Before I read the Scripture for today from the Book of Revelation, I want to stay for a moment with the image of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, about which we have been hearing and singing and reading and praying through so much of this service. The trajectory through Eastertide brings us now to this, the fourth Sunday, traditionally called Good Shepherd Sunday. The choir, the acolytes and crucifer and pastors, all those of us up front here, have the incredible gift, week after week, of worshipping in the light of the Good Shepherd as he appears in the magnificent window over our balcony, given by the Boggs and Buerge families and created at the Judson Studios in Eagle Rock. If you cannot now turn and see it from where you're sitting, look at the photograph of it on the cover of the Order of Worship, and be sure to take a moment to gaze at it when you return to your seats today after participating in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

It is this Good Shepherd who watches over us as we worship and who leads us out into the world after we have been refreshed and renewed by this time together each week. It is this Good Shepherd who tends us when we gather here for funerals and memorial services, and this Good Shepherd who gently rejoices with us in times of marriage and baptism. In fact, if we were a Lutheran church, we would probably be called the Church of the Good Shepherd, in the way that Lutherans do. For it is this same shepherd, lighted from within, whose light shines out over our neighborhood every night, offering peace and shelter and rest to all who pass by and to all who sleep in the shadow of his shepherd's crook.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. Dear brothers and sisters, Christ Jesus is our great Shepherd. Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil. Thanks be to God.

The trajectory of Easter has brought us to this fourth Good Shepherd Sunday in which the risen Christ still walks among us, as the Good Shepherd now, but even so, it propels us way beyond this moment to the end of time and the beginning of eternity, as well. And that comes from the book of Revelation, chapter 7, verses 9-17.

The Good Shepherd is become the Lamb, seated on the throne. And what a glorious scene this is! From out of all nations, all races, all classes, all cultures, the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the young and the old. All witnesses of the Resurrection, believers in the power of the Risen Christ, privileged now to gather round their true Shepherd, who will guide them to springs of living water and wipe every tear from their eye. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Indeed, as I said last week, there is more to Easter than just Easter. Easter transforms us from people living unto ourselves into disciples of the risen Lord. Easter calls us into ministries of service and praise. Easter points our sights way beyond the visible horizon, on into the new heaven and the new earth, our vision and our promise. Easter makes the future possible for each of us, for the church, and for the whole creation.

You see, all of time is now revealed to be embraced within the cosmic scope of the love of the Good Shepherd, who is the Lamb of God. And so, we need fear no evil, ever, not now, or in the future we can see, or even way beyond into the future that is yet to come. All of it is held in a love whose scope is so wide and so deep and so high as to frame the whole of time and the whole of space.

This is awesome! It's why we often turn to art and music to express it rather than trying to just talk, because words alone can barely take us to the place we can go in our hearts and souls with this knowledge. A place of awe and reverence and true peace, where springs of living water flow abundantly, and a feast is prepared.

Let me just make an observation here, friends. This awe and love and joy and peace is what the book of Revelation is really about. I know there's a whole series of best sellers out there now that would tell us differently, the Left Behind series, books that hype violence and guilt and paranoia and fear. Entertainment they may be, but gospel, good news, they are not. God's word for us is a word of love, a word of hope, a word of radical inclusiveness, a word of empowerment, a call to ministry to each of us disciples, a word of redemption for the whole of creation and the whole of time.

And our knowing this and believing this makes all the difference in our lives. All the difference in the world. It starts in our baptism and continues through our confirmation and membership in the church. And right on throughout our lives of service and praise. This long trajectory of the Good News of Easter frames our lives in the big picture of things. It gives us the long view. It helps us value what's really important and not worry so much about the rest. It reminds us to invest for the long haul, and I'm not talking stock market here, I'm talking our kids, our children and youth. Our confirmation class. The children of Family Place and of our Nursery School. Our Appalachia Service Project team. It helps families set priorities amidst the clamor of soccer practice and a million other things. It helps us all set priorities for our time, our money, our gifts and our service. It sets us free from fear and guilt into new Easter lives of witness and discipleship.

Entering into the new life of the resurrected Christ, our Good Shepherd, means that we become new as well, a "brand-new person in Jesus" as Dr. Norman Neaves of the Church of the Servant in Oklahoma City puts it. In a recent sermon, he told their Confirmation Class that "being a Christian means believing something different than we have ever believed in the past, and it also means being something different than we have ever been in the past." On the day of their confirmation, he said to them, "Today you become a new person!"

What a great word for our confirmands and for all of us on this Good Shepherd Sunday, on which our confirmands have baked our communion bread and will be serving us the Lord's Supper. The risen Christ invites us all to become new! To see our lives in a whole new light. To give up our fears and live as the free people we are. To live not only for ourselves, but in harmony with all God's children. To take the long view and invest in our children and youth. To open our hearts wider to the amazing grace of God's love that encompasses all of time and space. To be rooted and grounded in the love of the Good Shepherd who watches over us and sends us forth.

Let us now prepare our hearts to receive what Martin Luther called "the true Easter bread on which we eat and live well." Let us prepare to come before the throne of the Lamb, and find shelter there for our hearts. There we will hunger no more, thirst no more. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be our shepherd, and will guide us to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. To him be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. Alleluia! Amen.

NOTES:
With thanks to "Thrust," the newsletter of the Church of the Servant and Dr. Norman Neaves. And to L. Gregory Jones writing on "Taking the long view" in the Christian Century, April 11, 2001.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2001.  Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.  All other rights reserved.