Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 21, 2024
John 10:11-18

After two and a half years, I think I’m finally getting the flow of tourists to Galveston. In the summer, it’s people at the beach, but then they leave and we get some quiet. Then come the motorcycles. Then it’s Victorian costumes for Dickens, then Mardi Gras, then the spring breakers. And this weekend, it’s not only the birds on their spring migration through Galveston, but it’s the birders.

And that’s one of the great blessings of living here, there is such natural beauty. I still can’t get over it. Never before have I lived in a place where I wake up to the sound of seagulls. There’s an amazing view of the sunrise over the beach from our bedroom window. And just the intoxicating smell of the salt air. It is all so good, and I can thank God for it. 

And yet, I have to say, nature is not why I believe in God. Sure, the natural world inspires me. I see beauty in it. When I’m outside I feel restored, and refreshed. But, speaking personally, I can’t, say, look up at the clouds and suddenly, believe. Nature is not why I believe in God.

And you all know, that I deeply love and adore the holy scriptures. You know that I can talk you ear off about any and all of it. I read the Bible every day. I do believe the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God and to contain all things necessary to salvation. 

And yet, I have to say, the Bible is not why I believe in God. Yes, the Bible helps me understand God and God’s people. These stories give meaning to my life, they are instructive. But, it’s not just because we have this book that I believe in God.

No, the clearest, most direct, most obvious place I see the presence of the Lord God, is in the human soul. This is what I have learned in fourteen years of ministry. See, ministry is about people. It’s about being involved in lives, it’s about holding your newborn infants, it’s about baptizing your children, it’s about doing your weddings, it’s about seeing you in the hospital, it’s about praying with you at burials. It’s about hearing your worries, talking through your problems, listening to your confessions. I know it is a fad, and somewhat trendy nowadays, to say that clergy don’t know what real life is like. That, living in the bubble of the church, we don’t know what it’s really like out there in the real world. But in fact, I think the reverse is true. I think that the honor and the burden of this ministry, is knowing full well what it is like to be human, for I have seen all of it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. 

And because I have seen all of it, I know that God is. And more than anything, that is why I believe in God. For I have seen the good, bad, and ugly, and God is still present. This God, this Lord Almighty, the one who created all that is seen and unseen, the one who ordered the cosmos and the galaxies into being; the one we read about in holy scripture – that is the same one who knows you by name. Jesus talks about this. He talks about you. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (John 10:14-15). That’s you. This isn’t some distant story from a dusty old book. This isn’t some vague idea about seeing God in a sunrise. No, we believe because of the specificity of God’s love; and God’s presence. You are the one for whom Jesus lays down his life. You are the one called by his name. God knows everything about you – good, bad, and ugly. And still, by virtue of your humanity, you are one of the flock. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. 

But there is more.

By loving you, by laying down his life for you, Jesus is trying to bring out the best in your soul. The cross, his death, it’s not meant to make you feel bad. You don’t have to go around beating yourself up. The Christian life is not a guilt trip. No, by laying down his life for you, Jesus is raising you up. He is saying that is how much he loves you. Your soul, the soul of everybody in this room, the soul of every single human being, is worth it to God. That’s why I believe – because I can look into your eyes and see the goodness and the grace and the mercy of God; even in the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying. That’s one of my favorite lines in preaching. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that, just because God loves you and your soul is radiating with the Holy Spirit, it means that everything we do is okay. It’s not that because Jesus loves us, we can do whatever we want and it’s all fine. No, actually, because Jesus loves us that much, it means that we should be our best. We should really pay attention to when Jesus is trying to correct us. The hardest teachers I had in college and seminary, the ones who challenged my thinking, the ones who graded my papers hard, they were the ones who I knew actually cared for me. Because they demanded my best. The teachers who were easy, who gave out the easy grades, who didn’t confront my own presuppositions; I’m not sure they cared all that much about me. The same with the priests in my life. When I was in your seat, before I was ordained, the priests I respected the most were the ones who told me things that were difficult to hear. So when Jesus starts flipping over tables and calling us out for our pride and hypocrisy, when Jesus challenges us to be better people, it’s not because he doesn’t like us. It’s because Jesus loves us more than we could ever know. Or, as Jesus himself put it, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The 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. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep” (John 10:11-13).

There are many hired hands, who might make things feel good for awhile; they might offer you a quick buck, or a small dose of happiness. But what they offer won’t last because they don’t really care about you. And there are plenty of wolves out there, always looking to snatch you up, to scatter you, to make you feel bad about yourself, to load you with shame and guilt so that you withdraw from community. 

All I can say this morning, is that this Jesus, the good shepherd of your soul, is the one who actually cares for you. Who sees your soul, all of it, and still chooses to lay down his life for you. And that is why I believe. Because God’s greatest creation is your soul.

References

This sermon draws heavily on “Lectures on Preaching” by the Rev. Phillips Brooks, especially the chapter, “On the Human Soul.” “Lectures on Preaching: Delivered Before the Divinity School of Yale College in January and February, 1877.”