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"Good Shepherd Power"
Easter IV May 3, 2009 Acts 4:5-12 and John 10:11-18 In the name of Jesus. Amen. Easter wasn’t something that happened just to Jesus. Easter has happened to us. The same power by which Jesus conquered hell, the same power which raised Jesus from death, has been set loose among ordinary people like Peter and John in this morning’s first lesson; among ordinary people like us. The story we read in Acts is only secondarily a story about a miraculous healing. First, it is a story about politics. After all, politics is about power, isn’t it – who has how much, and for what purpose. Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, religious leaders John and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family clearly had one kind of power when they gathered to interrogate Peter and John – who were “accused” of healing a man lame since birth. They had the power to imprison people, to judge people innocent or guilty, power to call the shots within Judaism, power granted them because they collaborated with Rome. With all that power, why should they feel threatened by an obscure lame man being healed? Their own question of Peter and John reveals what they feared: “By what power, or by what name, did you do this?” Like most people even now who have manipulated their way into positions of absolute, or nearly absolute, power, these weren’t stupid men. We know they were right to feel threatened by the living Jesus – he challenged their false piety, their worship of power, their dishonest wealth – he threatened the very foundations of their lives, so he had to be killed. And they were right to feel threatened now by the resurrected Jesus and those who followed him, preaching that Jesus was resurrected by the power of God. Why? Because, contrary to the image of sheep we see in the Good Shepherd text in this morning’s Holy Gospel, these people who believed in and followed Jesus were no longer docile, submissive, passive sheep, easily intimidated, unquestioningly obeying the tyrants who exploited them, eager to accept pitifully small bribes in order to advance the will of those in power. These apostles, and the people who were persuaded by their preaching and miracles, had themselves a power which was now challenging the world’s power, a power which enabled them not only to perform miracles, but to courageously stand nose to nose against the politics and politicians of the first century, courage to speak truth to power. The verse which follows the end of the appointed reading from Acts this morning says, “Now when [these powerful men] saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, (Gk. idiotai), they were amazed and recognized them as companions of Jesus.” Hadn’t they recognized them before? What exactly was it they recognized? Not their faces, it seems. No, for the Temple authorities, the compelling witness of the power of God’s kingdom by these lowly, uncredentialed men, boldly standing up to the intimidating power of the Temple and of Rome, it was “déjà vu all over again.” Caiaphas and the others knew they had played this scene before. And their solution of crucifying the one named Jesus in order to put an end to that threat had only made things worse. God not only raised Jesus from the dead; Jesus had given his followers a measure of his own power, that same power which raised him from the dead – and they were using it to heal people, to bring them to faith in Jesus, and to confront the corrupted powers of this world – corrupted power like theirs – with the power of God. No wonder they were afraid. Let’s transition now in our thoughts about power and fear from the 1st Century to the 21st. At our clergy text study this past week, one of the pastors shared something from her reading: There are three theories of power and authority –
As people are now rhetorically asking the “masters” of all that has led to our current economic situation this question: “These lending and other financial practices that have resulted in so few becoming so wealthy, and the rest of us in so much trouble -- by what power, by what name were they authorized?” – the answer which keeps coming up again and again, even by self-defined non-believers, is not the Good Shepherd theory (power is for service) – but greed (power is for mastery and wealth). So where is God in our current economic situation? Perhaps God is asking us the same question God asked the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah, chapter 55: Why have you spent your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Are you offended by these questions? Isaiah’s listeners were, too. But that doesn’t make them the wrong questions. We are a faith community, a Christian community. Thinking intentionally about God’s work and will among us is what we do. When we ask these questions earlier rather than later, our response to this crisis has a greater chance of becoming a faith response, rather than an angry or fearful one. When things are going well with us, Lutheran Church of the Cross can easily become a hobby church – much like people have hobby farms which they dabble at in their leisure time. But think about this: from Genesis chapter 3 (the story of the Fall) on through the book of Revelation, our faith stories and traditions have almost all been shaped by...what? Not by things going well, but by crisis! Think of your favorite Bible stories, both Old Testament and New. The whole “divine drama” of redemption we read in Scripture is one story after another of God leading us through slavery, through war, through oppression by governments and prejudice, through misguided finances and philosophies, through idolatry, through death and darkness – through crisis -- to life and light. And every single time, God has proven faithful. We may not have to face the likes of an Annas or a Caiaphas, but we do face other powers and principalities every day. What if the disciples had never left that upper room, where they huddled in fear after Jesus’ death, like many of us huddle around every stock market report, every economic analysis, every forecast of economic doom and gloom? Thanks be to God they probably would have done just that except for one thing: the resurrected Jesus came to meet them there, in their fear. And what did Jesus say? Not, “Boy, did you let me down, running away from me like that the other night.” No. He said something the disciples could never have expected. Jesus said, “Peace be with you.” According to John’s gospel, he said it not once, but three times in just a few minutes. “Peace be with you.” “Peace be with you.” “Fellas – it’s ME. Peace be with you. You act as if you’ve lost everything when, by the power of my resurrection, you’ve gained your soul.” I suspect most of us aren’t looking for Jesus in the midst of this crisis. We’re no more expecting him to show up now than the disciples did then. Is it possible, though, that he nevertheless stands between you and the television every night, between you and your radio or newspaper or your quarterly pension report saying to you, “Peace be with you. I am with you always.” We don’t even have to ask if Jesus is here this morning, here in our every conversation with one another, here in this sanctuary, here in bread and wine. He was certainly here hundreds of times and in hundreds of ways in the people who served, and who we were able TO serve, this week with the rummage sale. We are not called to trust and embrace the power of the stock market to recover. We are not called to stop or cut back the ministries of this congregation or of other serving ministries we may personally support, until the financial gurus give us the high sign that the economy is growing again. The power of Jesus’ resurrection is at work in, and released through us not only in times of security, but especially in times of insecurity and crisis, times like now. Jesus doesn’t leave us to our own resources. “I have given you power from on high,” Jesus tells us in John. We’re talking about the same power which raised Jesus from the dead -- Good Shepherd power, the power to serve, to continue ministries, perhaps even to ramp them up in the face of greater need. “Totally foolish,” pragmatists may say – but then, faith has never been an altogether rational enterprise. Easter was not just something that happened to Jesus. Easter has happened to us. The same power by which Jesus conquered hell, the same power which raised Jesus from the dead, has been set loose among ordinary people like Peter and John in this morning’s first lesson; among ordinary people like us. I can hardly believe it. Can you? Let this crisis bring out the best in us, the unswerving faith in us as resurrection people. Let this congregation be a source of increasing, not decreasing ministry for our members, our children, and our neighbors. May others look at us and ask, “By what power, or by what name, do you do this, in the face of this recession?” And may we boldly answer, “By the power of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who lives and reigns in our lives and in the life of this congregation.” Amen. Rev. Joan Gunderman, Senior Pastor Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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