A Testimony, and Following His Voice: An Easter Season sermon
Grace and Peace to you,
My sisters
Brothers
And
Siblings in Christ
When will we
Put down our weapons,
The tools in which humanity
Has so crudely fashioned
Whether its through words of hatred
Or through our unending arsenal of suffering,
Against fragile bodies
When will we,
Follow the One,
Who we proclaim to be
The Good Shepherd
But was so much more,
Jesus Christ,
The Risen Son of God,
Who defeats death
And gives us,
Life.
Amen.
(pause)
“The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.”
(pause)
“But the judgment of God
is upon the church as never before.
If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church,
it will lose its authenticity,
forfeit the loyalty of millions,
and be dismissed
as an irrelevant social club with no meaning
for the twentieth century.
Every day I meet young people
whose disappointment with the church
has turned into outright disgust.”
King voiced that
In his Letter from Jail,
People are still
Echoing this same sentiment
All over social media,
In conversations
That the Church,
Does not reflect
Or care
Unless there is
An economic investment
Or securing
The damaging
And ever present
Status quo.
(pause)
We claim,
As Christians
We are sheep,
Obedient to the Shepherd
That we will follow His voice
But,
We mock Jesus
When we don’t follow His commands
To love one another.
We don’t show love,
When teenagers growing up on the streets of Ferguson,
Fed up with the racial violence that has been legally sanctioned
Upon their bodies,
Decide to link arms,
And chant over,
And again,
That they refuse to allow this to happen anymore
That they demand justice
That they are not animals
That they will fight for their freedom,
Because in this country,
They aren’t free.
We forget,
That the Lord,
That Jesus
Is linking arms with them
Staring in the face of that maliciousness
Daring the police to arrest Him,
(pause)
“God, my shepherd!
I don’t need anything!”
But we misconstrue His Word,
His covenant with us,
Because its not just with you,
Or with just you
Or just with me,
This radicalness,
Through the Cross
Is as, Dr. Featherstone states
“A clarion call to the community of faith”
And all of humanity,
To be with,
For,
And in community with God,
With each other,
Wherever there is weakness,
Despair
And
Abandonment.
The cross,
Is that recommitment
To God’s people
Of God’s care,
Shalom,
Newness of life!
We ignore this promise,
By ignoring His Voice,
When He calls us
To carry our neighbor,
When they can’t stand on their own
Anymore.
Why then,
Would anyone
Not see the reflection of Christ,
In bodies,
In a young Black man’s body
Laying in his grandmother’s front yard
Riddled with bullet holes
Because someone has passed judgement
Made assumptions
I wonder would they still have shot them,
If Jesus was standing with Him,
If they claim to be the sheep,
That follow the Shepherd
(pause)
“Because the Lord is my shepherd,
I have everything I need!”
(pause)
Well, if that is true,
Then in turn
We should give to others,
Who perhaps
Because of the ugliness of the world,
Don’t have enough
Regardless of who they are
We should not barter food
In return for their conversion,
All the while claiming
That we are pro-life.
If we sing Psalm 23,
If we clutch our Bibles and proclaim Psalm 23 publicly,
Then why do we switch the channels
And scoff
When Puerto Rico is without resources,
And their people so desperate,
That they are giving up living
Because no one thinks that their bodies are worthy!
When Flint does not have any access to clean water,
And they weep
And want to give up living
When an activist fighting and resisting
Against the oppression
GIVES UP
Their life,
Because they don’t think that they will ever make any difference,
That the system will always be corrupt
And that they are finally broken
(pause)
But they hear Jesus’s voice,
They are not alone,
“Today,
You
Will
Be
With
Me
In
Paradise.”
(pause)
Psalm 23,
is not passiveness.
Yes,
Psalm 23,
Invites us into a space,
Of serenity
Invites us into that space,
Where regardless of what chaos
Erupts
There is that moment,
We can be
Be before God,
Allowed to be vulnerable
Authentic
Naked
Before the Creator
So that we can be
Healed.
(paused)
Be before the Holy Spirit,
Allowed to expose our wounds,
So that She,
Can quench our hurts
With FIRE
And in turn,
Empower us
Free us,
To
RISE!
(pause)
Be before the feet,
Of the One
Who causes us,
To BE STILL
And KNOW,
That regardless of our faults
Or our sins
WE
ARE
FORGIVEN.
(pause)
But,
If we are going to cling to Psalm 23,
We in turn have to LISTEN
And adhere
To JESUS’S VOICE,
Because Jesus is leading us,
Not into inaction
But forward
To actively live out our faith,
JESUS,
Brings us close,
Gives us a glimpse
That everything is going to be alright
FEEDS US
So that our spirits are energized,
And can’t stay still
And we can’t help ourselves,
And we see that reflection of Jesus Christ,
In our neighbors,
In the stranger
And no matter what the world attempts to dissuade
Or discourage
Or threaten us with,
God has marked us,
With the sign of the Cross
With cleansing waters of Creation
With His WORD,
And God has the last say,
PERIOD.
(pause)
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear nothing,
For you are with me.”
I embody this now,
A couple of weeks ago,
I should have been going about my usual,
Chaotic
Morning routine.
Instead,
I experience what I now know,
As an event,
Involving a seizure.
My doctors have told me I can’t drive
For 6 months
That I must take meds
To prevent a full blown seizure,
That I’ll have to stay in the hospital
So that they can monitor me for a whole week,
That my life must change,
So that I am intentional about how I continue my journey,
And my ministry,
But I am not afraid,
None of us are afraid,
Even when we face medical difficulties
Because we hear the Shepherd’s voice,
Because we are marked and protected and covered
By the sacrifice of the Shepherd,
So we
Can
Keep
Fighting
And
Moving
On!
(pause)
Thanks Be to God.
