Tuesday, April 24, 2018

One Flock


Scriptures:     Acts 3:1-10, 4:1-12                            Psalm 23
I John 3:16-24                                    John 10:11-18



Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, when the readings focus on the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  One of our stained glass windows portrays Jesus as the Good Shepherd, carrying a lamb back into the fold.   This window is dedicated to the Rev. John Forster, who served from 1883 to 1917 and is one of Emanuel Church’s good shepherds.  Our longtime members can point to other of our pastors who were good shepherds to them…..I know that for our longest time members, the Rev Victor Steinberg, who served during World War II, was a beloved and venerated good shepherd.
Sheep are relatively defenseless animals, domesticated to the point where the shepherd really has to provide for them and protect them.  Their main defensive instinct is, when they are threatened, to huddle together.  Sheep need three things – good pasture, preferably with interlopers like snakes and scorpion and larger predators removed, access to water, and safety.  It is the vocation of the shepherd to be sure the sheep get these three things.  To be a shepherd was anything but a high-class occupation in Jesus’ day.  You would not want that word on your resume.  Because of their nomadic lifestyle, they were considered untrustworthy; in a court case, the testimony of a shepherd was considered inadmissible as evidence.  Also, because of their nomadic lifestyle, they couldn’t attend worship regularly or otherwise perform the sacrifices and rituals considered necessary to remain in God’s favor by the religious establishment of the time.  And yet, in protecting their flocks from thieves and even driving away wolves and other predators, they really acted as unsung heroes.  And in today’s reading from John’s Gospel, that’s the image Jesus gives to explain his ministry.
Of course, if Jesus is the good shepherd, that would mean that we are….sheep.  Now, for us in the church, it’s possible that we may object to being compared to sheep – defenseless, kind of dumb, easily led and easily misled.  We’d rather think of ourselves as being brave as lions or wise as owls or quick as jackrabbits or, if we’re feeling a little grandiose, as inspiring as soaring eagles.   Or, if we feel threatened, we may think of ourselves as being, out of necessity, as stubborn as mules or as wily as foxes.  But sheep?  I don’t know of a lot of folks who take pride in looking on themselves as sheep.  Our American culture prizes individuality in a way that makes us unique from other countries; a favorite popular song from decades back ended with the chorus, “I did it my way.” Being part of a herd is the last thing we Americans want.  Sometimes people who we consider easily duped and misled are referred to as “sheeple” – and it’s not a compliment.   
And yet, even more fundamental to us than American individualism is that we are human beings, and as human beings we, like sheep, are social creatures.  Some people, once they leave their families of origin, spend their lives alone, but they’re the exception.  Most of us form families of one sort or another.  Our church, small as it is, could be considered a kind of extended family.  And beyond our families, most families live in some sort of community.  Certainly Bridesburg is a very tight community; here in Bridesburg, everybody is aware of everyone else’s business, with all the blessings and all the annoyances that entails. 
And, as human beings, we respond to leaders.  Like sheep, we follow our shepherds.  In history class we learn about the famous or infamous men and women of history, those whose horrific or magnificent deeds live on, the Adolf Hitlers and the Martin Luther Kings, to name two leaders at opposite ends of the spectrum of humanity.  What we forget is that behind these famous leaders were a whole lot of followers. A shepherd without sheep is just a guy holding a curved stick.   Adolf Hitler would have been considered nothing more than a ranting whackadoodle, the kind of loudmouth you can find in any bar or at many family picnics, if millions of Germans had not liked what he said and decided they wanted to hear more.  Martin Luther King would have accomplished nothing if thousands of followers, black and white, had not followed him in marching and picketing and protesting, often at great sacrifice.   And so, as much attention as we pay to the leaders, those who commit great evil and those who accomplish great good, these leaders would have been nothing without their followers.
Certainly, in the church, we know the truth of Jesus’ words about the various persons and creatures who may want to enter the sheepfold – the shepherd, who wants to care for them, the hired hand, who is just there for a paycheck, the thieves and robbers who want to steal, and the wolves, who want to destroy.   Some pastors of churches long and small devote a great deal of time and effort, blood sweat and tears, into building up their congregations and caring for their people.   Some pastors, who are interested primarily in a paycheck, do the bare minimum of showing up to lead Sunday worship, and bail out at the first sign of trouble, or at the first opportunity to serve a larger congregation that can pay more.  And the newspapers and TV news programs tell us from time to time about those pastors and TV preachers who are there only to enrich themselves at the expense of the members of the church, who are there only to fleece their flocks – the pastors who live in gated communities and are driven around in limousines while their members live in public housing and take the bus, the televangelists who toss the heartfelt and heart-rending prayer requests from their viewers into the dumpster, but use the checks enclosed with those prayer requests, often sent at great sacrifice, to buy estates and fleets of cars and even jets for themselves.  And from the news we know of those pastors, found in all denominations, who have caused great harm to their church members, even to children. 
In recent decades, most mainstream religious denominations have put safeguards in place to weed out students going to seminary or otherwise preparing for ministry whose psychological problems would make them destructive to a congregation.  This is an advantage of being a member of a church that’s part of a denomination, as opposed to an independent church. In the United Church of Christ, we require background checks and letters of reference and psychological testing before people can become pastors, require them to write papers telling us about their faith journey and their sense of why they feel called to be a pastor. We require our pastors to take boundary training every three years to guard against pastors becoming inappropriately involved with congregants or dipping their sticky fingers into the offering plate or otherwise acting out.  Within the wider church UCC, I’m co-chair of the Philadelphia Association Committee on Ministry, and it’s my responsibility to read through all those background checks and reference letters and psychological reports and essays, read through stacks and more stacks of paperwork, as part of safeguarding the United Church of Christ congregations in Philadelphia and the near suburbs and making sure our churches have pastors who are spiritually and psychologically healthy.  And it’s a difficult conversation to tell someone who may have a sincere desire to serve God as a pastor that they’re not ready, that before they can proceed further we want them to see a therapist, and that we want the therapist to send us progress reports – and even more difficult to tell someone that, because of the red flags in their psychological report, we can’t allow them to be a pastor ever, that they’re just too emotionally damaged to be entrusted with the spiritual care of the lives of others. But I’ve been involved in even harder conversations after pastors have offended, many of them ordained back when those safeguards weren’t in place, and the congregation’s trust has been destroyed because the pastor was inappropriately involved with adult members or abused children, or stole from the church.  My efforts won’t protect you or the members of our other Philadelphia-area United Church of Christ congregations from boring sermons.  But they may protect you or your children from harm. 
Jesus spoke of having other sheep, who were not at that moment members of his flock, but who must be brought together with it.  Jesus ministered mostly to fellow Jews, and yet Gentiles responded to his message, often more so than his Jewish brothers and sisters – and so Gentiles were among those “other sheep” whom Jesus would add to his flock.  The history of the church is a story of wider and wider circles of humanity being added to the one flock, or to use a phrase from the prophet Hosea, a story of those once considered “not God’s people” being called “children of the living God” (Hosea 1:6-11)
We here at Emanuel Church are a small part of that great story of the church, a little flock that is part of the great flock of those called by Jesus.  For the members and friends of the congregation, Emanuel Church is extended family; for some, the only family they have.  We have longtime members for whom Emanuel Church is the only church they’ve ever known, along with many who have joined more recently, most from other traditions – Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran, Quaker, Baptist, Presbyterian.  Today, Adam and Jennifer, with their children, Julianna and Madison, join our flock. 
What do we have to offer?  What does this flock called Emanuel Church have to offer?  If you’re looking for a large, wealthy congregation, a church that can fund a staff of multiple pastors, a paid choir, a portfolio of community ministries; if you’re seeking a church of movers and shakers, a prestige church, look elsewhere.   We’re not that church.   Our numbers are modest and our resources are limited.
What does this flock called Emanuel Church have to offer?  In a word, love.  We can offer a sense of close-knit community often missing in larger churches.  If you’re away, you’ll be missed.  We can offer prayer.  We’re a small church that prays big, and here we’ve seen people on our prayer list recover from dire, grave, seemingly hopeless illness or come out on the other side of horrific circumstances in ways that could be called miraculous.   We can accompany people through difficult circumstances over long periods of time.  Up until a week or two ago we provided one family, who lived in an abandoned house with no running water, with filled jugs of water to take home, week after week, for most of a year, until just last week they found more secure housing in another part of the city.  For some time we’ve welcomed Bobby and Tim, who live outdoors, as they await housing.   We offer ways to minister to the needs of the Bridesburg and the needs of the world.  We’ve given backpacks filled to the brim with school supplies to children from this church and from the neighborhood year after year…for this school year, thanks to Penny’s organized efforts, each backpack had the full list of supplies requested by Bridesburg Elementary. We hosted the Santa breakfast.  We’ve responded with assistance to families left homeless by fires.   After last year’s hurricanes, thanks to Sean and Carol, we provided disaster relief kits for Church World Service, and hope to again this year.  We’re about to start a feeding ministry to the homeless.  We’re a permission-giving church – if you feel a call to start up a new community outreach, we’re here to support you. Beyond that, our members care for one another and offer support to one another – phone calls, text messages, Facebook posts - throughout the week in ways of which I’m not even aware.  Of course, we don’t do it perfectly, and we have our squabbles from time to time. From a worldly perspective, what we do here would not be considered great.  But we regularly do small things with great love.
In a later letter, the writer of John’s Gospel said that “We know love by this, that he” – that is, Christ – “laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.”  And that’s really what life within the flock is like – to share our lives with one another, to be there for one another.  It’s not just the work of the pastor.  All of us here can be under-shepherds, walking with one another through good times and bad, all of us under the care of Jesus Christ, the good shepherd.
So – to Adam and Jennifer, Julianna and Madison – welcome to the flock!  Welcome to Emanuel Church.  We hope you’ll be blessed yourselves, and that you’ll have opportunities to bless others, as you join in the life of this congregation.  And we hope that together we can be a blessing to this neighborhood of Bridesburg in which God has planted us, and that through our wider connections we can bless people beyond Bridesburg throughout our city, state, nation and the world. Amen.



Sunday, April 8, 2018

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear (April 2018 Newsletter, Pastor's Message)


Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”
 I John 4:7-21

The tomb is empty!  The Lord is Risen!  The chocolate eggs have been eaten, and the Easter bunnies and baskets and bonnets stored away for another year.  While the liturgical season of Easter goes on for several more weeks, for many, the celebration of Easter is over. Where do we go from here?

The author of the passage above, which we will read on April 29, would answer our question in two ways.  First, we are to confess that Jesus is the Son of God.  And secondly, we are to “believe the love that God has for us” – a love God demonstrated by sending Jesus – and to act on that love by showing love to others.  The two are inseparable.  Our love for others is what makes our talk of resurrection believable.  Conversely, our lack of love for others makes our talk of resurrection unbelievable – which may in part explain why so many churches are empty.   If others cannot see love in our actions, as far as they are concerned, Jesus might just as well still be in the tomb.  If others cannot feel our love, they will not hear anything we may have to say; as Emerson wrote, “your actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”  If we “abide in love”, then love is the default setting in our lives.  We live in love as a fish lives in water.  Of course, this is easier said than done, and some individuals are very difficult to love.  Nobody abides in love perfectly, but if we have truly embraced the message of the resurrection, our lives are directed toward love.  We will get off track from time to time, but the more deeply the reality of the resurrection has become a part of us, the more quickly we can course correct and get back on the path of love.

The passage makes an interesting connection between love and fear:  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”  While the author is speaking about fear of punishment from God, these words are also true in our relationship with other people.   As children, we may have loved our parents and yet at the same time feared their anger when we messed up.  But as adults, we cannot fully love someone whom we fear, and we will not fear someone we truly love. 

“Perfect love casts out fear.”  I believe this is God’s message for us in our day.  All day long, we are surrounded by messages of fear, from the news media, from politicians, from preachers who should know better, but have lost their way.  “Be afraid!” the news media tells us.   “Vote for me, and I’ll protect you from…(fill in the blank)”, politicians promise.  Fewer and fewer politicians, of either party, at any level of government, offer any kind of positive vision for the country or promise to do anything to make society better.   In these days, politicians mostly campaign on the basis of threats, on the basis of fear – “vote for me, or else the other party will take away……” and you can fill in the blank.   And we respond, because fear makes us easy to manipulate.  In the 1930’s and 1940’s, fear of “the other” – Jews, ethnic minorities such as Romani (gypsies), socialists, disabled persons, LGBT persons, among many others – led Germany and the countries it controlled to execute millions of their own citizens.  After World War II, in an interview in his cell during the Nuremberg trials, Herman Goering told his interviewer that “voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”   In any country, including our own.  Truly, to borrow a quote from the movie Dune, “fear is the mind-killer.” 

“Perfect love casts out fear.”  To abide in love is not to be a bliss-ninny.  We do need to be aware of our surroundings.  Jesus told his disciples, on their first mission, “I am sending you out as sheep among wolves, so be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves.” (Matt 10:16)   But, even as we are aware of our surroundings, we do not have to be intimidated by our surroundings.  We do not need to cower in fear of our surroundings.   If we abide in love, we will see our surroundings through a lens of love, not a lens of fear.

After the crucifixion, the disciples met behind locked doors, for fear of the religious authorities.  According to John’s gospel (John 20:19-31), it was not until after Jesus appeared to the disciples – twice! – that the disciples left their locked room. 

The tomb could not hold Jesus.  The locked room ultimately could not hold the disciples.  Jesus calls us out of the tombs and locked rooms created by our fears, and into the warm light of His love.  While the celebration of Easter is behind us, the work of Easter – abiding in love – never ends.  Love is the gift of the resurrection to us.  Love is what will make the resurrection real to our neighbors.

See you in church –

Pastor Dave