Sermon preached April 21, 2013 at Valley Presbyterian Church, Brookfield, CT

WE BELONG TO GOD

I don't think I need to tell you that we live in a frightening world, not this week, not since December fourteenth. After the bombings at the Boston Rick Green wrote in the Hartford Courant: “And yet, once again, there was that sickening feeling that something might have changed forever in America.” You notice he said yet once AGAIN.

For me something changed forever when the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed injuring almost 700 and taking the lives of 168, including 19 children under the age of 6. I no longer could feel the same feeling of safety that Americans once enjoyed. Terrorism was not something that happened in far away countries, it had happened in our nation.

If that did not convince Americans that something had changed forever in this country then I think none of us could feel the same after September 11. Even more recently we have seen mass shootings at Fort Hood, at Virginia Tech; we have seen the shootings that injured Gabby Gifford, the shootings at Aurora, Colorado and of course the killings at Newtown, only minutes away from where we are this morning. Indeed something has changed forever in America. Once upon a time many Americans felt relatively safe compared with the rest of the world. Bombings and mass shootings were something that happened in Israel, or in Iraq or in Afghanistan, but we felt that our children were safe when we sent them off to school. School invasions were something that happened in Russia or some far off part of the world.

Unfortunately those who live in the inner city areas of major cities, even people in Hartford's North end, and in portions of Bridgeport and New Haven who hear gunfire in their neighborhood on a daily or weekly basis know a different reality than those of us who live in more affluent suburban neighborhoods. I remember clearly my apprehension in going to make a pastoral call on the mother of one of our members, getting out of my car realizing that I was in an area where there had been a half a dozen shootings in the previous few months. Even though these seem isolated incidents they mount up to a frightening toll, it is estimated that at least 3,531 people have been killed by guns since Newtown. That includes 179 teens and 63 children.

Today there is not a one of us who could rationally deny that we live in a world full of danger. Of course there are more dangers than shootings and bombings. We are beset by many fears and anxieties, “Am I going to loose my job?” “Are my teen age children or grandchildren in danger of getting involved with drugs or alcohol?” I know people who are frightened to death to get in an airplane. I think most of us have a certain apprehension about our health, most of us know people no older than ourselves who have have a heart attack, a stroke, or have been diagnosed with cancer. Our fears and anxieties are without end.

Does the faith that we hold offer us any comfort in the face of our fears and anxieties?

Our scriptures this morning are filled with images of God's care for us: In a few minutes we will affirm our faith with familiar words:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; ...
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I fear no evil; for thou art with me;
    thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. ...

Thou preparest a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
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.

The Hebrew scriptures in many other places affirm similarly that we belong to God, for example in Psalm 95 we read

O come, let us worship and bow down,
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.

Jesus repeatedly uses the same image of God or of himself as the Shepard and we the sheep. You remember how he told about a good shepherd who left 99 sheep safe in the fold and went out into the darkness to seek for one lost sheep, and continued to seek until he found the one lost, and then came back rejoicing.

In the passage from John that we read this morning Jesus says “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”

No one will snatch them out of my hand. If we belong to God, if we belong to Jesus, then no matter what the danger, no matter how frightening our world is, no matter how anxious we may be, we know that we belong to God, and no one, no power, no danger can snatch us out of the hands of God. Even in the case of death we still belong to God we are safe in his hands. The opening words of the Presbyterian Brief Statement of Faith make this same affirmation : “In life and in death, we belong to God.”

In Revelation we read:

“The one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
    the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

People who believe these affirmations, those who believe that God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, those who believe that they belong to God, in life and in death we belong to God are people who can face their fears and anxieties and live as people of courage. People who are confident in God's love and care, that no one can snatch them out of God's hands are people who are able to confront the evils of this world. Confidence in God's care gives us courage to confront the culture of violence that infects the life of our nation and the life of the world. Confidence in God gives us courage to stand up for reasonable controls on automatic weapons, people who can stand up for background checks for gun owners, people who can stand up for every victim of violence.

We have seen many people of courage in the past week and past months. It has taken great courage for parents, friends and neighbors of those killed at Sandy Hook to march and run and even travel with the president to Washington to lobby congressmen in favor of reasonable gun controls. Our Senators and our governor and our legislators have shown courage in standing and voting for gun controls, while others in the U.S. Senate have shown spectacular cowardice in refusing to do what they know is right, which is the will of the American people.

It took tremendous courage for first responders to run toward the bomb blasts on Monday to aid the victims. It has taken great courage on the part of law enforcement to pursue and even engage in firefights with the brothers accused of the bombings and to kill one and capture the other.

Many others among us have shown equal but less spectacular courage to stand with the poor and oppressed, to feed the hungry, heal the sick, comfort the discouraged, visit the sick and imprisoned, and to stand up for justice for the downtrodden.

We do not know the source of every one's courage, but I am certain that many people of courage are inspired to live victorious lives because they know that in death and in life we belong to God. People of courage are those who know that the Lord is our shepherd, and that no one can snatch us out of the hands of the good shepherd.

Another Psalm says God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear. Martin Luther based his great Hymn, A Mighty Fortress on this psalm, and we will now stand and sing that hymn.