An Easter People, The Reverend David R. Williams, Easter IV--Year B--May 7, 2006

Give us grace, O Lord, not only to hear your Word with our ears, but also to receive it into our hearts and to show it forth in our lives: for the glory of your great name.  Amen
 
What does it really mean to be an Easter people?  We may not want to hear the answer. 
 
Now that we are half way into the season of Resurrection – the season of Redemption, Salvation, Renewal--we are beginning to face the truth.   We are God’s Easter people. Now what?
 
“O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear Jesus’ voice we may know Jesus who calls us each by name and follow where he leads,” reads the Collect with some hints about being Easter people. 
 
The Jewish leaders, dressed in appropriate ecclesiastical garb, haughtily sit as if lords behind a long table in the midst of a vast room.  The prisoners, dressed as commoners, stand in front of the table of priests, rulers, elders and scribes.   Among these lofty rulers are Annas and Caiaphas, both high priests involved in the execution of Jesus.  We are not sure of the roles of the Sanhedrin members, John and Alexander. 
 
The prisoners, Peter and John, have nothing to hide.  Peter has healed a crippled beggar.  He has carried out this healing in the name of the Risen Lord, Jesus the Christ. 
 
This particular Jewish council believes in neither the Incarnate God, proclaimed so by Jesus, nor in the Resurrection of a dead person.  Several thousand people have begun to hover around Peter and John as they migrate through towns, telling people of Jesus and his Resurrection.  They have healed people along their journey.  These masses of people are becoming an Easter people.  The temple leadership is most intimidated.
 
“By what power or by what name did you do this healing?” the council members ask the prisoners. 
 
Peter defiantly speaks, “Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this ‘healed’ man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.”
 
In successive verses, the council members respond. “Now when the council sees the boldness of Peter and John and realizes that Peter and John are uneducated and ordinary, the council members are amazed and recognize them as companions of Jesus.” 
 
“The council orders its prisoners not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  But Peter and John answer them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
 
Peter and John, two early Easter people, stand up to the orthodoxy, the “right” way of thinking, the institutional powers of the day, and they are defiant. 
 
Being an Easter person may require occasional defiance.
 
The 23rd psalm sung to the tune of an Irish melody calls us to a quiet place.  “He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.” Spoken by Jews and Christians, this psalm truly is a message from an Easter People. 
 
However, the place of green pasture and calm water, the place of silence and peace is the very last thing our culture wants us to do. To be still and quiet means in our culture to be doing nothing.
 
In fact, this peace and quiet may be “unEpiscopalian.”  In our worship services, how long can we Episcopalians survive through a long period of silence?  The stomach begins to gurgle, we start to itch and cough.  The mind wanders, first to the stained glass windows, then beyond. 
 
God wishes me to be still: stillness is the very quality that revives my soul and prepares me for the next line of the psalm, “…he guides me along the right paths…”
 
How can we know God, if we are moving too quickly and without refreshment? How can we recognize the resurrected Lord if we are too scheduled to see and hear and perceive in a new way? Can we stop long enough to notice the tomb is empty?      
 
An Easter people who pause in green pastures and led to still water –just might be open to God’s guidance. 
 
The fourth Gospel writer known as John dotes on the image of the Shepherd.  The Resurrected One becomes the Shepherd of Shepherds. 
 
The first Easter Person, Jesus, is the Shepherd.  Looking closely at this image we realize a Shepherd does his work alone – all by himself. 
 
When a shepherd is with a flock of sheep, the shepherd stands alone.  Other shepherds may be stationed at various parts of the flock, but the Shepherd stands as a solitary figure with the sheep.  The Shepherd knows the sheep well.  He knows which sheep will tend to wander, which ones are lame or noisy.
 
The shepherd does not do his work in the middle of town or inside a dwelling, barn or house.  The Shepherd is outside performing his responsibilities. 
 
The Shepherd’s ability to listen to the sheep in his care is imperative. 
 
Jesus works alone.  Jesus stands outside the bureaucracies of the day. But he knows well the people of the institutions, especially the temple.
 
So, we might say, an Easter Person might be alone and outside familiar institutions. An Easter Person might not fit into the status quo or even be close to orthodox and understood. 
 
These scripture lessons suggest challenge to any Easter Person of our 21st Century Church family. 
 
Intense and defiant response to a busy, mainstream culture can put us in the awkward position of the early disciples Peter and John. Feeling led to a quiet, still place and accepting in obedience my solitude as a shepherd of the Lord can be lonely—and maybe uncomfortable to others not aware of that same call.  
 
Once again reminded that, because of Jesus, we are the new Easter People, we offer deep thanks, “O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear the Shepherd’s voice, we may know the Shepherd who calls us each by name.”
 
Amen.