Message given at Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal in Covington, GA
https://www.youtube.com/live/kEh2SpIl1Lw?feature=share&t=870
Good morning
and welcome to Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal here in Covington,
Georgia. Thank you for joining us both in person and at home through live
stream. I am Kona, the Summer Seminarian filling in as officiant today for our
Rector, Father Edwin Beckham who is on sabbatical.
Today we
celebrate with Morning Prayer and a Sermon. You can follow along with a bulletin
that was emailed on Thursday in the e-news, or ask the usher to text you a
copy, or the fabulous tech gentlemen can post a copy in the live stream chat.
COVID protocols have prevented us from distributing bulletins in Church, so my
apologies for the inconvenience. With or without a bulletin, I invite you to
rest in the presence of the Living God for service.
An offering
basket was placed at the entrance of the Narthex. You can place offerings there
if you have not done that already. We are also not passing the offering basket
because of COVID protocols, but we want you to receive your blessing on your
offerings. All offerings made via text or online will also be blessed. The
usher will bring offerings to the altar during the hymn of the day.
Because this
is morning prayer, we will not be celebrating Eucharist today, but we will next
week for Pentecost. Rev. Cannon Liz Hendrick will preside.
Let us turn
our hearts towards the living God, Christ our Good Shepherd and the Holy Spirit
who resides with us always.
The world –
we hear this a lot in the scripture from John. Truth and protection. What do
these all have to do with each other.
“So that
they may have my joy complete in themselves.”
John is
challenging to read and understand sometimes. He is very ethereal and other
worldly – especially in this scripture where we are ease dropping on Jesus’
prayer before his ascension.
Here Jesus
is making a very clear distinction about the world.
In Genesis
we have a God who creates the world, sees that it is good, creates mankind,
sees that it is good, and deposits them into the world as overseers of this
planet.
Something
happens in the middle of the story and fast forward – we have a world ruled by
something evil.
Timelines
and myths, creation verses evolution, we will set aside for a moment and think
about the message.
The message
is that the world was created good. Mankind was created good.
At the end
of the story where Jesus resides, there is now evil in the world and his people
need protection. Not the whole world, because part of the world hates Jesus and
his followers.
In an age of
inclusion and acceptance of diversity, this can be a hard saying. I am sure
this scripture has been used to divide people by race, ethnicity, gender,
denomination, culture, language, socioeconomic status – and probably even hair
color.
Everyone
wants to belong somewhere. Everyone wants to be chosen somewhere. However, with
an element of fear, which is what happens when there is evil in the world, lots
of fear, there is a tendency to be exclusionary.
Have you
done this in your own circle? Have you ever been exclusionary out of fear?
Inside our
brains we are wired to judge our circumstances and the people we encounter to
determine if we are safe. This is how we are built as a survival mechanism. It
has worked so far. We still exist as a human race. But if you add to that the
environmental factors of family and culture that tell you who and what is safe,
sometimes your internal mechanism might get skewed. Your safe might become a
worldly safe rather than a godly safe. This might look like prejudice or even
racism. It might look like a distaste
for people who are disabled, obese, or toothless, or Republicans or Democrats
or Liberals.
Jesus chose
a diverse group of followers who did not look “safe” to the pious in the
synagogue. His followers looked like the outcasts of the world. So his
mechanism for choosing is different than a worldly mechanism. And here he
distinguishes the difference between His and the worlds.
Something
happened in the middle of the story, and evil entered the world. We might not
have the whole story.
When Jesus
says about his followers – they are those given to him by the Father out of the
world, and He himself is not of the world, it sounds like a sci-fi rescue
mission. Like he has come here from a far off place to find some remnant of a
created being who still knows the voice of God. Perhaps the heavenly realm is
that far off place, and Jesus is coming back to remind us who we are as created
beings by a living God.
So what
separates us from the rest of the world? Is it how we look? Or where we live?
What we drive? How much education we have? Whether or not we collect taxes or
pay taxes?
The criteria
for Jesus as we see in this scripture is this:
Those who
hear his voice and keep his word.
Those that have
received his word as truth that Jesus comes from God.
The chosen
of Christ are simply those who believe in Christ. They are simply set apart
from those who do not.
How do you
know who Jesus’ chosen are?
First – you
don’t. Belonging to a church does not make you a follower of Christ. Being here
is a good start. But being here is only a start. Being in church is not the end
of all your relationship with Christ. The scripture says:
“Those who
hear my voice and follow my commands.”
“Those who
hear my voice and keep my word.”
“Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength.”
“And Love
your neighbor as yourself.”
If you look
past what you see on the outside of a person, and by the power of the Holy Spirit
residing in you look inside your neighbor, you will discover your siblings in
Christ. You will create and experience a unity with others, a oneness like
Jesus describes, a bond that cannot be broken.
And the
world will hate you for it because the evil in this world aims to divide and devastate
– especially God’s people.
If you find
yourself in angst with the people you know and love for any reason, pray God’s
protection immediately. Angst and arguing and division are not what Jesus wants
for us.
“Love one
another as I have loved you.”
“Love one
another as I have loved you.”
“Peter, do
you love me? Feed my sheep.”
“Peter, do
you love me? Feed my sheep.”
“Peter, do
you love me? Feed my lambs.”
What
separates the people of Jesus from the world is to operate from a different
place – from a place of love. It requires all of our power and wisdom and
strength to stay in this place of love and oppose all tendency for division.
In this
scripture Jesus prays for our protection repeatedly:
Father Protect
them
Protect them
I have
guarded them
Protect them
My fellow
believers, I pray you take seriously the words of Christ Jesus. Guard your
hearts and minds and souls with the unending love of God for you, Christ for
you, and you for Christ and you for each other.
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