Sermon: 4th Sunday of Easter, Year C – Lay Reading sermon
Reading: John 10:27-30
One of the greatest things young people need, in particular young men, is the security of the Father-child relationship. Sadly fewer and fewer young people today get to experience this. With the growing number of families where fathers are either gone or gone most of the time, or are abusive or violent, many young people grow up without this important need being met.
People, both boys and girls, need this father-influence as they come into young adulthood. As you launch out into the risks and possibilities of adult life, you need a firm platform – you need the security of knowing that if you fall there will be hands ready to catch you. You need unconditional acceptance and love behind you so you can face the things that are in front of you.
If you meet a confident and positive young person, look around and often you will find a supportive and encouraging father or father-figure, who gives them the back-up, the safety, the security they need to grow into the next stage of life. Many well known and famous Australians attribute their positive direction in life to the shepherding of a father figure – a strong influencer who guided their development at a critical stage.
We all need the gifts a father can give us: safety, security, unconditional love and acceptance, the freedom to try and fail, and the confidence to try and succeed.
These are the gifts God the Father wants to give His children too – both to those who have an earthy father and those who don’t. Every human beings needs these too.
We are blessed that He has stepped into our lives and provided these gifts for us. We, who were lost and adrift, have been adopted by God and included in His family. We have been welcomed into the relationship of God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. This is a close family – the Father and the Son love one another a lot. I and the Father are one, says Jesus.
But it is not a closed family.
The Father welcomes us too as His children, and he loves us in the same way. We are included and enfolded in the embrace of the Father and the Son. We have become God’s dear children.
God the Father does this because He loves us more than we can know. His love is strong enough that he is willing to suffer, and to allow His own Son to suffer for our sake, so that we can be His children. And because of what Jesus did in his death and resurrection, we too can now have the love, the unconditional acceptance, the encouragement, the security, the safety of knowing that we have a heavenly, an eternal Father.
Read again what Jesus says about us in today's sermon text:
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand.My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.I and the Father are one. John 10:27-30
This is how safe, how secure, how loved, how protected you are by your heavenly Father.
This is why Christians, more than anybody else, have the freedom to live confidently – to try things, to step out not knowing how it will all turn out, to love not knowing quite whether the love will be returned, to get involved with others, to risk getting hurt, to have a go. You can only do these things if you know you are safe in God’s love – and we are! Nobody and nothing can snatch you out of the Father’s hand. Our safety is guaranteed for eternity.
We Lutherans, other Christians observe, are sometimes very cautious and careful in how we approach life and our faith. We want to be sure that everything is right – cut and dried before we do anything or try anything – especially anything new.
Now to be careful and cautious is good and prudent of course. Foolhardiness and carelessness are to be avoided, especially with Spiritual matters.
But it is also good to be reminded that our salvation and our Spiritual well being rests ultimately not on our actions or decisions, but on God’s unconditional father-love. And confident in this, perhaps we could afford to let go a bit and realize that we, as God’s beloved children, are actually free to let go of our fear of failure. We are free in the Father’s love to try and strike out in a new direction, and yes, occasionally make a mistake too. (Mistakes, by the way, are inevitable!)
When you have the Father’s love and you are secure and safe, you can be confident and free to be and to live. You don’t have to worry about whether the “door will be locked when you get home”. You don’t have to ever wonder if your Father still loves you or if you can be forgiven for your mistakes. You can be confident that when (not if) you get it wrong, God’s grace will be there. You don’t have to ever fear that you will be left alone and orphaned. You are safe.
Remember the words Jesus says to His followers earlier on in John chapter 10, in verse 10: I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.
Jesus isn’t talking just about our eternal life after death – He is talking about our new life that we are living here in this world already now as well. He wants us to experience and enjoy here and now the freedom of the children of God.
As individuals and as the church of God, we then never need to fear the future or be afraid of challenges, opportunities or even problems. We are free and secure to face them confidently.
Your Father loves you. Underneath you are his everlasting arms, ready to catch you, and nobody can ever snatch you out of His hand.