The Fourth Sunday of Easter.  April 29, 2007.  First Communion Sunday.  9:30, 11:30, 2PM.   Acts 13: 14, 43-52.  Revelation 7: 9, 14b-17.  John 10: 27-30.

One Sunday morning as I was walking past the nursery I heard the frightened wail and screaming of a child who could hardly catch his breath.  I stepped into the nursery to see what was happening.  One of the nursery workers was trying to comfort a little boy who was very much afraid as he beat against her with his little hands.  When I came into the room he reached out his arms toward me.  I made the happy mistake of taking him into my arms.  While I didn’t know him well, he has seen me with his parents several times and I was obviously the only person in the nursery he recognized.  Every time I tried to give him back he began to scream again.  I was deeply moved by his profound fear of being abandoned by his parents.  It became my loving duty to carry him into church to look for his parents.

Two Sundays ago a little boy came up to me in the commons and told me that he couldn’t find his parents.  He was being very brave, but when I held out my hand to him he took hold of it.  When we found his mother the little boy began crying.  As we get a little older we try to be brave – but even older people are afraid sometimes and have a hard time holding back the tears. 

In our cities there are children sleeping on the streets.  There are people who will experience a health crisis, a financial crisis or a mental or spiritual crisis today.  We know that there are wars and conflicts that threaten the lives and safety of millions of people in our world. When God looks at our world he sees a world of many blessings.  The world is God’s good creation.  God also sees the tragedies, the violence and the struggles that cause us pain and fill us with fear. 

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”

If God loves us so much, why doesn’t he save us from our pain, our fears and our sorrows?  I suspect that the answer is that the world in which we live is God’s gift, but it also truly belongs to us.  We are not just kept and protected children.  We are made in the image and likeness of God and the world in which we lives is ours to understand, to transform and even to conquer.

I suspect that the little boy who came up to me in the Commons because he was lost learned several things that Sunday.  He learned how much he loved his mother and how much his mother loved him.  He learned a little more about how big and confusing the world outside of his family is.  He also learned how he could take care of himself and deal with his fear by walking up to me and asking for help.  He was no longer just a kept and protected child.  He was beginning to learn how to take care of himself.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who doesn’t treat us like ignorant, helpless sheep.  We are the Good Shepherd’s followers and friends.  We need the Good Shepherd’s wisdom and grace to deal with the challenges of life - but Jesus doesn’t shield us from the challenges that are truly necessary if we are to grow.  Jesus is our food and our drink for the journey of life. As our food and drink Jesus is always with us and nothing can snatch us out of God’s hands.  Sheep are herded around and guarded from the outside.  The followers of Jesus are led from a place deep within them by minds, hearts and feelings guided by God’s grace.

On this First Communion Sunday we recognize our need for heavenly food and drink.  Jesus nourishes us from a place deep within us so that we might live our lives well, even in the midst of uncertainty, fear and pain.  A good parent doesn’t take life away from a child by overly protecting her or him.  A good parent helps a child grow into life.  A good parent helps a child live life responsibly from the inside out, so that even when the parent is not around the child is guided by wisdom and a power that is deep within them.

My young friends who are about to receive your First Communion, today Jesus will begin to live in you in a new and very important way.  Jesus will be your friend always and he will guide you always if you listen to the voice of Jesus in your heart and ask him to make you strong in doing what is right and good.    As you prepare to receive First Communion today I would like to ask you two questions that you have been asked many times before:  “What do we receive when we receive Communion?”  (The Body and Blood of Jesus as our food and drink.)   “Why do we receive Jesus in Communion?” (It helps us be good people by placing Jesus in our hearts to lead and guide us.)

First Communion means that you are beginning to grow up.  Grown-ups know that even when they are afraid, Jesus is with them.  May Jesus fill your young hearts with joy today and every day of your lives.  May Jesus come to you in Communion and be your strength every Sunday until you are as old, or even older, than your grandma and grandpa.  May God bless you on this happy day and always.