Making Connections

Psalm 23; John 10:27-29; Romans 8:31-39

To really grasp Jesus’ words in our passage from John, we first have to understand connections—being connected, connecting to others, and keeping those connections vibrant and alive. 

Look at how many times in these simple sentences Jesus refers to being connected—

the sheep hear my voice

I know them

they follow me

no one will snatch them from my hand

The Father gave to me

no one will snatch anything from the Father’s hand

…each of these is a bold assertion of the power of being connected.

This is nothing new in John’s theology. The entire power of Christ rests in his connection to the Father—I and the Father are one—so, of course, the power of Christ’s community will be its connection to him. We are in Christ; Christ is in us—that becomes the definition of communion according to John. 

All right—now we have to make it real…

A church—our church—is only as strong as its connection to Christ. Our fellowship depends on how present Christ is in what we say and do. Perhaps this is obvious to some, but to others, it needs fuller explication. We profess a Gospel of love, compassion, and grace. It is a Gospel that only manifests as we interact with one another and the world around us. We speak of compassion, grace, and kindness, but until we live them, they are so many words. Charles Schulz nailed this idea years and years ago—

Snoopy sits in the rain, looking miserable. Charlie Brown and Shermy decide to make him feel better and to care for him. They go up to Snoopy and pat him on the head, saying, “Be of good cheer! Yes, be of good cheer!’ Then walk away, leaving Snoopy sitting there. The last panel repeats the first—there is Snoopy in the rain, looking miserable.

Too often churches get lulled into similar thinking. We preach the good news; we preach compassion; and we preach redemption, but we do not interact with anyone outside the walls, so the message dies. 

Jesus implies a simple test—his sheep hear his voice. They make it known they are listening. In so doing, they catch Christ’s attention, and he leads them. 

We had a marvelous experience of that over Christmas. Mark and Lori lost their house in a fire. That very day, within hours, a response formed. People took an interest. They immediately began to organize and mobilize to help. I believe Christ heard that response as prayer. I believe Christ descended to us. Our loaves and fishes multiplied. The more we followed the way of Christ in our response and made it real in word and deed, the more Christ multiplied our simple gifts to make them an abundance. The Fellowship Hall filled with clothes, toys, and household goods—a tangible engagement in healing suffering.

Now we can take that experience and multiply it. 

The world is hungry for grace. The world needs love. There are an overabundance of Snoopys out there. They need more than a word to be cheerful. They need a reason to be cheerful. They need more than an announcement that God cares, they need to be met in that care by the people who claim the name of God.

The more we are able to practice and live by such a model, the deeper into the presence of Christ we delve. The deeper we delve into Christ, the deeper our communion becomes.

Christ offers an astounding promise to all who are able to achieve such a practice—the bond formed is unbreakable. St. Paul will recall this thinking as he writes Romans 8 that ends with that indescribable declamation of hope—everlasting hope—that nothing can thwart, diminish, or destroy. We are invited to take that hope into our own being. We are invited to consider it in one of the most powerful and yet gentle analogies in scripture—to sit in the hand of Jesus.

Once at our house, we rescued a baby squirrel that had blown out of its nest in a gum tree. It was a tiny, tiny thing—just a fluff of fur with ears and a nose. It easily fit in the palm of your hand. That was where it sat as we fed it a bottle of formula before the squirrel rescue arrived to take him to shelter. He relaxed, drank, and then slept in perfect repose right there in the palm of a caring hand. 

That is how we can rest in Jesus. We can take shelter in him as he closes his surrounding grace around us to warm our hearts, feed our spirits, and cool our minds. 

That connection comes as we follow Christ, taking the words and the message, embodying it in our daily interaction with the world.

So begin by checking those connections, just like a lot of folks will do next week before the Super Bowl (what a bummer if the TV went out right as the crucial play happened). Begin with the connection to God—

spend time in prayer

spend time in the Word

spend time opening yourself to the presence of God

…then check those connections to your colleagues in ministry—

spend time at the table with church friends

spend time getting involved in some program, mission, or ministry

spend time in worship

…and then check those connections to the world—

how do I treat the people I meet everyday?

how do I help someone else regularly?

how do I let others know how important they are to God?

The more we pay attention to those connections, the more Jesus’ words will become real and actual in our experience. 

And that is what we want, right?