Pr. Joseph Crippen

Christ offers you abundant life, found in following him into the world and being transformed in the care of your Shepherd.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday of Easter, year A
Texts: John 10:1-10; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The thing is, you can’t stay in the sheepfold and live.

The idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who came to provide abundant life for those who trust in him, and also as the Gate who keeps the sheepfold safe, is a wonderful one. Like our Emmaus story last week, it promises a warm place inside the fold of our Shepherd, where we are cared for and loved. Where we meet God. Like in this room.

And it sounds pretty abundant just to stay in the room with Jesus. But that’s not where abundant life is lived. Last week, the Emmaus couple couldn’t stay in their little home where they met Jesus in the breaking of the bread. They needed to go out, back on the road. To witness to the others, to the world, what they’d experienced and seen in the risen Christ.

And we sang today that our Good Shepherd leads us out on right paths, to still waters and green pastures. Even though sometimes those paths lead through the valleys of the shadow of death, and in the presence of enemies. But it’s only out there that there is food and water and life for the sheep.

This image of a protected sheepfold sounds awfully familiar.

It sounds a lot like the locked upper room in which the disciples placed themselves Easter week.

But Christ met them inside their locked room, and met them at the Emmaus dinner table, and led them all out into new life. As the Shepherd calls the sheep out to pasture. They couldn’t stay locked away, because true, abundant life for them was only found out there. Stay inside, and you eventually starve to death.

And where they found life, so will we.

But if you and I stay locked up, closed in the sheepfold so we’re safe, how can we follow Christ in this world and find abundant life?

If we’ve locked away any possibility of Christ calling us to a new way of being, how can we begin to think about loving our family or our neighbors in the community or in the world?

If it’s off limits, locked away, for God to ask us to change how we react to people, how we treat others, how can we become like Jesus, how can we follow?

If it’s off limits, locked away, for God to ask us to give up getting our own way, to ask us to let it go when others seem to disregard us, how can we become like Jesus, how can we follow?

If it’s off limits, locked away, for God to ask us to understand faith as a calling to love, not a possession that keeps us safe, how can we become like Jesus, how can we follow?

And if we can’t follow, we can’t find abundant life.

Abundant life is when you and I follow Christ out of the sheepfold to be blessed and to be a blessing.

Because living in the servant love of God in Christ for you, such a rich, abundant blessing, only expands and deepens when you share that servant love with others.

When you bear the love of Christ in your life, in your neighborhood, you are blessed in turn. When you are transformed as Christ in a world of pain and oppression and fear, you are blessed while you make a difference and bless others. Whatever life is out there is only abundant when it’s shared, when all are safe, and fed, and clothed, and loved, and blessed.

And you can’t do this, I can’t do this, if we stay locked inside the sheepfold where we think it’s safe.

The good news is, the risen Christ is really good with locked doors.

As much as we think we’ve locked away all our problems and the things we don’t want to change, Christ is already there inside your locked doors, wanting to give you peace. Wanting to fill you with the Spirit. The One who is the Gate can open all locks and call you out of the sheepfold into abundant life.

But your Shepherd will also not force you out, force you to be Christ, force you to follow. Your Shepherd would rather you hear his voice and follow willingly.

There’s a lot that seems unsafe in all of this, and frightening.

Peter today says that suffering for doing good is often the result of following Christ, because Christ also suffered for loving others. We know Christ’s path is a challenging one.

But you are loved by the God who made all things and who cares for you as a shepherd, who is known to you in your Good Shepherd, your risen Savior.

Your Shepherd is standing outside the door, calling to you, to me, and asking us to follow. Don’t be afraid, because even though this path will lead to loss and change and through frightening places, even in your own heart, you are walking with and behind your Shepherd, who faced all such pain and suffering already and is risen. Who will keep you safe: from your enemies – both those inside of you and outside of you – and safe even in valleys of shadow and death. Who will transform death into life and enemies into beloved family.

Listen: your Shepherd is calling. Offering abundant life. Opening the door to go out from here as Christ’s love in the world. Follow, and find that life. Be that life for others. And rejoice in your Shepherd’s abundance.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

There is no sacred place or secular space: the Triune God is here, with you, in every breath of your life, so keep your eyes open and your heart ready.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Third Sunday of Easter, year A
Text: Luke 24:13-35

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The disciples knew Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

This moment in a little house in Emmaus is so moving to us, so true to our experience and the experience of the Church for millennia, those words are a beloved phrase in our grammar of faith.

This couple, after walking a few hours from Jerusalem with a stranger who engaged them in conversation, invited him into their home. Certainly to stay the night, but of course they first offered him a meal.

And when he, as guest, broke the bread, their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus.

And as we gather at Jesus’ Table again today, we live in anticipation and hope of this truth happening again, one we’ve experienced over and over. We will know Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

But here’s the great wonder: they already had known Jesus that day.

When he vanished, they realized it clearly. “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures to us?”

Their eyes might have been closed on the road. But their hearts weren’t. Their hearts knew Jesus was walking with them those seven miles. Encouraging them, listening to their grief and pain. Opening their hearts and minds to God’s Word and how it was hope for them in this strange and confusing day.

It wasn’t in the quiet of an evening dinner table that they really needed Jesus. They needed Jesus in the tiring trudge of a walk in the dust and stones. In the fear and trauma they felt losing their beloved Teacher in such a horrible way. In the fear and possible hope they felt hearing what some of their fellow women disciples said they’d seen and experienced that morning. And the risen Christ was there in all that.

I’ll never forget the faith I saw in a Bedouin from the Middle East.

This was 30 years ago, in a documentary about the life of these wandering nomads who live much as their ancestors lived for centuries and centuries before.

The interviewer asked this man how his faith in Allah helped him with his daily life, dealing with all the challenges. Basically how he applied his faith to his secular life.

The man looked utterly confused, not knowing what the questioner meant. He said, “There is no place in my life where Allah is not.” He spoke of his entire life lived in God’s presence, every moment, every trial, every joy.

I remember as if it were yesterday that I thought, “I want to have faith like this man.” Not that I wanted to become Muslim. What I wanted was to live with the same awareness of God’s presence in every moment, every trial, every joy of my life. And along with a couple other Spirit-given insights in those days, that began my now deeply rooted conviction that there is no such thing as sacred and secular. If God exists, then all the world is imbued with God, all things live in the life of God, all life is breathed in God’s breath. The Triune God is always on the road with us as much as at this Table in this place.

But our life is kind of a reverse of this Emmaus story.

We start here, in this place. You people have taught me from the first day I came among you as your pastor that here, in this place, you expect to meet God, and you do meet God. You experience this room, this worship, as holy ground. That’s really the secret to why worship here is such a blessing. You gather here fully expecting to be with God, to listen to God, to pray to God, to praise and lament in song with and to God, to see God in each other. Mystery, silence, ambiguity, confusion, none are frightening because you know the Triune God will be here in all of that. With you. With me.

There’s never a sense of indifference or nonchalance of the people of God in worship here. The Triune God meets you here and it’s always a matter of life and death to you. I am deeply grateful for you showing me this and sharing this with me.

So here is our Emmaus table. Except we already know who it is who breaks bread with us, guides us, encourages us, challenges us, leads us in this place.

And that means we already know who it is who is burning in our hearts when we leave here.

That’s the great wonder of our life of faith.

We meet the risen Christ here so we can recognize the risen Christ on the road. We are fed and taught and loved by Christ here so we can open our eyes and recognize Christ’s presence in every moment, every trial, every joy out there, in our lives, in the world. Where all ground is holy ground.

And look what you and I get out there, on the road. A God who opens up God’s will and grace through Scripture to us on our journey, carefully explaining, gently guiding, sometimes shocking and challenging. Jesus didn’t just walk with this couple. He taught them, helped them see God’s grace in a new and beautiful way. And so Christ does the same to you, if you listen and pay attention on your road.

And Jesus also listened to them. He noticed where they were emotionally – sad, traumatized, confused – and met them there. He shared their pain and the beginnings of hope that they were feeling. And so as Christ walks with you on your road, Christ likewise meets you where you are, pays attention to what you’re feeling, listens, cares, blesses.

And best is, you don’t need to do anything to get this.

This couple was going to have their painful, confused conversations as they walked back home, no matter what. It was the risen Christ who chose to show up with them and bless them.

And so it is with you. You’re going to live your life, walk your road, experience all you experience, no matter what. But the risen Christ chooses to show up with you and bless you.

So consider how you might respond. This couple listened on the road, probably asked a lot of questions, too. And then, hearts afire and blessed by this new friend, they invited him into their home.

There’s another phrase in our grammar of faith that’s beloved to us, isn’t there? “Stay with us, Lord, for it is evening, and the day is almost over.” That’s all you need to do. Be ready for Christ to join you not just here in this room but everywhere you go. And invite him to stay with you, in the night of this world and in the days you also have been given.

And be ready for open eyes and burning hearts. Be ready to sent out yourself as God’s presence in this broken and frightening world. It’s going to be amazing.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen