I AM:
the Bread of Life; the Light of the world; the Gate; the Resurrection and the Life; the Way, the Truth and the Life; the Good Shepherd; and the True Vine.
 
These are the seven “I AM” statements of Jesus in John’s gospel.  Through each of them Jesus tells his disciples something about who he is for them.
 
Last week: I AM the Good Shepherd.  The one who loves his sheep, is willing to lay down is life for their sake, the one who guards, guides, teaches, who is a friend to his sheep.
 
This week: I AM the True Vine.  Jesus is the source of our love, our life—our very being is in him, and is dependent upon remaining in him. 
 
The question to think about today is, “who is Jesus, for you?”
 
Is Jesus the Shepherd who guides you, who is your friend—anointing you with oil, spreading a feast for you even as your enemies surround?
 
Is he your source of hope and life, the one who holds you together with others who abide in him?
 
Who is Jesus, for you?
 
In Acts, Jesus’ apostle Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch on a desert road, and the Holy Spirit prompts him to have conversation.  Philip starts talking with him and, at the end of their conversation, the eunuch asks to be baptized.
 
Now don’t you wish you knew what Philip said?  All we are told is that Philip started proclaiming the Good News about Jesus, starting with the scripture in front of him.  Whatever he said, it was enough to make the eunuch ask to be baptized. 
What did he say?  What would you say if you were Philip, an apostle of Jesus Christ?
 
Our gospel lessons this season have had Jesus sending out his disciples—and even giving them the Holy Spirit.  When they receive the Holy Spirit, they are sent out into the world to be Jesus’ witnesses, to be Jesus’ proclamation—they are his hands and feet and mouth, equipped with the Holy Spirit.
 
But look here: you, too, are equipped and sent to be Jesus’ messengers.  In Baptism you have received the Holy Spirit.
Imagine yourself being anointed, like the mark of a cross on your brow, with the Holy Spirit—the one we profess is “the Lord, the giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.” 
 
Actually, you don’t have to imagine because you have been! You are anointed with nothing less than THE Holy Spirit, as a baptized follower of Christ.  You are an apostle like Philip.
 
I think that we aren’t told what Philip said because it’s not real unless it’s incarnated in our own story.  Who is Jesus for you?  Not for Philip, but for you?
 
That is what is important for the people around you: who is Jesus for you?
 
For me, Jesus is the God who comes into the messiness of this world to bring life and wholeness to it all.  For me, Jesus is the one who is decidedly on the side of people who are hurting, broken, taken advantage of and ignored. 
For me, Jesus is the one who is here, now, in the world lifting up those who are laid low—who is showing love to those who’ve been hurt, abandoned, or given up on by the rest of us.  Jesus is the one who is good news for hurting, real, people.
 
Because if Jesus is not good news for the out-cast, the nobody, the eunuch—He’s not good news for me.
If Jesus is only good news for those the world already lifts up, or for those who can lift up themselves, he is too weak savior.
 
For me, Jesus is the True Vine who nourishes us with the love of God, with himself—God’s love that is incarnate in Jesus.  He is the Love that is for all the world, poured out for us in Holy Communion, and sent into the world through you and me.  The True Vine that holds us all together and in God’s love.
 
Who is Jesus, for you?
 
Find a way today to articulate that.
 
Then, as we say at the end of every service this season,
 
You are the body of Christ raised up for the world.  Go in peace, share the Good News!
 

At the Holy Supper it is the promise of Jesus’ presence which is tied and tangible in the bread and wine.  We confess and proclaim that the bread and wine is Jesus’ body and blood—not just some symbolic recognition or remembrance.  How it is him, well, that’s a bit of a mystery—but you can take Christ at his word when he tells his disciples “this is my body…this is my blood.” 
 
Then there are those most important words, “for you!”  Where Christ is, there is forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation—for you.  Here is God, made flesh in Jesus Christ, who is “for you.”  We touch him, hold him in our hands just as he holds us.  We feel the promise, taste the promise of Jesus’ presence in our lives, nourishing us, guarding us, guiding us, just like a Good Shepherd.
 
In the bread and wine, we touch and taste the promise of the Shepherd’s presence with us.
 
Jesus, who brings life from death, who restores the world to fullness of life in his name, is for you, here, and pours himself out for the world.
 
Nourished here by the Good Shepherd, we are also sent out—to be the Shepherd’s body in the world.  The Holy Spirit’s work of bringing life from death does not stop at Jesus’ resurrection.  He lives, that the world may have life through him—and have it abundantly!
 
Jesus sends his disciples—with the Holy Spirit—into all the world to be his witness, his apostles; to tell the world of God’s love.  And not tell, only, but to partner with God in loving, saving, and blessing the world.
 
“It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return [like the Good Shepherd laying down his life], that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display*.”
 
Resurrection, new life, and wholeness come in Jesus, to where the world is most broken. 
 
The church is gently urged by Christ, fed by him, emboldened by the Holy Spirit, to follow our Good Shepherd into the brokenness of the world, where he gives himself—so that all may have life.
 
Who we are, what we have, around the Lord’s Table is transformed and used by God for incredible, extraordinary mission when we follow him.
 
That is the good news of Christ. 
 
He gives himself for the brokenness of the world in a way that changes the world, gives people life in the midst of death—however that may look for them.
 
However that looks for you. 
 
Christ gives himself to free us—free us from addictions and oppressions of all sorts (from bondage to drugs, or addiction to money or property). 
 
He gives himself, and we who are his body experience and witness to that incredible life-generating work when we follow him to the broken places of the world.
 
At the Lord’s the table, we receive Christ, the Good Shepherd, who is so tremendously, utterly, incredibly for you:
that he sprung the tomb and lives in you today
the he comes to you in bread and wine. 
 
He is for you!
Giving you rest in green pastures, leading you beside still waters, restoring your soul.
 
May Goodness and Mercy, not just follow, but pursue you,
chase you, track you down!
 
all your days, as you live in Christ, the Good Shepherd.

You are the message.
 
To quote from a book by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch,
“There’s no way around the fact that our actions…do actually speak much louder than our words.  There are clear nonverbal messages being emitted by our lives all the time.  We are faced with the sobering fact that we actually are our messages.
Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, called this 'existence-communication' by which he meant that our lives—our very existence—is our communication.  Your existence as an authentic human being communicates more than what you say or even what you think.”
 
Who we are as real people, real groups, and real organizations, communicate what we believe about the message of God incarnate in Jesus Christ for the sake of the world.
 
One trap that we as the church can fall into is the same as the disciples in John’s gospel.  We find them behind closed doors. 
Afraid of the world around them, they hope to stay safe and isolated, keeping quiet about what Jesus was up to in the world, for fear of…any number of things. 
 
Too often, “Church,” “religion,” “Christianity,” all stay here—on Sunday Morning, as if behind closed, locked doors.  Outside the doors are realities that occupy most of our time—economic, political, social realities.  These are places that sharing the message with which we’ve been entrusted is difficult.  And yet, these are precisely the places where Jesus is most intending to be.
 
We need to come together behind the doors from time to time.  When we do, Christ meets us as he did his disciples that Easter night, saying “peace be with you.”  And he reminds us that, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  We are sent, to be Jesus’ body in the world—participating in God’s mission of loving, saving and blessing the world—through all the things we do each day.  Lutherans call this “vocation,” Kierkegaard called it “existence-communion.”
 
Through baptism into Christ, you have received none other than the Holy Spirit, just as the disciples in the gospel lesson this week.  You are messengers, apostles, wherever you are.  Your life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, becomes the message of God’ mission to love, save, and bless the world in the name of Christ.
 
Only by the grace of God, that we receive and remember around the baptismal font,
Only by the gift and power of the Holy Spirit which we received at baptism,
Only with the presence of Christ who nourishes us with his own body and blood at the Holy Supper,
and Only together, with the support of one another…
Do we find the strength to live out our apostleship and to become the message of God’s love for the world. 
 
When we do what we do—in Christ’s name—we become his message.  Your life, your existence, is proclamation.  You are the message.
 
We are apostles, sent with the Holy Spirit, to follow Jesus in the world where he is loving, saving, and blessing all in need.
 
Christ is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  Alleluia!
 

The empty tomb is the sign of Christ’s victory over death.  This is certainly an eternal promise, one into which we are baptized and one which we celebrate on Easter.  But, there is a more immediate implication.
 
Jesus Christ Risen is hope and life now.  Hope and life today.
 
Before the birth of God’s Word made flesh, prophets saw and his mother sang that this one would come to bring God’s promised justice to the world. 
 
In this one, in Jesus Christ, all people would have life, the hungry would be fed and the rich sent away.  Those with power would be overthrown and the poor, the out-cast, and the voiceless would be lifted up.
 
Jesus is the one whom the prophets said was sent, empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted.  He was to give sight the blind, to proclaim release to the captives, He was the one who would emancipate the exploited, giving voice to the voiceless ones of the world.
 
Jesus is hope and life for the powerless, the voiceless, the cast-aside. 
 
Our world, still today, is crying for this one.  Just as we saw last week around Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Our world shouts, “Hosanna, save us now,” save us from the grip of greed and self-gain—save us from these death dealing powers that run our lives.  Jesus is the mighty one of God who is to overthrow these powers.
 
Power, in this world, is used to get ahead.   Jesus shows us a different way to use power.  And any voice which challenges the status quo of private success and personal security is quickly labeled and condemned—silenced by those for whom the current state of the world is working, or for whom at least the “known” is less ominous than the “unknown.”
 
Power, it has been so engrained in us, is for personal gain, and achieved most easily through violence.
 
We know that violence speaks.  Violence controls.  Power to us is the ability to silence one’s opponents and continue rising to the top, stockpiling wealth, and security without limit. 
 
And we know the ways of violence so well that senseless violence—violence that doesn’t even seek to exert control in the end—is sought as means to cope with stress, with loneliness, with the pressure exerted by the deathly forces Jesus came to oppose.
 
Where is Jesus, who came to defeat the powers of death, and bring life and voice to those without? 
 
The one to whom the powerless shout “Hosanna, save us,” who brought the message of love and life for especially the rejected ones, He was mocked and shamed; put to death—for humanity’s answer to the message of love and equality which challenges the status quo has always been the selfish cry, “No. Crucify him!”
 
Last week’s March—the gatherings that took place around Palm Sunday—exhibited the embodiment of the cry of the brokenhearted.  It was the voiceless—literally those without vote and say in what happens—rallying to shout “Hosanna, Save us Now!” against those who hold power, against humanity’s persistent cry to crucify, silence opposition to injustice, and exert power with violence.
 
Where is the one who was to liberate the world, bringing God’s promised reign of justice?
 
He was in Jerusalem, was arrested by the ones in power, He spoke for God and on behalf of the despised, he cried for change so he was crucified, and buried in a tomb.
 
Until…
 
The women went to the tomb, the place where they know Jesus should be, and they found it empty.
 
You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, God in flesh, come to bring life and hope to the hopeless, the one to whom the world shouts, Hosanna, save us”…the one crucified for loving the lost and demanding a new way that honors the despised.  He is has been raised.  He is not here.
 
Jesus has gone ahead.  Meet him in Galilee, like he told you.  He is on the move.  
 
Jesus is not here.  He is out where the hungry are receiving their banquet.  Jesus is over there, where those captive to violence and fear are calling for liberation. 
 
Jesus is marching the streets where God’s people are shouting “Hosanna, save us Now!” and demanding change, demanding life, demanding to be heard.
 
He is not here, Jesus is on the move.  Are we ready to follow?
 
The church calls itself the “body of Christ.”  Well, Christ’s body is not at the tomb.  Jesus is ahead of you, in Galilee, bringing the message of God’s justice—the care for the poor, the healing of the sick, the befriending of the outcast. 
 
He is ahead of you in Galilee, proclaiming the right use of power, the humility of the proud for the sake of the restoration of the wretched. 
 
Christ is Risen.  He is Risen, Indeed! And he has gone ahead to Galilee.  His victory over death is now. 
 
We do not find him at his tomb, nor wait for him at our own. 
 
We find him, today, in Galilee—where our weakness is God’s strength, our foolishness, God’s wisdom, and death is turned to life.
 
He is on the move.
 
Christ is Risen.  He is Risen, Indeed!  Alleluia!