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Faith Lens

April 21, 2013–Sheep and Shepherd

Contributed by Scott Moore, Erfurt, Germany

 

Warm-up Question

What kind of voice do you like to listen to?

Sheep and Shepherd

Sheep are putting lawnmowers out of work. The mayor of Paris, France, Bertrand Delanoë, is working to make the city a little more “green” and ecologically friendly by using four black sheep from the South West of France. It is called “eco-grazing.”  Their job is to eat the grass in front of Paris’ Municipal Archives. They are kept behind a solar-powered electric fence.

The sheep are drawing attention to the archives, which is something the director, was hoping for. Originally, the director of the archives, Agnès Masson, wanted to get a donkey or some other animal but finally accepted the four sheep. This is a project that appears to be great for the environment and an interesting attempt to raise awareness to a cultural/historical resource in a neighborhood of Paris that does not have any museums or cultural institutions.

 

Discussion Questions

  • Would you let a sheep mow your lawn?
  • What chores do you have to do that you wish an animal could do? Which animal could do it?
  • What other natural ways could you get “chores” done?
  • Could you imagine sheep eco-grazing the lawn around your school or your city hall or state capital?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, April 21, 2013 (Fourth Sunday of Easter)

Acts 9:36-43

Revelation 7:9-17

John 10:22-30

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

 

Gospel Reflection

shutterstock_69755869editThis Sunday in the church year is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. The readings always have something to do with God and Jesus and followers as sheep. In this gospel text, there are a couple of elements that call out for our attention. One of them is the part of the story that has some tension in it. Jesus is put on the spot by Jewish believers at the temple. They want to know if he really is the Messiah. They pressure him to tell them. Jesus basically says, “You missed it. I’ve performed miracles, I’ve healed, I’ve taught and you still don’t get it. You’re not going to get it now no matter what I say.” They aren’t listening. They can’t hear his voice. It is then that Jesus changes the direction away from their expectations and toward God’s reality. God takes care of the sheep. God the Father and, in this case, God’s Son are in the sheep caring business together. And, this business is about not losing sheep.

When we experience difficult times, we look to words of comfort that tell us how much God loves us. We cherish the image of God and Jesus as loving shepherds protecting us sheep. Sometimes, however, we are just like the religious leaders in this text. We place demands on God. We want God to just “speak plainly” to us. We want to know God is with us. We want to know that Jesus the Messiah is who we think he is. But, just as Jesus doesn’t let himself get put into a box and try to prove himself out of it, God cannot be put into a box. God is bigger than our wants, yet God cares for us all the same.

Sometimes we believe we hear the voice of God in some form. Sometimes we want proof. This is what it is like to live as followers of the Risen Christ. It is certainty in the midst of uncertainty. The good news is that both Father and Son are in a divine community concerned about us. We have the stories of the faith in Scripture and we have the stories of the faith in our lives today. We are encouraged to trust in what have and to work at being open to God’s presence in our lives. We are also promised eternal life as a result in participating in God.

Discussion Questions

  •  When have you asked for someone to speak plainly and explain something to you again?
  • When have you felt like you wanted God/Jesus to prove something to you?
  • When have you felt lost and wanted God to find you and bring you back into the fold?
  • What kind of proofs have you expected from God/Jesus?
  • When do you find it difficult to listen?

Activity Suggestion

Shepherd Whispers— This is the game “Simon Says” but with the phrase “Shepherd Whispers” instead. The leader (Shepherd) gives commands for the sheep to follow but whispered so the sheep have to strain to hear the Shepherd’s voice. But they only follow when the Shepherd says “Shepherd Whispers X”, “Shepherd Whispers Y”. If the Shepherd doesn’t say/whisper it, then the sheep shouldn’t do it. Those that miss a command are “out”…the twist is at the end, the Shepherd says, “Shepherd Whispers, all are welcome, all are mine, all God’s sheep are loved.”  A variation for this game would be to do the activity with eyes closed or using a blindfold

Closing Prayer

Loving God, you held us close when we were in pain and you sought us out when we were lost. Make your presence known to us now. Speak to us plainly. Keep us in the fold of your loving embrace. We ask this in the name of our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Amen

May 19-25, 2010–An (Increasingly) Open Book

Contributed by Daniel Wiessner, Tacoma, WA

Warm-up Question

To whom do you turn when you’re not sure what to do?

An (Increasingly) Open Book

Turns out everyone’s Facebook privacy is getting a lot less private all the time and, unsurprisingly, a few feathers are getting ruffled.

Ryan Singel at Wired noted the private interests which are unavoidably public via Facebook. He wrote, “I’d like to make my friend list private. Cannot. I’d like to have my profile visible only to my friends, not my boss. Cannot. I’d like to support an anti-abortion group without my mother or the world knowing. Cannot.”

The recent addition of Facebook’s new “instant personalization” is getting particular attention due to its sharing of your personal information with Pandora, Microsoft Docs, and Yelp, in order to help those sites tailor their advertisements to fit your interests. Users can opt out, but the process is apparently complicated and confusing. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), among other organizations, is rallying against Facebook with claims that “Instant personalization violates user expectations and reveals user information without the user’s consent.”

Mark Zuckerberg, the guy who started this crazy Facebook thing, stated earlier this year that  Facebook is constantly being updated “to reflect what the current social norms are.  A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built… doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do. … But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”

Main article from: http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/raw/?p=2351
Wired quote from: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-rogue/#ixzz0nbOC4ojY
Zuckerberg quote from: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_zuckerberg_says_the_age_of_privacy_is_ov.php

Discussion Questions

  • Are you on Facebook? (Show of hands, for curiosity’s sake.)
  • How do you feel about these privacy changes? Does it really matter to you?
  • Some people argue that Facebook is causing these shifts in social norms that Zuckerberg spoke about. Do you agree with Zuckerberg (that Facebook is just following the trend) or do you think that it is a driving force in the change? Why?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, May 23, 2010 (Day of Pentecost)

 Acts 2:1-21

Romans 8:14-17

John 14:8-17 [25-27]

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

I’m afraid I can’t “tsk” Philip too harshly for his opening line in this week’s gospel lesson because, really, he and I have something in common here: We don’t always pay attention so well. Fortunately for the both of us, we have been blessed to hold the company of some very kind and very patient people who are willing to explain things to us again and again.

If you remember, Jesus is going to be leaving his disciples, Philip included.  Reading the rest of John 14 reveals pretty clearly that the disciples are uncomfortable with the idea. The disciples general response is “But-but-but.. Wait! Where are you going? We feel kind of low on definite instructions. Is there any way we could maybe text you if we have questions?”

Jesus calmly and patiently reassures his disciples that things are going to work out just fine. In fact, he even leaves them a number to call, so to speak, in case they get confused. Jesus promises another advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will “teach [them] everything, and remind [them] of all that [Jesus has] said to [them].”

In the same way, by reminding us of Jesus’s teachings and instructions, The Holy Spirit acts as our own divine guide. This is a great gift when our easily confused moral compass might mistake North for East.

With this promise of the “Spirit of truth,” Jesus closes this week’s lesson with some of the most wonderful, calming words we could ever hear from our Lord and Savior. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Amen, Lord Jesus.

Discussion Questions

  • Go back and explore the rest of John 14. Think about how the disciples felt before and after this week’s Gospel lesson. What do you think your reaction would have been?
  • Looking back at the news for today, do you think that Zuckerberg’s moral compass is confused? Or is the Facebook privacy issue a moral issue at all? Explain.

 

Activity Suggestions

Texting Treasure Hunt:

In this exercise, there is one leader and a group of hunters. (For youth groups, I recommend there be an adult leader acting as the “leader” as well as another adult leader in the group of “hunters.”) The leader of this exercise must know the surrounding area well. To assist in delivering accurate directions, it may be helpful for the hunters to have  a GPS-enabled phone  while the leader tracks them via Google Latitude or a similar service.

The leader tells the group of hunters that he or she will be waiting for them somewhere nearby before suddenly leaving them. The hunters then petition text messages from the leader in order to help find their way. The leader may be as cryptic or simple as he or she desires.

After the hunters find the leader, they should explore how they felt during the exercise. Was it unnerving to be unaware of where they were headed? Was it reassuring to know that they could ask and receive directions whenever they needed it?

Closing Prayer

Dearest Jesus, thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us along your pathways. Thank you for the reassurance you give us every day, through the remembrance of your great sacrifice, that we need never let our hearts be troubled. Amen.