April 21, 2024 – Easter +3B

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” John 10:11-18

I remember listening to a story on the radio. It was a story about colors – the origin of words for colors in different languages. Did you know, for most languages, the first words that develop for colors is always black and white –– followed by red, yellow, green, and finally blue. The word for Red is always first — after black and white — and blue is always last. Some current languages, in fact, do not have a word for the color blue. Isn’t that odd? Did you also know that the color blue is not found in the bible? Those who worry a lot about the origin of words are people who like to read ancient writers like Homer – the author of such works as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”. Homer, you see, seemed to have a problem seeing colors; he called the ocean “dark wine” colored – which is the color he also used to describe cows and other animals. It presented some questions about Ancient Greeks and their ability to perceive color. It is possible, in light of evolutionary theory, that the retina of the Ancient Greek was not evolved to the point of full color perception. Different mammals have varying degrees of color vision and eyes are especially prone to mutation. But besides this evolutionary question there is the question of consciousness, the question of perception. This color vision problem could have been caused by a lack of visual perception that would lead to the creation of new words that were needed to explain a visual phenomenon. OK, let me simplify that – there is a phenomenon called “Linguistic Relativity” – or the inability to perceive a “thing” because there is no word that exists to explain it. Is it possible we cannot “see” something because we do not have a word for it – or is there more going on?

Did you know that sheep can only see SIX feet in front of their face? That means SHEEP…get lost six feet at a time – because they cannot see beyond six feet. Sheep, in other words, were the original “physically distancing” animal. Now, why is this important? Well, because I think we, like sheep, get so caught up in what is happening within our 6x6x6x6 personal space that we do not perceive others — especially others who are in need of our help.

WE are all like sheep – we can so easily get lost…a little bit at a time — because our perception becomes short-sided. We aren’t necessarily blind, we are near-sighted and do not see beyond our own needs. A sheep does not wake up some morning and say “I think I’ll try some green pastures over in Hershey today, or down at the beach”— they can’t see that far! A sheep GOES ASTRAY six feet at a time. WE get lost a little bit at a time — and we lose sight and go astray from our community SIX FEET at a time.

Where is the Good Shepherd leading you today? Over the next eight months this is the question we as a church should be asking ourselves. We have opportunities and challenges ahead of us. Now is the time to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus our Good Shepherd asking them to lead and guide us.

Pastor Dave

April 20, 2024 – The Coffee Shop Devotions: A Long Shot

“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.  And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Matthew 9:9-11

In my coffee shop devotions I have talked a lot about “shots of espresso”. In my conversations with various baristas I have learned that there are three kinds of “shots”. There is the regular shot – just a regular amount of coffee and a regular amount of hot water – whatever “regular” means.

Then there is the “Ristretto” which is a short shot of espresso coffee made with the normal amount of ground coffee but extracted with about half the amount of water. And finally there is the “long shot”. As the young man explained to me, the “long shot” is taking the regular amount of coffee but drawing water through it for a longer period of time, so that the result is something more akin to an Americano than a shot of espresso.

Of course, when we talk about long shots, we usually come up with another idea. There have been lots of long shots in the world, especially the sports world, and this year, the world of soccer saw one of the longest of long shots ever. Out of nowhere, the 5000-1 outsiders Leicester City won the Premier League soccer title in 2016. And in 2013, bookmakers thought the rock singer Bono of the band “U-2” had a 1000-1 chance of being the next Pope. Without exaggeration, Leicester’s season to win the Premier League is one of the unlikeliest, most shocking events in the history of sports.

And in deciding who his disciples would be, who would be in the “inner circle” of disciples, when it came time for Jesus to pick the big twelve, Matthew the tax collector would have been another long shot. But when called, Matthew immediately left everything to “follow him”. And soon enough, Jesus is dining in Matthew’s home. There is an immediate connection between Jesus and Matthew – one that goes beyond just being another fringe disciple. If you think about it, most of the disciples were long shots. These men who were fishermen, who were poor, who were uneducated, and who lacked the qualifications, none of them would have been on anyone’s short list for leaders in Jesus’ school of theology.

And that, my friends, is good news for you and me. We often think we do not have the qualifications to serve our churches – to serve either on congregation council, to lead a bible study, or even to participate in the ministries. We forget that Jesus selected his disciples from people who had no qualifications, no resume, and no letters of recommendation. Jesus was just looking for people who would follow him. I think you and have that qualification, don’t you?

Pastor Dave