4-29-12
Jerusalem
11“I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The
hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf
coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and
scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does
not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and
my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.
And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I 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. 17For this reason
the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No
one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay
it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command
from my Father.”
From
one sheep to some others - Baaa Baa Ba
Baa. It has been said that a
congregation is the pastor’s flock, but I am by no means your shepherd, for
only Christ is our Shepherd, and thank God that He is. If it was only by my power that this
congregation was led, we would all be wandering around aimlessly. Instead, it is God who directs us, who gives
us the skills and strength necessary to do ministry and who has laid down His
life for all of us. We have the good
Shepherd to guide us, in fact we have the perfect Shepherd, who has control
over both life and death.
I
love that line in the reading “I lay down my life in order to take it up
again. No one takes it from me, but I
lay it down on my own accord.” Let us remember that when we hear those words in
the Eucharistic Prayer, in the night in which he was betrayed, because the
betrayal was not what god Jesus put on that cross, that is not the important
part of the story. No, the important
part is that Jesus willingly put himself on that cross, Jesus knew that in
order for us to live, in order for Him to be the truly good shepherd, he would
have to go to the cross and die the most humiliating and painful way possible,
in order that we may have life within us when he rose from the dead and
defeated the very power of death. He
chose this in order to save us from the power of Sin, that which leads to
death.
And
yet we keep hearing the call of the hired hands and of bandits, who care
little to nothing for us and who lead us
astray. We focus on ourselves, who do
not have the power of life and death that God has. We follow money, thinking that if we have
enough of it or enough friends who have it, then we will be safe and
comfortable. But we soon find out that
when our cash runs out, we manage to lose our so called friends as well. We look to our families, who love and support
us. But as with all mortals, we lose them
in this life, and while they are cared for by our God we do not have them to
lean on forever. We look to our country,
but we are reminded that we are only one among money to our country, and we do
not have the power and resources in order for us to sway influence or to be
noticed and we see corruption and violence in our land and spread into other
nations as well. Each of these may be of
some aid, but none of them are as caring or as capable as our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
So
why do we cling to them and turn our backs to God? It can be hard to see God in this world. It can appear at times as though we live in
two worlds, the real world, out beyond these walls where there is pain and
suffering and schedules to keep and a million distractions for us to feast on
every day. It can appear as though God
is far off and that when we pray we are praying to the skies, not really
expecting any response. I know I have
definitely had those days, where I wonder why my prayers are not answered and
why everything isn’t at least a little bit easier and why is it that my loved
ones have to die. But we have the
promise from Christ which keeps us strong in the face of doubt. Doubt is a natural part of our human
condition, and it need not be feared. In
fact to have no doubt at all would weaken our faith, since without doubt
tempering our spirits, the slightest incongruence or difficulty could shatter
our faith. But even in these troubling
times, we have our Savior, the good shepherd, who leads us beside still waters
and restores our spirits and promises us that He will always be with us, even
beyond death.
This
passage has nothing to do with the Sheep got to Heaven, Goats go to Hell
theology later on, nor with the Cake song of the same name. Instead, it is calling all people Christ’s
sheep, because of God’s care and compassion for his children. Notice that it is not “The sheep do listen to
my voice” it is that they “will” listen to my voice. Just because someone today doesn’t hear God’s
voice or understand that God has been calling them every day of their life and
has been supporting each day of their life doesn’t mean that they will never be
a part of the flock. No, all people will
one day see God for who He is, their provider, comforter, and protector, and
will know the peace that He brings.
Each
of us has a place within this flock, each of us valued and given a
purpose. Much like the members of the
Breakfast Club, we are brought together from a wide variety of backgrounds and
see the world in different ways, but yet we are of one flock, united by the
Holy Spirit and given strength through that very Spirit. This doesn’t make us much different from
sheep. According to the bastion of all
knowledge, Wikipedia, there are over 200 types of sheep. It kinda blew my mind when I saw that,
because being a city boy I didn’t realize just how many variations of sheep
there are out there, I just thought a sheep was a sheep. But they are greatly varied, just like we
are. None of us believes exactly the
same things, yet here we are, brought together and worshipping the same God,
showing love toward one another as God first loved us. Even
with all the sinning that we do, God still loves us and Jesus still lays down
his life in order to save us and to bring us comfort and peace.
No
matter how much we may rebel or how far we wander off, our Shepherd is there
beside us, ready to give us a push back to where we are supposed to be and
watching over us. He watches each little
sheep, just as he watches His entire flock.
His flock goes beyond the fold that we have here, but it includes people
throughout this whole world, and through all time. All who hear the voice of God are members of
the flock and God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit and writes His
commandments upon our very hearts. And
for this we praise our God and shout Alleluia, for he who has died is now alive
and we are joined in that resurrection as well.
We shall never be forgotten or discarded. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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