Sermon by Rev. Henley, May 13, 2008
The image of the good shepherd has long been a powerful image for people of the Jewish and Christian faiths. It is a metaphor that is used throughout the Bible to portray the relationship between, first God and the Hebrews, and later Jesus and his followers.
Look at all the shepherd does beyond feeding the sheep and gathering them safely for the night. A sheep falls in hole or gets lodged in rocks, the shepherd has to get her out. It gets a thorn in its foot or brambles in his coat, the shepherd has to pull them off. If it gets lost, the shepherd has to find it. The good shepherd knows that the sheep’s well-being is closely woven to her or his own. The good shepherd knows even the well-being of the tribe village depends on how well the she or he takes care of the sheep. It takes time, commitment, courage, and caring to be a good shepherd.
It takes time, commitment, courage, and caring to be a good shepherd.
The image of shepherd as a metaphor for God or Jesus, demonstrates the supreme example of caring for others.
Our reading today, John 10:1-10, wasn’t enough for me. You are welcome to use your pew Bible to read along with me the rest of the story John 10:11-18.
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The 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. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 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.
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down for 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.”
The author of John shares this “Good Shepherd” discourse, because it provides the archetypal foundation for the churches to come. This story tells us that
1. Jesus modeled relationship for the community of believers by using the metaphor of the good shepherd. At that time in humankind’s story, sheep were the life blood. It was a primary relationship and everyone knew that.
2. The good shepherd teaching gave his followers a sense of security, a way to love each other outside the biological family, outside the tribe, outside the customs and traditions that kept people separated in those days. We all know how people were treated if there was anything “wrong” with them. The good shepherd loved every sheep, in the ones on the margins of the flock.
3. His teachings gave each and every person a sense of importance, no one is “better than” or “less than” any other, no matter who they were, the good shepherd loved them all.
4. His teachings anticipated the voices, other messengers, other messengers who would offer everything but an abundant life—and what does an “abundant life” mean to Jesus. A life sustained in a community of love. Today though, you hear it everywhere, the radio or on television, evangelists saying that to be in favor with God is to be rich, or wealthy, or well off. If you love God enough, then you, too, can be rich. Jesus’ “rich” abundant life meant a life lived in love. Love not money
5. Jesus goes on to say, that the good shepherd risks his life for his flock. Not out of duty, but willingly. He is not talking about dying on a cross, he is talking about giving of one’s self for a ministry of love. He is talking about leaving the old customs behind, putting your hand to the plow and not looking back
6. Then, Jesus says, that his flock, this community of love, is for all people. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also…”
What a statement for universal love; a universal community. A community sustained in love.
7. Last Jesus said, God, the Shepherd loves him, because… Jesus willingly enters into relationship with God. He says others can too, it is a matter of will
The Good Shepherd story is about relationships. And don’t we find salvation in relationships? We have to have love and relationship when we are born, or else, there is a failure to thrive and we die. I don’t have to quote some great psychologist to say that if we don’t have loving and nurturing relationships as we grow through infancy and childhood, we are damaged psychologically. We find salvation in our friendships as we grow to adulthood. And, if we are lucky, we find salvation in our relationship with our life partner.
You know what I mean by “salvation” here. Not deliverance from the penalties of sin, but salvation in the sense of having relationships that nurture us, protect us, and enhance our lives.
Did you know that John is the only Gospel writer who “explicitly …locates the offer of salvation to Jesus’ life and … away from … Jesus’ death.” [Gail R. O’Day, “The Gospel of John,” THE NEW INTERPRETER’S BIBLE]
With this story, the Gospel of John focuses on a new life in community, the here and now, not life after an apocalyptic event or new life after an individual’s death. A new and abundant in the present.
The Good Shepherd discourse, before Jesus traveled to Jerusalem, teaches these new Christians, how to live in community. He teaches them that their “tribe” is the gathering of believers, not their biological families. They give up what they know to become followers of Jesus. Remember Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. He was not saying one’s family is worthless, he was saying that to follow him, the believer has to recognize she or he is joining a new family and beginning a new life.
This Gospel writer’s theology, became a significant part of Christian thought. By the year 203, we have the story of Perpetua.
Remember, the early Christians were martyrs because they would not worship the Roman emperor or the Roman gods. In 202, Emperor Severus issued an edict prohibiting conversion to Christianity. It called for a loyalty test; one had to sacrifice to the gods of the Roman Empire. Those who would not sacrifice were punished. In Carthage, the proconsul Scapula “applied the decree with great cruelty to women and men alike.” [Shawn Madigan, Ed., “Perpetua,” MYSTICS, VISIONARIES, AND PROPHETS]
Perpetua was a young, married woman and mother from an aristocratic family in Carthage. She devoted her life to this new Christian community. When she was asked to declare her loyalty to the Roman gods, she would not. She was condemned, along with others to fight wild beasts in the arena. When Perpetua’s father asked her to recant her admission, because of her baby and her family, she said she could not. Her relationship with her Christian community, with Jesus, with God, was far stronger than her ties to her family.
Today we ask ourselves, as individuals, “What does my faith community mean to me?”
We are fortunate to live in a country where our lives are not threatened by our choice of religion. We know that is not the case in many, many countries around the world today. People are dying today, because of their religious choices. We cannot forget this, and we need to pray every day for religious freedom for all humankind.
But again, I ask “What does our faith community mean to us?”
Is it a source of salvation? Does it offer an “abundant life” for us and for others? Do we recognize a broader family than the one we share a home with? Do we here at UNMC create a community where we find love? And where we offer love to others?
Building a community of love means building ministries of salvation.
Ministries that nourish each other.
Ministries that provide nourishment for those in need.
Ministries that enhance our lives and other peoples’ lives. For Jesus say, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also…”
What is your ministry?
Is it cooking dinner for Leland Place?
Is it facilitating a covenant group?
Is it teaching an adult religious education class?
Is it giving of your talents to the ministries at UNMC?
Is it giving of your financial blessings to the ministries here?
What is your ministry?
Is it packing food baskets on Saturday for Food For All?
Over the years of our ministry together, I will always say, there are as many reasons to be here as there are individuals who walk through the door; but underlying all those many reasons is one truth that we find in today’s story in John.
We all need a good shepherd in our lives. We all need salvation in our lives.
From the time that we are born until the day we die, we need a good shepherd.
Are we building a community here where there is “abundant life?”
Are we building ministries here of good shepherds?
Is what we do here enough?
It takes time, commitment, courage, and caring to be a good shepherd.
Are we good shepherds?
The Readings
OPENING WORDS
The opening words are from C. Frederick Barbee and Paul Zahl, Canon and Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. On the Anglican Collect for this week:
Prayer bids us love that which we are required to do. Its vision is for people to obey God's commandments not out of constraint, nor even out of a sense of duty, but rather out of spontaneous desire. To live from love and not from obligation is to exist in the precise place where true joy is to be found.
READING I
"The Lame Goat" by 13th century Sufi mystic poet Rumi
Translation by Coleman Barks with John Moyne
You've seen a herd of goats
going down to the water.
The lame and dreamy goat
brings up the rear.
There are worried faces about that one,
But now they're laughing,
because look, as they return,
that goat is leading!
There are many different kinds of knowing.
The lame goat's kind is a branch
that traces back to the roots of presence.
Learn from the lame goat,
And lead the herd home.
READING II
John 10:1-18
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.
The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers."
Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
The 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.
The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
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. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down for 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.”