise to a deep sense of insecurity.

Changed expectations. With the breakdown in institutions like marriage, people become uneasy about making commitments. Things like pre-nuptial contracts may be wise in these changing times, but they don’t exactly make for confidence, security and serenity. Likewise the employment situation has changed. Unemployment is a factor for many people who in previous generations would have had a long, fruitful working life. With those who do have employment, long term security is no longer certain. Moreover, repeated re-training seems to be the common pattern. Such factors increase our basic anxiety.

Lack of a common moral foundation. No longer is there a common morality built (more or less) on the Biblical witness. People are keen to do their own thing, without any consideration of the consequences for the well being of others. The result? Security systems on our homes, lines of parental vehicles picking up children after school, our reluctance to travel on urban train systems at night, the distaste we have for banking institutions, the rising number of citizens learning marshal arts, the absence of children playing without supervision in parkland. Anxiety? Yes, plenty of it!

The troubled international scene. The countries of the world are facing new levels of violence. Widening inequality between rich and poor breeds terrorism. There are racist and religious persecutions. Floods of homeless refugees. The rise and fall of despots. Letter bombs. Weapons of mass destruction. The awareness that the security of all countries can easily be penetrated by the ruthless. Countries like Australia, Canada, and the USA that have not until recently felt the horror of terror in their streets, realise that now no one is absolutely safe. Anxiety.

The ultimate future of the world. These days there is another threat that makes even our children experience anxiety: what is the future of our planet? They know about the destruction of the ozone layer, planetary warming, the pollution of our water and air. They hear about the possibility, sooner or later, of our planet being hit by a large meteor such as wiped out the dinosaurs. No wonder many of our young people live with an anxiety which plunges some of them into abject despair and suicide.

As far as I can see, the only people who benefit from this steepling level of anxiety are the big drug countries which provide pills to calm us down, and politicians who by cynically using the simple tool of fear can the more easily manipulate the outcome of elections.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Anxiety is the emotion aroused by a threat to us and those we love, plus uncertainty about how to deal with it. The disturbing fact is there seems to be little we can do about the some of the threats that confront us in these times.

We can of course try to minimise the risks. We don’t walk alone at night, we don’t resign from work without already having another job lined up, we do pick up our children after school, we put locks on all windows and doors, we increase numbers in the police force and legislate for tougher sentences on criminals, we try to introduce new legislation to protect us from rash decisions in the area of rapid changes in genetic engineering. But these things are rather like a little child holding her hand over a tap trying to stem the inevitable.

What of the church? What have we to say about dealing with anxiety in these breathtaking times of opportunity yet high risk? On one church notice board facing the passing crowd was this advice: “Cheer up it may never happen!”

Heh! Is that our Gospel? What about when it does happen? As it certainly does to many!

Such cheery nonsense will not do much for parents of teenagers who are backpacking in Oz at the time when one of their number gets murdered. It will not do much for thousands facing redundancy through the restructuring of industry. Or for the children of a couple whose marriage is in tatters. Or for people being persecuted for their religion in Iran, China, on parts of Indonesia. Or for elderly people reading about another break-in and savage bashing of a pensioner.

Can’t we who are followers of the risen Christ Jesus do better than offer fatuous advice like “Cheer up it may never happen?”

LOOKING AHEAD WITH HOPE

Much anxiety is bound up with us trying to look ahead and fearing the disasters that might really happen. For many people, all that they see when they look ahead is risk upon risk for them and their loves ones. The future seems very threatening.

Christians have another ingredient associated with looking to the future. It’s called hope. Christian hope is not another pattern of wishful thinking direct from the “cheer up it may never happen” stable. Bad things can happen. But we know that if they do happen, God will be there for us. With God’s help we will not only cope but receive the resources to rise like phoenix from the ashes.

Christian hope is grounded in the God of Christ Jesus. It is the good news that there is a Divine Power of almighty love always at work. A Divine power that took the tragedy of the cross of Jesus, and turned it into humanity’s greatest triumph. One way in which we speak of this Divine power is to call it “The Good Shepherd.”

Hope says: “If it does happen, the Good Shepherd will be with me and with those whom I love so dearly.” The Good Shepherd will be with us, even in the valley of the shadow of death, and I will fear no evil. Nothing can cut us off from the almighty love of Christ and his God. Within the embracing arms of this Shepherd we live and move and have our being.

Many Aussies may have lost touch with the rich shepherd images of the Bible. The oversight of flocks has become more technically advanced. Stringent general care is given by all reputable graziers. The numerical size of flocks, and in some cases the wide landscape over which our sheep often graze, has limited a relationship between most individual sheep and their pastors.

But the old-world shepherds lived with and for their sheep. They knew each by name and nature. A shepherd’s whole life, “twenty four seven,” was spent with them. They lived with sheep, smelled of sheep, worried about sheep, nurtured sheep, and when under attack from wild animals or robbers, they would suffer or even die for their sheep.

Therefore the Shepherd-God of the Bible is not some caring, managerial figure, giving detailed care at specific seasons, but largely uninvolved with the minutia of our daily affairs. The Bible God is an intimate associate living where we live, and sharing both good and foul weather with us.

Putting it another way, the Good Shepherd is neither the managerial god of some philosophers nor the capricious god of those who believe in blind fate. The Good Shepherd is the God of that same Jesus who suffers with us and for us and who, should our worst fears be realised, brings purpose and triumph. This Shepherd is the suffering God who transforms tragedies by sharing their darkness and grief.

BOTH ANXIETY AND HOPE CAN BE FED

Anxiety and hope both look ahead. And both can be hand fed and enlarged thereby. We can chose which one on which we will base our life. We can select which one we will feed.

If we decide to dwell on all the negatives, to keep our mind and soul simmering with all the gloomiest possibilities, then that’s our choice. We can brood on bad things, both those that do happen and those that might happen. And if we so brood, we will hatch more and more little rodents of anxiety that will grow up to be big anxieties gnawing at our well being..

On the other hand we can choose to dwell on hope. To bask in the promises of God in the Scriptures. To feed our hope on the word and way of Jesus. Instead of shuddering and cringing before every grim possibility we can deliberately look at the worst that can happen and picture God in it, there for us. Envisage the worst and see God there beside you. That is what the twenty third psalm does. And we have much more reason to be positive than the psalm writer, who affirmed his hope even though he did not have the additional grace of our wonderful Christ Jesus.

I repeat: We cannot deal with anxiety by pretending that bad things will never happen to us. Some of them will. It is far saner to face the worst and picture God there in it with you, exercising the same mysterious power that took Jesus through Good Friday to the joy of Easter.

I know of one Christian teacher in the art of relaxation and healing, who asks his clients to think about suffering and death. They must face the worst that can happen, and to discover that even the worst is not as bad as they fear. Peace does not lie in denial, but in facing the truth of both the valley of the shadow and the God who promises to be there.

In a recent TV documentary, looking at people who some time back lost their homes in bush fires around Sydney, I was struck by one woman’s comments. Standing on levelled ground readied for re-building, the same site where their home had been with all its precious reminders of thirty years of family life, she said this:

“Since that day I cannot believe how much more relaxed I have become. At first I thought we had lost much of that which mattered. But I soon discovered that it did not really matter at all. I am more at peace these days than at any other time in my life.”

As she said this, I saw in the background the typical Aussie eucalyptus trees displaying their remarkable ability to regenerate after suffering the fiercest bush fire. Green foliage budding out vigorously from blackened trunks and limbs.

Both that woman and those trees seemed to me to be a parable of Christian hope. The worst can happen, yet with the Good Shepherd’s help we can move through it to a new and better day. With God there is inexhaustible regeneration. There is no disaster, no chaos, no pain, no tragedy to our dear ones or us, that can withstand the transforming Presence of the One who loves us utterly.

Why feed our fears when we can feed our hope? Certainly face reality; for the whole reality includes both the bad things and the divine things. “I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me”. “The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” I know my own and my own know me.”

STAKE YOUR LIFE

You can stake your existence on the faithfulness of this loving Shepherd. Nothing in the future can outwit his grace: No threat that at first seems overwhelming; no calamity that engulfs us; no grief which in its first dreadful impact makes us fear we will ever smile again. Christ’s love for each and all is certain.

You can trust your life, and what is even more precious, the lives of those dearest to you, on the goodness of God. As Jesus said, the hireling, a man paid to temporarily look after a flock, will run away when the wolves attack. The good shepherd stays and will, if necessary, give his own life for the sheep.

Feed your hope on this incomparable love. Meditate on it. Trust it. Affirm it. Baptise your mind in it again and again. Commence each new day with it. Go to bed with it. Celebrate it with all your being!

SERMON 2: GOD FIRST WITH STYLE

Acts 4: 1-20

If they have some exciting news, most people find it difficult to keep their lips buttoned.

That’s how is was with those initial Christians. Those women and men who had been with Jesus, blessed with his friendship both before his death and after his resurrection would not, indeed they could not, keep silent. Give them one foot in any door, and those debonair believers would be sharing the good news. They were irrepressible messengers.

Whatever they did, they did with plenty of confidence They had style.

PETER AND JOHN

One incident we have recorded in the 4th. Chapter of the Book of Acts displays this most dramatically. Let us recap.

It was early days after Pentecost. Peter and John were unstoppable. They told everyone whom they met about Jesus and his resurrection. They did this not on the quiet, but publicly in the extensive courtyards of the temple. They topped this off by healing a disabled man. This started to “get up the noses” of the temple authorities. those scheming godfathers. So they had Peter and John arrested and thrown into the “slammer” overnight.

The next day the high court, which presided over by those two oily practitioners of expediency, Annas and Caiaphas, had Peter and John dragged before them. They demanded to know by whose authority they were publicly preaching around the temple court. Peter left them in no doubt:

If we are being cross examined today because we did a good deed to a lame man. and by what authority this person has been healed, then get this straight: It is by the name of Jesus of Nazareth; that person whom you had crucified, yet whom God raised from the dead; it is by him that this healed man now stands before you

Peter was not going out of his way to antagonise those temple wheeler-and-dealers. He was just telling it as it was. This was the biggest news. The crucified Jesus had been raised for death and decay, and his Spirit and power were with his followers. The disciples could not do anything but witness to this astounding gospel

The two disciples were sent out of court while the wise men of Jerusalem considered their verdict. There were two things that stood out. Firstly, these men were uneducated, common fellows. Second, they were possessed with a surprising self confidence. This could only mean that they indeed had been in the company of Jesus. The man from Nazareth had that effect on those around him.

As the story unfolds, the high court gave a final warning: Peter and John must immediately cease their preaching in the name of Jesus. Unfazed by their judges, The two men retort:

“Standing in the sight of God, as we all are, is it right for us to listen to you rather than to God. You must face that question. But as for us, we cannot stop speaking about what we have actually seen and heard.”

Peter and John did exactly that. Following their release, John and Peter reported back to the church community. Then, filled with the Spirit of God they went public again, proclaiming the rescuing and healing name of Jesus.

There are number of flood lights that beam from in this story; lights which can delight and guide us. I am going to select just two, and this sermon will fall into two sections.

One is the question Peter and John put to the high court:

The other is the source for their self-confidence.

I will spend a few minutes looking at the first. And then briefly comment on the second.

SECTION 1: OBEYING GOD OR HUMAN AUTHORITY?

Peter and John answered them: “Standing in the sight of God, as we all are, is it right for us to listen to you rather than to God.? You must face that question. But as for us, we cannot stop speaking about what we have actually seen and heard.”

The same question confronts us. As it has confronted Christians of every culture and throughout the generations. It raises the issue of conscientious disobedience to authority. Civil disobedience? Do we give our first loyalty to our nation and it rulers or to God?

Ecclesiastical disobedience? Do we obey our church and its councils or our Lord?

A rapid fire answer is possible. Yes. of course we must always obey God. Yes! That is where our first loyalty must be focussed, on God, not on human expectations and regulations. As is often the case, the theory is a simple matter.

But the practice? In the real life situation? Then it becomes a much more complex and difficult matter.

Take one example: war. Three attitudes.

1/ In time of war, some Christians take an absolute pacifist line, believing that to be the very thing God requires of them. They refuse to obey any call to arms.

2/ Others appear to have few qualms about believing that God is on the side of their nation and so they proudly wear a uniform and will put their lives on the line for their government.

3/ A third group feel caught in the middle, believing that some wars may be the lesser of two evils, but that other wars are totally wrong and unjustified. They would take up arms for the first and believe they were obeying God. They would refuse to fight in the second type, and believe that by so doing they were obeying God.

Other examples of difficult issues speedily come to mind. Divorce and remarriage, abortion, investing in the stock market, taking an active role in a particular political party, accumulating wealth, issues of sexual morality, the place of homosexuals in the church, genetic engineering, cloning, euthanasia. Numerous thorny questions.

Any of these issues can find some Christians engaged in civil disobedience or ecclesiastical disobedience.

ECCLESIASTICAL DISOBEDIENCE

In the church disobedience may lead directly to schism. They believe that by being true to God they must defy ecclesiastical authority. In the church this can lead to the tragedy of a multiplicity of congregations. It results in the unrestrained spawning of novel church denominations, each made in the image of its charismatic leader, who pleads his or here conscience over against established church authority.

This appals many of us. However, what Protestant among us would question the legitimacy of the conscientious disobedience that resulted in the formations of such Churches that we know as the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Society of Friends, the Congregationalists, the Baptist, the Methodists, and the Salvation Army? The issue is not so simple, is it?

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

A similar situation applies to civil disobedience. Many of us have taken part in what are technically illegal protests against government policy.

On the one hand we know that too much civil disobedience would lead to political anarchy and community disaster. On the other hand, as Christians we cannot become the unquestioning puppets of any political party or leaders that happen to be in charge of our nation.

Things get complicated, don’t they?

MIXING POLITICS AND RELIGION?

Some try to evade the pain by saying that politics and religion must not mix. They separate their lives into two realms. A religious one and a social/political realm. As long as governments do not intrude on what happens behind our church doors, on interfere with the spiritualty practised in the privacy of our homes, such people are content.

Let it be emphatically said that to do this runs completely in the face of the Bible witness. From Moses, to the Psalms, to the prophets, to John the Baptist, to Jesus and to the final book in the New Testament, religion and politics are inseparably entwined.

Jesus was a public figure. What he taught and did impinged on every aspect of our lives. He included political activists among his twelve disciples. He confronted civil and religious authority. He challenged the religious rulers. He refused to debate or plead his case with the Roman judge, Pontius Pilate. He was sentenced because he seemed to pose a threat to law and order, and the method of death by crucifixion cross was a political death.

NO EASY WAY

My friends. there is no easy way out of this difficult business of obeying God not men. It does not fall into slick little definitions and obvious answers. It is a tension we all have to live with. We need to be stringent with ourselves, questioning our own motives, consulting the Scriptures as enlightened by Jesus, speaking with advisers (especially having dialogue with fellow Christians who hold a contrary opinion to our own) and trying to learn from the history of our faith, and from the example of other Christians in many differing situations across the world today.

As Peter and John made clear: To obey God rather than men is our commission as followers of Jesus. But we need wisdom even better than that of Solomon, and we always need to hang tight to the primacy of God’s saving grace. Because we will all get it wrong sometimes. Even with the best of motives, we will make errors in judgment. God’ grace is our ultimate resource at all times.

SECTION 2: THE SOURCE OF CONFIDENCE?

Now to my second point. The source of confidence in Peter and John

After hearing Peter and John state their case, Annas, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin

ordered the disciples removed while they deliberated. They knew that each man was just a lower class, uneducated fishermen. Yet on the other hand, these two fellows exhibited remarkable self confidence. What was the source of it?

We read in Acts 4; 13-15

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and knew that they were uneducated, common men, they were puzzled. Then they realised it was because they had been in the company of Jesus.”

They had been in the company of Jesus. I wish that could be said of us. I wish that people would recognise our poise and confidence in the ups and downs, and the twist and turns and tangles of life and attribute our attitude to keeping company with Christ.

Peter and John were on the front foot. They were not waiting for others to take the initiative. They seized it. The disciples, who had been tutored in the word and deeds of Jesus and inspired by the Spirit, did not just react to what happened around them. They were pro-active.

A minute ago I used the words “self confidence.”

The common brand of self confidence that we see in people around is centred on ego. As such it is always threatened by the wolves of anxiety that lurk in the shadows and can overwhelm us in weak moments. Anxiety is never very far away from the egocentric person.

But when we become Christ centred, a new kind of self confidence is born. This may be threatened by feral anxieties but can withstand the yapping and snapping. We find peace and poise at the core of our being. We begin to experience the truth in the words of St Paul: “We can do all things through Christ who strengths me.”

The sad thing about many people, including some church members, is that they try to serve two masters. They attempt to hang on the egocentric self confidence yet at the same time they grab for a bit of Christ in their lives. The result is rather pathetic.

No wonder that others do not easily recognise in such folk the influence of Jesus.

Even the hostile high court in Jerusalem could see the influence of Jesus in the stance of Peter and John.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and knew that they were uneducated, common men, they were puzzled. Then they realised it was because they had been in the company of Jesus.”

MORE?

And here’s a final thought: Maybe if we were more consistently centred on Jesus, then we might possess more confidence when confronting the thorny question of obeying God rather than human authority. Maybe if we spent more time in the presence of our living Lord, we could be more positive? Maybe we would be more boldly creative, rather than reacting to big issues with a worried frown or carping words?

Maybe? But we will never, never know until we give it a 100% go. I say 100%. Not 60%, not even 99%. Even 1% held back from the Lord will deny us that prime poise and happiness exhibited by Peter and John. They “had been in the company of Jesus.” and through the Presence of the Holy Spirit, they knew that they were always in his buoyant company.

Now I reckon that is awesome faith.

PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

We thank you, God our Pastor, for all that you have given us, and for all that you have withheld from us. For our difficulties and sorrows as well as our smooth and happy times.

As we travel though this life, with its mountains to climb, tiring plains to cross, and deep valleys to traverse, you have been secretly with us. You are here, day by day, sharing our burdens, forgiving our sins, tending our wounds, and outmanoeuvring our follies with the grace of Divine resourcefulness.

You are certainly a most gracious, wise and faithful Shepherd, always able to do far more than we can ever think or ask. In Jesus you did the unexpected and the seemingly impossible, turning a cross into a symbol of hope and a tomb into a place for celebration.

Thank you for promising to be with us in all the times yet to come. We may try to guess the future, but cannot predict what particular trials may wait ahead of us. This makes us feel very vulnerable. Yet because of Jesus, we can predict that you will be on the road with us no matter where it leads.

We can predict your Presence around us and within. There will still be the sound of your rod and staff, and a table of love and where a generous cup overflows. Thanks for such glorious provisions for every traveller on your road; for the goodness and mercy that shall surround us all the days of our life, and for the home which will receive us when time and place are no more.

Doxology: sung.

PRAYERS FOR OTHERS

Please keep us alert, loving God, to the extensive needs of those around us, and guide us in how to best employ our time and gifts to express your love for them.