I’ve been selfishly looking forward to this week for a long time.
Because today, we read some of my TOP favorite readings in the entire Bible.
My ALL time favorites.
I just can’t get enough of ALL of the Good stuff today.

In the reading from Acts:
We see the Ethiopian Eunuch:
Who gets baptized:
And longs for those living waters to rush over him.
We see that God’s love has no boundaries:
That the waters of baptism are offered to everyone:
Even one who was considered the lowest of the low.

In 1 st John: My favorite book of the Bible:
We hear today: My absolute favorite verse:
Which is: “We love, because he first loved us.”

And then: my second favorite verse:
“Love is from God: everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

Our ability to love:

Is that divine part within us:
God’s very self:
Dwelling inside us:
Giving us the capacity to do the same.

In the Gospel of John:
We hear Jesus’ famous words about the vine and the branches:
Which is: My favorite “camp Gospel”
When I was a church camp director:
I would always read this lesson when we hiked up the mountain to pray and have
communion together.
We would look at the trees:
With all of the branches:
Each branch important, significant, beautiful, and alive.
Each branch: a part of what makes the tree the tree.

There’s SO much good stuff this week.
Stuff about love.
Stuff about community.
Stuff about belonging.
Stuff about knowing:
Stuff about God knowing us:
And us knowing God:
Stuff about God loving us:
And us loving God and each other.

Yet all of this stuff:
All of it: is deeply connected.

Because without love:
You can’t have community.
Without community:
You can’t have belonging.
Without community:
You can’t have baptism.

Without love:
You can’t know someone.
You can’t care for someone.
You can’t be a branch on the vine.
Without love….
There would be nothing…
We would be nothing…

But really:
Have you ever thought about that?
About life without love?
And ALL kinds of love:

Without your children?
Without your spouse?
Without your parents?
Without your friends?
Even without your pets? (as we noted last week!)

There’s a really wonderful song:
That was on the top pop charts almost a decade ago.

It’s Called: “Nothing without love.”
And its lyrics speak of this deep, deep truth.
Of the pain of love:
Of the joy of love:
Of the necessity of love:
How love keeps us alive.

The song is on the pop charts:
But it’s actually a pretty Christian song:
Which to me:
Is yet more proof that God is indeed real:
That such truth would be portrayed in popular music and media.
That God can work:
And be present both inside and outside the church:
Just like the in the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch.

The song begins with these words:
“I am nothing without love
I'm but a ship stuck in the sand
Some would say that I'm all alone
But I am, I'm nothing without love”

This song:
Like our readings today,
Points to the fact that:
A life without love: Is no life at all.
And Love is who God is.

God is Love:
And those who abide in love abide in God:
And God abides in them.

Abide:
As in: Live within:
Through God loving us:
Through God BEING love:
We become love:
Not because we’re good at it:
But because God Loves US.

And only because of God’s love:
Are WE able to love:
And able to abide in God and each other:
To live within each other.
To live for each other:
To be the branches on the vine.

And that’s the other thing that I love about this Gospel reading:
Jesus says: “I am the vine, you are the branches.”
BranchES: It’s Plural.
Not:
I am the vine: you are the branch.
The branches.

If one branch is cut off:
The vine is never again the same.

And if there’s more than one branch:
That means:
That it’s not just about you.
It’s about the health of the whole vine.

It takes all of the branches:

And it takes Love:
as those on the vine Mutually abide in each other:
Living within each other:
Truly loving one another.
And that’s not as sweet as it sounds.
One of my all-time most stood by phrases is that:
Love is the work of the relationship.

Love IS work.
It’s not easy.
It’s messy, it’s dirty:
Sometimes it hurts.

The whole vine:
All of the branches:
Have to cooperate:
In order to stay alive.

But thank God:
For teaching us how to love:
For showing us what love is:
For reminding us that love means caring for the whole vine:
Not just for ourselves.

Thank God:
For showing us:
For teaching us:
For reminding us, as First John says:
That “There is no fear in love:
But perfect love casts out fear:
For fear has to do with punishment.”

Perfect love:
In community:
Casts out fear:
Where there’s no fear of judgment.
Because God’s love in Christ has replaced the fear of Judgement.

And in that perfect love:
Replacing fear,
Replacing judgment:
The vine and the branches remain alive.

Notice:
The image in this Gospel reading is not of some “thing”
Some object:
Like a statue, or a chair:
But a LIVING thing:

The vine and the branches.

This is the truth of Easter:
This is the truth of the whole Christian project:
That we are Nothing without love.
That Love overcomes death:
Love overcomes the grave:
Love is life.
Life forever:
In mutual abiding:
Living within God’s love:
As just one branch on the larger vine.

Amen.

Today: is the fourth Sunday of Easter.
Meaning: It’s STILL Easter!!
And the fourth Sunday of Easter is always Good Shepherd Sunday.
This year, the images of sheep are everywhere:
We hear two of the most familiar and cherished pieces of scripture:
The 23 rd Psalm, which states “The Lord is my shepherd.”
And the section from John’s gospel where Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.”

Over the centuries:
The image of Jesus as the good shepherd:
And of his followers as sheep has been very appealing.
The amount of stained glass, painting, music, and poetry that it has inspired is
staggering.
And the number of sermons, articles, hymns, retreats and meditations are also
beyond measure.

People cherish the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd:
About as much as they cherish the 23 rd psalm.

Yet in all the words read and heard on the subject of the Good Shepherd and his
sheep:
There’s one thing that no one talks about:
And it has to do with one simple question:

Why do shepherds have sheep in the first place?
Shepherds keep sheep for pretty much the same reasons that ranchers keep
cows.
Being a shepherd and taking care of sheep:
And being a sheep and having a shepherd are:
Sooner or later:
About some kind of profit.
In terms of sheep and cattle, there’s stripping, selling,
And sometimes killing and eating.
There’s just no avoiding it.
And this little reality never shows up in the adorable stained glass windows or
greeting cards.

One of the problems with the shepherd—sheep image,
(besides the stripping, killing, selling, and eating part)
Is that sheep have a reputation of being passive, stupid, unimaginative, and dull.

And if we are the sheep of God’s pasture,
Does that mean we are supposed to be like sheep?
Cute, but lazy and dumb:
Only able to let the shepherd take care of us, because there’s no way we could
live on our own?
Is the whole point of the story that we aren’t worth very much:
Aren’t very capable?

Definitely not.
It’s actually the exact opposite.

First of all: shepherds keep sheep because the sheep are useful, important, and
necessary.
Because if the sheep don’t produce,
The shepherd is flat out of business.
Which brings us back to the part about stripping, Killing, selling and eating.

The sheep provide something to the shepherd.
The sheep have something important to give.

This is the part of the Good Shepherd business that is about us:
It’s about our part of what’s going on with this familiar talk of green pastures and
still waters:
We have something to give.
And not only that:
But God expects things of us.
And God also trusts us to carry it out.

Jesus isn’t going to leave us to the wolves, or only keep the most useful sheep.
Instead, God cares for us and has blessed us.
Laid down his life for us:
A freely given gift of love and continued care.

However, there ARE expectations:
We have to give back what we have.
(It might not be wool, or meat, or horns.)
But the point is that:
The care that God offers us is intended to lead to something:
Something real and substantial.

We are to produce,
To give back: from who we are:
The beloved sheep of God’s flock.

Of course, we don’t grow wool:
That’s not in our nature.
But it is in our nature to worship and to serve:
To reach out and to share:
To study and to pray:
To increase in holiness, and to tell the truth:
To seek justice.

It’s in our nature to choose to grow:
Even to the point of change, and transformation:
And to do this in community:
With the rest of the flock of sheep.

At the same time:
The image of being Christ’s sheep:
Also means that each and every one of us has purpose, and value, and worth:
That each is important.
Each and every one CAN contribute,
And is CALLED to contribute,
In one way or another, to the mission of the church.

You can’t be too young,
Or too old,
Too new,
Or too sick,
Too ordinary,
Or too extraordinary,
Too busy,
Or too anything:
To avoid the reality of belonging to God, and having something to give out of that
belonging.

We are needed.
And without us:
Without any single one of us:
The mission and work of the Good shepherd and His Church are impoverished.

As the sheep of God’s flock:

We matter:
And when you matter:
It means you have something to give.

So…. It also makes me think about my cats.
Many of you saw this picture of my sweety boy Jem.
Who wouldn’t let me write THIS VERY SERMON:
Because he needed to be on my back.
He needed some cuddles and care.

And people had a lot of great comments on social media about Jem helping me
with my sermon.
That he might be whispering something to me, and that I should cuddle up and
listen.

And that’s true.
I don’t mean to say that we are God’s “pets”
That’s weird.

But if you have a pet:
You know what it’s like:
You know what joy and comfort they bring.
You know that they ACTUALLY matter in your household.
(Even the ones that are super annoying… I have one cat that’s insanely annoying)
But I still LOVE her.

And she still has something to offer.
Something beautiful, and unique, and comforting.

But here’s the REAL truth.
When my sweet, insane cat jumped on my back and needed my attention:
I stopped writing this sermon,
And I cuddled him:
Giving him what he so desperately longed for:
And that little goon can tell when I DESPERATELY need a cuddle,
He offers MUCH to me.

God does that for us.
As the sheep of the good shepherd:
God will drop everything for just one of us that is lost:
For just ONE Of us who needs a cuddle.
And God does that because WE MATTER.
And we all have something to give.

We’re not God’s Pets,
But pets do give us a tiny glimpse into the shepherd and sheep image that can be
helpful.
We are valuable assets that matter:
Having Much to offer:
So much so that God will drop everything for just one of us.

And the proof:
Is that God Knows us:
Jesus, the Good shepherd says, “I know my own, and my own know me.”
He knows what we’re capable of:
He knows our gifts,
He knows our names:
And through our service in the world:
We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen.

Can you imagine the scene?
On that first Easter Morning?

When the Sabbath was over,
Some women went to the tomb.
They wondered how they would anoint Jesus’ body.
How would they roll away the heavy stone in front of the tomb?
Surely they couldn’t do it themselves.

But they went anyway.
Because it was important.
And when they arrived at the tomb,
They saw that the stone was already turned.
Someone had rolled it back.

Carefully,
They crept into the tomb.
They were nervous.
Because the stone was rolled away,
They were afraid of what they would find.

And what they found,

Was something that they never expected.
Some random guy, wearing a white robe,
Was hanging out in the tomb.

The women were scared.
They didn’t know what to think.

And the guy said to them:
APRIL FOOLS!!!!

I’m obviously kidding.
That’s not EXACTLY how the story goes.
But tomorrow IS April Fools day,
And Really….
That’s kind of what Easter felt like at first.
If you REALLY think about the story.
It can sometimes seem like some sort of trick or joke.

It’s absurd.
It’s crazy.
You’d have to be a FOOL to believe it at first.

And we’re lucky, because we know how the story ends.
We know that Jesus will later appear to the disciples.

But we don’t get that part in the story that we read today.

Instead,
Today’s story ends unsettlingly:
With the women running from the empty tomb terrified, unsure,
Unwilling to tell anyone else about it,
And maybe even wondering if it’s a silly trick.

This is Mark’s version of the story:
And it’s perhaps the most confusing and strange of all of the Easter stories in the
Gospels.
Because of that, it’s actually the perfect one to read on this Easter day: the day
before the famous “April Fools Day”

Because for those women at the tomb,
That first Easter morning had to have felt like a joke:
Like an April fools trick.

And which part seems the most foolish?
The part where they really believed that Jesus was the messiah?
The part where they really thought he would save himself from the sort of death
meant for a common criminal?
The part where He’s no longer dead, but fully alive?
Or the part where the women were supposed to leave the tomb,
WITHOUT Even seeing him,

And tell everyone else that He’s not dead anymore?

It all seems pretty crazy.
Pretty foolish.

A friend of mine (who is not a practicing Christian)
Likes to ask me questions about church and my job.
He once asked me in a text message:
“Would you get in trouble,
if you linked the Resurrection and April Fool’s Day in an Easter Sunday Sermon?”

He might have meant it to be funny.
And it is funny.
But not because it’s heretical or wrong.
It’s funny Because it’s SO true:
That the resurrection can seem like an April Fool’s day trick.

My friend probably didn’t realize that even a priest might consider how foolish
the resurrection sometimes seems.

And actually, that’s a huge part of the point:
That God would do something so absurd,
So incredible,
(Something ALMOST as incredible and absurd as God putting on human flesh and
becoming one of us)

Something SO unheard of,
That at first glance it seems absolutely foolish:
Maybe even like a joke.

And that’s not even the end of the parallels.
Not only did that first Easter seem like an April Fools Trick,
There’s also a really old Christian tradition:
Where Jesus’ followers literally considered themselves to be “Holy Fools:”
Or “Fools for Christ.”
(google it!)

The idea originally comes from the words of St. Paul in his first letter to the
Corinthians.
Paul says, “Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age,
you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God.”
And later: “We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are
week, but you are strong.”

It’s the classic upending, overturning, and disrupting power that Jesus brings to
the world:
Paul describes thisidea where what seems (to humans) to be foolish:
Might (In God’s eyes) be real wisdom.

Something like the resurrection of the dead,
Which to this world seems like a trick or a joke,

Might actually be the truest, deepest, most significant reality.

It’s like all of those crazy contrary,
Almost Riddle-like statements that Jesus says throughout the Gospels:

Where the first become last, and the last become first.
Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for
Jesus’ sake will save it.
The least among you is the greatest.
The greatest among you will be your servant.
All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be
exalted.

The foolish become wise, and the wise become foolish.
The Dead receive LIFE.

Because of what God has done,
Everything is flipped around.
The holy fools are really the ones who are truly wise:
Because they see the truth in Jesus.

From the early ages of Christianity,
The spiritual “Fool”
Was the one who followed Jesus:
Who upended the social order:

Who refused to accept the common social rules of hypocrisy,
Brutality, and a thirst for power and riches.

The Holy Fools did this because they believed in God’s ability to turn everything
around.
They believed that there could be something different:
Something better than the grief, pain, and suffering that this world seems to hold.

The Holy Fools were really the wise.
They rejected the cares of the human world,
And imitated Jesus,
Sometimes even enduring mockery and humiliation.
(which is part of why they called themselves “fools.”)

Just as Jesus on the cross,
Endured the mockery and humiliation of the crowds,
He appeared to be the fool.

But because of what God has done,
Everything is turned upside down.
The foolish Christ,
Becomes the saving wisdom of the whole world.

In all of those up-ending riddle like statements that Jesus made throughout his
life,

His great finale disrupts everyone’s expectations,
As the biggest, truest, most famous riddle of all:
Where his own death destroys death.

So it turns out,
April Fools!!

The joke’s on death.
Death has been made the real fool:
Forever, and for Every ONE.

Linking Easter with April Fools, makes all the sense in the world,
As Jesus through his life, death and resurrection
Disrupts and upends all of our expectations.
With the greatest April Fool’s joke of all time,
A joke so great,
That it wasn’t even a joke at all.

Instead,
The most seemingly foolish thing,
Was also the thing that’s most true.

The most seemingly foolish thing
Was also the thing that’s going to save us all.

Amen