Rest in His Peace - Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter, April 25, A+D 2021

Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 25,  Anno Domini 2021                                            Rest in His Peace                                                     Psalm 23 and John 10      

(Video of whole service available here:  https://youtu.be/eKGb-xqtBOo Sermon Hymn and Sermon from 16:45-33:30)        

1) The King of love my Shepherd is, Whose goodness faileth never;

I nothing lack if I am His, And He is mine forever.

   Rest in Peace.  That's a funeral blessing.  We just heard the Good Shepherd Gospel, and we’ve prayed Psalm 23, which goes so beautifully with it.   Psalm 23 makes me think of funerals, because we choose it so often, to comfort us at the death of a loved one.  To remind us that God does not abandon the faithful departed.  Jesus shepherds them still, in heaven. 

   But today I’m not saying 'Rest in Peace' about the dead.  I say it to you.  God's Word is living and active; it does not return to Him with accomplishing His desire.  And so with confidence I pray that God will use His Word, from Psalm 23, and from the Good Shepherd Gospel, to give you Peace.  The Peace that passes all understanding.  The Peace that comes from knowing the Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for you, and has taken it up again.  The Peace of being a lamb, safe within the Shepherd's arms.  Rest in His Peace.  

2)  Where streams of living water flow, My ransomed soul He leadeth,

And where the verdant pastures grow, With food celestial feedeth.

   How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we should be called children of God!  How great is the love the Father has lavished upon us, that we have been called into His family through the living waters of Baptism.  That He should feed us with the Word of Life, and comfort us with the promise of the heavenly banquet, the table we look forward to joining, that table headed by our Good Shepherd, who prepares a place for us, in glory.  And until that grand day, our Good Shepherd hosts another table, here, in the midst of so many enemies, feeding His flock with His true Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all our sins.  What a privilege for us, to gather and feast on the meal that brings us into such mysterious communion with our crucified and resurrected Savior.   

3)  Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, But yet in love He sought me,

And on His shoulder gently laid, And home rejoicing brought me.

   Rest in Peace.  Or, as Jesus said to the disciples, hiding in the upper room: Peace be with you.  We must hear, again and again, the words that our Resurrected Lord said to his frightened disciples on evening of the Resurrection.  Peace be with you.  We must hear these words, because like the Eleven, we fear.  And in our fear we stray.  We doubt and disbelieve, and look to earthly goods and powers for rescue.  When these idols fail us, we sometimes seek escape in sinful passions.  We hurt ourselves, and we hurt others.  And we are hurt by others, most painfully by those closest to us. Left unhealed, such hurts can only lead our injured hearts to want to hurt someone else, in return.  A tragic cycle of pain, inflicted and received, and inflicted and received, again and again.   

   Unless Jesus breaks the cycle.  Unless Jesus comes and speaks to us again:  “Peace be with you.”  Jesus intervenes to declare:  “I AM the Good Shepherd.  I gave my life for my sheep.  For you.  And I have risen victorious from the grave, and I share my new life, with you.”   Jesus must seek us out.  He must search the pasture and find us in the gullies and mudholes of our lives, pick us up out of the muck, forgive us, cleanse us, and bring us home again.  Jesus must seek us out, and He does.   

   In the coming weeks we will celebrate High School graduations and also Confirmation.  Joyous events, milestones, occasions to rejoice.  But also times to worry.  Because transitions bring separations, and new life situations, and the risk that lambs of the Shepherd’s flock will wander away.  We worry that our young people will be influenced by the world and drift away from their Savior. 

   We should worry for our youth, and really for anyone going through transition and change.  We worry because we know ourselves.  We know how prone we are to wander away.  But because He knows His sheep, the Good Shepherd's faithfulness is constant.  It the same for the young as it is for the middle aged and for the elderly.  He is faithful to seek for every last wandering lamb.  Jesus your Good Shepherd never stops searching, and He is always ready to carry you home.  Be a wise sheep, and gather at His feet, every chance you get.  Feed on His good food.   Hear Him say, again and again: "I love you, so much that I died and rose again, for you."  Rest in Peace, even as you go to live your busy lives.  Rest in Jesus. 

4)  In death's dark vale I fear no ill, With thee, dear Lord, beside me,

Thy rod and staff my comfort still, Thy cross before to guide me.

    From the young to the old.  From those just discovering the pains and joys of life, to those who find life slipping away.  For all people at every stage of life, the Good Shepherd is there, for you.  Jesus is always present, with the same gifts in His gentle, nail scarred hands, gifts for the young, and the old, and the in between.  He carries the same strong staff with which to protect you at every stage of life. 

    It may seem to the young and the old that your lives are so different, separated by so many decades.  Certainly the world has changed.  Life is at the same time so much easier, and so much harder.  We have such amazing technology and all the information in the world at our fingertips, but along the way we seemed to have broken the family, and our communities.  We are so often so isolated.  We are so lonely, and despair haunts so many. 

    The world has definitely changed.  But our lives really aren’t so different.  Our most fundamental desires, problems and needs are always the same.  We never stop being sheep, who need to belong to a flock.  We all need people who love us.  We are also like sheep in that we are prone to doing dumb things, easily confused and lost, always vulnerable to the attacks of ravenous wolves.  So remember, the Good Shepherd's cross is always your protection.  It's power to guide, protect and forgive you never fades.  Rest in the shadow of the Cross, for there you will find His Peace.   

 5)  Thou spreadst a table in my sight; Thine unction grace bestoweth;

And, oh, what transport of delight, From Thy pure chalice floweth!

    Unction.  Do you know what that word means?  I’ve only ever heard ‘unction’ in churchly contexts, and even then, it’s a rare word, understood by few.  And words that we don’t comprehend don’t feed our faith.  Unction is a challenging word, which is ironic, because it is so wonderful.  Unction refers to God’s love and grace, poured out upon us.  Unction is connected to the fact that God knows sometimes we need more than words.  God knows that while speech and hearing are essential to faith, we are not made of only ears and minds.  We are also made of hands and feet; we are physical bodies, covered with skin that feels.  Knowing how He created us, God bestoweth grace, He gives us His Peace in ways that hit all our senses.  He uses pictures and art, music and architecture to communicate His Good News.  He spreads a table in our sight, to fill our mouths and our bellies.  And He uses unction to love us as well.  Unction, that is, anointing, that is, pouring liquid over us, holy fluid that our eyes can see and our skin can feel.  The Lord is gracious to us through His unction, by anointing us. 

     For King David, the author of Psalm 23, unction was with olive oil, anointing him as King of Israel.  For us, God offers a holier liquid, the living waters of Baptism, where you were made a citizen of the New Israel, born again into the family of God.  Now, whenever you wash your hands and face with good, clean water, you can also remember that you have been washed with better water, water combined with God’s Word, with His holy and powerful Name, the saving unction of Christ Jesus. 

    As baptized believers, your sins are washed away and you are invited to the family table, where the simplest of words are connected to the most basic of foods: Bread and Wine.  This is my Body, this is my Blood.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  A foretaste of the feast to come, given and shed to forgive all your sins.  The Holy Spirit uses these things, His Holy Unction and His Holy Supper, to give you rock solid connections to your Good Shepherd, connections that you can see and feel and taste, your connections to His Cross and Empty Tomb, where He laid down His life and took it up again, for you.  Rest in His Peace.    

 6)  And so through all the length of days, Thy goodness faileth never.

Good Shepherd, may I sing Thy praise, Within Thy house forever. 

   Our goodness fails.  We won't make it to the end of today before our goodness fails.  We won’t even make it out of the parking lot before we’ve fallen again.  Our goodness fails.  But your Shepherd's goodness is perfect.  It lasts forever, and it covers over all our failures.  So you can always get up, and try again.  Or better to say, Jesus will pick you up and continue to work in and through you, to speak of His love and share it with others.  You can give it away, for His love never fails.  It is limitless, and everlasting.  And for this, we sing His praise, now, and within His house forever.  

1) The King of love my Shepherd is, Whose goodness faileth never;

I nothing lack if I am His, And He is mine forever.

You are His.  And He is yours, forever.  Rest in His Peace.  Amen.