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May 28, 2006

Anne Jensen - May 28th, 2006

Anne Jensen - Trinity Parish
Easter 7B John 17:15-26

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts...

This is the only time I have ever begun a sermon with a quote from William Shakespeare. A friend of mine is the rector of St. Paul’s in Fairfield, CT. He was a college professor of Elizabethan English before he was ordained, and he frequently uses Shakespeare. In fact, certain of his parishioners suspect that he uses Shakespeare MORE than he uses Holy Scripture. That’s not really true, and Ben is a fine priest, well-versed in the Bible.

As Christians we are part of a great narrative. That narrative is a tapestry with many threads: the Old and New Testaments are the warp and woof of this magnificent tapestry woven by our Creator. Into that we weave the traditions of the church…both the historical church and modern church. Each of us has a thread of a unique color and texture. We have a place in the design of this tapestry. We have a role to play in the world.

One aspect of the world is that there are seasons…we divide time in correspondence with that great narrative; we sanctify time to give it meaning, just as we sanctify this space to make it holy. We come and we go from this space, and our common life is woven into holy narrative.

So here we are at the end of the Easter season. Thursday was Ascension Day, the day that marks the end of Jesus’ appearances on earth. Jesus knew before his death that the disciples would have to carry on without his earthly presence.

In today’s gospel we have the privilege of hearing Jesus’ private conversation with God about this time…when he will no longer be with his disciples.

He prays to the One he knows as Father for their protection, “so that they may be one, as we are one.” He continues with a remarkable understanding of who he is and who his followers will be. Jesus knows he is going to the Father and he passionately wants those who remain behind to hold together, secure in the word of God and protected by God. He says, “They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

Both word and world are loaded words in John’s gospel. Remember this is the gospel that begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” From the point of the Resurrection onward, we cannot miss that the disciples were steeped not only in the teachings of Jesus, word with a lower case w, but in the experience of being with Jesus, who is revealed as the Word with a capital W. This has made them different from those who have not shared in this experience…difference leads to be being odd in the eyes of the world, and therefore being at risk. The world, from the beginning of this gospel has been at odds with Jesus and his mission. The way the world works is antithetical to the vision of the Kingdom of God, or to use John’s language, eternal life. Jesus, who loves them and knows their hearts, tells God, “They do not belong to the world…” No, these are the people whom God gave to Jesus, and now, Jesus is asking for their protection and sanctification, because Jesus has sent them into the world just as God sent him.

Let us look at just two parts of this gospel for now. This first is the part about not belonging to the world. The traditional way Christians have said this is that we are “in the world but not of it.”

Would most of you say you don’t belong to the world? Most of us would describe ourselves to a stranger in many ways that would indicate belonging: our family ties, our citizenship in a nation, our residence in a town, our membership in various organizations to which we say “we belong.”

What Jesus is getting at here is the question of ownership. Do the world and its values own you? Are you enslaved to the values and structure, the principalities and powers of this world, or are you free to go against them if you think they are going against God? Think about that in terms of your relationship to your family, your peers, your work, the country or any other civic or recreational organization to which you “belong.” Where is the ultimate allegiance of your heart, and how do you show that allegiance in the way you live your life?

Does anybody hate you because you are a Christian? Do you feel threatened regularly by the world, not just in general, but because you are a Christian? If you do not, then do you suppose it is because the whole world, or even just American society, now agrees with all that Jesus said, and lives by it? Or is it because many Christians have come to belong so much to the world that nothing about our beliefs, lifestyles, economic choices, or anything else is in any way against the prevailing values of our society? Are we truly today “in the world but not of it?” Each of us has to answer that for ourselves. I saw a bumper sticker in the parking lot that says, “If you are not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

The second thing that Jesus says is that even if we truly do not belong to the world, we are not to be removed from it. Jesus sends us into that world to which we do not belong in order to transform it.

This is so critical for us to understand as modern-day disciples. Jesus does not call us all to retire to single-cell monasteries in the desert to forget the world around us. Jesus calls us to live and speak and witness to our beliefs in the middle of the world. Our life of faith is not to be lived separately from the rest of our lives.

I think American Christians have a particularly difficult time with this because we wrap it up somehow with the Constitutional separation of Church and State. I think that concept has migrated into peoples’ heads and become a rule that the life of faith happens only in church on Sunday, and that is should be kept out of the rest of our lives. From a young age we are taught not to talk about religion or politics. How boring that would be if we really followed it!

Really, we are called to be bi-vocational: we are called to be people in the world for God’s sake and to be God’s people for the sake of the world.

Jesus said, “I have sent them into the world.” He sends us into the world to be witnesses to him. This means that as Christians we are called to make choices in our lives reflecting our faith even when we may be in conflict with the state or any other organization. The hope expressed by Jesus in later verses in chapter 17 is that the world might come to know God’s love through the work of the disciples and so be transformed into the world God planned from the beginning.

The world is like Shakespeare’s stage. It is a place of action, where God’s narrative is worked out. Jesus was praying for us as much as he was for those first disciples…praying for our protection, for our joy, for our completeness in him, for our being witnesses to him. His mission was to the poor, whatever form that poverty takes: illness, infirmity, loneliness, being without money for groceries or rent, bereavement or anything else that causes us pain or anxiety. I am especially mindful this Memorial Day weekend how many more people will be remembering family members and friends who have given their lives in service to their country. My heart aches for them, as I know God’s heart does. Another place God’s people are hurting is Indonesia. They have again suffered horribly from natural disaster with more than 3000 dead and more than 200,000 homesless. Jesus would send us to them.

We are incorporated into the tapestry of God’s great narrative: First through our own life situation, when we discover our own poverty and need for Jesus’ healing presence, and second, through our ministries to each other and the world in his name. The richness of the tapestry is the richness of God’s self. Our threads are but a small part of the whole, yet they give the narrative color and form. Each of us makes a difference.

I recently came across a story about a little village in Italy, one that suffered terribly during World War II. The pride and joy of this village had been a statue of Christ, which stood in the church garden. During the fighting, the statue had been shattered by grenades. After the battle, the priest rallied the people to look for the remains of the statue. Eventually most of the figure was pieced together: head, body, arms, and legs. But no matter how hard they searched, the people couldn’t find the hands. They went to the priest in despair; they had failed to restore the beloved statue. What could they do? “Brothers and sisters,” replied the priest, “you are Christ’s hands.”





May 21, 2006

Anne Jensen - May 21, 2006

Rev. Anne Jensen - Trinity Parish
Easter 6B John 15:9-17, 1 John 4:7-12

One of the ways we sanctify time is to connect with the seasons of the year through prayer. The next 3 days, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Ascension Day, which is Thursday are rogation days. Rogation comes from the Latin rogare to ask. In this case it refers to the intercessions for the harvest, originally for preservation of the crop from mildew. Thursday is Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter. Jesus ascends is to heaven, marking the end of the post-Resurrection appearances and the exaltation of Christ to heavenly life. The significance of this is that his human nature is taken into heaven. The Episcopalians and the Lutherans are jointly sponsoring an Ascension Day Evensong at Stanford Chapel at 7 PM on Thursday.

There is an old prayer that includes the words, “Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scripture to be written for our learning: grant us to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them."

The words we heard from John’s gospel and the first letter of John are words that should be emblazoned on our very souls, so essential are they to Christian faith and life. "Love one another as I have loved you." Truly they are words to live by.

Now, I’ll complain about the people who put the lectionary together: What were they thinking to give us so much rich material all at once, and then leave out the main metaphor of the vine?

Back to the gospel: We need a little background to help us grasp what Jesus is saying. Just before our reading for today Jesus say to the disciples: “I am the true vine, and my father is the vine grower. He continues, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing…My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. Our reading for today begins here: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.”

The image of the vine makes it much easier for us to understand what Jesus was saying to his disciples and by extension to the Christian Community of John’s time, around 90 AD and to us, even today. There is a flow from Jesus to us, just as life flows through the vine to the fruit; without that source of life the fruits will wither along with the branches. Today’s reading is an exposition on what it is to be the branches of the vine. Abiding in Jesus and his love leads to the fulfillment of Christ’s joy, which in turn becomes our joy and leads us to obeying the commandments and the continuation of Jesus’ work. All this points to the conclusion: Love one another. The reading from John’s epistle is an elaboration on the importance of loving one another.

Many words shimmer in this passage, words reaching out to grasp our hearts and minds, words that call us to prayer: “Abide in my love.” “I have called you friends.” “…that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” “I chose you.” “Go and bear fruit.”

I am struck by the intimacy and passion of these words. If another human being said these words to us, how would we react? Would we be embarrassed…or disbelieving…or overwhelmed that so much love was coming our way?

At the very heart of this passage is God’s love. We can love; we are able to love because God loved us first. And when the people of Israel couldn’t understand this, God sent Jesus to make it apparent… “no one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” This self-giving love is at the heart of our faith; it is the foundation of the Resurrection and our redemption. It is cause for awe and the source of our celebration.

Jesus made the disciples into a society of friends. This is what Jesus invites us into. This commandment took on reality for me when I was preparing to leave Minnesota to go to seminary. I had a circle of friends I cared for deeply, intimate and loving friends. I had to leave, and leave-taking is hard for me; I expect it is for most people. I was driving home one day, thinking about how I going to say good-by. Suddenly I thought, “I can’t be here to love you; love one another for me.” I was startled when I realized my thoughts echoed Jesus’ words. I knew in a whole new way what Jesus was saying. Perhaps those words had unconsciously taken root in my soul.

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Love comes through the trunk and into the branches; we are loved into a condition in which we become stems to reach other branches; more leaves, then blossoms and ultimately fruit.

There’s a connection between bearing fruit and loving our brothers and sisters. The fruit we bear will be signs of our love for others. This is not a lady bountiful approach to charity so much as it is recognizing our connectedness to the other branches on the vine. We need each other.

Yesterday I was listening to the interviews of the candidates for presiding bishop. One of the candidates is the Bishop of Louisiana. He told of his being only a mile from the highway on which people, including his family, were being bussed out of New Orleans. He could hear the traffic and the helicopters overhead. He was powerless and bereft. He called a friend to come pray with him and he got through the night. A few days later he heard the words from a government official, “Those people down there have to realize…” One of the black pastors turned to him and said, “You ever been one of “Those people” before? He shook his head and said, “No.” The pastor said, “Welcome to the club.” The bishop continued, “Then the calls started coming in from the brothers and sisters in faith, saying, “What do you need?” He experienced conversion. He said his had not been a prophetic ministry; he has repented of that. He sees with new eyes what it is to love as Christ loves us; it is to be in the world for the sake of the least of our sisters and brothers.

It is God’s good pleasure that we abide in love so that we can produce fruit and Jesus says that in doing so our joy will be complete.

So why do we live selfish and distracted lives? Richard Foster points out what we all know from our own lives. “We dash here and there desperately trying to fulfill the many obligations that press in upon us. We jerk back and forth between business commitments and family responsibilities. When we are busy responding to the needs of a child or spouse, we feel guilty about neglecting the demands of work. When we respond to the pressures of work, we feel we are failing our family.”

We become like bruised or broken branches. We are not fully connected to the source of life. God must be at the center of our lives. If we replace God at the center, substituting things like success, family, money or any thing else, we cut ourselves off from life itself.

Being connected to the source is abiding, a continuous condition rather than the filling station mode of getting a quick fill up and moving out until we’re running on fumes again. Abiding provides for a mutual indwelling. This mutual indwelling is found in scripture—it is both a source for nourishment and a resting place. Abiding is living constantly in the presence of God. Such living is constant prayer. Trust in his love and keep the commandments to love and enjoy his presence. Every Sunday we celebrate the Eucharist. In communion we give ourselves to the Lord and Jesus gives himself for us in the bread and the wine. This is the very essence of abiding…mutual indwelling, that he may dwell in us and we in him.

Nurtured and fed, we are appointed to go and bear fruit. Go out and love your neighbor, beginning with your family, our church family, our places of work and ultimately the world. Love is not always easy. It takes time. It takes commitment and energy, and often producing fruit requires money. We are called to be among people as a witness to God’s love for all people, reaching out to those who would be astounded that Jesus would know their name or care: the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised, the outsiders, the lonely and the desperate.

Love one another as Christ loves us.





May 14, 2006

Fred Heard - May 14, 2006

John 14:15-21
Father Fred Heard - Holy Trinity Menlo Park
May 14, 2006

And so in today’s gospel, “Jesus said if you love me, you will keep my commandments…They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” It occurs to me, we use this word love rather loosely. You are to love your family and you are to love your friends and you are to love Jesus and you are to love your God. But how many of us can honestly say we love God and we love Jesus? Is our love really a deep respect…like we really do like them…or is it “on fire” love?

My mother did her best when I asked her what love was. She pointed out there is a difference in one’s love for family and romantic love and love for God. Love in the minds of many is only an emotion…it is a feeling that cannot be forced and is not love if you only love someone because you feel you must or you should. Over the years, I have counseled many who feel they must love a parent and there is something wrong with them if they do not...even though perhaps that parent abused them years before. I have also known a couple of parents who felt they needed to divorce their children—one family saying, “But I do love him” and the other, not saying that at all. Love, in the minds of some, can be an emotion that comes and goes…even to the point perhaps of saying in a divorce—I don’t love you anymore. Or perhaps there is a time when one of the partners realizes they are in fact gay and they acknowledge that they continue to love that person they married so long ago.

Yet, we are commanded to love. In the Bible, we hear of Agape and Phileo love. Yet, as I found out when my mother tried to explain love to me, it is not always so clear-cut. Certainly Agape and Phileo love is often used interchangeably in the Bible and on many occasions the two are used to express love in the same sentence.
I have come to the conclusion that my love for Jesus Christ is on going and something that I can develop in more depth as I learn more about Jesus…how he was sent here by God…how he was willing to die for me…how he loved his disciples and everyone with whom he came in contact…how he taught us to walk in love. But one thing I know is that church and Jesus Christ is not something we do for our children like ballet lessons or soccer practice—it is for real—it is not something on a list that we check off at the end of childhood like we did braces or music lessons. Church is a part of our children’s lives—it is truly something that will grow with them…just as it grows with each of us even if we are 103 years old. Our love for Jesus will be tested—we will test it—and at times we may doubt that love. It is not easy to explain or to understand our love for Jesus Christ.

Love itself is not an easy concept to understand and sometimes to accept and it offers many meanings to many people. Now, this is Mother’s Day and a day when I could speak eloquently of the Dick and Jane mother appearing in pearls and high heels as she jumps rope with her children...and almost always when she is not jumping rope, she is in the kitchen making cookies. My children’s mother would certainly say, “Well you are not talking about me.” Truth is I would be talking about some mothers perhaps and be missing the boat on many others.

There are traditional mothers and there are non-traditional mothers…and who are we to say today what is traditional and what is non-traditional? There are mothers with careers outside and inside the home. There are male mothers just as there are female fathers and these are the parents who have had to slip into the role of the other as single parents and many are doing extraordinary jobs in these roles. There are people in our society who are not biological parents but still they are contributing in very special and significant ways to our children as uncles and aunts and stepparents and foster parents, God parents, nannies, and just members of the village…and they too should be remembered on days like today. There are still others who struggle as parents and perhaps some of us and we should do all that is within our power to walk with them and be there for them.

There are also those who simply don’t care and are sorry the title was ever thrust on them. We have come to recognize that it takes a village to raise a child and accordingly, we have passed laws in our state that allow parents who do not wish to raise their children for whatever reason to leave a child at a fire or police station or at a church. This is a good law.

Hopefully, we are entering a time when it is understood more and more that it is not necessary to have children if that is not your priority. We are also beginning to recognize throughout this land that some people would make very good parents and it is not possible for them to give biological birth. Our Book of Common Prayer offers recognition to this fact with its service of “Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child.” The church asks that this service be done as soon as convenient after the birth of a child or after receiving a child. The purpose of this service is to welcome the child into the church community and to give thanks to Almighty God.

On this day, I am thinking of the Eleventh Step in Twelve Step programs which reads in part, “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscience contact with God as we understood Him…” It is said that you accept a Higher Power of your own understanding…and while we obviously all started with mothers—some were sainted and some were not—and it might very well be that we have had to grasp a motherhood of our own understanding and I would add—acceptance…because the fact is no matter what our experience, motherhood is how our civilization continues.

We need to confront this thing called love. For our own growth and peace of mind, we cannot ignore a difficult relationship…and make no mistake about it, our relationships with parents and Jesus Christ can be difficult. A relationship will not be built in a day or a week or even years but we need to work at it. Perhaps we need to write, perhaps we need to pray, and perhaps we need to have a conversation with a human being even if that person is no longer living. Perhaps we need to write a letter and then burn it and let the smoke carry our resentment away. Perhaps there is someone in our lives—our birth mother—or the mother who chose us—or someone else who we dearly love because they gave us what we needed and the time to thank them is now and every day…because you see when we can tell someone we love them, we can give them the greatest gift of all. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Grow in your love for Jesus Christ and share that love with someone else. AMEN





May 07, 2006

Anne Jensen - May 7, 2006

Trinity Parish 2006 - Easter 4 B
Ps. 23 and John 10:11-18

"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want…" How beloved these words are! There are 150 psalms, but the one that almost everyone knows, or at least recognizes, is the 23rd psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd.” We read it to our children, and we read it to ourselves and find comfort in it. Many people memorize it. It is the most frequently requested psalm for funeral services. The image of the Lord as shepherd is ingrained in us from our earliest years. The images of God’s providence: food, water, a secure path, protection, abundance are all very inviting. The child within us, the child we were when we first heard this psalm, still yearns for such security.

But Biblical shepherds were not always so wonderful. In the Old Testament the writers used the metaphor of shepherd for the kings of Israel. For example Ezekiel condemns Israel’s leaders by calling them unworthy shepherds for neglecting to do their duty to the flock. They have been more interested in themselves than in their flock, which has scattered to find its own food. I recommend that you read chapter 34 of the book of Ezekiel to really understand what John’s gospel is referring to. It’s powerful reading!

When Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd,” he is doing two things. First he is contrasting his leadership to that of the Jewish leaders who have neglected their ministry. Secondly he is claiming this attribute of God, this shepherd quality found in the 23rd psalm, for himself. Throughout this gospel Jesus continues to reveal who he is through the I AM sayings. “I am the Good Shepherd” is the fourth of these sayings.

But Jesus isn’t talking about green pasture and still waters. The first thing he says is “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” By contrast the hired hand, who does not own the sheep, runs away when he sees the wolf coming, leaving the sheep to be scattered.

Then Jesus continues in this new definition of what it takes to be the Good Shepherd. It’s the quality of intimate relationship. He says, “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” In the Bible “knowing” isn’t intellectual knowing, like knowing the multiplication tables. Knowing is the relationship between a husband and a wife; knowing is experiencing other other; knowing is to be connected in a special relationship. There’s a relationship claim here that defines the good shepherd, the one who will lay down his life for the sake of the flock. But he’s saying even more than that.

He has set up and equation here. “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” The relationship between the shepherd and the flock mirrors the relationship between God the Father and the Son. Since Jesus knows the flock and the Father knows Jesus, Jesus is the way to the Father. Jesus, as he has said only 6 verses earlier, is the gate. He says “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will find pasture… And then comes one of my favorite verses in the Bible, just before the beginning of today’s gospel: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Here the Gospel of John meets Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd will provide for our well being and security.

Well, we have heard a lot about shepherds and sheep, but such a livelihood is far removed from our lives. I expect most of us have romanticized shepherds and sheep. Let me share with you a little of my background. My father was a sheep rancher in Washington State. There was very little that was idyllic about it. It was a large operation, and other than the lead sheep none of them had names. The hired hands were an odd bunch, often recruited from the bars on Front Street. Their lives were lonely. If they were lucky they had a dog for companionship and help. Life could be dangerous, especially in the summers when the sheep went up to the mountains, where mountain lions, bears and coyotes thought they’d just found their dinner. One dog was particularly prized because she was good at treeing bears. The sheep were smelly and often restless; they tended to stray. The life of the shepherd was hard.

Obviously Jesus was referring to people, who were his flock, it’s worth asking, “How are we like the sheep?” On the surface we look pretty good: we’re clean and well fed; we take pretty good care of ourselves, and we don’t wander very far off the path. Do we really need a shepherd? And if so, what kind of shepherd?

Well, my answer is “Yes. We do need a shepherd.” But not just any shepherd. We need the Good Shepherd. Here’s why. First of all, for the most part we look better than we actually feel. That is to say, we look more independent and confident than we know to be true because to do so is the cultural norm here. It’s protective coloring. Underneath we may feel as unkempt and scattered as those sheep. Also we have so much information, so many opportunities, so much activity coming at us that we need a perspective, a viewpoint to sort it all out and to try to find meaning in our lives. Jesus, the good shepherd provides that.

Without the presence and guidance of the Good Shepherd we are just as muddled as those scattered sheep. Our internal selves become fragmented and scattered. We need this good shepherd because he is the one who has laid down his life for us and then has taken it up again in the Resurrection. He draws us to himself. He knows us by name.

As we are looking for a new rector, a position most other churches call pastor, which means shepherd, it is important to remember that all earthly shepherds for God’s flocks are derived from the work of the Good Shepherd and share in the work of feeding, guiding and protecting. In Ezekiel 34 God declares, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down…I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak…” This is the work of Jesus and this is the work of all of us who profess our faith in him.

Yes, we need Jesus as the shepherd of our lives, body and soul, spirit and mind. We need Jesus as the shepherd who laid down his life for us because through that life, death and resurrection he has established for the pathway to the Kingdom of God, even now. That is the realm in which we wish to live. Those are the rules and the guideline which will help us get a perspective on all that confronts us. The prospect of eternal life is what gives us hope and courage in the valley of the shadow of death.

I can’t imagine how difficult life on our own, life without such a shepherd, would be. Once during a spiritually dry time in my life a number of years ago, my spiritual director asked if I really believed. Maybe I should just try living without belief in God. It was awful. I tried it for a week, and it was awful. Nothing terrible happened, but I was desolate.

In this complicated life I think we need to be shepherds for each other: companions and guides on the way, guides to others of the flock when faced with dangers. Our heritage is rich with people who have been shepherds: Joan of Arc, Harriet Tubman and many, many bishops, including Bishop Swing, who has faithfully served as bishop for 27 years.

You know the bishop’s staff is really a shepherd’s crook; it’s a symbol of his or her role as shepherd. As I finish, I want to say just a few words about our election of Mark Andrus to be our new bishop, which took place at Grace Cathedral yesterday. The day was set in the context of prayer and of the Eucharist. We had the liturgy of the Word before we started voting, and between each ballot there was a hymn, a prayer and a meditation. Once we had an election, there was a great cheer! Through the marvels of technology, he was able to make his acceptance by telephone, in a voice that was as clear as if he had been at the cathedral. He was thoughtful of the other candidates, he was humbled by the experience, and he is passionate for the gospel. I believe the spirit was present and active as we called a new bishop to be a shepherd for this diocese.

I believe the spirit is present and active with our search committee as they proceed with their work to find a new rector who will be the shepherd of this congregation. Earthly shepherds need to find their model in the Good Shepherd.

We too can be shepherds...as long as we can be like the psalmist who proclaims, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…. And with the psalmist conclude, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.”





 
 
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