​What does Lent need to be for you this year?  Take a moment to consider.  As we begin the season of Lent, marked this evening with gathering in this place, receiving the mark of ashes on our foreheads, consider: What does Lent need to be for you this year?
 
For me, I need Lent this year to be a season to refocus my gifts and my failures, my time and my life, back to my Christian faith and my baptismal calling.  I need Lent to be a time of deepening my discipleship and reminding myself that everything I have, everything I am, is in Christ.
 
The ashes, I am struck this year, the ashes (which are a symbol of our brokenness, our mortality and frailness) cling to us in the form of a cross.  Everything I have, everything I am, even my brokenness, my sin, my frailness, is in Christ.
 
Often we talk about giving things up for Lent, or adding things.  “What are you giving up for Lent this year?”  But when I reframe the question to “What does Lent need to be for me this year?” it doesn’t come down to things given up or things added.  Rather than sacrificing money, time, or food, I need Lent to be about putting all my money, time, and food in relationship to my faith, in relation to Jesus.  So I guess you could say I’m trying to give up everything for Lent this year.  Give it all up to Jesus!  That sounds pretty good, huh?  Well, I’m doing it because I sounds good, but because that’s for me what I need Lent to be this year.
 
I’m really excited about the “What’s the Buzz?” theme we have this year and the project of buying honeybees.  I’m excited about it because it fits so well with what I just said about what I need Lent to be. 
 
First of all, wealth and food distribution in the world is terrible.  1% of the population of the world holds about 50% of the wealth.  And the top 10% hold 85% of the wealth.  That statistic pretty well holds true to whatever subdivision of the population you look at, also.  Looking at just American wealth, it’s the same.  What does all that mean?  I means that we end up with 1 in 7 people worldwide suffering from hunger (or in Africa, 1 in 4) while a third of all the food that is produced gets thrown away.  It means that we end of living in world with divide between those who have, and those who do not have (whether it’s food, money, or access to good healthcare, education and so on.  And we are really good at shielding ourselves from others and learning the hard truths about the struggles so many of even our closest neighbors face.  And as a disciple of Christ stuck in cultures and systems that continue to hide the plights of my neighbor from sight, and perpetuate a me-first mentality that allows me to reject or ignore the stories of my siblings who are hungry, who are daily made to feel less-than because of the color of their skin, the place of their birth (or their parents’ birth), or my siblings in Christ who’ve been told they are abominations because of who they love…As a disciple of Christ stuck in these cultures and systems that allow others to be exploited, marginalized, or just flat out ignored in order to maintain my comfort, my standard of living, my privilege and power—I’ve had enough.  All of this is from our ashness, our brokenness; and it needs to be confronted and named: which is why we have Ash Wednesday.
 
But now, the honeybee project, that is a source of hope for me.
 
The honeybee project helps me to see my wealth and status in even these broken systems as potential blessing.  The honeybee project reminds me that my excess (even $20) can mean the difference between a steady income or not for someone else.  My little bit here in this project makes a difference in this world. With this Global Hunger Challenge 2019, I can be part of something bigger than myself—something I could not do myself—that will make a big impact not on just one person, or one family, but many--And also on the environment, the whole agricultural economy of a place, and ecological well being of the planet!
 
Even more, this project is a source of hope for me because it all started from listening to another’s story—something that is absolutely counter-cultural.  Every project in this hunger challenger (whether honeybees, oxen, building wells, etc,) every project in every community starts with listening.  There is someone in the church who has gone to each community that these projects help and listened.  They’ve gone simply to form relationships.  They’ve gone to learn about someone else, to be willing to share about themselves, and to make a genuine connection with another human being simply because they are living out the gospel and Way of Jesus.  These projects came about, not because the church was looking for something to do, but because we had a relationship with someone, who had a need, and then we saw that if we worked together we could help them out—cuz that’s what friends do!
 
This project is hope for me because it comes from the kind of listening and being neighbors, being siblings in Christ, that is so much needed in the broken world I live in—in the broken, ashy life I live. It is precisely how Jesus came to this world—as one of us, to be with us.  And then, getting to know us, became the friend who would go to the cross for us—who would join us in mortal life, in mortal death, and then give us what only he has: everlasting life.  New life.  Eternal life.
 
Jesus took our ashes, our mortality, and made them his—so that his divinity he could make ours. The ashes are in the form of a cross, so that even as Christ was raised from the dead, we too might have new and eternal life. “For if we have been united with him [by baptism] in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
 
What does Lent need to be for you this year?
I need my Lent this year to be a season to refocus my gifts, my time, my life, back to my Christian faith and my baptismal calling.  I need to be reminded that the ashes take the form of the cross, because all my failings, all my success, all my life, is in Jesus Christ.  He has it all, and loves me and uses me, just how I am.
 
What does Lent need to be for you this year?

​Jesus is our bread.  Bread is a very common thing—whether it’s hotdog buns, pita bread, a tomato basil wrap, or a Hawaiian Roll…bread comes in many shapes and sizes. 
 
Whichever size it comes, it is: that which feeds us, and gives us life.
 
There is a difference between life that is perishable, and life that is Eternal.
 
Jesus is the one that is the True Bread.  He is the one thing that truly and wholly satisfies and nourishes; he is the source of Life that is Eternal.
 
How is this?  Because of the promise he makes us; a promise that is rooted in the Goodness and love of God, and not in anything we are, we do, or could be.  That’s called grace.
A gift and promise to undeserving people because of God’s goodness.
 
We all eat of breads that are not the bread of life.  We search for life in places that don’t give it—that promise life but don’t deliver real life.  We search in popularity, our careers, money, accumulation of wealth.  But they all give an empty life—a life that parishes, just like manna, just like pitas and wraps.
 
It is the bread of life, Jesus Christ, alone that provides real sustenance.  In him we find life that lasts the ages. 
 
We find community; community with God and with God’s people.  We find a kind of love and support that begins and ends in God’s love for us—love that begins and ends in Grace. 
We find a love that moves from God, to us, to one another, and then to the whole world…For God so loved the whole world, that God gave the bread of life, so that all may have Life that is Eternal.
 
Jesus said, “all who see the Son and believe into him may have life that is Eternal.”  So,
Believe the Good News. 
Hold fast to God’s reality, God’s love for you and for the world. 
Jesus is here, for you in bread and wine. 
God is here, for the life of the world. 
 
To freely, grace-fully, give you a life in Christ that is powerful now, and that is Eternal.
 

In this section of Mark’s gospel Jesus is showing the people who he is.  He comes as a great restorer.  He calms storms and seas, he is a demon caster-outer, a healer, and even a restorer of the dead back to life.
 
Jesus comes with all the power of the Son of God—one of the chief points of Mark’s gospel—and in his coming, this Son of God shows who God is for the people and for the world.
 
Where demons corrupt, where storms threaten, where disease tears us apart from one another…Jesus comes to restore, reunite, to establish God’s reign and shalom (peace, wholeness).
 
This is our base for the month of July.  We will hear and allow the stories of Jesus' healing, restorative power to drive our worship.  Jesus’ mighty acts of healing will be the focus of our proclamation.
 
Welcome back to the stories of Jesus’ healing power.

​The healing stories that Mark has included are chosen not just to show that Jesus is a healer, but that God’s kingdom promises a healing that includes more than just physical cure.
 
**
First the demoniac. 
When Jesus found him, he was alone.  He lived among the tombs and would howl from the hills.  His ailment was such that he was not only harming or alarming his neighbors, but he was a threat to himself as well—bruising himself with stones.
 
In Jesus’ interaction with him he, of course, heals him—casting out the demons.  The man’s health and sanity is restored.
 
The swine-herders come back with the townspeople and they see the man there, now clothed and in his right mind. However, when they see him, they react with fear.
 
The man is free from his ailment. He is healed!  But his neighbors are afraid, and very upset about the swine who paid the price for his healing.  He is healed, but he is still alone, rejected.
 
But Jesus takes his healing one step further.  Jesus denies him the request to follow, and instead tells him:
Go home. To your friends.
Jesus restores this formerly demon-possessed man back to his family, back to his friends.  He is restored into community.
 
Next, the woman.
On his way to “save/make well,” the daughter of the leader of the synagogue, Jesus is in the midst of a pressing crowd and a woman touches his shirt. 
 
Something about this woman causes Jesus stop. 
 
It’s not even that he stops to heal her.  The healing had been done the text says.  But, on his way to bring God’s kingdom to the synagogue leader, to save Jairus’ dying daughter, Jesus stops for this woman—unnamed, unseen in the crowd.
 
The woman has already been healed. 
 
Jesus goes further.  He restores her. 
 
The unnamed woman, Jesus names.  “Daughter,” he says.  “Your faith has saved/made you well.  Go in peace and be healed.”
 
Not just a physical healing, but a name and a place in the family. 
 
She is restored into community.
 
**
Jesus ushers in the kingdom of God on earth.  In that kingdom, everyone has a place. Whether you’re Gerasene or Judean, have a recognized name like Jairus, or no name, like the woman, you have a place. 
 
In a world of broken relationships and barriers, Jesus unites us—makes us one in him—one with one another, one with God.
 
More than healing, Jesus unites.
 
Union in Christ is a two-edged sword just like the gospel.  Sometimes it means we need to learn to care more for the demon-possessed than our herd of swine.  Sometimes that means we need our eyes opened to see the unnamed woman in the crowd and reach out a caring arm.
 
Jesus’ kingdom brings with it a kind of healing that knits together people with one another and with God.  It has the power to bring peace among nations, and joy among friends—old or new.
 
Where we, ourselves must change, Come Holy Spirit with your cleansing fire. 
Where others need to hear your promises, Come Lord Jesus and make your body bold to proclaim.
Where intolerance and division reign, Come O Lord and let the love of your Son shine in our hearts.
 
In the church, we may not be able to promise miraculous physical cures.  But what we can promise is this:  God’s presence with strength and comfort in the time of suffering, and God’s promise of wholeness and peace through God’s love embodied in us, the community of faith and body of Christ.
 
May we well be the body of Christ, whose kingdom heals the world and brings all who suffer into restorative community in his name.
 

​In this section of Mark’s gospel Jesus is showing the people who he is.  He comes as a great restorer.  He calms storms and seas, he is a demon caster-outer, a healer, and even a restorer of the dead back to life.
 
Jesus comes with all the power of the Son of God—one of the chief points of Mark’s gospel—and in his coming, this Son of God shows who God is for the people and for the world.
 
Where demons corrupt, where storms threaten, where disease tears us apart from one another…Jesus comes to restore, reunite, to establish God’s reign and shalom (peace, wholeness).
 
So that is where we will be for the month of July.  We will hear and allow the stories of Jesus healing, restorative power to drive our worship.  Jesus’ mighty acts of healing will be the focus of our proclamation of the good news.
 
Welcome to the stories of Jesus’ healing power.

I am drawn to the question posed in Mark 4:41 by the disciples, “Who is this?”
 
When I ask, “Who is Jesus for you?” I often get very intimate pictures. Jesus is: friend, someone I can always talk to, the one who’s always there for me, who I can always count on…
 
In our chapter of Mark, we see the same kind of intimate pictures of Jesus.
 
He is with his disciples asleep on the boat—undoubtedly very familiar to all of them.  They have spent time with him, listened to his parables and teachings. 
They know him well. 
 
There is also his hometown.  They know him as “the carpenter,” “Mary’s boy.”  They know his family well, “his brothers are James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, and his sisters are here with us.”
 
Jesus is our friend, our neighbor, our family, our teacher.  He is one of us, close, knowable, familiar, even ordinary.
 
This is the great and wonderful mystery of the incarnation.  God has become so close to us, so much one of us and a part of us that God is familiar, ordinary, mundane.  God is so close and so much a part of our world that we even forget the awesome power and mission Jesus has. 
 
Sometimes Jesus can seem so close, God can be so near, even to our suffering that it feels like Jesus asleep in the boat—unaware or perhaps uncaring that the waves are crashing over our heads and we are about to perish!
 
Sometimes, and wonderfully so, we get so close to Jesus and he becomes so familiar that we forget the power and mission that he has.  We fear the chaotic, death-dealing forces around us like the disciples in the boat, forgetting that our closest friend is the one who is turning the world upside down.  He is restoring you and I, restoring the whole world, to that picture of shalom (of peace, wholeness, union with God).
 
We use the words “atonement” or “reconcile” because we find them in the Bible.  What those words mean is that Jesus is restoring our relationships, our intimacy, with God and with one another.
Our closest friend is the one who is turning the world on its head—making you, and I, and creation one again with God. 
 
The body and blood of Christ does make atonement for us—that is, it brings us close to one another and to God.
We dine together around the same table;
We hold the Holy Incarnate Word in our hands, taste his blood on our lips, knowing as we do so that we are forgiven and restored. 
We taste his calm in the midst of our stormy life as we come again into Christ’s presence.
 
The promise in the gospel today, Jesus’ good news to you, is that the Son of God has come near.  He is here today, for you. 
Whatever chaos whatever ailment, whatever it is that makes you ask, “don’t you care that I am perishing?” He is here with you.  Sometimes healing comes in quieting of the storms of our lives or our bodies miraculously mended.  But sometimes, even more than physical healing, it is from being close to God, and to one another, even in the midst of the storm.
 
Jesus, your closest friend, is also the one who is at work saving the world.

(Mark 4:3) “Listen!”
(Mark 4:9) “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
(Mark 4:23) “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
(Mark 4:24) “Pay attention wo what you hear…”
 
Jesus calls his audience to listen.
 
When the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, has been sown in us and we listen, it transforms us; then, the next time we hear that gospel we will be only further transformed. 
 
Jesus said “take note of what you hear.  Pay attention; the measure [of attention] you give will be the measure you and receive, and then some.  To those who have, more is given; but to those who do have, even what they have will be taken away.” (Mark 4:24-25)
 
The more attention we give to the Word, the more we will hear.  And yet, if we do not listen and are not transformed, over time we will hear less and less of the good news that is in our Bible. 
 
(That is how we end up misinterpreting it in all kinds of horrendous ways.  Like those in authority using Romans 13 to justify their divine right to implement laws—that is not OK).
 
Each time we hear the gospel—each time we really listen to Jesus’ good news—it transforms us and makes a difference in our capacity to hear it the next time.
 
For example, the more I hear the gospel, the more I am convinced that Jesus does not call his followers to new laws or limitations.
Jesus calls his followers to a new way of living that sees the supreme value of every human being. 
 
The more I hear the gospel, the more I am convinced that Jesus challenges all the habits, laws, and attitudes we have that strip the value from anyone, and Jesus’ way lifts up the ones who’ve been put down.  In the Bible they are named: the poor, the stranger, the immigrant; refugees, orphans, and widows. 
 
Jesus calls us to a life that looks beyond ourselves.  His way deeply challenges the individualism, the “us first” attitudes that lead to fearing others or wanting others to fear us.
Jesus calls us instead to mutual building up, to communion and communication with all neighbors. He brings us together—never tears us apart.
 
Jesus is transforming the world. 
He is reconciling it, making it one again, and right, with God.  And that includes everybody, and everything.  But his kingdom, his reign, isn’t implemented in the same way we make our rules actualized.  We like to use fear and force to make others change.  But,
 
His kingdom blossoms through you.  It starts with YOU.
The Word and Kingdom of God takes root in your heart and transforms you. 
 
Your transformation, your baptism, your call as a Christian child of God is how God is changing the world.
 
Jesus starts with your heart.  God’s kingdom is coming through the good fruit that you produce in the world—fruit that lovingly, and relentlessly, insists on kindness, conversation, mercy, and understanding as the only ways to approach one another, the only ways that lead to anything good.
 
As Jesus says, “Listen!” Listen to the Word of  God, for Christ is leading you deeper into the kingdom.  God is drawing you closer to God’s self, closer to your neighbors, transforming your heart ever more as you listen to the good news, into a kingdom heart. 
God is transforming you into one that bears fruit to spread the seeds of the kingdom.
 
“Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

The gospel of Jesus Christ has a lot to do with New beginnings.
 
In baptism we are given a new beginning—a new life in Christ.  The Holy Spirit takes us, takes our life and emblazons us with God’s love; we enter the transforming waters in which the holy Spirit makes us a new creation. In her love she takes our old, sinful imperfection and forms us into a new, set apart and saved child of God.  She bestows us with gifts—wisdom and understanding, council and might, knowledge and fear of the LORD, and joy in God.  We come out of the waters, birthed into a new life—life as a chosen child of God, part of the body of Christ.
 
What we’ve been given, the formation and gifts of the Holy Spirit, are meant to be shared; They’re meant to inform what we do next;
 
This is a season of graduations.  I’ve been reflecting on the gift of education lately.  Time in school can be a very formative experience.  But we never stop learning.  And school is not just about memorizing dates, and facts, and periodic tables.  More than the tidbits we absorb, the gift of learning is the formation we receive.
 
The formation we have undergone while accumulating knowledge, whether in school or elsewhere (we all learn new things everyday) is the real gift of our education and of God.
 
This formation with which God has blessed us, moves us forward into life to be the person, and the people we are meant to be. 
That is why we learn. 
Our learning is a gift of God.  The reason we go to school, or Bible studies, or come to hear the word proclaimed on Sundays—is to gain new insight into life and to transform, little by little, into the people that God has created us to be.
 
And who are we created to be?
We are meant to be children of God, body of Christ, witnesses and proclaimers of the way of Jesus—a way that is filled with life—freedom, equity, justice—for all.
 
Jesus’ parables display a world of haphazard scattering of God’s message.
Jesus tells us of the sower who threw his seed everywhere.  Some landed on the path, where it fed birds.  Some landed in the rocks where it grew only for a time.  Some landed among thorns, and finally some on rich black soil.
Jesus reminds us that his light is meant to be held up high—not hidden under basket or bed—displayed so that all can see clearly.
 
That’s the kind of life of sharing that we are called into as body of Christ and children of God.  To realize that God’s love and the good news of Christ is meant for everyone and is scattered vicariously over road, rocks, thorns and black dirt; that the light of Christ is raised high and proud, shone for all to see; to realize that this kind of love comes in small actions, but grows mysteriously to new kingdom of life for all the world.

​We all are formed in the love of God.  God’s love and kingdom is brought through every one of you here today.  Let us embrace the gifts that the Spirit has given us in our baptism remembering that we are made new each and every day.  Most of all, let our joy in God through the love shown to us in Jesus Christ inspire our life and witness; Let us partner with Christ in scattering the love of God, and the Word of Life as we care for one another, strive for justice and peace, and grow in faith and knowledge each day.
 

​This week at church, we witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  It didn’t look like fire or sound like rushing wind, like our story in Acts, but we saw it as we baptized a new sibling in Christ.  And we witnessed it again as we prayed over our confirmands, publicly affirming their baptisms.
 
Each of you, in your baptisms, received the same Holy Spirit we read about in the Pentecost story today.  And that same Holy Spirit is with you, today. 
 
Our particular Bible story today has some extraordinary things happen.  But it is ordinary things, and ordinary people, which God uses to make these extraordinary things happen.  God takes us, ordinary people, and uses us for the extraordinary purpose of showing God’s love to the world.
 
Baptism is a life-long journey.  It’s not about a destination, knowing God to a certain level, or becoming a certain amount of holy.   It is a life lived in faith—not answers.  Simply, it is a life living in the promise that it is God alone who makes us worthy to be called children of God, and the body of Christ. It is God alone who turns our actions and love into signs and participation in God’s love for the world.
 
We promise to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people, following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth
 
We promise these things knowing that it is not we, ourselves, who can do any of this.  But it is God that comes along with us.  It is God who takes what we do—takes the ordinary—and turns it into something meaningful, something extraordinary, something that proclaims the good news of God in Christ and seeks justice and peace for everyone.
 
Baptism is a life living into the promise that God has claimed us and will use us.
 
When the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost—All the gathered people received it.  Everyone present had their ears and eyes opened to what each other had to say.  Though they spoke in many languages, each heard and understood in their own native tongue.
 
You all have a story to tell, you all have the Holy Spirit with you.  How is God working in you, and in us, today—to proclaim Christ, to serve all people, and to bring justice and peace in the world?
 
Let us all experience God’s fire, as at Pentecost, and God’s will be accomplished in and through us today.
 
 

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!