The new CEO sits behind his desk looking out a window that overlooks the

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1 Pentecost 8, 2012, Proper 11 Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio Pastor Kevin Jud July 22, 2012 Jeremiah 23:1-6, Ephesians 2:11-22, Mark 6:30-44 The new CEO sits behind his desk looking out a window that overlooks the production floor of the company he now leads. Watching the workers he sits back and thinks about how he can quickly squeeze money out of the company to enhance his own paycheck. He schemes and dreams about how he will use this company to make himself rich. Another new CEO puts on his hardhat and safety glasses and walks the production floor greeting the workers that he now leads. He stops to chat with some to learn their names and something about their situations. He knows that this company supports hundreds of workers and their families and he feels the burden to make sure he can do as much as he can for everyone. Which CEO is a good shepherd? Those in leadership should see their position as one of responsibility for the ones they lead, not as a way to simply benefit themselves. In our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah YHWH warns self-serving shepherds, Jeremiah 23:1 (ESV) 1 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! declares the LORD. 1 YHWH will hold the evil shepherds responsible for their actions because they did not care for the sheep. 1 The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton : Standard Bible Society, 2001

2 2 This admonition is against the leaders of the children of Israel, especially the religious leaders who were putting their personal benefit ahead of caring for the sheep. This is an old problem that still continues today and it is tragic when we see it happen. When we see pastors enrich themselves at the expense of the people. When we see church bodies more concerned about preserving bureaucracies than they are about their people. When we see those that will protect the institution while putting their people, even their children, at great risk. All pastors, including me, all churches, including this congregation, must remain ever vigilant to understand that our duty is to serve the people, not the people serve the organization. All that we give of our time, our talents, our money is given in order to serve the people. Let s always keep that in mind. We give all for the people. Everything we do is to bring the Good News of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the people for whom Jesus died. For Jesus is the Good Shepherd, he makes you lie down in green pastures, he leads you beside quiet waters, he restores your soul. Jesus full concern is for each of you. In our Gospel reading we see Jesus as the Good Shepherd with thousands of His sheep in the wilderness of Galilee. Jesus has sent out the twelve apostles (the sent ones) to call people to repentance and to cast out demons and heal the sick. They have now returned and report to Jesus all that has happened. As they gather back together they are overwhelmed by people coming to them, so much so that they don t even have time to eat. Plus they have just gotten

3 3 word of the beheading of John the Baptist. They are hungry, tired and sad. They need a break. So Jesus takes them away in the boat to the wilderness so they can get some rest, but the crowds figure out where they are going. It looks like Jesus and the disciples are going to get a little break; a short vacation from the pressures of the ministry, but instead they come ashore to thousands upon thousands of people who have come to hear Jesus teach. Now if I was heading out on vacation and pulled into the campground to set up the trailer for a week or so of R&R and found the congregation surrounding my campsite waiting to hear a sermon, I think I might be a little upset. Hey, this is my time! But Jesus looks at the people and has compassion on them. The Greek word for compassion is a great word, splanchnizomai which means Jesus gut aches for them. He has compassion on them because they are like sheep without a shepherd and so he teaches them many things. Jesus cares for each of the people who have come to him. Jesus does not look at the crowd as a way to riches and glory. Jesus looks at the people as His responsibility to serve. After Jesus teaches the crowd, it is late and the problem of eating which brought Jesus and the disciples to this barren place is a problem again. The people are hungry and there are a lot of them. Five thousand men plus women and children, easily over 10,000 people maybe 20,000. The disciples have an easy solution. Send them away so they can buy their own food. But Jesus says, You give them something to eat.

4 4 That is a lot of bread. The disciples are quickly calculating. It would cost 200 denarii. Two hundred days wages! That is a lot of money. How many loaves do you have? Go and see. Jesus tells his disciples. Five, and two fish. Not enough for the twelve disciples let alone the crowd. The Good Shepherd has the people recline in the green grass beside the waters of the Sea of Galilee...after He has taught them the soul restoring truth. Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish and looks up to heaven, says a blessing, breaks the bread and gives it to the disciples to give to the people. What appears to be woefully inadequate is more than enough for the thousands of people. Jesus serves His sheep. There are so many today who wander around looking for something real; something to believe in. They are desperate for something, anything to fill the emptiness in their lives; something to give them meaning and direction. Folks seek to forget their troubles in an avalanche of entertainment, in the numbing effects of alcohol and drugs, in the fleeting pleasures of illicit intimacy. But nothing brings peace. They know that they are not the people they should be and they hunger to be right with God. They are like sheep without a shepherd. They need the good shepherd. They need the forgiveness Jesus offers. They need the love Jesus gives. They need the connection to other sinners who also need the Good Shepherd. For while Jesus does provide for the people s need of bread to eat that day on the banks of the Sea of Galilee His chief mission is to provide living bread from heaven which is His own body. Jesus not only teaches and heals and provides amazing quantities of food, Jesus sacrifices His life to save the sheep.

5 5 At the Servant Event this summer in Indiana the cook taught us something about a breakfast of bacon and eggs. The chicken is participating in the breakfast, but the pig is fully committed. Jesus is fully committed. He gives His all for you. He takes upon Himself all your sins and guilt and pays the price for them on the tree of the cross. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. And while it would seem that one man s death is woefully inadequate to help anyone else, Jesus is the Shepherd of abundance. His sacrifice is more than enough for the sins of all mankind. The feast of bread and fish on the green grass is a foretaste of the feast to come in the heavenly city of New Jerusalem when evil will be destroyed and you will live with Jesus forever and you will have a seat at the great banquet. The feeding of the 5,000 is a foretaste of the feast to come and it cannot help but put you in mind of the other foretaste feast in which Jesus offers to you his own body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Indeed the Good Shepherd is a Shepherd of abundance. He pours out forgiveness of sins in such lavishness there is plenty left over. The love that Jesus has for you is our guide for the love we have for one another. An ongoing love, a selfless love. A love that has compassion on those who are lost and hurting. A love that binds us to others in service. A love that sees others not as a means to enrich yourself, but as those God has given you to help. It is a fully committed love. A love originating with God, flowing into you and from you out to those you are given to serve. For you are a sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd. The Shepherd restores your soul. The Shepherd feeds you. The Shepherd gives you peace. Amen.