"You Must Judge" April 22, 2018

John 10: 11-18 Acts 4: 5-12 How amazing! Day after day for the last many months the horizons have been gray, the winds bitter, our moods depressed, self-consumed, petty, dark and vindictive. But yesterday and today the skies have been crystal clear, the sun shining brilliant, and we have been lighter, happier, more hopeful as the flowers yearn to bloom! Following last week’s Memorial, several have complimented what a wonderful tribute to a great man of the community and leader of this Church. Honestly, I as Pastor, all I had to do was smile, say “Jack Howard” and get out of the way. Everyone had their own story / memory. He never met a woman he did not Kiss. We each can recall his laughter. For decades, as far back as 50 years ago, Jack was Superintendent of the Sunday School, Chair of Personnel, Pastor Nominating Committees, John Dau Foundation. However, I decided that Honoring this Good Shepherd, it was not appropriate at the Memorial to leave in people’s minds one of my favorite memories, from a Picnic at the Lake 20 years ago, where Jack at 73 came wearing his characteristic Red Suspenders, holding up a red Speedo! There are images and phrases, which hook us. That a Preacher only need say “Good Shepherd” and although the closest we have come to a Shepherd is a Christmas Pageant, we each know this reference. However, for the Gospel, there are here details of contrast, that Jesus described “The Good Shepherd” at the time of the annual Dedication of the Temple. This was when everyone had to sacrifice a Ram, a Goat or a Lamb, for the Priests and the Temple, consecrated for us to be able to atone for our sins; AND Jesus the Lamb of God, our High Priest, described his being our Good Shepherd. However, these details, and the 23rd Psalm, and the Lord’s Prayer, answer Worry. Not long ago, the National Institutes of Health conducted a longitudinal study, that The #1 Health Concern in America is Anxiety. We worry ourselves to death. This week, I got into my Mini Cooper to drive into the City Hospitals, when I saw something I had not noticed previously. Etched into the Mirrors were the words “Objects may be closer than they appear.” As I went to change lanes, I saw a Truck bearing down and I slowed to let him pass, worrying this may be closer than it appears. We live in such reactionary times. Death may be closer than it appears. Retirement may be closer. Creditors may be closer. Our psyche seems to have a WORRY Machine inside, going faster and faster and faster. Anxiety is thinking that has become cancerous. Worry is our Imaginations, ignoring everything else to focus on the worst. Worry at its core is atheistic, a denial of the first 4 of the 10 Commandments, a denial of God. Instead of Believing God, instead of faith in our Good Shepherd, we hide and cower in our fear and worry. While the 23rd Psalm was meaningful when we were a Farming society, today we need to hear “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not Worry. He makes me calm down. He stands between me / Doubt of Financial Disaster. He is the Antidote to Death. He protects me from Terrorists’ Fear Though we live in an Era of the Shadow of Death, We fear no evil for God is with us, For Ever.” There is a story of a contest to Paint an image of peace. There were two finalists. The first was a Grandma Moses’ serene image of a mother lovingly preparing a holiday meal, her husband walking the cattle in from the field, children running and playing in the yard together, flowers in the garden, kittens… The colors were warm, muted and subdued. You wanted to crawl right in and stay in that comforting place. The Second was terrifying, the image of chaos, the skies were black with storm, a deafening waterfall, murky with erosion, raging out of control. The raw destructive power touched something deep in the depths of your being, making you cower. But down at the bottom of the painting, in a place protected from the waterfall was a bank of rich soil, fed and nourished by the mist, an iridescent ray of the Sun’s light pierced through the darkness, where a lush tree had grown. On the end of a branch was a nest, standing on the edge of the nest was a mother bird singing her heart out, so real, so sharp, you could hear the pure birdsong over the droning waters. And the Judges declared “Peace is in contrast to the destructive powers that rage.” The words of Acts register an image like that, BUT only if we know the contrasts. Last Sunday, we described that in the weeks after Jesus’ Resurrection to Eternal Life, the Disciples stayed in Jerusalem. Simon Peter and John had come through the Gate where a Man Lame from birth asked pity, in the Name of Jesus they had asked that he be healed, and the man not only rose, but leapt and danced praising God! This attracted a great deal of attention, people were so moved by the healing of this man seeking pity, 5000 people were Baptized. The subtlety of the Bible, is that the word used here for “Healing” is also the word for “Salvation”. But remember “Peace is in contrast to the powers that rage”. This was Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate, shortly after the Sanhedrin, led by The High Priest Annas and his father-in-law Caiaphas had arrested Jesus for challenging their Authority, inciting the People to riot. They had had handed Jesus over as deserving Death on the Cross. Peter and John stood beside this man who was Leaping and Dancing, as they preached that this man’s Salvation, his Healing is from Jesus Christ. SO Peter and John, these uneducated common fishermen from Galilee were arrested, thrown into the dungeon over night. The next morning, they stood before the same authorities who had judged Jesus, who handed him over to Crucifixion. In all their power and authority as The High Priests of the Priestly Family of Levites, the religious go-betweens keeping the enforced peace for the Roman Guards, Caiaphas and Annas ordered that Peter and John never again speak the name Jesus. To which, Peter and John reply, “Whether it is right, in the sight of God, to listen to you rather than God, You must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”