John 14:1-14

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

I do not have enough training in the science of psychology to even consider myself an armchair psychologist, but I have a hunch that a person sees his or her world through the lens of one, or maybe two, formative relationships that he or she has experienced. Most likely, this formative relationship is with one or both parents. Generally speaking, the way in which your parent has interacted with you has informed your sense of self and your place in the world, what to expect of relationships in general, and how you relate to other people. A good psychologist or counselor will help you revisit these formative relational experiences in order to help you understand whether what those experiences taught you are actually true or not.

I am not familiar with any qualitative data on the subject, but I would offer a second hunch, that parents in general try to do the best they can. You probably didn’t find a Hallmark Mother’s Day card with that sentiment “You do the best you can,” but I still think it’s good news.

We only know what we know; and we know what we know only through the way our parents taught us to know things. And even if most parents generally do the best they can, they are limited by the ways that they were raised to understand the world. The way I understand myself and the world is directly tied to the way my mom and dad understand themselves and the world...and, of course, how they interacted with me.

Our image of God, like everything else, is filtered through the lens of the one or two formative human relationships in our life. It is typical for children to think of God as very similar to their parents...bigger and more powerful versions to be sure, but still very much in line with the thoughts and behaviors of the parent. A child who grows up feeling safe and cared for by a parent will default to an understanding of God as safe and caring. By the same token, a child who grows up being abused by a parent will default to an understanding of God as abusive.

It takes considerable effort for people to adapt their understanding of God, especially if it goes against everything they have been taught by those early formative relationships. A child who grew up feeling safe and cared for by a parent finds it difficult to imagine God could ever be abusive. By the same token, a child who grows up being abused by a parent finds it difficult to imagine God could ever be loving and caring.

We are at a bit of a disadvantage when contemplating matters of the divine because we only know what has been allowed to pass through the lens through which we view and understand the world.

Today’s gospel scripture is a beautiful example of Jesus compassionately correcting some of his disciples misconceived notions about the divine. Jesus invites the disciples to use his life and ministry as the lens through which to view and understand the world. The text is saturated with patience, reassurance, promise, and hope. Jesus is addressing some deep-seated insecurities and mistaken assumptions about God that his disciples have adopted in their lifetime. Here, in the moments before his execution, Jesus urges the disciples to be filled with…

… peace (“Do not let your hearts be troubled”)

… faith (“Believe in God, believe also in me”)

… assurance (“If you know me, you will know my Father also”)

… and divine power (“the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do”)

Take comfort, my friends, in knowing that the heads and hearts of Jesus’ disciples were still filled with fallacies about God even after spending years in Jesus’ presence. Also, take comfort that Jesus’ promises of peace, faith, assurance, and divine power were communicated in a time of uncertainty, turmoil, and disappointment. This speech, after all, comes on the heels of Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s denial and Judas’ betrayal. None of this compromised the truth of Jesus’ great instruction: Do not be troubled, believe in God, you know what to do, and you will be able to do it.

Jesus’ earthly life shows the world what God is like in flesh and blood, so that we can have a more accurate understanding of who God is, as well as who we are.

God, it turns out, is Christlike. Everything that Christ did during his earthly life was what God would have done -- what God DID do. God does not have a shadow side, ulterior motives, or a secret identity. God was fully exposed in the person of Jesus.

God, it turns out, is a skilled craftsman, and storm-calmer.

God, it turns out, is a healer and miracle-worker.

God, it turns out, has no regard for our barriers of race, ethnicity, class, religion, and gender.

God, it turns out, pays all his laborers equally.

God, it turns out, has a taste for a good wine and likes being invited to dinner.

God, as it turns out, is willing to die to expose humanity’s fear and lust for earthly power.

God, as it turns out, has high expectations for those who claim to follow...but also has incredible patience and unlimited forgiveness.

God, as it turns out, needed Jesus to show people just how short they had sold themselves and how short they had sold God.

Each one of us has been raised to see the world through a particular lens; but this lens often keeps us from fully realizing who we are and who God is. There’s no button to push or magic wand to wave to break free from these limiting understandings. One cannot be enlightened in an instant. But there is work you can do to allow God’s identity and relationship to be the primary way through which you view and understand the world.

You can read the stories of scripture to become more aware of who God is and who God isn’t.

You can talk to God, as matter of factly as you picked up the phone to talk to that old friend last week.

You can seek out a psychiatrist or counselor to help you understand how and why you have come to understand the world the way that you do; and to see what you have come to believe about yourself that simply is not true.

And you can meditate on Jesus’ last words to his disciples in what was also a chaotic and uncertain time: Do not be troubled, believe in God, you know what to do, and you will be able to do it.

Amen.

John 10:1-10

[Jesus said,] “Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought them out, he goes ahead of them and they follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was trying to say to them. So he said to them again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the shepherd of the sheep. Everyone who came before me were thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Everyone who hears my voice will be saved, and they will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to kill and to steal and to destroy. I came so that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

I’ve listened to the first two episodes of Nadia Bolz-Weber’s new podcast. It’s called “The Confessional” and so far – again, just two episodes in – it’s been interesting. It’s not safe for work or if the kids are around, unless your co-workers or kids are okay with foul language, and some very adult themes, so consider that however you need to.

Nadia Bolz-Weber says “The Confessional” is meant to be like a “washing machine for your shame and secrets,” a chance for guests and callers to share experiences from their lives they’re not proud of. She even gives a phone number at the end of each episode which you can call, make a confession of your own, and possibly have that confession played on the podcast for all of her listeners to hear. (The podcast walks this strange, fine line between holy and hokey, for me, so far, because of that, but it’s mostly holy, and pretty compelling.)

Anyway, Nadia’s first guest was Megan Phelps-Roper, who is a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church, which was started by her grandfather and made up, mostly, I believe, of his offspring and members of Megan’s extended family. Westboro Baptist Church, for those of you who don’t know or maybe haven’t heard about in a while, is a congregation of Christians who find it meaningful to protest publicly about how much God hates gay people. They also stage protests at funerals for soldiers by way of chants and signs and songs. They have a pretty active online presence, too, so I went to their website yesterday, just for the heck of it, and found out they’re pretty certain the Coronavirus is God’s wrathful judgment upon an unfaithful people. So, they’re a fun bunch who give Christianity and Church and Faith and Jesus, actually, a bad name, in my opinion.

But, Megan Phelps-Roper was on “The Confessional” podcast – and I’ve heard her speak on other occasions, too – to renounce that part of her life and to explain how she came to see her faith and her God in a different, more gracious, loving sort of light, in spite of how she was raised. Oddly enough, she says what broke the ice for this new way of knowing God, was the concern showed for her – in spite of her harsh and hard-hearted ways – by followers on Twitter, who genuinely worried about someone who could harbor so much hate in their heart, and were willing to engage that with her.

Nadia’s second guest was Lenny Duncan, an African-American pastor in the ELCA, who recently wrote a book called, Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. (A handful of us at Cross of Grace have actually read and discussed his book, as part of our study of race relations.) Pastor Duncan has quite a story to tell about a childhood of abuse, a life of addiction, prostitution, incarceration, and the ramifications of all of that which resulted in the broken – but now mended – relationships between his daughter and her mother. (Duncan and his then-girlfriend became pregnant when he was 19 and she was 17, before he effectively disappeared for about 13 years, before getting his you-know-what together, and working to restore that relationship.)

Lenny Duncan was on “The Confessional” podcast to talk about the moments in his life when he was the most lost and broken (all of that addiction, prostitution, and incarceration, for example), but how he found grace and gentleness and love from others, despite his incapacity to share that same kind of grace and gentleness and love in return. He seems to have found all of that by way of 12-step recovery programs, his sponsors there, and, of course, through the forgiveness of his wife and partner and the daughter they created – and who they now love and care for, together.

So I thought about these two stories and about “The Confessional” as I read this morning’s Gospel and all of Jesus’ words about what it means to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd; to be called by name; to be fully known; to be led out, in safety, by the Shepherd of the sheep; and to follow that lead into a life of faith and joy. Or, as Jesus says it, “Everyone who hears my voice will be saved, and they will come in and go out and find pasture.”

See, I’m inclined to see the leaders of that Westboro Baptist Church as “strangers,” “thieves,” and “bandits” – to use Jesus’ other words. I see them as those who corrupt the grace and good news of God’s love in Jesus and lead people astray, despite their best intentions. Their own people – and anyone else who finds that sort of theology compelling – are being misled and misguided and manipulated into obedience that really isn’t obedience because it comes by way of force and fear, rather than through faith and free will.

On the other hand, remember, it took just a couple of compassionate, curious, patient voices on Twitter, of all things, to tap into the disconnect that Megan Phelps-Roper was feeling about her life in that church and about her experience in the world – and then to lead her out and into a different kind of life and faith, altogether.

Pastor Lenny Duncan talks about having his “then-estranged-girlfriend-now-wife” accept his attempt to make amends for all of the harm he had caused her. She was a voice of grace and compassion and patience, too – over the course of many months and years, I believe – who helped to lead him away from an old way of being in the world to a new one, again a life of “coming and going and finding pasture,” as Jesus would say; and finding peace and forgiveness and mercy and love, too, in a way he hadn’t known before.

All of this is to say, I think the voice of Christ, our Good Shepherd, shows up in a lot of surprising ways in this world. Lenny Duncan heard it from AA and sponsors and his family, in the end. Megan Phelps-Roper heard it from strangers on social media, for goodness’ sake. And I imagine – I hope – we’ve all heard it at some point along the way, too. In the forgiveness offered from a parent or a child. In a lesson learned by way of a teacher or boss or coach. In the mercy shared by a friend. In the forgiveness and second chances that come from the spouses, lovers, and partners who share our lives.

And I hope you hear it here, too. At church, I mean. From your pastors, in worship.

See, the really cool thing Nadia Bolz-Weber does at the end of each podcast, is she offers a blessing… a benediction… tailor-made for her guest. These blessings are personal and beautiful and heartfelt and holy, even if they are offered so publicly by way of a podcast. They are blessings that address the story of each person’s life in a way that it’s clear they have been heard and that they are known – in all of their flaws, and failings, and faithfulness – and that they are understood and worthy of such a blessing… worthy of such a confirmation of grace… worthy of such an expression of loving-kindness.

It’s what we’re meant to hear and feel every time we make our confession as a community of believers and receive our forgiveness, here. It’s what we’re meant to hear and feel every time we touch the waters of our baptism and remember the grace and welcome that are ours because of it. And it’s what we’re meant to hear and feel every time we eat the bread and drink the wine of Holy Communion, and are filled up with our forgiveness and promised redemption because of it.

I think it’s how we’re supposed to hear and understand God’s voice, in Jesus, finding us when we need it, most. It’s a voice that knows our story in all of its fullness – the sinful and the saintly; the broken and the beautiful – all of our flaws and our faithfulness. Because once we’ve followed the sound of that voice; once we’ve heard that kind of grace and mercy and forgiveness and love for ourselves – and believed it – we can become and we can be that voice for others – for the likes of Megan or Lenny or for that classmate or co-worker or neighbor or friend, just the same. And then we will walk, together with more of God’s children, along paths and into pastures of abundant life.

Amen

The Christlike God – John 14:1-14

The Good Shepherd