A couple of years ago when my daughter moved from the parochial school she had attended since pre-school to the large city high school, her main concern on the first few days of school was who of her friends she could meet so they could walk into school together. The idea of just going into this new environment with a large number of people she did not know was a bit terrifying. I can understand that even now. When I attend conferences where I do not know any one I feel a measure of uneasiness and I am intentional about fairly quickly trying to meet some of those attending so I can feel connected, not isolated. This need to feel connected, to break the uneasiness of being on the outside, I suspect is not unique to my daughter and myself.

In religious imagery, both in scripture and in religious art, descriptions of hell is often portrayed as the place of being cut off from God and those who matter to us. In the parable Jesus tells about the Rich Man and Lazarus, the rich man is separated by a great abyss that no one can cross to rescue him. Some cultures punish by ostracizing individuals who have broken the moral codes or customs. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel the Scarlet Letter Esther Prim is ostracized by having to wear the scarlet A for her adultery. We all know the pain of feeling cut off, and children are very good at doing that to each other. It breaks the parent’s heart when their child is the one who is not included and who comes to them in tears.

On Ash Wednesday we recall the ancient church’s tradition of that period of Lent through which those who had been separated from the body of the faithful for their sins are reunited by a season of penance and reconciliation.

Such separation is the thing we dread and seek to avoid. In the light of such understanding, hopefully it makes sense when we hear passages from scripture which hold up the importance of God counting us as his own, Jesus calling us his friends, stories about lost sheep who are found, images of God’s all encompassing love and desire for us, of Jesus the Christ giving his life for us when we cannot redeem ourselves.

Jesus’s words recorded in the Gospel of John refer to those who are attuned to his voice as “ My Sheep,” then he says, “ I know them” - in other words we are recognized, - then “ I give them eternal life... they shall never perish...no one shall snatch them out of my hand. “ Our security is with him, he will protect us, take care of us. The Easter message, in a simple way, is that God has shown us a new way and that we can trust that he will take care of us. We discover that way in relationship with God. It is the way of Faith more often than hard experience; it is the way that leads us to trust God’s faithfulness and to listen so we can hear and perceive his presence and his leading.

I think this is the nature of the dialogue between Jesus and the leaders of the synagogue described in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus’ responses are in some respects confrontational, but they are also invitational. They are invitational in a way similar to when someone who cares about us confronts us on our behavior toward them which is damaging or not respecting the relationship. We may know that there is truth in their words, but we are not ready to let go of our need not to be wrong, so we argue and protest and strike back, only later, perhaps, to realize they were right and they were trying repair the relationship that we were damaging.

I don’t hear anything in the Gospel’s presentation of Jesus and his teachings that implies the desire to cut off us or anyone from relationship with God. But hearing the invitation and living into it so we can continue to grow in our capacity to hear his voice and perceive his presence and know how to be his disciples is at times entering a whirlwind and it makes the walk of faith often a hard walk.

I want to turn now to the Reading from Revelation the images of which may help us to see the broader picture, which it is essential for us to understand lest we be naive about the struggles of following Christ. The broader picture is that the life of Faith will be hard and in addition, that life in general may well have tragedy and struggle. I am separating hard experiences in life from the struggle of Faith because I think the struggle of faith is unique to our individual personality and circumstances. Some of us struggle in our Faith over things that others seem to be able to embrace as part of life and in that sense I think what happens to us in life isn’t always the same as how our walk with God is going.

The author of Revelation is sharing his vision which is not only about how difficult life might be, but also about the struggle to live the life of faith. This vision is also about the time when this life is over, a time when, “ they will no longer hunger and thirst, when they will be sheltered and healed..when God will lead them to streams of living water and when God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” What wonderful and tender images, such an intimate portrayal of the experience of God. This vision of John is intended to bring comfort and strength to Christians who are both in the struggle to be faithful and who are living in a time of persecution. The symbols are used to impart something which words cannot fully describe so we can grasp it and feel it. God will meet us and sustain us in the midst of our hurt and loss, our fears, and our disillusionment over the way life might be and forgive us over the way we find ourselves to be. To quote St. Paul’s words speaking of Jesus, “ ... through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. “ I think we could reinterpret these last words to be that we are freed from our fruitless efforts to justify ourselves and undo what we have done.

And so we come back to the beginning, Jesus invites us to be his sheep, to learn to listen to his voice - the path is the one Jesus followed, to pray not primarily with words, but in quietness and attention, to practice trusting God with our time, with our life as it is, and to pay attention and to learn how it is God will attend to our hunger and our thirst amidst all the experiences of our life and how he will prepare us for how we are to be his disciples here today, personally and as a Parish. Let me end with a quote which I hope is a reminder... it comes from St. John Damascene who said, “ To pray is to offer one’s heart to God. “ May we always make a way to offer our hearts to God.

Amen.