Easter IVA and
Mother’s Day
The Rev. Vicki K.
Hesse
St. Philip’s In The
Hills, Tucson, AZ
For online access
to the readings click here.
Lord, open our
lips,
that our mouth shall
proclaim your praise. Amen
Good
morning.
Happy
Mother’s day!
Today
we children
acknowledge
and appreciate our mothers
and
offer thanks for the gift of life.
Today,
we also appreciate those who have
served
a mothering role in our lives.
Today,
we also recognize those to whom
we have
offered mothering.
While
we may have sometimes conflicted memories of our mother,
today
is a time to hold all those memories
lightly
and to be grateful for the relationship; for through her we were born!
My
mother, Betty,
had a
deep capacity for hospitality.
Any
friend of my siblings or mine
was a
friend of hers.
Ex-boyfriends
of my sisters still hung out
at
our house even after they broke up.
Neighbors
would stop by and stay for hours.
She
modeled for me
gracious
welcome with a lighthearted humor.
The
rule about having friends over
was
to come and meet my mother,
so
she knew who was in her flock-of-the-day.
My
mother showed how to care for
whoever
came through that front door.
So,
the readings today (about the gate, the shepherd and the sheep) remind me of my
mother and her hospitality.
These
texts echo love of many motherly types,
who
shepherd a flock of children
(at
whatever age),
and
model caring, nurturing and hospitality.
These
are the characteristics of a shepherd, despite that fact that [1]
few of us urbanites
have
ever met a real shepherd (or a sheep).
Yet,
the shepherd
remains
a strong religious image.
The
Hebrew Scripture uses extensively
the shepherd
and the sheep to portray
the
relationship between
Yahweh
and the people of Israel.
The New
Testament uses this strong image
to
depict how Jesus revealed the character of God as loving, caring, and
nurturing.
But
what does a shepherd really do for sheep?
The shepherd:
· takes sheep to
where they can eat and
where they can
gather
· protects the sheep
from danger –
of people, wolves,
steep cliffs
· fights the wolf,
while the hired hand
might run away
when danger is
near.
The
shepherd never deserts the sheep and
is willing
to risk life to protect them.
In
the 23rd Psalm, we hear how the Lord,
as
our Shepherd,
leads
us to food and to calm waters and
is right
beside us in dark valleys.
This
makes us feel warm and secure.
We
like to think someone is watching out
and
caring for us.
We
are glad to be sheep
belonging
to a good shepherd.
We
like being taken care of – well, at times.
But
at other times,
we
may not like the idea of being taken care of.
No
warm feeling arises except that of
hot
under the collar
if we
perceive someone as caring “too much.”
Sometimes,
we resent this care and fight it.
“Mom,
let me do it myself!” we would cry.
Think
about it –
being
a sheep has its disadvantages.
Sheep
are not so bright.
They are
fragile.
They
tend to wander off and lose their way.
I
remember watching my friend Mark
sheer
his flock one day.
He just
tipped the sheep on their backs and
they
lay, defenseless, as he clipped their wool.
[2]But, sheep aren’t as dumb
as you might think. They’ve learned that there is safety in numbers;
they band together to protect themselves.
Sheep recognize the shepherd’s voice,
following the shepherd to a pasture
where there will be food…abundant food.
To be
like a sheep is to be like a child,
being
guided and taken care of
by
someone larger and stronger –
always
receiving and seldom giving.
As
children, we needed this loving care.
There
are still times in our lives that
we
need protection or
times
when we need to be nursed.
But
as we mature,
we
have an even deeper need.
That
need, that yearning, that call from God,
is to
care for and feed someone else.
As children,
we only receive.
But
when we mature,
we
are able to give as well.
And when
we give love
and
care for someone else,
we
feel a different kind of abundant life –
we feel
joyful and alive,
helpful and
affirmed,
strong and
respected.
The
trouble with seeing our Lord
as the Good
Shepherd is that it makes us
the sheep – the
helpless, needy, sheep.
The
trouble with thinking of ourselves
as a sheep is that
sheep
do not ever grow up
to be shepherds.
So
how do we reframe this?
Scripture
offers some insight:
In
the story of Jesus’ resurrection appearance
at
the Sea of Galilee,
Jesus
meets Peter and the others
as
they were out fishing.
Once
they notice that
the
man on the shore is Jesus,
they
bring him some fish,
which
he cooks for them.
Over
breakfast, Jesus asks Peter,
“Do
you love me? If you do, feed my sheep.”
He
doesn’t say,
“I am
the good shepherd and
I
will take care of you.”
He
doesn’t say “I will give you rest.”
All
he says is “Feed my sheep.”
To
Peter and to us, Jesus says,
“You,
too are called to be good shepherds.
Stop
worrying
about
who is going to appreciate you
and
find ways to show appreciation
to
other people.
Start
getting joy from what you can give
rather
than what you can get.”
Christ
is the good shepherd of the sheep;
Christ
is also the recruiter and
trainer
of shepherds.
This
Christian life is full of both
receiving
and giving.
When
we follow the voice of
the Good
Shepherd, we learn to do both.
The
hired hand’s voice is only one-sided, stealing the opportunity for mutuality.
We
can look upon our parish
as both
a care center –
where
we can lean on someone
and
be healed
AND as
a training camp
for
how to care for others.
This
Christian life is a blend
of caring for and
being cared for,
of giving and
receiving,
of loving and being
loved.
In
this way, we experience abundant life.
And
so, a story.
In
the extraordinary film, Ordinary People,
a
teenage boy is deeply distressed
over
the death of his brother
in a
boating accident.
The
boy believes that his brother
was
the favorite and
so he
attempts his own suicide.
In
the hospital,
this
boy develops a relationship w/ a therapist
– an
effective shepherd –
who
helps the boy recognize his own anger and
guilt,
to begin healing.
The
boy is helped and then in his healing,
becomes
a shepherd for his troubled parents.
His
parents’ marriage is failing and
when
the boy finds his father in tears,
the
boy puts his arms around his dad
and
whispers, “I love you.”
The
boy could never have been
that kind of support
for his father
if he
had not allowed himself to be supported.
He
had to accept himself as a sheep
before
he could be a shepherd.
Our
faith community offers both
a
place and a ritual that teaches us
to
accept our dependence
AND
places
and rituals where we can serve, interdependently, our neighbors and
the
wider community of which we are a part.
When
we learn to trust the Good Shepherd,
to
whom we can turn in times of distress,
then
we are able
to
take part in shepherding and serving and caring for others.
We
all come to St. Philip’s
with
our own needs,
but
if the congregation or the priest
only
responds to the neediness, weakness,
or dependency,
then
the congregation or the priest
is
being a bad parent.
Instead,
we can see St. Philip’s
as a
place of mutual sharing
of
needs and strengths –
of
compassion and of offering our gifts.
What
does this look like for you, today?
Perhaps,
asking for help through healing prayer
offered every
Sunday in the chapel after services
Perhaps,
offering your presence
and service with a
ministry team,
Perhaps,
writing a letter to a legislator
about your
passionate care for the poor,
Perhaps,
praying for the group of
Nigerian
schoolgirls who have been
brutally
kidnapped.
As
our Bishop wrote us this week
in his weekly
Epistle,
we
can find the list of published names
and
chose just one girl (for me, Christy Yahi)
and remember
her in my daily prayers
for
safe return and reunion with
her
mother and her family.
However
small our service,
when
we partner with the Good Shepherd,
we
all experience abundant life.
Christ
is the Good Shepherd,
the one who cares
for the wounded,
gathers up the
strays, looks after the flock. And is present with those girls right now.
Christ
is also the risen one
who says to Peter
and to us,
“if you love me,
feed my sheep.”
Christ
loves us beyond measure and
invites
us
to follow his
voice,
to share in his
ministry and
to allow him to
guide us into paths
of service and compassion.
And
through This Good Shepherd,
we will
have life, and have it abundantly.
Amen
[1] Portions inspired
by: Reid Isaac, Fleshing The Word,
(Cleveland Heights, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1996), 80-84
[2] Inspired by a reflection by Ms. Kathryn Glover, M.P.A. – posted in Virginia Theological
Seminary’s Eastertide reflections, May
6, 2014, posted at http://bit.ly/1lYdOpZ
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