Sheep in Need of the Good Shepherd John 10:11-18 Sunday, April 26, 2015 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching

Transcription

1 Scripture. Prayer. Sheep in Need of the Good Shepherd John 10:11-18 Sunday, April 26, 2015 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Opening. We tend to think of Easter as one Sunday in spring. But it s a 50-day season in the Christian calendar that begins on Easter Sunday. Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, not the Fourth Sunday after Easter. We are in a season of living into Easter, living into the resurrection, living into our new life in Christ. We are in a season of discovering new ways to be His disciples. I. Living into Easter. But first, a few comments about the announcement that was made two Sundays ago. I will be leaving you the end of June. As Susan announced, you will be receiving a new pastor effective July 1. We wish (name) well in his/her new ministry. I am sad. I love you. I will miss you. At the same time, change can be good for both you and me. It can energize us and open us up to new opportunities and possibilities. Still, I keep a hanky ready at all times these days. Change is hard. It may be too soon for this, but I thought you might appreciate a bit of humor regarding our impending change of pastor. This is from a church newsletter. Now I should explain that, in the United Methodist Church, we don t have search committees; the Bishop appoints our pastors. Churches and pastors give input as to what their gifts and graces and needs are; but ultimately the Bishop, with the help of her District Superintendents, decides who goes where. The report I m about to read is from a pastoral search committee. We don t have a search 1

2 committee. But I think you can still relate. Here s the report: We have been unable to find a suitable candidate for this congregation though we have one promising prospect. We have followed up the recommendations from church members with interviews or calling at least three references. This is a confidential report on the prospective candidates: ADAM: Good man but has had problems with his wife and children. He and his wife have been known to walk around outside without wearing clothes. NOAH: Former pastorate of 120 years with no converts. Prone to unrealistic building projects. ABRAHAM: References reported that he once offered to share his wife with another man. JOSEPH: Big thinker, but brags, believes in dream-interpretation and has a prison record. MOSES: Modest and meek man but a poor communicator. Stutters. Known to blow his stack and act rashly. Left an earlier position under a murder charge. DAVID: The most promising leader of all. Very musical. We discovered he had an affair with his neighbor's wife. SOLOMON: Great preacher but our parsonage wouldn't hold all his wives and children. Has grandiose tastes. ELIJAH: Prone to depression; collapses under pressure. HOSEA: A tender, loving pastor but his wife is a floozy or worse. DEBORAH: Pushy female. JEREMIAH: Emotionally unstable, alarmist, negative, always lamenting things. ISAIAH: Claims to have seen angels. Has trouble with his language. JONAH: Refused God's call until he was forced to obey when he was swallowed by a fish. He said the fish spit him out on the shore. We hung up. 2

3 AMOS: Backward and unpolished. Would only fit in a poor rural congregation. JOHN: Says he is a Baptist but doesn't dress like one. Has slept outdoors for months on end, eats a weird diet. Doesn't work well with others we suggest he become a camp director instead of a pastor. PAUL: Powerful CEO type and fascinating preacher. Short on tact. So long-winded he has been known to preach all night. JESUS: Popular at times, but once his church grew to 5000 he managed to offend them all and his church dwindled to 12 people. Seldom stays in one place very long. And of course, he is single. JUDAS: His references are solid. A steady plodder and good money manager. Conservative and well-connected with the community and religious leaders. This is the candidate we recommend to the congregation... (James D. Kegel, A Guide for Ministers). This piece speaks for itself; I won t comment much. Except to say that I hope you all will give [your new pastor] a bit more of a chance than this committee gave their candidates. Continuing, then, with this reality that we are living into our new life in Christ. We are in the Easter season -- a season of discovering new ways to be Jesus disciples. Of course, this is part of being a Christian year round. We are always looking for new ways to follow Jesus and to be better disciples. But this time of year, especially, we focus on immersing ourselves in Easter reality. We struggle life is full of challenges and struggles and disappointments. Grief. At the same time, we claim the truth. Jesus is alive. We serve a risen Savior. What does that even mean?! On a practical level of day-to-day living, what does it mean that Jesus is alive among us? that we serve Him? 3

4 II. The Shepherd. At the start of this passage, we notice that Jesus identifies himself with God s mission and purpose. Jesus says I am the good shepherd. As God said I am to Moses, out of a burning bush (Ex. 3:14), so Jesus says I am to his disciples and, 2000 years later, to you and to me. Jesus aligns himself with God s work, God s purposes, God s creative intention for the world. There is a rich Old Testament history to the imagery of the shepherd. Moses was a shepherd before he freed the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. David was a shepherd before he became the greatest king of Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were also shepherds. Scholars tell us that The life of a shepherd was anything but picturesque. It was dangerous, risky, and menial. Shepherds were rough around the edges, spending time in the fields rather than in polite society. For Jesus to say, I am the good shepherd, would have been an affront to the religious elite and educated. The claim had an edge to it. A modern-day equivalent might be for Jesus to say, I am the good migrant worker (Nancy R. Blakely). God is, ultimately, the greatest shepherd of all. Ezekiel 34 is an extended word from God about the sheep and the shepherds of Israel. In the last few verses of this chapter, God says, through his prophet, Ezekiel, They shall live in safety, and no one shall make them afraid. I will provide for them a splendid vegetation so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the insults of the nations. They shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God (Ezek. 34:28b-31). In Genesis 49, verses 24 and 25, God is called the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, the 4

5 Almighty who will bless you. Psalm 78:52-53 sings of God as a shepherd who brings salvation: He led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them in safety, so that they were no afraid. In the New Testament, Jesus tells a story about a shepherd who has 100 sheep, but one of them goes astray. This shepherd, against all worldly values and business sense, leaves the 99 to go in search of that one lost sheep. Later, when Jesus is speaking to a great throng of people, Mark tells us that he has compassion upon them because they are as sheep without a shepherd. The 23 rd Psalm is the most well-known, beloved scripture depicting God as our shepherd, as Israel s shepherd. One pastor tells the story of a little girl reciting the 23rd Psalm; she began: The Lord is my shepherd; that's all I want. Maybe she missed the wording, the pastor comments, but she sure got the theology right. To have Jesus as our shepherd is indeed a blessing. As he moves towards the cross, Jesus holds up this model of the good shepherd, reminding his listeners that a good shepherd would lay down his life for the sheep. He would give his life to protect the sheep from thieves, wild animals, or whatever danger might confront the flock. We can give him our allegiance because of his commitment to us. (B. Wiley Stephens). There are so many great translations of the Bible out there. And there always seems to be a new one coming out. Johanne [Dyerly, in the first service,] read the beloved 23 rd Psalm for us this morning in the New Revised Standard Version. A beautiful translation. It s the one I memorized it in, so long ago I can t even remember not knowing it. Many of you may have memorized it in the King James Version, which was the version of choice for decades, and still remains sacred in some churches. 5

6 The New English Bible is a more recent translation, published in The NEB uses different language to convey the intent of the psalmist. I won t read the whole passage again, but listen to these first few verses; they re striking: The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He lets me rest in grassy meadows; he leads me to restful waters; he keeps me alive. I lack nothing. He keeps me alive. I don t know about you; but I read those words and I take a deep breath. My shoulders relax. I can feel the creases in my forehead smooth out. The tension in my neck subsides. My worries float away. I lack nothing. Jesus is here. He keeps me alive. This is the image of the good shepherd that Jesus claims for himself in the gospel of John. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. My sheep lack nothing. I keep them alive. III. The Sheep Of course we, the sheep, often feel that we are lacking something. There s never enough. We operate out of the anxiety of perceived scarcity. We never have enough money, enough food, enough clothes, enough prestige. We never have the car we want or the house we want or the job we want or the people in our lives that we want. The psalmist says the Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing. We want to believe that, but we re not convinced. The psalmist goes on; this Lord, my Shepherd, He keeps me alive. Again, the sheep are skeptical. We often feel deadened by the demands of life and the inhumanity of our culture 6

7 and the atrocities on the news. It s fine to hope for aliveness. It s fine to trust that God will make sure we lack nothing. That s the Easter promise we re supposed to be living into, right? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Therefore, we lack nothing. Therefore, he keeps us alive. We want to fully claim that promise for ourselves. We want to truly experience the joy of abundant life in the risen Christ. Jesus use of the Good Shepherd image is modeled after the good shepherds of Israel s history. A good shepherd whether it s a prophet, a king, or God himself, cares for the sheep. A good shepherd gathers the flock. Here s the thing; we are all sheep in need of the Good Shepherd. We all hunger for Jesus. And Jesus responds to our deepest fears and yearnings with love and compassion. The fate of the flock is not in our hands. The fate of the flock rests with God. It rests with Jesus. Even when the sheep that s you and me even when we are anxious or confused or ashamed or lost or afraid or lonely or despairing even then, the Good Shepherd is watching out for us. He is caring for us. He is leading us to good, green grass. He is leading us to streams of living water. We are OK. Everything is OK. Because the Good Shepherd is always leading us and protecting us and guiding us and watching out for our best interests. Some parishioners bristle at the idea of being thought of as dumb and mindless, writes one theologian. In her sermon The Voice of the Shepherd, Barbara Brown Taylor tells of an acquaintance who had actually grown up on a sheep ranch and could dispel the myth that sheep are dumb. It was actually the cattle ranchers who started that rumor, because sheep do not behave like cows. Cows are herded from the rear with shouts and prods from the cowboys. But that does not work with sheep. If you stand behind sheep making noises, they will just run around behind you. They actually prefer to be led. Cows can be pushed; sheep must be led. 7

8 Sheep will not go anywhere that someone else their trusted shepherd does not go first, to show them that everything is all right. Sheep seem to consider their shepherds part of the family, and the relationship that grows up between the two is quite exclusive. They develop a language of their own that outsiders are not privy to (Nancy R. Blakely). Jesus goes before us to show us that everything is all right. Jesus is family. We trust in Him, exclusively. We hear His voice if we pause to listen -- and we know all is well. He speaks a language we are privy to, though others who are not His sheep do not seem to hear Him. Jesus says in verse 16, I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. Jesus the Good Shepherd cares for the sheep and gathers the flock. Some who do not hear Him may yet be gathered in. We are at our best as a church when we allow the Shepherd s voice to speak through us as we reach out to the lost and hurting we encounter on the way, (Nancy R. Blakely). Closing. Scholars tell us that In New England, the ancient parishes of the seventeenth century in the Congregational order are not described as founded -- if you ever look at an old seventeenthcentury New England church, the sign will not say, Founded in 1620, Founded in 1636, Founded in but use a very strange nomenclature used nowhere else in the church, either in Europe or in this country: it says Gathered in 1620, Gathered in 1640, Gathered in 1690, and there is something very different between being founded and being gathered. The notion is that of sheep being gathered into the sheepfold (Peter J. Gomes). We can trust the Good Shepherd to care for us, His sheep, and gather us, His flock, together. Amen. 8