| Rector’s
Sermon
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| It’s not an accident that our Heifer ingathering is scheduled for this Good Shepherd Sunday. After the 9:00 service we will have sheep, bunnies, chickens, goats, and other assorted two- and four-legged friends at a petting zoo behind Church House. Our Lenten and post-Easter mite box program is going toward the purchase of these and other animals for parts of the world where these animals can be raised to help sustain a more abundant life for those who need them. And it is not by accident that the last line of the Gospel just read quotes Jesus as saying, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” What a wonderful vision: abundant life for Jesus’ flock! Perhaps Heifer ought to be described as “Flocks for the Flock.” But that assumes a vastly more inclusive definition of Christ’s flock than we in the Christian Church might normally understand. However, the specifically Christian flock which is to say the Christian Church throughout the world today is truly a scattered flock—not just geographically, but theologically, politically, culturally, and every other possible divisible designation. Quite apart from issues in the Anglican Communion having to do with human sexuality and Biblical interpretation, there are hundreds and hundreds of different denominations and sects (perhaps even thousands) that call themselves “Christian” with a dizzying multiplicity of styles and beliefs and worship experiences. The differences of opinion we have within the Anglican Communion are positively tame when we might compare, for example, the Tridentine Latin solemn high mass with a Holiness Pentecostal Church of God service where they handle snakes. We are an interesting flock of Catholic sheep, Protestant sheep, Orthodox sheep, American—whether North or South—sheep, Asian, African, European sheep, Australian sheep who have been known to say at the Passing of the Peace, “G’day, Mate!” In any event, we’ve had close to 2,000 years of history and development and conflict, but all of us claiming Jesus as our Good Shepherd. How are we to relate to one another, much less to those parts of the world and those people who do not call themselves “Christian?” The Good Shepherd says, simply, that we are to love one another. I think we are long past the luxury, if we ever had it, of agreeing with one another, and we are assuredly long past any kind of theological conformity. Significant percentages of Christians historically have been unable to agree or conform to the exact nature of Christ’s divinity or even his humanity for that matter. But that does not excuse us from the commandment to love one another or in the words of our Baptismal Covenant, “to respect the dignity of every human being.” It’s not necessarily easy to love one another because we have to, in certain instances, set aside our own self-interests. We’ve got to be willing to take the time and the patience to find and nurture an attitude of love toward those who are different, and it can take an enormous effort. This kind of love is not a sentiment. It’s fairly hard work. And it’s intentional. There’s nothing subliminal or given about this kind of love which, of course, for Jesus amounted to a death sentence. But what can I do? I’m just one person, or even just one clergy person among the thousands if not millions of voices that, to quote Shakespeare, are (often) “full of sound and fury but signifying nothing.” Well, my voice does signify something, at least this morning, as I offer a small amount of money to buy a bunny or a chicken for someone else. It’s not going to change the world, but it will connect me to someone else, someone else I can love. I won’t know his or her name, but I can be fairly certain they’ll be different and perhaps not even especially grateful for this small bit of largesse on my part. And whether Christian or no, I believe the recipient is a part of Christ’s flock. I believe Christ gave his life for the whole world, and as much as I value and understand my own identity as a Christian, my belief can never be a barrier or should never be a barrier to that embrace of the Good Shepherd as he stretched out his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross and was resurrected from the dead for the benefit of the whole of the created order. So let’s love one another—one penny at a time, one small piece of ourselves at a time—and today, one bunny at a time. Who knows! It could get to be a habit. Amen. |
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