Last Sunday the choir’s virtual choir video was our adaption of “He shall feed His flock from Handel’sMessiah. By coincidence (not any planning on our part) last Sunday, the second Sunday after Easter, is designated in many churches as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because in some lists of Bible readings it is the Sunday when the gospel passage about Jesus being the Good Shepherd is assigned to be read.
Often in the choir we sing songs that have a special meaning to one or more people in the choir. “He shall feed His flock” is a song that Nancy and Eleanor particularly wanted to do. Here is what Eleanor says about it:
“One thing that is special to me about it is that the words and the melody describe God as gentle and it’s very easy for me to be intimidated by God because he is the Lord of the universe and a king. It’s hard to visualize God’s power and His gentleness going together. This song really shows this. He’s the king of the universe but He’s also caring for His flock tenderly.”
Handel’s “He shall feed His flock” featured prominently in a story Eleanor and Nancy had been telling. It was a story about Lucinda, a woman in a world where they were trying to create a utopian society and to give people everything they needed to flourish, but it was totally naturalistic. Ultimately, Lucinda was very depressed. There was all the stuff one supposedly needed, but she felt empty and longing. One day, Lucinda walked past a house and heard people singing “He shall feed His flock” – something it was illegal to sing. It sounded to her like the thing that was missing – what she was yearning for – that there was a place to come and find actual rest for her soul. Even though singing sacred music was forbidden, Lucinda tracked down the music to the song.
Eleanor says that what drew her to the song was that it was reminding her that there is a source, there is Jesus, and He is at the center of everything that is fulfillment and rest.
It is good to be reminded that the church exists around the world and throughout time. Some of the music the Bonny Doon Church choir sings reflects this. For Easter this year the choir prepared a “virtual choir” recording of a piece we have sung live at Easter for a number of years now: “Christ is arisen”. This is a setting in English for unaccompanied choir of the famous German 12thcentury Easter song,Christ ist erstanden. This in turn was derived from a Latin hymnVictimae paschali laudesthat was an extension of theAlleluiasung at Easter time before the reading of the gospel in the Eucharist. Victimae paschaliis believed to have been written in Burgundy (now part of France) in the 11thcentury. Our choir piece thus traces to different countries, languages and musical styles over almost a thousand years.
We often put pictures to go with the words of our virtual choir pieces. I’ve never been happy with depictions of the resurrection, so I’ve opted instead for photos of surviving Middle Eastern tombs from the Roman era. I was particularly attracted to a photograph taken by retired Florida College Biblical studies professorFerrell Jenkins frominside one of these tombs. He writes:
“I asked Frank and Norm, two living disciples, to stoop and look into an empty tomb much the way Peter and John did on that first day of the week.”
Pastor Edd Breeden's Easter message: What should I do next?
Luke 24: 1 Around dawn on the first day of the week, they gathered up their spices and came to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body. 2 What they found was an open tomb, somehow the stone had been rolled back. 3 When they entered the tomb, the body of the Lord Jesus was not there. 4 During their shock and amazement, two angels appeared before them in brilliant clothing. 5 The women bowed in honor of the angels, but the men said to them, “What makes you think that the living One would be here in the grave? 6 “He has been raised up from the dead. Don’t you remember He told you about this while you were all in Galilee? 7 He told you to expect the Son of Man to be delivered up to sinful people and He would be crucified, and then come back to life on the third day.” 8 At that moment they remembered that He had said these things to them. 9 They left the tomb and returning to the city they explained all these happenings to the eleven and to the rest of the followers. 10 The group of women included Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and James’ mother, who was also called Mary, and a number of other women from the group of followers. 11 The apostles had real trouble believing what the women had to say. 12 Peter had to find out for himself, so he left the room and ran to the tomb. When he entered the tomb, he found the linen wrappings. As he returned home, he was overwhelmed by the situation.
Today there are about four different questions that arise for me this Easter out of this passage of Scripture. What would make us believe? What difference has Jesus made in our life? What would we need in order to take the next step in our life? And what is the next thing we might like to do in our spiritual growth?
The women come to the tomb to properly prepare the body of Jesus for burial. Some of the work was done on Friday after Jesus was taken down from the cross, but since it was the beginning of the Sabbath, the people were limited in the amount of preparation. The women were coming back in the early morning of Sunday after the Sabbath day was over.
When they arrive, the stone was no longer blocking the entrance and Jesus’ body was gone. As the women looked around in shock, they saw two men, dressed in brilliant clothing. The men said to them, “Why do you come to the grave to find Jesus? He told you He would not be here. He is the Living One after all.” It crossed their minds that He had told them this would happen, but they had not fully understood what He meant. Now they were beginning to realize, He was alive from the dead; whatever that might mean.
How would that make a difference in our lives? If we came to the realization that Jesus was alive from the dead, that He was truly alive, and He was desiring to be intimately involved in our life, would we be different? And what would that difference look like for us? What is one thing we could change to be more of what Jesus wants us to be? And what might be one thing that we would be afraid to change? The real question is this, what would we need to have happen in our life to begin to be different because we now know that Jesus is alive?
Everyone has an obstacle to complete and undivided belief; something that keep us believing halfway and not allowing us to plunge fully into living for Jesus. Some more than others. What is our switch, that if we flipped it, nothing would stand in our way of serving Jesus 24 hours a day? Now, do not get me wrong, I am not raising this to make us feel guilty and say we are not doing enough. I believe that most of us who follow Jesus are active in our faith and doing things for Him and we might not need to do anything more. But the question is a good one to ask from time to time so that we might find more of what Jesus wants for us.
Another question that is raised follows along with the first two. What would be in the way of us taking the next step towards a life of service to our Lord? The disciples were just at the beginning of a new life; they were at a crossroads, a turning point. Would they go back to being fishermen or would they actually become fishers of men? As the next few days unfolded, they clearly made the choice to take a new direction in their life and not return to what was comfortable.
What would be the next step for us? Those of us who do not yet know Jesus as a personal friend might want to begin making moves in that direction. We might believe because someone else believes but now we want to believe on our own. When Jesus came into the town of Samaria where the woman from the well lived many began to believe in Him. John said,“Others began to believe when they heard Jesus speaking. Some of these said to the woman, "I first believed because of what you said about this Man, but not that I have heard Him, I believe for sure that He is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:40,41 EBV)Their belief changed from accepting what another person believed to what they believed themselves, they had the proof they needed to make a stand for faith in Him.
Maybe our next step is to make some changes in our spiritual lives, to grow more mature in Christ. There are a few steps of change that take place in our lives as we leave behind the ways of the world and begin to prepare for a life in heaven. After we step out of the world and into a body of believers, we might see some changes taking place in our lives. At some point we begin to study the Bible and look at the words of Jesus and realize that our lives are quite different that the way He lived and wants us to live. Then we might begin to realize that our live with Jesus in not to make our own life happier but in some way so that we can serve others and help them find the joy of life as well. And the pinnacle of life, as Jesus would describe it would be a life of service to others and in that service, we take hold of what God intended for us to begin with.
The changes we often make have to do with the evidence we see around us as we seek to believe more and more that our faith is not in a way of life but in a deep relationship with the Living God. We become more aware of answers to our prayers, more aware of the way people’s lives are changing because of the influence of Jesus, and we have moments when we realize we have direct encounters with Jesus. All of these experiences draw us to want to live our lives more for His benefit than for our own. It is also important to point out that by God’s design, when we do live for service to others, we become the happiest.
So, let me ask my fourth question, “What would we like to do next in our spiritual life? Do we desire to have worship be more meaningful? To sing not to sing the words but to sing to give praise to Jesus. Do we seek to read the Bible to find out what it says, what it means, and how does it apply to our life? This way we are choosing to humble ourselves before God and seek after His agenda for our lives rather than our own agenda. Do we want to learn more about the gifts God has given to us, the calling He has for us to fulfill, and even the way we can use our passion for things in this world to serve the plans of our Lord? And maybe we are ready to step out to serve other people; to go into all the world to make disciples.
My hope for us this Easter is that we all find what Jesus has for us in the next part of our life and we embrace it with open arms, no matter how much in might require us to leave behind the familiar and move into the unknown.
I bless you in the name of Jesus with faith to take the next step.
