FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Year C
May 12, 2019
What the
kids at school know about me, is that I have an imaginary, magical and
invisible treasure chest. At the end of
each school music lesson, two children are chosen to receive a prize from the
treasure chest. Believe it or not, the
kids love this and if I forget to do it, they soon remind me. One day a young girl chose a bouncy ball out
of the imaginary, magical and invisible treasure chest and on her way back to
the class room a boy stole her imaginary ball.
There was a ruckus as they entered the classroom and the teacher
demanded to know what was going on and then, after being told that the boy had
the girl’s ball, the teacher commanded the boy to give it back. At this point I had already left the class
but overheard the conversation and I laughed, because the whole thing was
imaginary.
Often the
children will tell me that they snatched my treasure chest from me. I tell them that they can’t take it. It belongs to me and stays with me and no one
can take it… that is just the way it is.
Similarly
Jesus tells us; “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can
snatch it out of the Father's hand. The
Father and I are one."
In these weeks
following the Resurrection we’ve read stories that show a tension between faith
and doubt. There are two ways we could
look at this Gospel reading. One way
would be to say that those who don’t accept the message of Jesus (those who
doubt) are not listening to his voice and therefore not his sheep. The other way is to focus on those who DO
respond to the voice of Jesus. But either of these could lead us to judgements
and incorrect assumptions unless we look at some of the facts… and I actually
think the more crucial part of the message just might be that small statement
that Jesus repeats; NO one will snatch us out of His or the father’s hand.
This
conversation in our Gospel reading, is taking place prior to the crucifixion
and resurrection and Jesus was saying, “No one will snatch them out of my hand”.
Think about
it. This conversation is happening
before Peter denied Christ. This
conversation is happening before Thomas doubted. BUT also keep in mind that this conversation
is taking place before the conversion of St. Paul.
At this
point in our Gospel account, Jesus was the talk of the town with the miracles
that he performed, yet they didn’t believe him to be the Messiah, and they
asked him straight out. Let’s compare
this to our story of Tabitha.
Tabitha was
a woman known for her good works. She
died and the believers heard that Peter was nearby. They sent for him and the result was that
Tabitha was again alive…. This become known throughout Joppa and many believed. Why did people respond with belief through
the ministry of Peter, yet failed to be so receptive with Jesus? At the time of Tabitha, the people would have
heard the buzz about Jesus and his resurrection, and they’d have heard of the
works and miracles of the followers of Jesus, so it seems that perhaps the
evidence was growing and becoming undeniable.
Yet in the
time prior… the time between the resurrection and the day of Pentecost, (ie..
the liturgical time we are now celebrating in the church),our attention is
drawn to stories of faith and failure, of doubt and proof, and throughout it
all we have re-instatement and, most
importantly, reassurance…. today I would like to point out that repeated sentence
- no one can snatch us out of God’s hand.
In that
period after the crucifixion and before the day of Pentecost, It must have
seemed like the followers of Jesus were scattered and lost. That is what the authorities were
hoping. They hoped that with the crucifixion,
all this upheaval and talk of Jesus being the Messiah would simply vanish and
that those people would return to their previous way of life. This is what we all tend to do when we are
under pressure and Peter did it when he announced in last week’s readings, that
he was going fishing… we go back to what
we’ve known and the things about which we are sure and secure.
To put the
story into perspective we need to understand that the message of Jesus actually
seemed like heresy to the religious leaders.
There was a huge buzz among the people and it must have seemed like a
question of who was actually hearing
God’s voice and who was being led
astray. I imagine it would have been
rather difficult to know. After all, is
it the sensible thing to go with the traditions that we’ve always had…. Or follow
the radical miracle worker?
Saint Paul
when he was still known as Saul the Pharisee, was certain that he was doing God’s
work when he set about persecuting the Christians and giving approval to the
stoning of Stephen. So how can we know,
even now that we are listening to, and hearing the voice of God, and not some imitation?
Let’s just
remember that imitations are designed to deceive and are hard to decipher. I remember someone telling about expert who
are trained to spot counterfeit money.
They spend lots of time studying the REAL thing. That is all they really need. When you are so
completely familiar with the genuine article then it is easy to spot the fake.
Jesus is
the good Shepherd and he says that his sheep know his voice. Have you ever heard someone explain
something and it is just like a light bulb goes on? It’s an “Ah-ha” moment. That is what I mostly think it is like, to
recognise Jesus as the Messiah. But
sometimes we can be simply listening to a voice that is saying what we want to
hear – or expect to hear… Is it the voice of God – or does it just sound like
His? We are very familiar with our own
voice, but to recognise the voice of God we need to spend time hearing it.
When we
read the stories in the Bible we see that the apostles often quoted scripture
to explain that Jesus was the Messiah.
They explained the Good News of Salvation by explaining the scriptures,
and with the power of the Holy Spirit and the signs and wonders that
accompanied, people were convinced. I
can imagine, however, that there must have been great uneasiness along the way –
just as there is with any time of great change, and this was really an unparalleled
time of change. In fact, the favourable
response to such great change only serves to prove that God was speaking and
people were hearing and recognising their creator.
Before the
time of Pentecost however, the Jesus, the shepherd had been struck and the
sheep were scattered. Peter had denied
Jesus and Thomas doubted – who knows what was going on with numerous others?
How can we
make sense of Peter actually denying Jesus?
Peter was the one who had earlier proclaimed Jesus to be the
Messiah? And perhaps a more important
question is, are we any better? We all go
somewhat astray and if we don’t, we most likely would if a little pressure was
applied. By the grace of God we live in
a place and time where being a follower of Jesus is not so life-threatening, and
admitting our Christianity is not such an extreme pressure.
Jesus is
the Good Shepherd. It is vital that we
understand that just because we have times of doubt and failure, we are not
lost from the flock or snatched away…. But there are times when things prevent
us from hearing God’s voice. In the case
of Peter denying Christ, Peter’s fear seemed to be in the driver’s seat,
directing his actions.
If you have
ever seen the animated movie, “Inside out”, you might understand how things can
go a little off track. The movie shows
the inside of a pre-teen girl’s mind and inside that mind, are characters such
as disgust, fear, sadness, joy and anger.
The movie showed how when there is a dominant emotion who rejects the
validity of the others things go pear shaped.
In many ways this is what happens to all of us, and when our emotions (for
example) of fear, or distrust take over, they can prevent us from hearing God’s
voice. Many of us will build walls
around our emotions so that only the ones we deem acceptable can be seen. But these walls also tend to prevent us from
hearing God’s voice – and sometimes it takes a lot of jack-hammering for the
voice of God to break through.
Though we
may have some - or many - weak moments, where we fail to hear God’s voice, it
is important for us to know God is in control and No one can snatch us from God’s
hand.
There may
be people in our lives to whom we speak about Jesus, but they don’t believe in
God and can’t seem to accept the message of Salvation. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not
part of Gods flock, but simply that there is something in the way preventing
them from hearing God’s voice. Saint
Paul was certainly one who we’d have thought was not part of God’s flock, and
there have been many others throughout history, who persecuted Christians, only
to have a dramatic turn around when somehow that voice of God broke through.
The early
Christians lived in exciting times. People
were raised from the dead and the words of the apostles were proved because there
were signs and wonders that followed. But
none of those signs and wonders had Saint Paul convinced. Saint Paul was an enemy of Christians, and
when God spoke to him, the voice was so unfamiliar that Paul had to ask “who
are you Lord”.
Signs and
wonders sure are amazing, but the voice of God is everything.
In our lives, are we looking for signs and
wonders or do we listen for the voice of God?
In our own strength,
with every fibre of our being convicted of the message of Christ, we can still
go astray, so we need to get to know the voice of the Good Shepherd who will
not let us be snatched out of his hand.
I would
like to end with a song by Keith Green who wrote about his experience when he
finally heard the voice of God, or in his words, God’s love broke through. “Like waking up from the longest dream… how
real it seemed, until your love broke through…”
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