First Reading: Acts 4:5-12
5The next day [the] rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, 6with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, 10let 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. 11This Jesus is
 ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;
  it has become the cornerstone.’
12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
Psalm: Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. (Ps. 23:1)
 1The Lord is my shepherd;
  I shall not be in want.
 2The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures
  and leads me beside still waters.
 3You restore my soul, O Lord,
  and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
 4Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
  for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
  you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
 6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
  and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Second Reading: 1 John 3:16-24
16We know love by this, that [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
 18Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. 19And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
 23And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
Gospel: John 10:11-18
[Jesus said:] 11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
CHILDREN’S SERMON
If I were with you, I would start us out by singing the old Gospel song, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” https://youtu.be/DObsJ1PSdnQ?si=-KuzovkNeW85GB3k
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
(Leader)What a blessedness, what a peace is mine leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus: (everyone lean to your right and repeat after me:)
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
(Leader) What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus: (repeat after me again only this time lean to your left.)
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.
SERMON
The Easter season starts on Easter Sunday and lasts for the next 40 days until we celebrate Ascension, Christ’s return to heaven, and then Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit on May 12th. Before the incarnation of Jesus gods lived in the heavens, were distant, and were observing or ruling like a king in his castle. The Judaic God spoke with Abraham or Moses or through prophets or sometimes to kings. If the Romans were right, gods perhaps had children by humans but were distant super heroes with super powers. We know kings have knights that represent and fight for them and they have concubines and sire children. Other religions talked about how we can become good enough to reincarnate as a higher form of life or meditate and join Nirvana. Christianity is different. It builds on Judaism with the continued revelation of the Advent story of a god coming to earth, taking on humanity within itself, dying and resurrecting. That was shocking but now at Easter there is no resurrected body and the followers are trying to make sense of the events! The whole understanding of God is being reformatted and our Easter series takes us through this transformation. We no longer understand God to be a divine king in the sky but a being, triune, involved intimately with our lives. Our faith journey also goes from the possibility of believing in a God in the heavens to getting our mind around a God who actually comes to us and is for us. He is not just accomplishing his goal but is partnering with us to defeat evil. It is important to know just what kind of god we are leaning on.
So far we have looked at the testimonies of people who saw the risen Christ. Mary Magdalene saw Jesus at the tomb and recognized him when he called her name on Easter Sunday. Personal testimonies confirm the resurrection. Mary responded “Rabboni – Teacher”. Cleopas and friend who saw Jesus that afternoon, were led through Scripture by Jesus, and recognized him in the breaking of bread. Fulfilled prophesy confirmed that the resurrection was not a fluke incident but foretold. Scripture confirms for many of us the reality of an incarnate, resurrected God. We can commune with him in the sacraments. Last week we read that Jesus walked through closed doors, was touched and ate food Easter evening. A resurrected body is somehow like our human bodies but different. We have no idea how many people saw Jesus then but we know Jesus appeared and was real. That may not be our experience and like Thomas we may ask questions. Thomas was not there but Jesus came again a week later and again appeared and proved he was not only risen but had a real body. Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God.” We know something is real because it passes the touch test or the taste test. Our senses confirm reality and we dare to lean on the everlasting arms.
Today’s text is given to us to ask ourselves: Does the risen Christ meet the description he gave of himself when he was alive and that is recorded in Scripture? Are we leaning on the Good Shepherd resurrected or have we been deceived? Psalm 23 is our psalm reading for today from the Old Testament and we read John 10 from the New Testament. Both claim that Jesus is the “Good Shepherd.” Are we leaning, leaning on a “Good Shepherd” or is he still a distant being governing the universe?
We cannot see Jesus now but then we cannot see many things and we know the unseen is real and impacts our Iives. We prepare for the impact of a hurricane here in Florida even though we cannot see the wind, we know it can devastate our lives. We commit ourselves to marriage on the promise of love even though we cannot see it and even if the person dies, we still feel love for the person. We believe the doctor about disease inside our bodies when we only feel symptoms. We submit to operations praying they will heal us. In the same way, Jesus claims to be the “Good Shepherd. Our text gives us three ways we can know this reality in our lives today. A Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus says that means that
- We are in a RELATIONSHIP: The good shepherd does not run away in danger. He knows his sheep and they know him.
- He and we have Voice: The good shepherd has sheep in many folds that he can unite. His sheep know his voice and listen to him.
- He has POWER: The Good shepherd has the power to lay down his life and take it up again.
Today we ask if Relationship, Voice, and Power are experienced as we lean on the risen Christ?
Leaning on a Relationship
1“I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.Â
The shepherd laying down his life for his sheep is often understood as Christ dying on the cross for our sin. He did not run away from ransoming us from the penalty of our sin – death. I would understand sin to be our state of separation from God and the sins, the little things we do that separate us from each other and from God. We have all sinned. We know that all people die but we believe we do not need to perish eternally. I have grown to embrace this truth as Jesus walking through death, showing us that nothing can terminate our relationship with God nor separate us from him. We may walk through the “valley of the shadow of death” but we know that he walks with us. We know that his kingdom is eternal and not of this world. We hear those promises and even though they are a bit far off, we accept them in faith. It is an undeserved gift.
But are there ways that we see Christ laying down his life for us today? Is it present truth we can lean on or is it just a future promise? What does leaning on the Good Shepherd mean today?
The first thing I think of is the presence of God in our parents and friends who share resources. They are willing to “lay down”, give away, part of what is theirs so another might be happy. Good parents love children even when the child is naughty and immature. They love them when they are tired and grumpy. They care for their creation and share with that child as it grows. Even so God does not demand perfection but hangs in with us with our quirks and irregularities as we grow.
All are invited to “ask, seek, and find.” We can affirm that the sun shines on the good and the bad, on the obedient and the disobedient. We can affirm that blessings of flowers and nature are for everyone. God doesn’t play favorites. If the “climate change” people are right, it is not God who is destroying nature but the greed of people, the hirelings, who were put in charge of “ruling over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. (Genesis 1:26) Nature itself affirms that God gives life and does not randomly take life, shoot people and destroy. When fire races through an area, homes of the good and the bad are destroyed and it will not be long before new life begins to blossom again. Nature suffers under the condemnation of sin but it is always growing life.
But, you might say, that is all pretty much a passive, perhaps automatic relationship. Good people and bad people like to grow gardens and water flowers. Nature does not necessarily speak to a risen Christ. So my second example of the good shepherd laying down his life and not running away like a hireling is the way parents with wayward children are willing to wait in the sidelines while “youth sow their oats” and mature, praying that someday the child will return home. The parables that comes to mind is the prodigal son. God, the father, does not force his creation, his son, or us to be good. We are not programmed like a robot or drone. The father shares his inheritance with his son and welcomes the wayward child even as he is prepared to reward the faithful child. Just because I do not touch Jesus right now, does not mean that he is not here. He is interceding. He is speaking to us through dreams, through the Word, through friends. He lays down his life by working with us rather than insisting we do it his way and when we stray, he welcomes us and looks for us. We can lean into that truth.
Direct contact with the risen Lord today is often done through his representatives – the Word, the people, the music, and more. Does our heart not burn within us like the two on the road to Emmaus when we read the word and a verse speaks exactly to the dilemma we are facing? Does not our spirit rise within us when we hear the music playing that speaks Christ’s words to our weary souls on Sunday morning? Does not love enter our barren spirits when we are hugged, embraced and cared for by friends – even when we have blown it?
Jesus is the Good Shepherd that brings life to our world today and does not run away like a hireling. He is there in Israel and Iran, in Eukraine, in famine relief camps, in hospitals, and all the ugly places of life. He will be there during the elections in November. He stays in relationship with us. He speaks daily through his creation, through his partnering with us as we grow and learn his ways, and through his various representatives. He does not run away like a hireling when we are ugly, sick or grumpy. He does not go home when his shift is over. He cares and leads us to green pastures, beside still waters and restores our spirit – for his name’s sake. He walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death and prepares a banquet for us in his kingdom. We can turn to him and lean on him when life is hard. The cross shows us that he understands and shares our pain.
Leaning on a Voice
4I am the good shepherd.
I know my own and my own know me,Â
15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
“They will listen to my voice.” It is possible to read these words in an authoritative way but also to read them in a partnership way. When I think of Jesus as the God of the universe I might think of God speaking on Mt. Sinai to Moses and giving the Ten Commandments that the Jews built a code of laws around. I might think of Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount. Both lay out the guidelines for living the blessed life. When I think of leaning on the voice of God, I think of choosing to build my life, submitting my will to the wisdom he imparts through his word and his prophets or preachers. Leaning on a voice implies trusting and obeying a being I know is wiser than I and committed to a good solution for all.
Perhaps a question worth pondering from our text today is to ask ourselves how much time we spend listening to the voice of Jesus versus how much time we spend catching up on the news daily? If we believe Jesus is alive, risen and active in our world, do we tune in to hear his broadcast daily or are we content to receive a Sunday vitamin pill that is being regurgitated by the pastor? I find as a retired person, having time to sit and listen is a great blessing. I love Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof when he sings about being just a little wealthy and reflects that then he would have time to sit with the holy men by the Eastern wall and reflect on the words of God. “That is the sweetest thing of all.” Jesus is alive, is risen, and does speak today but are we listening? He is far wiser than I and worth leaning on.
The other aspect of voice is the implied partnership. If I have “voice”, it means I have the right to speak, to offer suggestions, to make my opinion known realizing it will be listened to. It does not necessarily mean I am the only voice in the room or the determinative voice on a matter. I am not the commander nor am I a beggar, I am partnering with the community. So leaning on Jesus’ voice may not necessarily carry the sense of obeying an authority as much as the right to be in conversation with the living Jesus. As I grow older, I realize partnership with Christ is not the same as the power struggles with my parents. Jesus partners with his sheep, speaking to them, guiding them. He is not driving and domineering. He moves them at their pace, looking for food and directing them but never in a demanding way. He may sing to them and he knows each one. We hear his voice in all aspects of life, can trust and lean.
Prayer is the process by which we lean on the everlasting arms. The Good Shepherd knows our name and is in relationship with us. He is leading us and walking with us, not just to order but also to converse. After the crucifixion and resurrection, there was no physical Jesus but followers still needed ways to be in relationship with God, needing guidance, direction and help. There was no Bible like we have, no radio programs, and no TV evangelists. They and we need access to God’s authoritative voice but also every believer has access to his partnership voice. The authoritative voice and the partnership voice are there for Christians today. We hear his voice through prayer, through Scripture, through music, and through community as he guides us into our better selves. Leaning is listening.
But so often God seems silent. To this response, I think of our modern day “active listening” slogan – “hearing someone into voice.” When God uses his voice through silence, it does not imply absence but focused listening. As we speak and God listens, we clarify our thoughts, our wishes, our petitions and find our own voice and identity. God’s silent voice partners with me to draw me into active voice. I can lean on him even when he is silent and seems distant because I know he is listening.
The voice of Jesus today is worldwide, building a universal church that includes people from every tribe and nation and that speaks every language. Those early disciples did not imagine that there would be followers of Jesus in the United States, half a globe away, even if they had known the world was round. One of the proofs that Jesus lives is how the early church quickly evolved into a mission group reaching out to the then known world – England, Rome, India,Egypt, and Ethiopia all had early witness and churches. Our challenge today is molding the great diversity of a living Christ into a universal Church where all are welcome and hear Christ’s voice. We are part of an a universal body that leans on the one head, the risen Jesus.
Leaning on His Power
17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.Â
18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
Leaning on Jesus as a power source is the third witness to the reality of the risen Christ present in our world today. Jesus had the power to lay down his life and the power to take it up, to live again. Jesus walked through death in order to show us that death does not have the final say. Jesus had power but how do we see that in our lives as we lean on him?
I see this power in hospitals started in his name, hospitals that defeat disease. I see it in schools that defeat ignorance. I see it in translation efforts that defeat the barriers of language. I see it in refugee camps that resettle people running from war and terror. These efforts are not just generated by Christianity but Christianity does have a long record of reaching out to the needy in powerful, life giving ways.
Personally, faith in the reality of Christ in our world gives us power to do that which we thought was impossible and which the world does not model. We can forgive our enemies, those who hurt us or abuse us. That does not mean we keep allowing abuse but we can forgive those who were less than we wanted them to be. We can turn the other cheek more than seventy times seven. We find the courage to speak truth to power.
Christ alive gives us power to love the difficult to love. Many parents find deep love for children born with developmental challenges. Others are able to persevere with children in drugs, children who are wayward and children who are ungrateful. It is not easy but God gives us the power, the power to take up life again after the death of our dreams. As we lean on the risen Christ we can dream the impossible dream and run the impossible race, drawing from deep resources he provides.
That first Easter season must have been a very confusing and emotional time. The early followers did not have centuries of Christians sorting out theology and beliefs. They met behind closed doors in fear of being killed. They were the first to live into what resurrection would mean and how it would shape their future. Relationship with Jesus would not be broken but would take on new dimensions. Christians could stay connected in the body of Christ through fellowship, through prayer, and through worship. They would hear his voice in new ways – prayer, music, friends. And they would find new strength and power to face the trials they would encounter. Jesus was indeed the Good Shepherd who did not abandon his sheep during times of upheaval. Death could not separate Jesus from his followers. Resurrected, he would continue to be with them. They would learn to lean on him in new ways, even as we are learning to lean today.
The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want!
Leader)What a blessedness, what a peace is mine leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus: (everyone lean to your right and repeat after me:)
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
(Leader) What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near leaning on the everlasting arms.
Chorus: (repeat after me again only this time lean to your left.)
Let the people of God say, “Amen, the Lord is risen!”
On the Way to Wonder 