Pardon me if I’m a little groggy today — I just returned last night from attending the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden, and I am just worn out! Whew.

I don’t remember all of the details. But I remember the details that matter. The five of us — my parents, my brother and sister and myself — were on our way home from a visit with my grandparents. We lived in northern Indiana and my grandparents were in the bottom half of Florida, so the trip was about 1,100 miles. My dad often drove it straight through.

I was seated in the front, passenger seat of a police car. It was near the beginning of our shift — around midnight — and the police officer with whom I was riding that night had pulled into a parking lot. I had been the chaplain for the police department for less than a year, and I had discovered that being accepted by police officers was a tough nut to crack.

In Japanese mythology, there was once a woodsman named, Visu, who lived on a barren plain with his family. One night, while sleeping, he was awakened by a great “crack” from deep within the earth.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is one of the most beautiful drives in our country. Beautifully maintained, it curves gently along the ridge line of the mountains, offering incredible views of the surrounding country. It’s peaceful, too.

This morning I had a piece of cheesecake from Camino Bakery in Winston-Salem. I often read something when eating breakfast and for lack of anything better to read today, I read the ingredient label on the cheesecake.

With our texts today, it’s hard to know where to start — there is so much for us to take in. In our gospel reading, we hear the disciples are gathered in fear, walled off from the world — but Jesus meets them and says, “peace be with you.” And then he shows them his hands and his side. Jesus — after all that has happened — after all of the hatred hurled at him — still proclaims peace.

In many ways I feel as if I haven’t got anything new to say today. In fact, this sermon is not so much a finely-polished sermon as it is an attempt to say the same thing over and over, in as many ways as possible — and I think that in this case that is okay, because there are some things that we need to drum into ourselves over and over.

Imagine that it is a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, and you are standing beside Saint Paul. He is standing in front of the supreme court of the Greeks in Athens— this council of judges is named after the Greek god of war, Ares — It is a court created to be intimidating, and they have called Saint Paul to testify before them about the things he has been saying to the people.

Jesus seems to be doing a lot of coming and going in our gospel reading today. And he asks for a lot of knowing and believing and being one — it's easy to get lost in it all. There are three things that come to mind for me in connection to our gospel reading today. First is the fourth of July. Second is a really bad book, and third is a vacation. If that doesn't make sense to you either, don't worry — I'll explain.

We celebrate today as the Fourth Sunday of Easter. It is often referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because every year our scripture texts pick up the theme of Jesus as the good shepherd.

The people of Calgary, Canada, had a few hours of excitement when a full-grown bull moose wandered into the suburbs and got lost among the houses. After two hours of trying to coax the magnificent and massive animal from one owner’s backyard, the Fish and Wildlife officer finally shot a tranquilizer at it.

All anyone wants is to be happy, really. That seems so simple, yet it often eludes us. Martin Luther spoke of “two kingdoms” in which we live. The ‘kingdom’ of this world, and the Kingdom of God. We stand with one foot in each. Luther’s “two kingdoms” recognizes that there are two diametrically opposed ideas regarding how one may obtain happiness. What is the secret to unlocking a life of peace and happiness?

Murphy’s law -- If anything can go wrong, it will. We often think of this when examples of the absurd derail plans or cause the unexpected.

I sometimes get cramps in my legs. Especially when I was younger. When I was 19, I was a summer camp counselor at one of our synod church camps — Camp Lutherwald. The camp sits on the southern shore of a beautiful kettle lake.

I just returned from a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park where I went camping with a friend from college. He was also the best man at my wedding. We lost touch with each other for many years, but about 7 or 8 years ago we reconnected and have stayed in loose contact. This was the first time we had spent any real time together in almost 40 years.

When you think about it, musicals are pretty ridiculous. I mean, really: when was the last time you saw an entire farming community burst into song and dance with flawless choreography?

I hurt my back a number of years ago, and since then I have been particularly attentive to lifting things safely. And I have become a big fan of a block and tackle assembly. I’ve got one set up on the upper floor of my barn to help me lift heavy items from the lower level. I also use one when I’m working with trees.

Deer in our backyard — I’m sitting on the screen porch. They can hear me — they can even see me — but because of the screen, they don’t understand what they are seeing. It isn’t until I move that they are able to figure it out.

I’m a big believer in taking notes. I write stuff down because I have a brain like a sieve. If I don’t write it down, I’ll probably forget it. I put things on my calendar on my phone, but it’s easy to lose track of stuff like that, so if it’s something REALLY important, I’ll put a more permanent note up -- maybe stuck to the wall above my desk or on the refrigerator or on the door.