On Sunday, October 4, 2020, the second of four services celebrating the appointment of our four new district superintendents was streamed from Faith UMC in Montoursville. (View here: tinyurl.com/DSinstallPA) This service celebrated the appointment of Rev. Dr. Paul C. Amara as the new Williamsport District Superintendent. Following is an edited version of his installation address.
Scripture reference: John 10:11-16
By Rev. Dr. Paul C. Amara
Oh, how we wish these were normal times. This [church] would have been filled with people; people who would have come from New York and New Jersey, from Washington DC, from Virginia, from Texas, and from Maryland—where we have family members who were not able to be here today—to celebrate this special historic moment in our lives, in the lives of Kadie and our family and me. This is the new way of life.
God does everything for a reason. God’s presence is wherever we are. We don’t have to be in the church building. The church is not the steeple, the church is not a building, the church is us, the church is you and me. Jesus said, “Wherever two or three are gathered, in my name, my presence is there.” I believe that there are more than three of us here, so Christ is here, Jesus Christ is here amongst us. He is the Good Shepherd. We may have shepherds all around, but Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd.
Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight. Oh God our redeemer and rock, save and guide us when we go astray. Bless us and pour your grace upon our lives. Even in the midst where we are gathered here, worshipping and glorifying your name, and as we serve you through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
In our scripture lesson, John 10:11-16, we heard Jesus declaring himself to be the Good Shepherd. But there is a story before that. Jesus Christ had started his ministry. He was performing miracles. He was feeding the hungry. He was providing hope for those who were in despair. He provided the strength for those who were weak.
In John chapter 6:45 Jesus said, ‘I am the Bread of Life.’ Oh my goodness, if Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, I will eat a bunch of him! I will cut a big piece—and I do every day, because I believe that Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, not the bread that we eat, physically. He fills our souls.
Jesus Christ had just fed [5,000] people, and they were looking for him again to be fed. He hid from them and went to Capernaum, and they followed him, looking for the guy who worked this miracle, who filled their souls. They found him and they wanted more. Do you feel that you want more of Jesus? Do you feel a hunger for Jesus? Do you feel that he has everything that you need in your life? He can feed you, and when he feeds you, you’ll be satisfied. Jesus told them whoever comes to Him and believes in Him will never be hungry again or thirsty. Did they believe him?
Do we believe? When things happen to us that we don’t expect, when our loved ones die, when we can’t provide for our families, we start to ask the questions, Why? What have I done wrong? God, why did you take my loved one? God does not take our loved ones, God receives our loved ones.
God created us in God’s image and God saw that it was all good. How do we see it today? Is it good? All humanity and even the angels complain (Rom 8:22). Where are these humans, these mortals that God cares about?
Jesus did not stop there. In John, chapter 8:12 Jesus again declares, “I am the light of the world.” I love light. It makes me happy, it makes me see well. We cannot continue to live in darkness. That is the purpose of Christ coming; to give us the light of the world, the light that even the devil cannot extinguish. When you take up that light and carry it with you anywhere you go, my brothers and sisters, you are assured of His saving power. There is nothing that can break you when you are bound with the Lord; there is nothing that can bring you down when you believe in Jesus Christ. Trust in Him always, put all your hopes in Him for He is our Savior. And Jesus said in John 10:9, “I am the gate.” Oh wow. When we have Jesus as the gate we are secure. That’s what I feel. I don’t know about you, but when I have Jesus as my gate I can sleep well. I know that no thieves will come into my yard, that there is nobody that is coming to steal because Jesus Christ is watching.
Do you trust in the Lord with all of your heart and your mind and your soul? Do you believe Jesus Christ is your Savior? Say amen! Hallelujah!
In John 10, Jesus says that he is THE Good Shepherd. Not just a good shepherd. Definite article—THE Good Shepherd. We may have several shepherds. I am a shepherd and I have my flock. Most of you here are shepherds, you have your flock. You know their names, and they know your name. But only a Good Shepherd will really care about the sheep.
Sheep are normally not too smart. Brothers and sisters, we may feel that we are really smart all the time, by doing it our way, forgetting that God has God’s ways. But thanks be to God that God has the power of forgiveness for each and every one of us. Even as shepherds, we fall short of expectations. When we receive the encouragement to take good care of our parishioners some of us start to complain, ‘Oh, it’s too much. I’m told to wear masks all the time.’ ‘We want to worship and they say we should spread [out]. How [can] we…? We’re going to lose members.’
In many cases, sheep go astray. When you have Christ, you don’t lose members. They may go for a while, but they will come back because Christ has a hold of their lives. So, my brothers and sisters in pastoral positions, have no fear. Christ is with you. He is the Good Shepherd. He knows your names. He knew you even before you were born. He encourages us, he sets the example for us, to shepherd diligently. But Christ is not just caring for those in the fold. He also said, ‘There are some of mine who are not in the sheepfold right now, but I will bring them in.’ Oh my goodness, do we go and get those who are out there who don’t look like us, who don’t think like us? Do we bring them into our sheepfold? Those who don’t have our beliefs, our social identities, do we bring them into the sheepfold? Jesus says, ‘I have work to do, I will get them in,’ for we will be one flock with one shepherd. How could Jesus hold the sheep together?
In the Middle East shepherding is taken very seriously and sheep are very improtant. It is a source of living; raising the animals and selling them for the meat. They also use the wool and the skin for clothing, for bedding, and to pray on—they would dry it and use it as a mat to pray. The shepherds would have rope tied around their waist, and they could use this rope if a sheep was stubborn—tie it down for a while. The shepherds would also carry a wooden staff. They would use it in the rough, rocky terrain to stabilize themselves so they didn’t fall. They would also use it for defense or attack against predators, to block or stab at wolves praying upon the sheep. And the shepherds would use their staff when the sheep become so stubborn and wanted to follow their own will. The shepherd would hook them with his staff and pull them in.
What kind of shepherd are we? Who are we in today’s life? Christ has encouraged us to be good shepherds and He set the example for us in John 10. In Ezekiel chapter 34 we see the opposite. God spoke to the shepherds, the leaders who had become ruthless and started doing wrong things—they did not care about the sheep but cared about themselves, about their own pockets, tending to themselves. God spoke to them and said, ‘You cannot do this. I will take charge. I am going to take away this responsibility from you and I will do it myself. The people will be secured. I don’t trust you anymore. My people are scattered all around, they need to be again together.’ There were bad shepherds then, so Jesus came to transform peoples lives, to become the Good Shepherd. Are we taking an example from the Lord?
In John chapter 9, Jesus and his disciples were going from the temple and they saw a man who was blind from birth. The disciples, as always, asked questions. ‘Who sinned, he or his parents?’ Jesus turned to them and said, ‘Neither him nor his parents—he is blind so that the work of God may be revealed to you.’ After rubbing his eyes with mud, Jesus asked the blind man to go to the Pool of Siloam (which means sent) and wash his eyes and when he came back he could see! Have you found the Lord washing your eyes off, when you are in darkness, when there is some patch that is covering your eyes that you don’t see the truth? Have you felt that in your life? What did you do about it? Did you ask for the Lord to come and cleanse you? Did you ask for the Lord to come and open your eyes to see the truth? When the man came back, everybody was astonished. ‘How can you see? We thought you were the blind man.’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I was blind but now I see. What issue do you have with me?’ And they call upon his parents to come and testify. ‘Is this your son?’ The parents, fearing for their own lives or fearing that they would lose their space in the temple, said, ‘He’s our son. We bore him blind, but now he sees. We don’t know who healed him. Ask him, he is an adult.’ The pharisees were furious. He had mentioned the name of Jesus. He told them, ‘Why should I tell you again? Do you also want to be his followers?’ They answered, ‘What are you talking about? We have only Moses to follow.’ So, the man once blind was rejoicing; his parents were very afraid, very scared, terrified of would happen if they testified; and the pharisees were angry.
We have situations in our lives when we feel scared. We don’t want to touch an issue if it doesn’t affect us directly: They shot someone in the street today. No, I have nothing to do with that, it did not happen in my community; Children have been separated from their parents. What do I have to do with that? My kids are here. We don’t want them in this country. But this is God’s land. Oh. Jesus Christ is our leader. Oh. We say we worship God and we do these things? Have no fear in Christ. Have no fear when you know that Jesus Christ is for you. In Romans chapter 8, Paul told those who had fallen, who had doubts, and those who were performing miracles and having things happen, “If God is for us, who will be against us?”
If Christ is your shepherd, what do you have to worry about? Are you saying things that need to be said to make life better for other people who can’t speak for themselves? Are you standing up for those for whom justice is a stranger? What role are you playing in your church? Pastors, what are you giving to your parishioners to make them believe that Jesus Christ is their only Savior? We ask our pastors to help us believe in Jesus Christ and let us know that with Him everything is possible, with Him there is no failure. There are shepherds that will run away—the hired hands will run away when the wolf comes to attack the sheep. But the real shepherd stays with his sheep, in fact they smell like sheep too. Do you smell like the sheep in the ministry you are doing or do you stay away? Don’t feel that you are being paid, or that you have been hired, feel that you have been sent for ministry.
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, and with that love, I share myself, and I am ready to share myself with Williamsport District pastors and parishioners and everyone who is in mission and ministry with us. I am ready to come to you. I am ready to offer my resources to you. I am ready to share my talents and my gifts with you because I love you, Williamsport. I want to be in ministry with you. But I want to encourage you as well to be good shepherds. When you tend your sheep, you have to set an example, for charity begins at home. Though it doesn’t stay here—we go, we be in ministry. Let us do this together, brothers and sisters.
Let us believe in Jesus Christ and let us take the fold that is outside and bring them in. Let us not say, ‘They don’t look like us. They don’t think like us.’ Let us use all that we have [in Christ] to heal ourselves and to make our ministries and missions fruitful. Let’s make our beloved community know and feel our presence with them. We are blessed to have wonderful leadership, our bishop, to shepherd us. But we can also be sheep, even in our churches. Pastors in Williamsport District and throughout the Susquehanna Annual Conference, do you take that time to be a sheep and allow the shepherd to lead you and not to do it your own way only? We are in this together. That’s what makes us great! We are connected as United Methodists. We cannot be lone rangers, we have to work together. We have a wonderful shepherd who is tending us, protecting us, and feeding us. Our shepherd doesn’t run away, our shepherd stays with us. Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.
May this God that has created us and given us this opportunity, continue to be in us, with us, and to surround us so that the wolves will stay away and allow us to function like children of God. Have no fear, speak the truth, fight for justice, create peace, share your love, and forgive one another. Christ wants us to do that, and when we do these things our world will be a better place to live in, where we will see and share with one another.
In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
