I Dare You

Dear Jesus, our Peace: To each of us you say “come follow me, follow me not just for an instant but in the faithfulness of a lifetime and as your call grows clearer, I, Christ, pray in you, dare to make a gift of your life.” This is the prayer of Broth Alois from Taize, a beautiful and perfect prayer about our corporate and individual relationship to Jesus. Let me say it again. Dear Jesus, our Peace: To each of us you say “come follow me, follow me not just for an instant but in the faithfulness of a lifetime and as your call grows clearer, I, Christ, pray in you, dare to make a gift of your life.”
All of our readings today are about our relationship with Jesus after the Resurrection. The reading from Acts describes the consequences suffered by Peter and John after they healed a man on the steps of the Temple at the hour of prayer - in the name of Jesus. There is a great uproar from the people inside the portico to the Temple – someone who had never walked in his life, who they had seen on the steps of the Temple every day - was standing, clinging, to Peter, and walking. In response to their astonishment, Peter witnesses to the prophets foretelling the coming of Jesus and to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. This ruckus alerted and annoyed the rulers and high priests who took Peter and John prisoner. They held them overnight and the next day demanded to know by whose authority they had performed this miracle – as if it were a crime to heal someone who had been lame from birth. Peter declared that is was in the name of Jesus who had been crucified, the cornerstone that had been rejected. Privately, the authorities recognized that a notable sign had been performed and would attract the attention of many people. And they were afraid of what the people might do if anything happened to John and Peter. So, as the lame man had nothing bad to say about them, the authorities let Peter and John go, demanding that they not speak anymore in Jesus’ name. Peter famously replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” The conviction of the disciples and their dependence on the Holy Spirit for words to speak is a model of Christian behavior and spirituality. God may grant us the power and courage to do likewise.
The psalm for today, Psalm 23, is the first one we learn to say as children and the last one we remember when we grow old. It describes our relationship with Jesus as protector. When Jesus the Lord is my shepherd, I will not want for anything. He leads me, restores me, comforts me with goodness and mercy all the days of my life. The gospel reading is also about Jesus as caretaker. Jesus is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The good shepherd knows each and every sheep and they know him, too. They trust him and depend on him for their very lives. I do not doubt for one minute that I have been dependent on the Love and Mercy of Christ Jesus from the moment I was born, and I am sure that many of you, if not all of you, feel that in your hearts, too. Jesus cares for the sheep by the authority of God, his father and our father, his mother and our mother. In our day, the Bishops of the Episcopal church represent this shepherd and protector aspect of Jesus. The Greek word for bishop is episcopos, or overseer. So we are a church of bishops. If you have a prayer book in front of you, open it to page 855 and follow along with me about the ministry of bishops. “The ministry of a bishop is to represent Christ and his Church, particularly as apostle, chief priest, and pastor of a diocese; to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the whole Church; to proclaim the Word of God; to act in Christ's name for the reconciliation of the world and the building up of the Church; and to ordain others to continue Christ's ministry.” So our bishop is our symbolic and sacramental shepherd. And that is why he carries a staff just as a real shepherd in the time of Jesus might do. Turn the page over to 856 and follow along with me the duty of all Christians. “The duty of all Christians is to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for the spread of the kingdom of God.” We understand the call to weekly worship, but the rest of the description of our duty as Christians is not very specific. If Jesus is our shepherd and protector by whose power we want for nothing, and by whose grace our daily lives depend – then what are we to do in return? What does God expect from us for all his mercy and kindness to us?
I think we will find that the crux of the meaning of our relationship with Jesus is spelled out in the reading from 1st John in Chapter 3. “We know love by this. (WE KNOW LOVE BY THIS); that he laid down his life for us – and we are to lay down our lives for one another.” There it is – we are to be for one another as Christ is to us: little shepherds. “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word and speech, but in truth and action.” If Jesus has died for us we should live for each other, by the power of his spirit who lives in us. The first time I had the honor of preaching at St. George’s was on Maundy Thursday. This is the day that Jesus tries to convey to the disciples that he is really leaving them and he gives them to each other to care for and love. Jesus shows this intimate and personal love by washing their street-dirty feet with his own hands, and says, that the disciples should likewise wash each other’s feet. We should likewise wash each other’s feet – or the modern equivalent of that kind of intimacy. We need to take care of each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. But how do we do that, you might ask! Each of us has a gift or more than one gift that God has given us and that is what makes us the Body of Christ – our gifts and talents help us continue to be Christ for the world and each other. Sometimes we feel our gift is very small and maybe not important – but with love and nurturing our gift can be just the right thing at the right moment – and all gifts grow and thrive with love and attention. Today after the service we will have an opportunity to begin to discover and explore our own gifts as members of the Body of Christ. It will be exciting and challenging – and require courage and hope from all of us as disciples of Christ, just like the disciples of Jesus’ day. May God Bless our discovery process.

Let us pray. Dear Jesus, our Peace: To each of us you say “come follow me, follow me not just for an instant but in the faithfulness of a lifetime and as your call grows clearer, I, Christ, pray in you, dare to make a gift of your life.” Amen.