It’s all about the shepherd!

My mother used to tell me that it was one thing to be ignorant, it’s something else to open your mouth and prove it. I think this applies to Good Shepherd Sunday…where all over the Christian world, preachers like me will open their mouths and tell you with great authority what they don’t know about sheep.

And I am not exempt from this. I mean, to tell you the truth, everything I know about sheep and shepherding I’ve learned from old Warner Brothers cartoons involving Wile E. Coyote and a sheepdog named Ralph.

The funny thing is that we preachers get so distracted by the nature of sheep and their behavior that we forget that the passages that show up every Fourth Sunday of Easter—traditionally Good Shepherd Sunday—are not really about the sheep. They are all about the shepherd.

It’s a classic case of not seeing the forest for the trees, or the not seeing the sheep for the flock…. Oops! There I go again!

It’s all about the shepherd!

Jesus describes himself as a shepherd. As the good shepherd…as distinct from all those bad shepherds out there…and thieves and wolves and things that are generally bad for gatherings of sheep.

He says in today’s Gospel that the good shepherd can enter the sheepfold. What’s a sheepfold? Okay, I had to look this up. A sheepfold is kind of pen, or corral, used to gather up the sheep at night. And the sheepfold is guarded by a gatekeeper who checks to be sure that only shepherds enter the gate. And I guess in those days, sheep only heard and responded to the voices (and research shows, to the faces!) of their own shepherd, so instead of branding them they’d…. Oops. Sorry. My bad! I forgot. Old habits, you know.

It’s all about the shepherd.

In getting to the heart of this passage, it does not help that not only have modern, urban, preachers been misunderstanding sheep and shepherding, there is also a tendency to make the passage into an allegory that neither Jesus nor the Gospel of John intended.

So, what did John mean when he says “sheepfold?” The sheepfold in this passage represents… (wait for it) … a place to keep sheep at night. That’s right. It is not heaven and it’s not really the church. This passage is not about those who try to get into heaven by jumping the turnstiles or entering the theater without a ticket. If it were, he’d be talking about sheep sneaking over the gate after curfew. No, this passage is not about heaven. It is about the Church. This passage is a riff on Christian leadership, and this riff is not directed at the bosses (although they need to listen, straighten up, and fly right!) but is actually directed at the congregations… the ordinary followers of Jesus… so that they will be able to suss out genuine, competent, accountable leaders, from the hucksters, charlatans, and the kind leaders who think that leadership is all about them.

So, yeah, it’s all about the shepherd. But here's the thing: the shepherd is all about the sheep!

One of my favorite teachers about leadership is a guy named Simon Sinek, and one of his maxims (which is also the title of a book and a TED talk) is that “Leaders Eat Last.” His thesis is that the first job of a leader is the care and safety of the group being led. Good officers wait for the soldiers, sailors, and marines who do the actual work to eat first, even if all they get are the leftovers, if any food at all. That's because a good leader puts the safety and welfare of the group ahead of his or her own status, safety, or privilege. For me, an effective leader not only sees to the safety of the group but is also a person who brings out the very best in those around them. People will follow, will work towards the goal or mission of the group, as long as they know that their leaders are caring for them and giving them the tools to succeed.

John’s gospel reminds us that Jesus, our savior, puts the sheep— that’s us— first.

Jesus taught using illustrations that were familiar to his hearers. They knew about shepherds…at least the ones who lived in the country did...and he was talking about the nature of his ministry and the relationship between God and God’s people.  John’s Gospel, which comes along quite a bit later, remembered Jesus’ teaching but began to think about both the nature of who Jesus is, and the nature of Christian community and Christian leadership.

How are we, as community, supposed to live as followers of Jesus in this period between resurrection and return?

John’s Gospel teaches us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd—and so he is speaking about the nature of Christian community. We who are members of the flock, herd, household, body (pick your image of the church) need to be wary of all the things that can distract us by the temptation to follow the wrong voice. Embedded in this Gospel is the warning that some people will pretend to be doing good when they are really looking out only for themselves.

Boy! It sure is a good thing that this was only a first-century problem, right?  I mean, there is no one out there today competing for our attention, right? No one out there wants to sway us into doing something harmful, right? It’s a good thing that people in power or influence, always keep our focus on the main things, right? And, certainly, all our leaders never, ever, appeal to the worst that is in us or our deepest fears or set us against one another in order to build themselves up! Not in our modern, enlightened 21^st Century world!

Nathan Dungan, founder of Share, Save, Spend—a ministry that teaches everyday Christians about money and meaning— reminds us that every day the typical American is exposed to over 5000 advertising exposures. That’s not 5000 products, 5000 exposures. From the car logo on your steering wheel to the brand name on your jeans to an ad on tv or on the side of the bus…we are exposed to over 5000 advertising messages every single day. And what’s their goal? To make you feel that the only way your heart will be satisfied will be to open your wallet and buy this or that gadget, thingee, or food item. And that you want their thingee or service more than all the others vying for your attention.

Anybody raising a kid these days knows that they will know what the different fast-food logos are and what they are for before they can even read…before they can even form complete sentences! 

In our world, the bad shepherds may not be climbing over the fence, but they have surrounded the sheepfold with billboards and flat screen televisions. They dominate the airwaves and want to always be the lead story, even if the headline is unkind. The news may be fake, they say but they sure love the attention! 

Only we have a choice. Think about going to a ball park…  We can read all the ads plastered all over the outfield wall and scoreboard, or we can watch the game and root for our team. I don’t know about you, but when I go to the ballpark, I go for the game.not for the signs. The fire works after the game and singing Sweet Caroline is great, but it's the ball game I'm watching. And when it’s on tv, the ads are a good time to… do other things.

But it’s not just the secular world that does this. You may have heard some radio or TV preacher who will, at one time or another, tell everyone who will listen that the rapture is coming any moment now! According to Google, we may have already missed it… apparently the last date-time prediction for  the big 'The End' was for September 23, 2025. So, either the predictors were wrong (again) or maybe it actually happened, and if it did we’ll just have to go on doing what we do—imitating Christ by learning and doing the work of Jesus—you know by caring for the poor, the sick, welcoming the outcast, and proclaiming Good News—until that bus arrives again.

As I said, we live in a world of loud, persistent voices vying for our attention… trying to distract us from the main thing. So, what do we do?

Remember…it’s all about the Shepherd.

The Gospel today reminds a few things about who Jesus is and about what good Christian communities do to stay together.

First, Jesus teaches with authority. In the Episcopal Church we hold out a balance of scripture, tradition, and reason as the basis for what we teach and believe as a community. The Good Shepherd…and good Christian leaders…use their authority for the good of the community, based on what the church has learned and known over time and in community.

Second, the good shepherd knows us and meets us where we are. The voice of the Shepherd… Jesus… brings peace. And also, the shepherd guides us as we move around in the proverbial pasture that is the world.

The good shepherd is not found in the distractions and intrusions of the world. The shepherd is found in Christian community. Do you experience too many voices, too many distractions in the world? What do you do? Instead of bouncing from one thing to another, go to the place where the Good Shepherd is found. Go to the place where the community of the faithful is gathered and in that community, you’ll find the Shepherd…Jesus, who leads us and cares for us wherever we go.

The third thing we can do is to begin to intentionally live the sacramental life—a life grounded in scripture, in Eucharistic sharing, in prayer—both alone and in groups, as well as in worship—a life focused on the shepherd and also remembering that the Christian life is not meant to be lived alone but in community is the way to sort through all the competing voices in the world. There are some good places to start, like either picking up a Forward Day by Day either in print or online, which will take as us through the daily readings the Church set out for us, and give us a meditation connected to today’s readings. A group Bible study, or prayer group, or even one of the places where the Daily Office is prayed on-line are great tools, too.

Over the years, I have found a pattern modeled on the one set out by a monastic, Benedict of Nursia, to very helpful and also grounds me in our Anglican tradition. That pattern is regular holy eucharist, the daily prayer of the church, and personal devotion. I also like to pray the morning resolve that is found in every Forward Day by Day. The great thing is that there are many tools out there that help us along the way.

Which is a good thing because, as we've said, the world is a very noisy place. Full of distractions. It’s hard to deal with those distractions alone. But as baptized members of the community of Christ’s people, we are not alone. We are gathered into a community of people who are also on the way. And the larger community of the church, all over the world today, and in every place since the beginning, has given us the tools to succeed. Most of all, we are all known, cared for and led all along the way by a faithful shepherd, Jesus Christ.

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This is the Bulletin for Worship for 4 Easter, Year A, Sunday, April 26, 2026 at Church of the Good Samaritan, Clearwater, Florida.

Here are the Scripture Lessons for 4 Easter Sunday, April 26, 2026.

Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here.

No Short Cuts

Have you ever wished for a short-cut? You know, you’re driving someplace and wish you could just fly over the cars ahead of you like a magic carpet. Sometimes I’m driving and hear myself pray “Oh, God! Give me a sign.” Even a big green one will do!

In the fifty days of Easter, we hear all about Jesus’ resurrection appearances. And, you know what? Jesus never takes a short-cut. People’s eyes are opened, sure; and, yeah, people see the Risen Jesus. He speaks to them. He eats with them. But he never jumps in front of them arms wide saying “ta-da!” He doesn’t resort to cosmic card tricks or spiritual gimmicks. While some of us (like me!) would love that, and, sure, Jesus wants us to see and know that he is risen but look at how he goes about it. In the Gospels, the risen Christ accompanies folks and that changes the way they see.  And I don’t know about you, but looking back, I find that Jesus has been walking me my whole journey long, it’s just that I didn’t see it at the time. I’ll bet that that is true for you, too.

In today’s Gospel from Luke, look at what happens on the road to Emmaus. Two people, Cleopas and a friend, are headed home after a very hard day, actually a very hard week. It’s late afternoon on the very first Easter Day, the actual day of Jesus’ resurrection. But they don’t know that yet. All they know is that they have experienced some very disturbing things. Just a week before, they saw Jesus ride into Jerusalem in triumph. They saw him in the Temple. But they also saw Jesus get arrested, publicly tried, humiliated and then executed. What started out as a week filled with hope became a very sad and sour Passover celebration because they really hoped that Jesus would be the one to liberate the people from the very people who killed him.

But that’s not all: there’s news that two women saw that Jesus’ tomb is empty, and that they saw angels who told them that he is risen; two of Jesus closest followers checked it out and found the tomb empty; and now the grapevine is alive with rumors that Jesus had predicted that he would rise from the dead!

I suspect that for Cleopas and his companion it was all just too much…a real emotional roller coaster…and so many questions…it was, I suspect, too painful and too strange. Who can blame them for wanting to go home to someplace familiar, someplace quiet. But home is about seven miles outside of Jerusalem, so they have a long afternoon walk ahead of them.

As they head home, Jesus joins them and walks with them. And even though they don’t recognize him, he doesn’t jump up and say “Hey, guys! It’s me!”  Instead, he listens to their story. He listens to the news…and he listens to their hearts.

Even when he begins to open the scriptures to them, he does not tell them who he is. He explains what God has been doing through the whole history of the people of Israel. Most of all he shows them how scripture ultimately points to and is understood best through Jesus.

When they get to their house, Jesus does this little maneuver like he is still going on to the next town or tavern…when they invite him in to stay with them. Even now, Jesus doesn’t impose…he waits for them to invite him in.

Then, and only then, does he take the initiative, picking up the bread set before him and says the ancient Jewish blessing, then he breaks the bread and as he shares the bread, now—now! —they understand!

Notice how Luke’s Gospel bookends the passion with a meal at both ends of the passion. First, there is Jesus’ last supper in the upper room, where he says “This is my body” and now, after the resurrection, in Emmaus it is sealed with a meal. It is only after encountering the Risen Jesus that the Last Supper – and the Holy Eucharist that grew out of it – makes any sense at all. Instead of a testimonial to the dear departed founder, it is a living sign of the living, risen Christ.

Jesus does so much on the road with these two people but look also at what he does not do. He could have reassured them…instead he walked with them through their pain.  When he teaches them from the scriptures, he could have imposed himself on them…instead, he lets the word marinate—they remember it as “[burning] in their hearts.” When he picks up the bread, he doesn’t say “Hey, guys! Watch this!” No, instead he simply blesses it and gives it. Jesus never short-circuits the process but allows the encounter to unfold at its own pace until at last…they see!

There are no short cuts on the road to Emmaus. And thank God for it because in letting their encounter with the Risen Christ bubble up, these two followers of Jesus see for themselves that he is alive not by intimidation or magic or manipulation but by participation. They are participating in their own encounter with the Risen Jesus.

This is a lesson that we need to learn over and over again. We live in an age where so much communication is “directed,” tested, and designed to illicit a particular response. It’s hard to even go buy a loaf of bread and a carton of milk without feeling like we are some kind of Pavlovian dog, enticed and steered towards a particular thing or outcome. We are so media-addicted that we even have a president who came up in sales, hosted a game show, and communicates by social media. It hard in this world of relentless information to imagine what it is like to simply be accompanied by Jesus, who respects our dignity enough to allow each of us respond to the Spirit in our own way.

I suspect that when the eyes of Cleopas and friend were opened, it was like a flash of light. A moment of insight when everything suddenly made sense! It felt new and exciting. A great and marvelous “A-ha!” And that is wonderful! Ask any teacher who sees student light up with recognition when they get it. They will also tell you that these eye-opening moments come after long, sometimes painful, cultivation.

That “A-ha!” comes at the dinner table, when Jesus takes up bread and offers a blessing.  I wonder if Cleopas and his friend had any idea when their journey began that their unexpected dinner guest would become their host.

In remembering this encounter, the Gospel of Luke invites us to connect the Eucharist we do in our communities, whether a simple meal around a table or a High Mass, with what Jesus did not only on the road, but also in the upper room, the cross, and resurrection as we walk with Christ on our journey of faith.

Early Christians were sometimes called people “of the way.” I like that because we are all on the road, and that road takes us to the cross and from there to an on-going, always new encounter with the Risen Jesus. All of us are walking home. We may wish for a shorter route and we might be disappointed that it’s not always a mountaintop experience, because in fact most of our journey is rather, but wonderfully, ordinary. A saying attributed to St. Benedict of Nursia goes “Always we begin again.” But however we journey, we never walk alone. Jesus walks with us…even if we don’t know it…and we travel in Christian community. Luke’s Gospel shows us that the way Jesus walked with the two on the road is exactly the way he walks with us on our journeys.

Look at us! Here we are, gathered from all kinds of places--our homes, our families, our work and our school--and we all have a story. We have stories of poignancy and possibility, stories of victory and setbacks. We bring all of that when we gather as the people of God around a table… yeah, a little fancier, and we are arranged a little differently than our meals at home… but gathered around a table just the same.

A few years ago, my wife and I joined a group of Episcopalians and other people of faith, in walking the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, from east to west across northern Spain. In following this ancient pilgrim path, every one of us were invited in our way to both seek and walk with Christ. Our hosts for this pilgrimage were folks from The United Thank Offering (you know, the blue boxes!) and the Iglesia Española Reformada Episcopal, the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. Their goal was to establish a chapel in Santiago, Spain, so that pilgrims who’ve walked the Way of St. James might be able to receive Communion… the traditional end of a pilgrimage… but who might have felt excluded in the Catholic Basilica at the end of the pilgrim way. The Anglican Pilgrim Center exists today just a few steps away from the traditional end of the route.

Every pilgrim on the Camino keeps a “passport” that is stamped along the way and is given a shell signifying their journey. As I walked the pilgrim way, I found myself singing the South African liberation song “We Are Marching in the Light of God.” On the first part of the journey, I imagined being Cleopas and his friend walking with Jesus. For the rest of the journey, my meditation turned to imagining Cleopas and friend racing back along the way they just came to tell Jesus’ friends and apprentices “We have seen the Lord!”

In our sacramental living, we are tuned to see God at work all around us. Our eyes are opened.  We see the risen Christ. More important we know the Risen Christ and show the Risen Christ.

So now we go back into the world, renewed, reconciled, recreated…exactly as we were and yet totally new, and we will tell our friends “We have seen the Lord!” … that he is known to us in the breaking of the bread. It’s true: there are no short-cuts on the road to Emmaus but that’s okay because all along the way, the Risen Jesus is walking right beside us. 

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This is the Bulletin for Worship for 3 Easter, Year A, Sunday, April 19, 2026 at Church of the Good Samaritan, Clearwater, Florida.

Here are the Scripture Lessons for 3 Easter Sunday, April 19, 2026.

Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here.

Learn more about the Anglican Pilgrim Center here.

Real readiness

Have you ever collected fortunes? You know, the little paper sayings that are inside cookies at Chinese restaurants? Every now and then one will come along, and I will stick it in my wallet or pin it to my bulletin board.

Later on, I’ll find that fortune and wonder what ever possessed me to keep it. Surely it was not how to learn how to say “cat” in Chinese. The message must have spoken to me somehow.

I remember one that didn’t sound very Chinese, but did sound an awful lot like Jesus, which may be why I kept it. It said: “Your faith will overcome your fear.” 

Today's Gospel lesson is a collection of Jesus’ sayings which, if we aren’t paying close attention, might sound to us like those fortune cookies sayings we’ve tucked into our wallets or read aloud before throwing it away.

Jesus begins by reminding us not to be afraid. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (12:32)  Next, we hear him urging us to make treasure for ourselves treasures in heaven, where they will be safe from theft or decay. Then Jesus gives us a hypothetical scenario where some servants are blessed because they were dressed and their lamps lit ready for action for the moment their master returns. And how pleased is the master? He is so pleased that he has them sit down and he serves them!

The Gospel today closes with an obvious statement: if the householder knew when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

Here we have a group of Jesus’ words and teachings about that have been strung together to remind us not to be anxious, or worried, or afraid. The Gospel reminds that Jesus, instead, want us to focus on God kingdom, assured that, when we do, all our needs will be met.

It sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Making indestructible treasures for ourselves is how we stay ready for the Master’s imminent arrival.

Except that we are afraid, anxious, and distractable. You know what I mean… it’s like the urge you get to touch a wall when there’s a “wet paint”sign hanging there. I mean, it feels like Jesus telling us not to be anxious is like telling us not think of pink elephants. Then that’s all we can think about!

Besides, we always want to be ready, just in case. But that readiness can show up in silly ways. For example, I carry an umbrella in my car, because it’s Florida in August and you just know it’s going to rain between 3 and 5 o’clock every day because it just will. So when I am inside when it starts to rain, I have to decide if I am going to get myself wet running to my car to get it … or I’ll get wet going from the driver’s seat to the trunk to get my umbrella to keep me dry… or just wait the storm out, sometimes looking at the radar on my phone to see when the blob of rain will pass by.

It did not take me long after moving to Tampa Bay to learn about Rule #7… which is one of meteorologist Denis Phllips seven rules for coping with Florida’s changeable weather. And you all know what Rule #7 is right? Yup! “Don’t freak out.”

So I felt that I was ahead of the game when I moved down here, because I brought with me a box for winter emergencies… I call it a “blizzard box.” Now I use the same box but have changed the label on top to “hurricane box.” No freaking out for me! No, sir! I just don’t know what I’ll do with those fancy handwarmers.

Rule #7 speaks to one of the strange truths about people: That for many of us, the deepest faith we have is faith the faith we have in our fears. I mean we have to have a rule that explicitly says "Don't freak out!" This is not the same as the fear of the Lord, the deep awe and reverence for God, that the Bible tells us is the beginning of wisdom. All to often we get caught up in the perverse faith that focuses on our fears and makes us want to freak out at the drop of a hat.

Jesus tells us in Luke not to be afraid, but that doesn’t mean we are to be inactive or inattentive. We are to be dressed for action, to have our lamps lit, to be prepared for the return of the master, to make purses for ourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven no thief can steal, and no moth consumes (12:33). The trick is to be ready without being obsessed or over-thinking.

The truth is that we are all wrong about fear. We think it is our protective shield. We think that by being anxious we are in control.

But fear is a thief and anxiety is a swindler. When we dwell on our fears, they become our treasures. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (12:35). Faith is the genuine treasure we are to be accumulating, but so often we get it backwards when we allow our fears to fill our hearts so that faith can’t get in.

We have a leg up, though. We know instinctively when the thief is coming. We can feel it when the thief, which is fear and anxiety, is at the door. So, how can we keep our house of faith from being broken into by fear?

Jesus tells us that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. He is promising us the resources to keep fear from stealing our faith. He is promising to turn the tables and to empower our faith to take back our treasure of strength from the thief of fear.

When I was a Chaplain, I knew a doctor who was Hindu. He did a talk once about how to cope with the stress of modern life, and he shared a proverb from his tradition: “Live in the past and you will be depressed. Live in the future and you will be anxious. Live in the present with gratitude and you will be at peace.” For the Christian the message is that instead of being preoccupied with our fear and anxiety, we are invited to live in the present with faith in God’s future.

As we learn to pray, and from there how to turn even the most mundane, everyday chore into a prayer—not only a gift from God but a gift to God—then we find our orientation shifting away from fear and towards faith. From scarcity towards abundance. From pessimism to hope.

As we enter to the rhythm of sacramental living—of Eucharistic community, daily prayer, and studying and meditating on God’s word together and alone—we find ourselves more and more immersed in God’s time, in living in God’s always unfolding present.

The last time I cleaned out my wallet, I found two old fortunes:

“An unexpected event will bring you wealth,” and “If you put up with small annoyances you will gain great results.”

Who knows why I kept them? Who knows if they will come true?  But move over fear and jump back anxiety, because here are some promises of Jesus that are more reliable than fortune cookies! He said, “Strive for God’s kingdom and these things (food, drink, clothing) will be given to you as well.” (Luke 12:31) So, “Do not be afraid….” (Luke 12:32)

Jesus is the promise and the antidote to the fear that lives in our hearts and our communities. And his peace is our strength.

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Scripture for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 14, Year C, August 10, 2025

Website for Church of the Good Samaritan (Episcopal), Clearwater

Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here

Here is the bulletin for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, August 10, 2025, the Church of the Good Samaritan, Clearwater, Florida.

Here is the livestream of the liturgy. The sermon begins at XX:XX

Our Everyday School of Prayer

A long time ago, in a hospital far, far away, I was a student chaplain making my evening rounds on a surgical floor. In those days, people were admitted the afternoon or evening before their scheduled surgery, so we’d make rounds to visit those folks often in the evening during the time between the meal and before sleep, often after the visitors had gone home. And you know what? There was a whole lot of praying going on.

Usually not the formal, spoken prayer, but the stare-at-the-ceiling, not really paying attention to the television, kind of prayer. You know what I mean.

It took a little fortitude to call on these folks cold, because no matter how I dressed (clerical collar or necktie, lab coat, clerical suit, or business casual) patients would size me up and decide who I was and what I was about and act accordingly. And that was okay… because this sizing up was theirs, not mine. Besides, of all the professionals coming to see patients in hospital, I was the one guy  that the person had the right to say “go away” to… and I’d go.

So when I was welcomed, the conversation was up to them and some would guide that conversation for the two of us. Some would dodge talking about their upcoming procedure choosing instead small talk or “what about them (pick your team and sport)…? Or tell me about their spouse, kids or grandkids, or work, or… whatever.  Some would tell me about their illness and procedure in great detail. And rarely, some would talk about whatever anxiety of the moment was on their mind or heart (and it was not always medical!). A few would nod and grunt me out of the room. Once a guy shooed me away before I even entered the room saying, “I don’t need no [blankety-blank] priest!”

Whatever happened, it was all good.

Typically, I would ask if the person would like a prayer… or I’d see if they’d ask. Every now and then, a person would ask me the question that the disciples asked Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Teach me how to pray.”

Now this is a tricky question. Because as a chaplain, I was not there for me, but for the person. And so, I had to learn how to rest in my own tradition and authority while at the same time allowing the person to set the tone and direction. Patients will put up with “Father Know-It-All” for only so long, because it ain’t about me, right? So I’d encourage them to tell me what they wanted to know. Often, the question was serious, along the lines of: “I know this is a big moment and I don’t know how to put this into words.” Or, “I'm in crisis and I need the rituals of my tradition. or upbringing.” Or, “I want to remember a prayer from my childhood but all I am coming up with is table-grace.”

I brought this question to a colleague and fellow student chaplain because I was asked by a patient, who was Jewish, who  was asking me, a Christian priest, how to pray. My friend and classmate, who was a rabbi, said, “It’s okay. You’re the follower of a small-town rabbi, right? Follow his lead!” In other words, pray the prayer that Jesus taught.

In the Gospel of Luke, we hear Jesus say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

The disciples saw that whenever their teacher and Master had exhausted himself doing good, he would withdraw from the crowd in order to pray. And they had seen the results of those prayers in his life-transforming deeds and in the calm he exuded seemingly from every pore.

“Lord, teach us how to pray!” They too wanted that peace and strength, the utter assurance that Jesus had in doing the will of his Father.

And Jesus doesn't just offer Prayer 101, he gives us a Master Class. The simple and profound words that Jesus taught have become known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Over the centuries countless faithful have uttered them together and in solitude and utter them still. These words rise up and blend into an endless prayer of praise, of supplication, of doxology. Their simplicity is interwoven with many layers of meaning that has influenced many Christians.

My first real exposure to the depth of the prayer came after my Confirmation through a little book that came my way written by Igor Sikorsky, aviator, maker of flying boats, and the inventor of the helicopter. In it, he contemplated the Lord's Prayer in both Matthew and Luke as it impacted his faith and his work. The prayer has inspired many faithful people, lay and ordained over the millennia to go deeper in their prayer. Today, I am indebted to the Rev. Katerina Katsarka Whitley for her commentary on the Lord’s Prayer in Luke, which I share with you here:

Jesus started by showing them that first they must know whom they are addressing. The Greek word for prayer used in the gospels means “a wish, a request toward” someone. Luke’s version that we heard is pared down, simpler than the prayer found in Matthew’s gospel. The one we know best grew out of Matthew’s version, and has some points that were added by ancient authorities over time. Yet, the core is the same.

“Our Father…” There this word can be loaded because they had the terrible misfortune of living with a bad father. And many of us were blessed with loving and caring fathers and we have no difficulty in identifying the Creator with the word Father. God, who is father and mother, understands all of this.

“Hallowed be your name.”  We are addressing the Holy of Holies, the all-sacred one. Jesus reminds us that when we address God we are in the presence of holiness.

“Your kingdom come.” Jesus’ teaching is filled withs image of God’s reign. It’s like a mustard seed, or a little yeast in a big loaf, or a woman looking for a lost coin, or a shepherd looking for a lost sheep. The kingdom of God that Jesus teaches us to pray for is one where justice prevails, and where love conquers. In the kingdom of God everyone is of equal value. And Jesus teaches us to pray that the Kingdom of God may it come to us in our time and in our place.

“Your will be done.” We long for a world where God’s will is done as automatically and ordinarily as happens in heaven. God’s will is not done by putting it up on a marble pedestal, in the public square. Statues or framed copied of the ten commandments in classrooms or courtrooms will not save us. All of that is for show; about telling us to be obedient to the State, the Culture, or “The Way Things Are.” Jesus warned us about this, and to watch out for praying just so we can prove how pious we are. True prayer is between us and God. Even when we pray together in unison, in church, we are connecting to God and to each other as a people of God.

This then is the first portion of prayer: where we acknowledge God as Father/Mother, as Creator, as Holy, where God’s rule of love and justice are natural and at home.

The second part of the prayer is a simple request for what sustains life. Bread was the essence of nourishment in the ancient world. Having bread meant one was not hungry. Not having bread meant starvation. Instead of the word ‘bread’ imagine praying “Give us the necessities for living because everything else is superfluous.”

“And forgive us our sins…”  We need to forgive. In every gospel, Jesus shows us our need for forgiveness. The plea to be forgiven is followed by the most surprising element of this prayer:

“. . . as we forgive those who sin against us” reminds us that God’s forgiveness is deeply connected to our ability and willingness to forgive. We need God’s grace to forgive our fellow human beings, and the grace to recognize and accept God’s forgiveness of our own sins. Some translation says “debts” instead of “sin.” “Those who are indebted to us,” may also be taken literally. In the ancient world, being indebted financially was very serious, just as our modern world is built around the management and industry of debt. In Jesus’ day, debt could mean life or death. Jesus knew that in Hebrew scriptures, Mammon was a powerful idol, just as “the Market” is a powerful idol today, and those who cannot forgive debts because they worship money cannot possibly comprehend the free, unmerited, and total grace and forgiveness of God.

“Do not bring us to the time of trial.”  Trials are frequent and no one is spared. We pray to be shielded from trials and temptation, but when they do come, they must be faced. When we are tried, we are tempted to take the easy way out, to avoid the hard choices. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Let this cup pass from me,” but he was not spared, and he faced his death, convinced of the will of his Father, enduring death and the grave on the way to resurrection.

Jesus’ prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, is the profound and simple prayer that binds us together as we worship. In our parishes, with our ecumenical and interfaith friends, with followers of Jesus all over the globe and throughout time. This is the prayer that forms the basis for all our prayers. In it, Jesus shows us that we are both known and being heard.

In the parable that follows, Jesus reminds us in the Gospel that we are like the persistent child crying out to a parent. A parent responds to the child’s plea, he tells us. And Jesus encourages us to be persistent and not give up, because God’s will for us is good.

Do you want to know how to pray? Do you want to know what to pray? Here is Jesus' school of prayer. We've been chewing on what he taught us ever since. Every time we say it, we are being invited by Jesus to go deeper.

And that's important, because prayer is more important than ever… if you don’t believe me just turn on the car radio, the T.V., or open the newspaper app in your phone. Every day we are bombarded with stories of terror and harm and killing in our world. So it is good to remember that every day, all over the globe, millions of faithful people are praying Jesus’ simple prayer every minute of the day: “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” And every day, we join with them when we pray Jesus’ prayer whether we are alone or together. Listen as we pray together:

Father in heaven.

Your name is holy.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.

And lead not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

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Scripture for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, July 27, 2025

Website for Church of the Good Samaritan (Episcopal), Clearwater

Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here

Here is the bulletin for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, July 27, 2025, the Church of the Good Samaritan, Clearwater, Florida.

Here is the livestream of the liturgy. The sermon begins at XX:XX

Faithfully "Doing" and Faithfully "Being"

There is an old vaudeville joke about a man and woman dancing together at a singles resort in the Catskills. The man says, “I’m only here for the weekend.” To which the woman responds, “I’m dancing as fast as I can!”

Martha is just like all of us, women and men, dancing around our houses as fast as we can, trying to get things ready for our honored guest. The Gospel tells us Martha is trying very hard to make the most of her— and her family’s— time with Jesus. 

My hunch is that Mary was not normally in the habit of entertaining visitors by sitting at their feet while her sister did all the work. Martha’s complaint to Jesus suggests that Mary’s behavior was not normal for her, and Martha was saying to Mary (by way of Jesus!) “snap out of it!”

Now here’s the trap: we are tempted to read this passage as a kind of Biblical “Goofus and Gallant” comic…remember those from Highlights for Children, where Goofus was the rude “bad” kid and Gallant was the polite “good” kid? We are tempted to say, “Martha bad, Mary good!”

But it’s not one versus the other. What we are witnessing is a lesson about the movement, the oscillation, between “activity and rest.”

Jesus does not deny the value of who Martha is or of what she is doing. He is saying that what Mary is up to is also valuable. Jesus is about priorities; first things first.

Look, Jesus is not against activity or work or even going out of one’s way to do good—just look at Jesus’ story of the Samaritan who stopped to care for the injured stranger, a story which comes right before this in Luke’s Gospel—what Jesus cares about our focus.

In the 14th-century, the anonymous author of a spiritual discourse called The Cloud of Unknowing, speaks about Martha and Mary as repre­senting the Two Ways of Prayer.

“My friend, do you see that this whole incident concerning Jesus and the two sisters was intended as a lesson for active and contemplative persons of the Church in every age? Mary represents the contemplative life and all contemplative persons ought to model their lives on hers. Martha represents the active life and all active persons should take her as their guide.”

In other words, we all have periods of activity and periods of rest. A healthy Christian life depends on being active some of the time and having times of renewal. If we don’t have both in balance we all go a little cuckoo—either in hyper-busyness or sluggish inaction.

Have you ever noticed how Episcopalians and other Christians divide up time?

Our day has times of prayer for morning, noonday, evenings and before bed. So we are grounded in prayer.

Our week is grounded with Sunday… each week’s ‘little Easter’ and the Sabbath where remember that even God rested after a busy week of creating, well, everything!

And our year is organized by seasons which tells us that God’s time has a rhythm, purpose, and direction for us and all creation.

Taken together we see a movement… and oscillation… between activity and renewal with God and the center and prayer as the fulcrum.

All of us will have Martha-times and Mary-times. We need both for a balanced and healthy life. I call this the do-be cycle. We need to do. And we need to be. Doing without being is empty. Being without doing is wasteful. We need to both do and be. Sing it with me. Do-be. Do-be. Do-be.

Society has forgotten the tune. When everything is open 24/7, every day is the same. Our world is a continuous round of endless media input, so we forget how to reflect, and where we substitute entertainment for rest. We value productivity, but for many people a forty-hour week is the baseline for work not the limit.

Recently, I saw a New Yorker cartoon of two people in a bar. A man is talking to a woman through one of those doggie cones, you know like the one you get at the vet. He says, “I wear it because it keeps me from checking my phone every two seconds.”

Do you know what the busiest shopping day of the week is in all those big box stores? It’s right now! Sunday morning!

And many Christians get caught up in the whirlwind of being “busy” and Sunday is just one more day on the list of things to do. For many of us, Sunday is the “open” day to catch up…catch up on the chores, catch up on the shopping, catch up on some sleep…because in our day and age, we are expected to be efficient and productive, all the time.

Jesus and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing assume something quite different. And that is that everything we do can be (and is) prayer! Everything we do can be an offering to God. Everything we do can reveal God’s love and power and presence and grace to us and those around us. But for this to work, for our work to truly become prayer, we have to hold God at the center of all that we do and we have to keep Christ at the heart of who we are.  We have to have the right balance of “do-be.”

Sing it with me: Do-be. Do-be. Do-be.

If we are to make Christ the center of our work, we must take the time to let Christ be at the center of our renewal.  Martha sets the table for Jesus in order for us to attend to Jesus. Not just make him comfy but to clear the decks so that she and her family and guests can, like Mary, live the moment and sit at Jesus’ feet and listen.

An ancient custom of hospitality in England holds that when a sovereign comes to your house, while in your home, it is no longer yours but his. A sovereign becomes the host under any citizen’s roof.  So remember that, should King Charles pop over to your house for tea, your house literally becomes his house. Think about that. Some of us learned a common table grace as children where we invited Jesus to come and be our guest, but if this ancient royal custom teaches us anything it is that when we let Jesus sit at our table, we invite him to be our host and for us to be his guest!  We invite him to feed us. We invite him to care for us and attend to our needs. We invite him to refresh us, teach us, and treat us as the honored wayfarer, so that we can continue the journey renewed, refreshed and oriented.

Let’s take that image a step further: in our baptisms, we invited Christ into our lives, into us. He who is the guest is now the host.  And in our Eucharist, Christ sits at the head of the table. We allow him to nourish us in our common life, in our worship, in our times of quiet and prayer, in times of retreat, and even in a few minutes reading Forward Day by Day or saying the daily devotions found in the prayer book (or on a prayer app!), and in how we order our common life.

We who emulate our image of busy Martha can sometimes forget the focus and purpose of our work. We can be so busy doing good and necessary things that we sometimes forget the balance required to sing “do-be, do-be, do-be.” The good news is that now the guest has become the host.  And as Jesus enters our living, he feeds us, meets us where we need him the most, and helps us rest in Him.

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Scripture for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, July 20, 2025

Website for The Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan, Clearwater, Florida

Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here.

Here is a presentation by the Rev. Liz Tunney, OA, on the "renewal-apostolate cycle," which describes the 'oscillation' between rest and activity in more detail.

And here is more information from Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Ministry in the Parish Church by Robert A. Gallagher

Here is the bulletin for 6 Pentecost C, July 20, 2025, the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan, Clearwater, Florida.