April 17, 2016 - Fourth Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday

My Sunday worship experience was certainly colored by experiences earlier this week.

Throughout this week I reflected on what I described in last Sunday's post as the miracles of individual points of arrival.  Worship where members want or need to be spiritually journey are all launched by the same service.

Assistant to the Bishop Susan Kintner referred to this same phenomenon in a Transition Team meeting on Thursday while she passed along her knowledge from the Synod perspective on the work before us.  She talked about how intimidating it could be for a pastor to give a sermon to a hundred people, knowing each individual would hear it differently.  Pastor Michelle chimed in "And then the sermon becomes 100 different sermons."

The Thursday Transition Team's devotional came from 1 Kings 3 where Solomon asked for an understanding mind to govern and God answered "Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you."  Pastor Michelle offered another translation for 'an understanding mind" as "a listening heart".   We talked about how important "a listening heart" could be to the team's work. I prayed that our team could find God's path to that state for our future work.

Richard Rohr emails also took on a special significance as the Transition Team started inviting comgregational feedback this week.  This was part of the Rohr's Sunday text :"God's basic method of communicating God's self is not the "saved" individual, the rightly informed believer, or even personal careers in ministry, but the journey and bonding process that God initiates in community: in marriages, families, tribes, nations, events, scientists, and churches who are seeking to participate in God's love, maybe without even consciously knowing it."

Together with how the service fit with the week's events and the Animate Bible session after worship, worship today was extraordinary in it's own way,

Pastor Michelle opened with a remark about the rather bright sunlight streaming into the sanctuary. She prefaced her observation with Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the Lord has made;  let us rejoice and be glad in it.  This is a verse I now always associate with Ron and Eileen.  The verse was important to each of them and they quoted it to each other each morning before she passed away.  Ron had the verse placed on her headstone.

After the service we talked about his working through his grieving and how amazing it was to hear this particular verse quoted in worship since Ron had been thinking about it on the way to service. 

Ron also looked forward to attending the last Animate Bible session because the last session was on "Grace".  He shared with me that his second wife, Sally and he had numerous 'agree to disagree' discussions exploring God's grace and whether people were justified by faith alone or by good works as well.  Sally was a devoted Catholic and passed away in July of last year.  It was clear how Ron still  continues to treasure the their discussions and what they discovered about one another through their talks.  Deeply inspirational, as deeply inspiring as Ron's photography is to those of us who have experienced his art .

So how can communities contribute to an individual's coming to terms with personal grieving.  Does a person continue to feel a part of the congregational life when experiencing unique circumstances that others are not going through at that moment.  Does the miracle of individual points of arrival happen here as well?  For Ron, this Sunday, the answer appeared to be yes,

Good Shepherd Sunday also inspired thoughts this year about what constitutes a 'flock' that hears the voice of Jesus.  Jesus was answering the question "How long will you keep us in suspense?  If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."  He does not give a "plain" response, perhaps because the question cannot be answered if the questioner does not already know the plain answer already.

Jesus respnded "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me ".  Pastor Michelle talked about how true this turns out to be for real sheep.  During the Children's Time She made a red crepe circle around the kids with an opening near the altar.  She taught them that the opening was where the shepherd would sleep to protect the sheep from the wolves.

She went on to say how important it is that we feel safe and protected by our shepherd.  If a wolf comes, knowing the shepherd is ready and waiting to drive the wolf away should comfort us.  The sermon was a perfect setup for the Animate Bible session that followed shortly after worship.

This was a Sunday where events were not discreet and blended into one another but I will end the worship blog here and proceed to a separate post about the Adult Forum.