A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, TX.
The lectionary readings for the fourth Sunday of Easter are here.
Hi! It’s good to be home and I’ve missed you all! New Zealand is incredible and if it isn’t already high on your travel list, I highly recommend you go! One of my favorite parts of being in New Zealand was not having continuous access to the internet. (They have it there, but I wasn’t on a data plan.) For much of the time my phone was simply a phone with a camera as I tried to capture some of the most amazing natural beauty I’ve ever seen. But you know how it is, sometimes what we see through the camera lens is not quite as amazing as what we see with our eyes. The occasional shot captures the majesty of God’s world but it’s not the same as the reality of actually being there and fully experiencing the beauty of the sights and sounds and smells.
There are times, however, when the camera lens enables us to see more than what our eyes are capable of. One evening Brian had gone out with the dogs and excitedly called back to say “the auroras are out tonight!” And Sharon and I joined him on the lawn. With our naked eyes we could see faint light streaks. Brian asked for my phone and began taking pictures. With the camera lens we could see vibrant colors and motion. The right lens enabled us to see fully what our own eyes couldn’t.
And what does any of this have to do with the scriptures readings for today? We’re supposed to talk about Jesus being the good shepherd today. Well, I did see lots of sheep but I didn’t meet any actual shepherds, just some sheep farmers, and I learned that the cattle industry is bigger than the sheep industry in New Zealand and it kinda burst one of my expectation bubbles about that fabulous land, so I’m going to talk about seeing, having the eyes and ears to see and hear our shepherd.
The gospel is a portion of the larger section of John’s account of the Good News in which Jesus has healed a man blind from birth and gets into a debate with his disciples and then some Pharisees about whose sin caused this man’s blindness. In response, Jesus offers up a sermon on the Good Shepherd and the love that the shepherd has for the sheep. And then we are given a time detail, always important, that this is taking place during the eight day festival of the Feast of Dedication which celebrates the rededication of the Temple in 165BC. This celebration is more commonly known as Hanukkah, which is the Hebrew word for ‘dedication’.
After the Maccabees had won a victory over the Greek decimation of the temple and they re-lit the eternal flame of God, there was only enough oil for one day. The ritual preparations for additional oil would take seven days and they lit the eternal flame anyway in hope and faith and thanksgiving and God’s Holy Presence enabled the oil to last until the newly consecrated oil was ready. The saw the situation through the lens of God’s kingdom on earth, believing in God’s abundance.
Not quite 200 years later, Jesus stood in the Temple and proclaimed the love of God for all as the way to justice for all. But many, including the Pharisees and even Jesus’ closest disciples couldn’t bring God’s Kingdom-on-earth into focus. Their vision was blurred by their own egos. They were only willing to see what confirmed their own perspective instead of being open to a new perspective. They wanted an action-figure style messiah who would turn things upside down so the oppressed become the oppressors, not a leveling of all power with love. They only wanted to see how God’s love and action benefited them instead of widening their view to see God’s love for all people.
Jesus talks a lot about having eyes to see and ears to hear. We all have eyes and ears, and don’t let the significance of the restoring of sight to a blind man kicking off this whole episode pass you by. Eyes to see and ears to hear is about so much more than our physical eyes and ears working properly. It’s about our perspective and our willingness to see this world as Jesus sees it, through the lens of God’s Kingdom.
When we look with the eyes of Jesus we experience the world through God’s goodness and love. We learn to see true justice, not retaliation or revenge labeled as justice. Our perspective is widened so we can see beyond ourselves and our own little group and see the greater good of all and we can truly experience with our whole being that when everyone thrives, well, everyone thrives. In God’s kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, goodness, love, compassion, justice, and equity are in abundant supply and the more we offer these commodities of God’s kingdom to others, the more there is, an ever abundant supply.
When we look with the eyes of Jesus we learn to see the image of God in every human being, in the “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”
The Pharisees and even the disciples wanted to see a violent revolt. Jesus said, “not so with you” and shows us that love as it heals and restores is the greater force on earth. God gave us a spirit of creation, not destruction, to participate with him in building up the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.
The Pharisees asked Jesus to show them plainly and he said, “I already have and you still don’t believe.” Jesus shows them and us what love looks like: healing and restoring, washing feet, feeding others, and yet they could not see the love of God for all. He preached and taught of God’s-kingdom-on-earth, the kingdom at hand, realized, experienced, and lived in relationship with God and others, and yet they still chose not to believe he was the promised one of God come among them to bring about the Kingdom. Their eyes only wanted to see political might and a world not restored but turned upside down so that the oppressed become the oppressors.
Jesus has shown them and they choose not to see. He has told them plainly and they choose not to hear.
To see Jesus for who he is and to see ourselves as who we are created to be, we have to know Jesus to be our shepherd, the one who loves us and shows us the way we are to live. Jesus calls us to follow him and open our eyes and ears to be shaped by the Holy Spirit so we become aware when we are attempting to invite Jesus to follow us. If what we do, what we think, what we believe doesn’t consider the greater good of all, doesn’t seek to build others up, wanting everyone to thrive, it isn’t of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. To quote our previous presiding bishop, “if it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”
Whatever our actions, our thoughts, our beliefs, if they are not centered in the love of God, if we seek to tear down rather than build up, we are not following Jesus. It is that plain. It is not simple. It takes awareness of our own motivations, honest conversations about what is really our intent and an awareness of the lens through which we are seeing others and an awareness of the lens through which we see and experience God. If we see and experience God as wrathful and vengeful, we can justify our own wrath and vengeance. If we see and experience God as a loving, compassionate God, we see ourselves and others as being created in the image of Love.
Let God shape your eyes and ears so that we can all experience fully the amazing wonders of God’s kingdom-on-earth with all that we are and all that we have as beloved children of the Good Shepherd. Amen.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 