Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Did Somebody Call My Name?" (May 6, 1990)
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| - | A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John: | 0:13 |
| "Truly, truly, I say to you, | 0:20 | |
| "anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the door | 0:23 | |
| "but climbs in by another way is a thief and a robber. | 0:27 | |
| "But the one who enters by the door | 0:33 | |
| "is the shepherd of the sheep. | 0:34 | |
| "To this one, the gatekeeper opens. | 0:37 | |
| "The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd, | 0:40 | |
| "who calls them by name and leads them out. | 0:43 | |
| "After bringing all of them out, | 0:47 | |
| "the shepherd goes before them. | 0:49 | |
| "And the sheep follow, | 0:51 | |
| "for they know the shepherd's voice. | 0:52 | |
| "A stranger they will not follow, | 0:56 | |
| "but they will flee away. | 0:58 | |
| "For they do not know the voice of strangers." | 1:00 | |
| This figure Jesus used with the disciples, | 1:04 | |
| but they did not understand what he was saying to them. | 1:07 | |
| So Jesus said again, | 1:11 | |
| "Truly, truly, I say to you | 1:13 | |
| "I am the door of the sheep. | 1:15 | |
| "All who came before me are thieves and robbers. | 1:18 | |
| "But the sheep did not heed them. | 1:22 | |
| "I am the door. | 1:24 | |
| "Whoever enters by me will be saved | 1:26 | |
| "and will go in and out | 1:28 | |
| "and find pasture. | 1:31 | |
| "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. | 1:34 | |
| "I came that they may have life | 1:40 | |
| "and have it abundantly." | 1:42 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 1:45 | |
| One of the deepest needs of the human heart, | 1:54 | |
| it seems to me, | 1:57 | |
| is the need to be appreciated and cared for. | 1:59 | |
| Every human being that I know at least wants to be valued | 2:03 | |
| and to be understood for who he or she is. | 2:07 | |
| This is not to say that we need accolades | 2:11 | |
| of praise and adoration | 2:13 | |
| to be constantly heaped upon our heads; | 2:15 | |
| for though that may be a desire for us from time to time, | 2:18 | |
| that is not fundamental to our existence. | 2:23 | |
| Perhaps we could say | 2:27 | |
| that every human being wants to be loved. | 2:28 | |
| But even that hints of ambiguity. | 2:32 | |
| There are as many variations on the understanding of love | 2:35 | |
| as there are species of flowers. | 2:39 | |
| And too often those understandings limit our idea of love | 2:42 | |
| to something romantic. Something which is so fulfilling, | 2:46 | |
| or something merely sexual. | 2:50 | |
| There is, however, a deeper need, | 2:53 | |
| without which we cannot exist | 2:56 | |
| and that is the need for acceptance. | 2:59 | |
| Every human being craves to be accepted | 3:03 | |
| without fear of abandonment. | 3:05 | |
| Nothing in human life has such a lasting and fatal effect | 3:08 | |
| as the experience of not being accepted. | 3:12 | |
| When a person is not accepted, | 3:17 | |
| then something in that person is broken. | 3:18 | |
| A baby who is not welcomed | 3:22 | |
| is severely impaired or even ruined | 3:25 | |
| at the roots of his or her existence. | 3:27 | |
| A student who does not feel accepted by his or her teacher | 3:31 | |
| certainly will have difficulty learning | 3:35 | |
| or may not learn at all. | 3:37 | |
| A worker who does not feel accepted | 3:40 | |
| by his or her colleagues on the job | 3:42 | |
| will suffer from interminable tensions and anxiety, | 3:45 | |
| probably making life miserable at home for everybody else. | 3:49 | |
| A life without acceptance is a life in which | 3:54 | |
| a fundamental human need goes unmet. | 3:58 | |
| And so in three of today's lessons we are confronted | 4:03 | |
| with the image of the shepherd as one who accepts us | 4:05 | |
| in our broken condition, | 4:09 | |
| promising never to abandon us, | 4:12 | |
| and even who lays down his life for us. | 4:14 | |
| The beloved 23rd Psalm depicts Yahweh | 4:19 | |
| as the shepherd of Israel. | 4:22 | |
| While the gospel from John | 4:25 | |
| applies the shepherd image to Jesus, | 4:27 | |
| who calls us by name. | 4:29 | |
| The epistle reading expands on the image | 4:32 | |
| of Christ as shepherd, | 4:34 | |
| reminding us of our former status as straying sheep | 4:35 | |
| who have been rescued by the shepherd and guardian | 4:39 | |
| of our souls. | 4:42 | |
| In our own time and place, | 4:45 | |
| a shepherd, of course, is a rare sight, | 4:46 | |
| so removed are we from the lifestyle which they live. | 4:49 | |
| Yet the essential relationship | 4:53 | |
| between sheep and shepherd remains the same. | 4:55 | |
| According to today's lessons, | 4:59 | |
| the sheep are well-known to the shepherd and understood. | 5:01 | |
| They follow the shepherd, for they know his voice, | 5:05 | |
| unlike the stranger, whose voice they do not know. | 5:08 | |
| The shepherd can be trusted never to abandon them. | 5:13 | |
| He leads the hungry sheep out | 5:17 | |
| that they might find pasture for sustenance, | 5:19 | |
| calling them by name. | 5:23 | |
| Such frequent biblical references to the relationship | 5:26 | |
| between shepherd and sheep therefore, | 5:29 | |
| continue to enlighten us about our own relationship to God. | 5:31 | |
| I'm struck by the importance of being called by one's name | 5:37 | |
| when I realize the number of times | 5:41 | |
| that doesn't happen in our world. | 5:43 | |
| Have you ever answered the telephone, | 5:46 | |
| only to get one of those annoying computer voices | 5:48 | |
| announcing that you are now eligible for a new credit card? | 5:51 | |
| How dare you intrude upon my day with yet | 5:55 | |
| another reminder of my anonymity? | 5:58 | |
| I want to shout into someone's ear, | 6:01 | |
| but there's no one's ear there to shout into. | 6:03 | |
| Perhaps you've heard about a children's book | 6:08 | |
| called Whobody There? | 6:10 | |
| And Whobody There? is about the difference | 6:13 | |
| in being whobody and an anybody. | 6:14 | |
| Anybodys send out mail in envelopes with windows in them. | 6:19 | |
| But whobodys send out mail | 6:24 | |
| with your name printed on the front, | 6:26 | |
| with real handwriting that you recognize. | 6:27 | |
| Anybodys call to see if you need new siding for the house | 6:31 | |
| or another magazine subscription | 6:36 | |
| or maybe a tuneup for the car. | 6:39 | |
| Whobodys call up and ask for you by name. | 6:42 | |
| You can't wait to see how whobodys are doing | 6:46 | |
| and when you'll see them again. | 6:49 | |
| You would never consider a whobody an intrusion. | 6:51 | |
| The Psalms reminds us that no one can know us | 6:57 | |
| and value us like God. | 7:00 | |
| Yahweh, you examine me and you know me. | 7:04 | |
| You know if I am standing or sitting. | 7:08 | |
| You read my thoughts from afar. | 7:11 | |
| Whether I walk or lie down, you are watching. | 7:14 | |
| You know every detail of my conduct. | 7:16 | |
| Read Psalm 139. | 7:20 | |
| Not even our own parents had a way of knowing | 7:23 | |
| if they wanted me specifically, | 7:25 | |
| which may be a good thing when you think about it. | 7:28 | |
| At best, they wanted a boy or a girl. | 7:31 | |
| Only God wanted me uniquely, for who I am. | 7:35 | |
| What a gift to be known and accepted by God as I am | 7:40 | |
| and not for what I do. | 7:43 | |
| When people are appreciated for what they do, | 7:46 | |
| they're not really unique. | 7:48 | |
| There's always the chance that someone else | 7:51 | |
| could do the same job a little bit better, | 7:53 | |
| more efficiently, maybe a little more creatively. | 7:56 | |
| But what a waste of precious energy | 8:00 | |
| to spend our lives looking over our shoulders | 8:03 | |
| to see if someone is encroaching on our territory. | 8:05 | |
| Is he or she doing a better job than I am? | 8:09 | |
| Do they represent a threat to my security? | 8:12 | |
| What does the rest of the world think of me in comparison? | 8:15 | |
| God doesn't think in those terms at all, | 8:20 | |
| or anything like them. | 8:22 | |
| When people are accepted for what they are | 8:24 | |
| and not for what they do, | 8:26 | |
| they become unique and irreplaceable personalities | 8:28 | |
| who do not have to live under the shadow of comparisons. | 8:32 | |
| Indeed, we need assurance of God's acceptance | 8:36 | |
| in order to be our best selves. | 8:39 | |
| When we don't feel accepted, we're a nobody | 8:42 | |
| or perhaps an anybody, according to the whobody book | 8:46 | |
| and we cannot make peace with ourselves. | 8:49 | |
| We resort to boasting of our accomplishments, | 8:53 | |
| rigidity in our relationships, | 8:56 | |
| aggressive behavior, | 8:58 | |
| or any number of other ways to grasp at an identity. | 9:00 | |
| But when we do feel accepted, | 9:04 | |
| we can gratefully and peacefully answer to our own names | 9:06 | |
| without clinging to false identities. | 9:10 | |
| I don't have to try to be the person that I'm not. | 9:13 | |
| Likewise, I know that I'm accepted by God as I am | 9:18 | |
| and not as I should be. | 9:20 | |
| Not that God glosses over our shortcomings. | 9:23 | |
| To the contrary, to deny the defects of a person | 9:27 | |
| is to fail to accept that person. | 9:30 | |
| To truly known someone's defects | 9:34 | |
| is to touch the depth of that person. | 9:37 | |
| Such are the invaluable lessons of marriage | 9:41 | |
| and of an enduring friendship. | 9:44 | |
| Rather than forsaking us when we go astray, | 9:47 | |
| God seeks out the lost and celebrates their return. | 9:50 | |
| And the best part of all is that God's mercy never runs out, | 9:54 | |
| thank goodness. | 9:57 | |
| Because I never am as I should be. | 9:58 | |
| Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me | 10:02 | |
| all the days of my life. | 10:05 | |
| And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. | 10:07 | |
| God persists in calling us by name. | 10:11 | |
| Well that's all well and good, you're probably thinking, | 10:16 | |
| "I have faith that God loves and accepts me | 10:19 | |
| "and so I'm here rather than on the golf course | 10:21 | |
| "on a beautiful Sunday morning. | 10:23 | |
| "But while you're on the subject, preacher, | 10:26 | |
| "if God is really a shepherd to God's people | 10:29 | |
| "why is my Aunt Jane, a long-term church supporter | 10:33 | |
| "and the most generous woman I know, | 10:37 | |
| "suffering from breast cancer | 10:38 | |
| "when I've been praying for her to be healed? | 10:40 | |
| "Why are the couple next door about to split up, | 10:44 | |
| "when they've been seeing a pastoral counselor for a year? | 10:48 | |
| "Why was the teenager down the street | 10:52 | |
| "killed by a drunk driver | 10:55 | |
| "when he'd only recently joined the church? | 10:56 | |
| "Where is God when they need him?" | 10:59 | |
| Paul Tillich talks about faith | 11:04 | |
| as the courage to accept acceptance. | 11:06 | |
| The courage to accept God's acceptance of us. | 11:10 | |
| Now this may be an idea that doesn't strike you | 11:14 | |
| right between the eyes at first. | 11:16 | |
| To a certain extent, we've all become products of an era | 11:19 | |
| that makes believing as easy as falling off a log. | 11:22 | |
| Thanks to TV Evangelism, | 11:27 | |
| we live with a popular image of faith | 11:28 | |
| as mostly sweetness and light. | 11:30 | |
| And so we hardly know how to deal with challenges to faith. | 11:33 | |
| Why is it courageous to accept acceptance? | 11:37 | |
| Because faithful, innocent people do suffer, | 11:41 | |
| even our own families, even ourselves. | 11:46 | |
| And we want to cry out, | 11:50 | |
| "How can God permit this? | 11:51 | |
| "Why me? | 11:54 | |
| "Where's the good shepherd now?" | 11:55 | |
| Unlike mindless sheep, who roam around in a herd, | 11:59 | |
| doing what they are told, | 12:03 | |
| God gives us mise to question our faith | 12:04 | |
| and to try to make sense of our own experience. | 12:07 | |
| Is it any wonder that for a thinking person, at least, | 12:11 | |
| it does take courage to believe in God's faithfulness? | 12:14 | |
| No matter what happens to us. | 12:18 | |
| Rabbi Harold Kushner, whom you may recognize as the author | 12:22 | |
| of When Bad Things Happen To Good People, | 12:25 | |
| visited in Durham this past week. | 12:29 | |
| And he brought with him story after story | 12:31 | |
| illustrating exactly this point. | 12:33 | |
| His own story centers around the life of his son Aaron, | 12:36 | |
| who suffered from a rare disease called progeria | 12:40 | |
| and died at age 14. | 12:44 | |
| Progeria, which means rapid aging, | 12:47 | |
| destines a child never to grow very tall | 12:49 | |
| or to grow any hair, | 12:53 | |
| but to look like a very old person as a child | 12:54 | |
| and to die in his or her early teens. | 12:58 | |
| Now Rabbi Kushner and his wife had grown up | 13:02 | |
| with an image of God as an all-powerful, all-wise | 13:05 | |
| parent figure who would reward them | 13:08 | |
| if they were obedient and loving. | 13:10 | |
| God would, in turn, protect them from being hurt | 13:13 | |
| and from hurting themselves. | 13:17 | |
| Tragedies were supposed to happen | 13:19 | |
| to selfish, dishonest people whom he, as a rabbi, | 13:22 | |
| would then try to comfort by assuring them | 13:26 | |
| of God's forgiving love. | 13:29 | |
| How could such a tragedy be happening to him | 13:31 | |
| if God were truly a just god? | 13:34 | |
| He couldn't help thinking. | 13:37 | |
| And so he struggled with this for years. | 13:39 | |
| Either God is all-powerful but is not kind and fair | 13:41 | |
| or God is kind and fair but is not all-powerful, | 13:46 | |
| he concluded. | 13:50 | |
| Rabbi Kushner came down on the side of the latter | 13:53 | |
| and wrote a best-selling book to explain his views. | 13:57 | |
| Though much of what he said in that book | 14:01 | |
| has proven to be controversial, he did say something | 14:03 | |
| which has been universally agreed upon. | 14:07 | |
| And that is that people who pray for courage, | 14:10 | |
| for strength to bear the unbearable, | 14:13 | |
| for the grace to remember what they have left | 14:17 | |
| instead of what they have lost | 14:19 | |
| very often find their prayers answered. | 14:22 | |
| They discover they have more faith and more courage | 14:25 | |
| than they ever knew themselves to have. | 14:28 | |
| The window who asks on the day of her husband's funeral, | 14:32 | |
| "What do I have to live for now?" | 14:36 | |
| yet in the course of the ensuing weeks | 14:38 | |
| finds the reserve to wake up in the morning | 14:41 | |
| and to begin to look forward to the day. | 14:43 | |
| Or the man who loses his job and says, | 14:47 | |
| "I'm too old and tired to start all over again." | 14:50 | |
| But he starts over again nonetheless. | 14:54 | |
| Rabbi Kushner himself commented that | 14:59 | |
| prior to the news of their son's illness | 15:01 | |
| they would never have imagined | 15:03 | |
| that God could strengthen them, | 15:05 | |
| not only to endure but to celebrate the short life | 15:07 | |
| that Aaron lived. | 15:10 | |
| Yet God sent to their side a caring and sensitive community, | 15:12 | |
| bearing the love of God, | 15:16 | |
| like the man who made Aaron a scaled down tennis racket | 15:19 | |
| suitable to his size | 15:22 | |
| or the woman who gave him a small, handmade violin | 15:25 | |
| which was a family heirloom, | 15:29 | |
| or the children, who overlooked Aaron's strange appearance | 15:32 | |
| and physical limitations to play ball with him | 15:36 | |
| in the backyard. | 15:39 | |
| Such friends, such caring, were God's answer to prayer. | 15:41 | |
| Why do innocent people suffer with God as our shepherd? | 15:47 | |
| The conventional explanation that God sends us such burdens | 15:52 | |
| because he knows we're strong enough to handle them | 15:56 | |
| or that perhaps because we've done something to deserve it | 15:58 | |
| are cruel misinterpretations of scripture. | 16:02 | |
| Rabbi Kushner tells the story of a young bride-to-be | 16:06 | |
| whose fiance was killed in a car accident | 16:09 | |
| just three days before their wedding. | 16:12 | |
| At the hour when the wedding was scheduled to occur, | 16:15 | |
| his memorial service was held instead. | 16:17 | |
| Afterwards the young woman cried out, | 16:21 | |
| "If one more person tells me God did this to make me strong, | 16:23 | |
| "I'm going to scream! | 16:28 | |
| "Why do they want me to hate God?" | 16:30 | |
| For whatever reasons, | 16:35 | |
| God did not choose to create a perfect world. | 16:37 | |
| Flaws of nature, for instance, which govern so many aspects | 16:41 | |
| of our lives cannot tell the difference | 16:44 | |
| between good and bad. | 16:47 | |
| An earthquake causes a highway to collapse | 16:49 | |
| and people are killed. | 16:53 | |
| A genetic defect causes a child | 16:55 | |
| to be born mentally handicapped, | 16:57 | |
| a car which crashes into a tree at high speed | 17:01 | |
| most likely results in death or serious injury. | 17:04 | |
| People, on the other hand, can tell the difference | 17:09 | |
| between good and bad but are free to choose. | 17:12 | |
| And so tragically often choose evil over good. | 17:16 | |
| In offering us such choices in life, | 17:21 | |
| God obviously took a very big risk. | 17:24 | |
| It led his only son to die on a cross, | 17:27 | |
| but it also led God to reveal his power over sin and death | 17:31 | |
| through his resurrection. | 17:35 | |
| God never promised us | 17:39 | |
| a world free of pain and disappointment, | 17:40 | |
| but what God did promise is to see us through. | 17:43 | |
| Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death | 17:47 | |
| I will fear no evil. | 17:50 | |
| For thou art with me. | 17:52 | |
| We are not alone in our pain. | 17:56 | |
| God does provide provide the strength and courage | 17:58 | |
| in time of need to survive life's tragedies | 18:00 | |
| and life's unfairness. | 18:03 | |
| God continues to call us by name, | 18:06 | |
| in both the good times and the bad, | 18:09 | |
| and promises to redeem our suffering in the end. | 18:12 | |
| It takes courage to believe in God's faithfulness | 18:17 | |
| no matter what happens. | 18:20 | |
| God's promise never to abandon us is unfathomable. | 18:22 | |
| God's love for us is infinite. | 18:27 | |
| We can never grasp it or get hold of it, | 18:30 | |
| much less control it. | 18:33 | |
| About the only thing we can do is to jump | 18:36 | |
| into its bottomless depth | 18:37 | |
| and it always takes courage to jump. | 18:40 | |
| It has been said that faith is like a person | 18:45 | |
| climbing a very high ladder | 18:48 | |
| and while standing there, | 18:50 | |
| he or she hears a voice which says, "Jump Sally. | 18:53 | |
| "Jump Mary. Jump Paul, John, | 18:57 | |
| Jennifer, David, Jane. | 19:00 | |
| "Jump, my child, and I will catch you." | 19:03 | |
| The one who leaps: that is the person of faith. | 19:08 | |
| Perhaps you yourself have been perched on a very high ladder | 19:14 | |
| when you thought you heard someone calling your name. | 19:18 |