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The Bishop's Address
The Rt. Rev. Steven A. Miller
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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I bring you greetings from your sisters and brothers that together with you forms the church which is the Diocese of Milwaukee. For us Episcopalians the smallest single unit of the church is the diocese. I want you to know that today the rest of the members of your church in their congregations are holding you in their prayers most especially in this time when you are anticipating the departure of your rector as he goes on to the next stage of his ministry and enter a time of transition as a congregation.
I also want you to know personally how grateful I am to Scott for his ministry here and how supportive I am of his decision to move on to the next stage of his life. We have met many times over the past few years as he has sought to be faithful priest and leader among you and discern God’s will. Together you have been a blessing to one another and to us all.
Over the past few months, I have spent considerable time working with your vestry as they head in to this time between rectors as well as the meeting with the rector, associate, wardens, and vestry in the first part of my visitation. It is good to see all you have done to make Christian formation and hospitality a visible part of your ministry in your recent addition which we dedicated to God when I was last with you. I am confident that God has great things in store for you beyond your wildest dreams. My staff, particularly David Pfaff and Peggy Worzalla will continue to work closely with the ordained and lay leadership in this time of transition.
Today is that Sunday in Eastertide known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It gets its name from the collect for the day, the prayer that serves to collect our individual prayers at the beginning of the liturgy and focus our attention on the lessons and from the Psalm and Gospel for the day.
The image of God as a shepherd is one of the earliest images of our faith. It is an image which in the Hebrew and thus in Christian tradition is both pastoral and royal. Think for a moment about the 23rd Psalm we prayed filled with this imagery – the pastoral image of the sheep being led beside still waters, in green pastures and the royal imagery of the rod and the staff and the banquet. Today in this liturgy we gather in that messianic banquet as we break the bread and bless the cup and we are reminded of the waters of baptism that lead s to this banquet as we renew our baptismal covenant in solidarity with those bin confirmed and received who renew their commitment to Christ this day. That commitment is to follow Jesus as shepherd, to be guided by him to follow him as Savior and Lord.
The Lord is my shepherd. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The one we follow is the entrance to that house. Today we hear Jesus say that he is the entrance to a right relationship with the father. “I am the gate of the sheep … whoever enters by me will be saved. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
To understand this passage we need to remember its setting in the Gospel of John. Today’s passage comes from the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel and follows immediately; in fact it is the continuation and conclusion of the story of the man blind from birth who Jesus heals in the temple precincts. Remember that story from the 4th Sunday in Lent. Jesus sees a man blind from birth. The disciples asked who sinned, this man or his parents, that he is blind. And Jesus responds saying not because of sin but that the power of God might be made known. Jesus responds saying not because of sin but that the power of God might be made known. Jesus then spits on the ground, makes clay from the spittle, and places it on the man’s eyes and tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man went, and washed and received his sight. Then the man is asked by the religious authorities how he was healed and when he tells them and confesses that he believes Jesus to be from God he is cast out from the synagogue. It is in response to this his acceptance by on of the least of these and his rejection by the religious authorities that Jesus utter these word, I am the gate of the sheep.
These are words of comfort to John’s first hearers who saw themselves in the man blind from birth. Their eyes had been opened to see Jesus as the Messiah and they had confessed him and been cast out by Pharisees from their synagogues and cursed in synagogue worship.
These words are also a confession of faith for John’s community. Jesus is the gate of the sheep. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We are the sheep who hear his voice. For like the man blind from birth they were told they were wrong about Christ.
That is our confession of faith, too. Jesus is our shepherd. We hear his voice and follow where he leads. We are here today because Christ has called us through the Church, through parents, and grandparents, through friends, through someone who loved us enough to bring us into this place, to introduce us the way way to God who is Jesus Christ, who still today brings us to that heavenly banquet a foretaste of the feast to come.
And if this is true then the call for us must be to follow him, to follow him and share with him in his mission of bringing people to his fellowship.
How do we do that?
First by living lives that are visibly Christian. I am not talking about wearing Christian T-shirts or sporting Fish bumper stickers, or crosses around our necks. Lives that are visibly Christian are lives that cause people to ask why do you live the way you do. Why do you act the way you do? Lives that attract others to imitate us. Most importantly they are lives that give others a glimpse of Jesus and his life and love.
What do I mean by that? Let me tell you a story. (The Bishop tells the story of his friend Mark Dyer.)
This story is a reminder that it is not enough to talk the talk, we need to walk the walk.
The road map for a visible Christian life is the Baptismal covenant which we reaffirm today.
Confessing Jesus, showing his praise not only with our lips but in our lives. By seeking the face of Christ in everyone we meet. By treating each person we encounter as an opportunity to see the face of Christ in everyone we meet. By treating each person we encounter as an opportunity to see the face of Jesus. By loving our neighbor as ourselves, by striving for justice and peace for all and respecting the dignity of every person.
However walking the walk does not mean we never have to talk the talk. As the apostle Paul said we must always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us.
The promise is that when we do we will experience what the first Christians did after they received the Holy Spirit and confessed with their lips and their lives that Jesus is Lord. The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
That is our call and that is our mission. For we are not here just to remember history but to make history or rather to share in God’s history which is Christ – the Alpha and Omega God’s beginning and our end in him. As your parish mottos says, Christianity is not a religion, it’s a way of life.
May He who is the way keep you in his tender love and care.
