Readings for Easter 4C:
Acts 13:15-16, 26-33; Psalm 100; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30
April 29, 2007
The Rev. Robert J. Mayer
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino, CA
Some of you may enjoy the TV show CSI, as much as I do. Can you identify its opening lyrics? It does relate, really, to this sermon. “Who are you? Who, who, who? Who are you? Who, who, who?” And, not surprisingly, ‘The Who’ (1) wrote and recorded this. The song asks for our identity, our sense of who we are.
A first conversation with someone often begins when we identify our relationships: “I’m Dawn’s son.” “I’m Michael’s wife.” We also describe ourselves as what we do, “I’m a teacher.”, or where we live, “I’m from Silicon Valley.” Externals, our relationships, our occupation, affect how we think about and how we understand ourselves.
I feel challenged, put on the spot, when someone says to me, “Tell me who you really are.” Don’t you? Who, who, who? Who are you?
Before I ever thought about God, I remember asking myself, Who am I, really? You may have asked yourselves that too, “Who am I, really?” This has an ever-changing answer doesn’t it? Then there are the inevitable follow up questions: “What meaning do I have?” “What is my purpose?” Well, if we like our answers we enjoy self-worth and self-esteem. If we do not, we can feel very negative about ourselves. (2) That question, “Who am I, really?” assumes without logical proof a truthful answer. Let us ask ourselves, instead “Whose am I, really?” “Whose am I, really?” So, I choose “Whose am I, really?” for this sermon title.
To whom do we really belong? If we value that to which we belong, then we might believe
we have value. The Reverend Jesse Jackson said this more emphatically long ago with
children on TV on Sesame Street. (3)
He had them repeat after him “I am somebody.”
“I am somebody.” “I am ... I am ... somebody ... somebody.”
By the way, once this sermon is on our web site you can
link to that wonderful TV
program and play it. “I am somebody.”
The story for today from the Gospel of John took place at the festival of Re-Dedication of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. People throughout the world celebrate this festival because two hundred years before Jesus (4) an ill-equipped Jewish army defeated the ruling Greek Syrians. The occupiers had banned the Jewish religion and desecrated the Temple. A one-day’s supply of consecrated oil miraculously burnt for eight days in the Temple, This is the Festival of Lights, in Hebrew Hanukkah. Those who were the first to believe in One God believed God chose them. Their military victory and the miraculous persistent light in the Temple was some evidence. It was at this festival Jesus told the people there and now tells us “Whose we are.” God among us spoke with people in a way that they could understand. Jesus spoke about who God is, who they are, and who we are. Why did this happen? So that we can follow God and do the right thing.
The metaphor of this Gospel story is Jesus as a Good Shepherd and his followers as the sheep of his pasture. That figure of speech has lost its significance except, perhaps, for the 23d Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd”. How many here have ever seen a shepherd at work, even in a travelogue?
Consider this more current metaphor: All of us remember the good times of our education. Last Saturday my daughter, a third grade teacher, and I talked about teachers, teaching well, and what works well. So, instead of a Good Shepherd, let us remember our Good Teachers with this re-written fragment of the Gospel
The whole school was on the playground at recess. Some gathered around the Good Teacher. “How long will you keep us in suspense? Teach us plainly.” The Good Teacher answered, “I have told you, and you don’t get it. You don’t get it, because you don’t take my class. My class gets it. They hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. They understand.”
Like many of you, I remember my Good Teachers. I can factor their common traits:
My Good Teachers were like the companions of Jesus on the road to Emmaus. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” (6)
God continues to come among us in ways that we can understand. At Virginia Polytechnic College, a Good Teacher laid down his life for his students. Here is part of a poem someone from my college sent me about that person.
I wrote this poem today about Mr. Liviu Librescu, who survived the holocaust and saved the lives of 8 or 9 students at Virginia Tech on Monday and died from gunshot wounds. I read it at our synagogue this evening and the Rabbi suggested I distribute it to as many places as I could. I wanted to send you all direct copies and I hope it touches you like it touched me as I wrote it.
Thanks.
Phil.My Stand
A Tribute to Liviu Librescu
By Philip C. SelzIn the darkest times we’ve seen, I was sent into the camps
As I smelled the stench of burning flesh, I knew my kin were gone
Survival was my only thought, I knew I must come through
But I didn’t know the reason that my living must go onAnd when the war had ended, liberation finally came
And I grew to be a man and shortly after took a wife
And we raised our kids in Israel and we did the best we could
And we lived for those who died and worked to make a useful lifeThen a teaching job came to me in America one day
And I thought that building new young minds was destiny for me
So I traveled to Virginia and I made a brand new start
And I taught engineering in this homeland of the freeNow I hear the hallways screaming as shots are fired there
And I hear the terror in the screams and understand their plight
So I bar the door from danger and I tell my students “Run!”
And as the bullets breach the door I know that I must fightAnd in these final moments as my life is seeping out
I think back over 60 years and finally understand
My own salvation now makes sense as children flee and live
I was saved that day to save this day, I’ve finally made my stand.
One Good Teacher made a stand.
But, why bother with Church at all? Why bother with committing ourselves? Why choose to be a Christian? Why be baptized? Why do we let ourselves be marked as Christ’s own?
Ernie Boyer, a friend from Sunnyvale, describes Holy Baptism to be like a watermark on paper. A watermark is something you can see when you hold fine paper up to the light. Baptism, being Christ’s own, is like that. Baptism is our watermark. Whose are we? We are Christ’s own forever. There are no term limits. We hear the voice of God’s love in a way that we can understand. And, why? So that we can do the right thing. Paul wrote to the Romans that God gave us an example once and for all (7). This example does not go away. In our Baptismal Vows, we choose to follow the example of someone who was among us once and for all. Likewise, we can become Good Shepherds; we can become Good Teachers.
The Good Shepherd and the Good Teacher share a common trait. Both truly provide for mutual love. Such love can flow in both directions concurrently. “I love my teacher.” “I love my students.” Mutual love doesn’t take turns. Such love follows our Lord’s commandment to love one another as he loves us, to love with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds (8).
Jesus taught so at the Feast of Dedication, did so on the Cross, and shows us now that there is more to life than life itself.
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
(1)
An English rock band, which first emerged in 1964.
(2)
Here is a plug for my college and its psychology faculty,
Brandeis University, because Abe Maslow was a leader in this field.
(3)
video of Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af0piTceE2o)
(4)
Circa 165 BCE.
(5)
Saint Ireneaus said, "The glory of God is man fully alive." Bishop of Lyon, c. 160 AD.
(6)
Luke 24:32
(7)
Romans 6:1-14
(8)
Mark 12:28 ff.
| Updated 04/29/07 |
|