Christ is risen. He is risen indeed! Thanks be to you, O God, for the
new life that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because all four of the
lectionary passages contain the shepherd image. We are reading only the Psalm
and gospel lessons, both of which are focused on the shepherd.
There is a story of two fellows who were out in the woods. They came across a
really deep hole in a meadow. They threw several pebbles in the hole but heard
no sound of a bottom. They found a football sized rock and threw it in the hole.
Still no sound. They spotted a railroad tie, which with difficultly they
wrestled to the hole and threw it in. No sound. Suddenly out of the woods a
sheep appears running like the wind. It rushes toward them, runs right past
them, leaps into the air and jumps in the hole. Still no sound.
Sheep and shepherds both have a reputation for not being overly bright. Both
have been the object of many unkind jokes. For example: What do you call a sheep
without legs—A cloud. What do you get when you cross a goat and a sheep—An
animal that eats tin cans and gives back steel wool. What do you get when you
cross a boa constrictor and a sheep—A wrap-around sweater.
Yet, sheep and shepherds are reoccurring images in both the Hebrew and Christian
scriptures. The people are portrayed as the sheep, often unwilling and unknowing
objects of misdirection. Kings and other leaders are described as shepherds,
both bad and good. For instance, Jeremiah states, “My people have been lost
sheep; their shepherds (the Kings) have led them astray.” (Jeremiah 50:6)
However, David in Psalm 23 makes a bold statement, “The Lord (Yahweh, God) is my
shepherd.” As the psalm continues it is clear this is a very positive reference.
In Ezekiel 34 we hear God state, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and
I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will
bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen
the weak.” Our gospel passage today is from John. In John, Jesus is always the
self-revelation of God, God in human flesh. When Jesus says, “I am the good
shepherd,” for John it is God who is saying those words. Jesus begins by
contrasting himself, Godself, as a sheep owner to a thief who scales the
wall. The owner knows and calls the sheep by name: when he leads them out, they
follow willingly. However, when the thief calls, the sheep scatter. Then the
passage moves to another image; Jesus, or God, is the gate, by which all
must enter or exit, while everyone else is a thief or bandit out to steal and
destroy. In verse 11 God is the good shepherd. Here the contrast is not
between owner and thief, right or wrong entry and the true gate, but between
owner and hired servant, between one who runs from the wolf and one who lays
down his life for the sheep. Finally, the image changes again in verse 16, “I
have other sheep that do not belong to this fold,” God is the shepherd of
many flocks.
When we say God is the shepherd, or God is the gate or gatekeeper, in essence
we are saying we do not control who enters the fold. As Genesis makes clear,
God is the Creator, everything else is creation. So here John makes clear God is
the shepherd, we are the sheep. It is God who decides who is included in the
flock, not any of us sheep. Jesus says again in verse 16 in this passage
from John, “There will be one flock, one shepherd.” Those other sheep that we
suspect should not be included are probably as surprised as we are to see us
included.
During these spring Sundays as we consider God’s Spring Construction Project, we
are trying to learn how God will build new life, Easter life in us. Today we
focus on the fact that we are not in control, God is in control. God is the
shepherd and we lack nothing.
First, we need to recognize God’s voice. Children quickly learn to
recognize what voice to respond to and what tone of that voice requires
immediate action. All my mother had to say was, “Now Jim…” and I knew I had
better listen. Periodically I still to this day can hear her voice and those
words, “Now Jim…” and I still listen.
Carol Hampton tells of traveling in Navajo country and trying to take a picture
of a friend and a flock of sheep. As soon as her friend stepped out of their
car, the sheep moved away. As she walked toward them, they moved farther from
the road. They did not know her or her voice so they stayed safely away. In
contrast, Carol stated that Steven Plummer, the first Navajo person to become an
Episcopal Bishop, practiced his sermons by preaching to his sheep when he was
first ordained. They knew his voice, and stayed near him knowing they were safe.
You and I as Christians are called to speak in a voice that others recognize as
coming from Christ. Can unchurched people hear the love of God in our voices, a
love that invites them into God’s fold?
There are many voices in our society competing for attention. We may lose the
voice of God and follow a voice that sounds strong and smart but is seductive.
We need to be able to recognize the voice of God. As Dallas Willard tells us in
his book Hearing God, we recognize it by its weight of authority, its spirit of
joy and peace, and its content of love consistent with the scriptures. We come
to know God’s voice by our consistent, focused, open listening. A dependable
discipline of scripture and prayer opens us to a dependable God.
Second, God calls us out. God as gate or gatekeeper, on the one hand,
can keep us in the sheepfold for our protection. In Information Technology
language a gate or gateway is a combination of hardware and controlling software
which either permits or denies access to some resource. In the protective or
excluding mode it keeps out hackers masquerading as something or someone they
are not. For instance, there are now websites where one can spoof their caller
ID on their phone and call in such a way as to appear as someone you would
recognize and welcome, the wolf in sheep’s clothing idea. The image of God as
gate suggests protection from such thieves and bandits. In addition to
protecting us in the fold, the emphasis in this John passage is God calls us out
but not to be humiliated or publicly embarrassed, chastened or condemned; but,
to experience life, to get moving, to grow, to give life to others. Again, in IT
usage a gateway facilitates a directed access to outside resources so we are
somewhat protected but also moving beyond ourselves. We believe as Christians we
are called beyond ourselves. God calls us out to serve.
Third, God leads us. Cattle are driven, but sheep are lead. A shepherd
always goes before the sheep as a protector to find the appropriate and safe
path to travel. Psalm 23 states God leads us beside still water, to green
pastures, in right paths, and is even with us in the valley of shadows. The
whole concept of the incarnation, of God’s presence with us in Christ, is that
God shows us the way to live life. God leads us in Christ to see that the
generous life, the life of giving to others is a life that is blessed beyond our
counting and comprehension. In Christ, God leads us not by giving us instruction
as to what to do, but by acting as a model, showing us how to live. Jesus’ life
is God leading us by example to the abundant life. In these passages we have the
images of many sheep, but only one shepherd. You may be asking yourself, “Where
do pastors fit in to all this?” It seems to me the best image for us is that of
sheep dogs. We try to help the shepherd, but mostly we just run around,
occasionally nip at sheep’s heels, and slobber a good bit. What do you think?
Fourth, we lack nothing. The Psalmist writes, “The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want.” God provides abundantly for all creation. We do not
have to hoard wealth for a rainy day at the expense of the global community when
we put our trust in God. God prepares a table of abundance for everyone. It is
the responsibility of a just and healthy community to make certain that all are
served and, perhaps, even share the table with our enemies.
Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, tells this
story: Four young men sit by the bedside of their dying father. The old man,
with his last breath, tells them there is a huge treasure buried in the family
fields. The sons crowd around him crying, “Where, where?” but it is too late.
The day after the funeral and for many days to come, the young men go out with
their picks and shovels and turn the soil, digging deeply into the ground from
one end of each field to the other. They find nothing and, bitterly
disappointed, abandon the search. The next season the farm has its best harvest
ever.
We lack nothing.
Susan Andrews writes of a situation just about every pastor has experienced.
At the beginning of her ministry she was a chaplain intern in a federal
psychiatric hospital, assigned to the cancer ward. One day she entered an
isolation unit to find a shell of a person—arms and legs chewed up by gangrene,
sweating profusely, shaking and stinking. She thought to herself, “Dear God,
what can I possibly say to this man?” The words of the Lord’s Prayer and the
Twenty-third Psalm came to her. She writes, “As the familiar cadence filled that
putrid room, the creature before me changed. He stopped shaking. He looked into
my eyes and began to speak the words with me. In that moment, he traveled back
home, back into the rooms of a long-lost faith. When this child of the covenant
died an hour later, he had been welcomed by a loving God who had never left
him.” We lack nothing.
There are many of us sheep but there is but one shepherd. The shepherd is in
control. We recognize his voice when we have had extended dialog with him. The
shepherd calls us out and leads us. As God works to build new life in us, we
need to know, we lack nothing.
Thanks, thanks be to God.*
- - - - -
[*]
Notes: I leaned heavily on the following in preparation for this sermon:
Carol Hampton, “The Voice of the Shepherd,” The Witness, April 8, 2005;
Dallas Willard’s very fine book on a conversational relationship with God,
Hearing God; the wonderfully playful and insightful book, The Art of
Possibility, by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander; and Susan Andrews, “At Home in
God,” Christian Century, April 14, 1999.
