Please join us in the virtual world of Second Life each Sunday at 2pm Pacific/ 5pm Eastern time. Download the interface at Secondlife.com, create your avatar, and join us at Sunshine Cathedral.
Call to Worship
Sunshine Cathedral is a different kind of church
where the past is past
and the future has infinite possibilities!
This is the day our God has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, give us true faith, and make that faith grow in us day by day. And give us hope and love, so that we may serve our neighbors according to your will… now and forever. Amen.
Based on a prayer found at https://www.christianity.com/wiki/prayer/prayers-for-hope.html
The Lessons
The Wisdom of Vikas Khanna
“The power of food is really spiritual. It not only brings the whole family together on the same table, but also brings the whole world together.”
A reading from the Fourth Gospel (John 21.1.10, 13, 15)
Jesus appeared again to his followers by Lake Galilee. This is how it happened:
Jesus was on the beach and called out to his friends (after they brought in a big haul of fish) saying, “Bring some of the fish that you caught.”
After cooking the fish, Jesus walked over to get the bread and gave it to them. He also gave them the fish.
When they finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me…?”
Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Take care of my lambs.”
Reflection by Rev. Dr. BK Hipsher
To Follow Jesus is to Care for Others 05012022
In our gospel reading today the risen Christ asks Peter if he loves him. In fact in the full reading of the passage Peter is asked the same question three times and Peter answers each time “…. you know that I love you.” And each time Peter is instructed to take that love and apply it to the world, “… take care of my lambs.” It is no accident that this is occurring as the risen Christ is quite literally is feeding them, caring for their essential physical need to have nourishment.
Sharing food and feeding those in need is perhaps the most important action we can undertake to build community and to build trust. Gathering together for a meal is considered essential in business for creating and cementing relationships, or at least was before the pandemic. And I can see business relationships suffering for the lack of face to face contact and particularly the inability to share food together.
What Peter is asked to do is to “feed my sheep, feed my lambs.” It might have been just as easy to use the words “feed the poor” or “care for those in need” but the image used is intentional, sheep, lambs. Because the responsibility of a shepherd to the flock is an essential contextual element in the story, Peter understands the responsibility that comes with the statement, “take care of my lambs.” This is not an option that can be corrupted by judgments of whether people in need deserve to be the object of the care required. The responsibility of a shepherd to the sheep and lambs in the flock is absolute, find them food, keep them together, protect them from attack.
This is perhaps the most important pronouncement made by the risen Christ to the disciples. When Jesus walked with them daily he taught them to care for the poor, to eat with strangers and sinners, to protect those who were oppressed, to rescue those who were abused, to heal the sick. But the risen Christ appears to them in their most comfortable setting, in Galilee where Jesus first met them and gives this lesson again… “feed my sheep, take care of my lambs.”
Perhaps the most literal illustration of this command to us by the risen Christ is the organization World Central Kitchen (WCK.org). Founded by Chef José Andrés in 2010 by Chef Andrés and his wife Patricia after the terrible earthquake in Haiti. Here is a quote from him on WCK.org website, “Everyone knows that food is central to life and family all over the world. What we learned very quickly was that food is even more essential in a crisis.”
World Central Kitchen goes where ever there is human suffering in the world and sets up kitchen to cook food side by side with the people where they are, building back community, keeping the flock together while providing them the food that is essential to keeping them healthy in body and mind. They have one focus, one mission, feed people in crisis well prepared food, made in the style the people are familiar with, to nourish them yes, but also to comfort them in a time of trauma and crisis.
Two stories relating to food… When I visited St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in 1989 I was warmly greeted, an elderly couple invited me to sit with them and helped me navigate the prayerbook as this was my first Episcopal service. They were all very kind to me. But the most important thing that happened on that visit was after that visit, a small loaf of freshly baked bread was delivered to my home with a note welcoming me to the community the next day. I still see in my minds eye and taste that bread. It was much, much more than food.
Second story… I attended another Episcopal church in the early 2000’s in Northampton, MA, a beautiful parish that sits right on the grounds of Smith University. I was so happy to find that they provided a “feeding” program there for the poor and wanted to be involved in it. But my joy was soon extinguished when I found that the program occurred during the Sunday morning service, in the basement sending a very clear message to those who came for meals, we will feed you but you are not invited to church, you are not welcome amongst us do-gooders for Sunday worship.
“Take care of my lambs” means providing for the essential needs of those around us. And this is where science enters the realm of spirituality. What I remember most about my Psych 101 class in undergraduate school is the study of “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Abraham Maslow studied what humans need to fully develop, what people need to attain their full potential. In his study he found that the physiological need for food and water were the base. Next is our need for safety. Once these needs are met we need to feel part of a community, and to have our confidence built by feeling esteem for ourselves. These are the most basic human needs.
When we hold this scientific truth up to our gospel reading today what do we see? Caring for the lambs means feeding, clothing, and sheltering them. Caring for the lambs means bringing them into the company of our community and building up their self-esteem in that process. It is not enough to feed people in the basement we must cook with them, share food with them, invite them into our community, and treat them… well, as we would like to be treated in the same situation.
We cannot call ourselves Christian, followers of the teachings of Jesus, and ignore this command to take the love we feel for God and apply it to the most vulnerable people around us. Make no mistake, we are not called to offer charity, we are called to offer the true love we say we feel for God, the true devotion we say we have for Christ. Donating money is a good start but what is required of us is much more, to be invested in the people we are trying to care for and learning to love them with the same love we say we have for God.
Many times I’ve said to you that I believe we practice loving God by loving people and we practice loving people by loving God. The two are inextricably linked. We simply cannot do one without the other. Let us take our love for God, our love for the risen Christ, our love for the way that Jesus showed us into the world this week in small ways and large ways and care for the lambs, keep the flock of humanity together, in whatever way we feel called to do it.
Ken Yehi Ratzon Let it be so. Amen
For a list of music suggested to meditate on for this service click the link below: