Balance of Work, and the Shepherd’s Voice
This week the balance of my time for manual labor shifted more toward the garden. If you spend some time reading the Rule of St Benedict, you find Abba Benedict quite wisely and simply makes little adjustments to the balance of prayer, work, study, and leisure as the year changes.
And while pausing from some garden work, I received nice help from the Holy Spirit on some stopped workshop projects. The precise page in a boatbuilding book open in my hand, conveying just the technique I needed!
And the wood that broke over and over in bending into a boat turned out to be the foundation of nice little garden tote. Put your tools, seeds, plants in here as you work in the garden. I’ll be making more of them, this one is just about done with being sanded. Then I’ll finish it with some linseed oil and beeswax. Garden ready.
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Readings for 4th Sunday in Easter (link)
(the Lectionary lessons for 3rd (4/18) and 4th Easter (4/25) were reversed at LCGS)
A sermon preached at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, (link)
April 18, 2021, by the Rev. Evan Graham Clendenin
We are here today for many reasons. But one reason hopefully unifies us. We are gathered here to worship, and to hear, to listen for the voice of God. We are here to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd, and to help each other to better listen to that voice. It is in the name of Jesus Christ and in his power as the Good Shepherd that we gather, and that we go out in our many callings. Ths listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd can be a simple as paying attention to where you are. And where do we gather? where are we?
During Lent I spent some time walking around and sitting in the parking lot and under the fir trees on Friday at noon. While there, I was able to connect with and get to know a few of you better. There are quite a few of you who have spent a lot of hours tilling and tending these few acres of God’s creation. That includes the quiet necessary work of maintenance and care on the building and grounds that host the worship and administration space of a christian congregation, along with a school and a social service agency, Cielo. It is not always recognized, but many streams in the river of christian life witness to the care and maintenance of our bodies, the earth, and the material world we inhabit as expressions of love for God and from God. Here, we aren’t called to emperors of mars, we are called to be earthlings, mudlings, attending to the beauty and brokenness of the place we live, out of the sufficient resources of a God who loves us. Mudlings, earthlings, or in another metaphor, sheep. The way scripture speaks of us indicates God wants us to pay close attention to the earth, and listen for his voice in these small acts of care and tending on a little patch of earth, like this one.
And while we’re listening here on this patch of earth where we have gathered, and where some of you are tuned in to through the magic and hard work of online access, let’s just notice another thing about this place-the name given to this church community. Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd. Church of the Good Shepherd. the Good Shepherd. Jesus says in the gospel passage read today- “I am the Good Shepherd.” I learned this week from Pr Carol that it has been the habit of a community to gather in the place on earth since April 14, 1957. It has been the habit of Good Shepherd to gather here-to pray, to listen, to baptize and celebrate the eucharist, to praise, to mourn, to celebrate, to shepherd one another, to invite and gather others, anyone who desires somehow to better hear and follow the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. I wonder why this congregation was given that name? Sometimes a name expresses a unique gifting, a calling, something we are responsible to use, tend, and something we must grow into step by step, again and again. It may be a good day for Good Shepherd to ponder the name in which it is called, in whose power it lives.
‘In whose name and by what power do you do these things?” We hear this question about the name and power in which Christians live in this morning’s reading from Acts. Those of you who took part in Acts Bible study in lent discovered a sense of how fresh and lively this book of the Bible is, with many good things for us to talk about in our day. In today’s reading the religious authorities ask the apostles Peter and John in whose name and by what power they do what they do. They had heard tell of a man unable to walk for the first 40 years of his life whom Peter and John had invited, commanded to get up and walk. A man who now finds he can walk in the power of the Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ. Peter replies to those who ask: “let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.”
This same Jesus Christ says of himself in John’s gospel “I am Good Shepherd.” The power and the charge he receives from God is to save people- like that man in Acts, and people like you and me. And not just you and me. More, Many. ‘I have sheep that do not belong to this fold.’ And he has sheep that may not belong to this fold yet. Yes, he refers to his followers, us, as sheep. Jesus reminds us that we are creatures who need water, daily bread and places to rest, just like elk, orcas and hornets do. To live, and to live more fully, we must live close to the voice who will guide us, who tells us where to find the good and safe pasture, the clear water. And we as human beings must choose to listen, and become better listeners for that voice. It falls to us to let ourselves be shepherded, and shepherd others, toward the life we have hidden with God.
As we leave this place today, we only continue to keep in touch with the voice of the Good Shepherd. When you exit at proper distance, maybe waiting on others unlike we otherwise would, we might see someone for the first time or in a new way, and consider how to become better acquainted when you are outside. When you get outside on this patch of earth, you might linger over by the garden, or under the trees, and see what you see and hear and smell and feel.
As you dwell here, and make your way in the world, what will the Good Shepherd invite in you, from you? And how will you respond?
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