Sermon preached Sunday, April 25, 2021, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Littlestown, PA. This was also my last Sunday serving this congregation as their pastor.
As is always the case the fourth Sunday of Easter, it’s Good Shepherd Sunday. It’s a day that comes around every year in which we think about what it means that Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd—and what it means to be sheep of God’s flock.
But there’s a lot of other stuff happening today. It’s my last Sunday with you all, and that fact makes it a bittersweet moment. We’re also confirming Natalie Turner at our 10:15 in-person service and celebrating her as she affirms the faith instilled in her at her baptism.
At first, I thought this might be a weird mash-up…but now I think it kind of works.
After all, the main theme of Good Shepherd Sunday is that we are cared for and we are never left behind. That we can get lost, we can stubbornly refuse to move, we may be threatened by wolves, but God will always seek us out, provide for us, protect us, and carry us to where we need to go.
As St. John’s enters the uncertainly of a pastoral transition, anxieties will run high. It is not uncommon for there to be conflict, confusion, disappointments, and frustrations that get taken out on one another. The temptation is to let these feelings take over, and congregations can get stuck, sitting in their anxiety and unable to move ahead.
But this day reminds us that God will never leave this congregation. When we get stuck, God is there, Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is coaxing, pulling, guiding, helping us move forward—will we fight and struggle and dig in our heels? Or will we listen and follow and embrace the release God offers?
And, today, we are reminded that God will never leave Natalie, nor any other member of the body of Christ. In our baptism, we are first claimed by God and promises are made: by us and by God. When we are baptized as children, our parents make promises on our behalf, and make a commitment to bring us up in the faith. Our sponsors promise to be examples and guides of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Our congregation promises to pray for us and support us. And God promises to never let us go.
This morning, Natalie will affirm her faith and, along with her, we will affirm the promises made so many years ago. And as we do that, we remember those waters that we were washed in, those waters that joined us irrevocably to Christ, those waters that our Good Shepherd leads us to.
Yes, today is a day to celebrate.
We celebrate rites of passage.
We celebrate new beginnings.
We celebrate relationships build out of love.
We celebrate the experiences we have shared together.
We celebrate our trust in a God who calls us to new ventures.
And we celebrate a Shepherd who never lets us go.
Amen.
Drinking from a Deep Well 