SHEPHERD WANTED
Must be skilled in finding green pastures and still water. Respond quickly to any sign of injury or illness. Nurturing and attentive to sheep in your care. Recover strays while maintaining integrity of flock. Keep constant watch for predators and avoid known safety hazards. Must be willing to sacrifice own safety and life for well-being of sheep. Generous bonus for returning larger and healthier flock at end of season.
I always thought that being the good shepherd meant that Jesus gets an A+ job rating at shepherding. I learned something new this week. It turns out that the word for ‘good’ is not about good or bad, but instead means something more like ‘true’ or ‘genuine.’ Jesus is the real shepherd of God’s people.
What does it mean to be THE good, true, real shepherd?
We have to back up a half verse to learn more about Jesus’ purpose as the Good Shepherd.
Our Gospel passage today is a section of a longer passage in which Jesus is expounding on the sheep and shepherd metaphor for his ministry. In the verse just before our reading today, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b).
The job of the shepherd, done to divine standards, is to ensure that all the sheep have abundant life. God’s abundance extends beyond material possessions to a richness of love and beauty and dignity that mirrors our relationship with God.
Jesus also says that he will draw all sheep into one flock. He explicitly refuses to say some sheep are “in” and some are “out” of God’s flock. It is God’s desire, that through the care of the Good Shepherd, all people and all creation will know the abundance of God’s love.
So Jesus the good shepherd is the true and real shepherd for all people and all creation. But Jesus is long gone from this earth, so what does this mean for us as we try to live lives that emulate Jesus?
Later in John’s gospel, Jesus answers this question when he tells his disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you” (13:34) and “By this they will know you are my disciples, if you love one another” (13:35).
Knowing ourselves protected, fed, and comforted by the Good Shepherd is the beginning of our story. Our experience of being seen and nurtured to grow and thrive helps us understand the fullness of life God desires for all people.
Our job, the church’s job, is to respond to people and creation as a shepherd, to
Strengthen the weak
Heal the sick
Bind up the injured
Bring back strays
Seek the lost
Save all from being preyed upon by wild animals or destroyed by poisons.
Without any qualifiers 0n who is in or out of the circle of love.
God’s circle of love is the essence of a circle, because circles are unending, with no beginning or end. And God’s circle is permeable and always expanding with limitless capacity to grow and include more and more and more. We live with an abiding hope that all people and all creation will know the love of God.
We come together, in this Trinity sub-flock, to rest in familiar pastoral surroundings, to eat green grass and drink cool water, to be comforted by the strength and courage of our shepherd. We need this time together, to renew our relationship with God, to be ready for the days and weeks ahead when we will inevitably encounter many shadows, crevasses, and troubling situations.
In our life together, we are living into the uncertainty the future always holds. We are saying goodbye to beloved community members who have died, hiring a sexton, bidding farewell to our deacon, celebrating parents and graduates, wondering about how to be good stewards of our limited finances and staff time, how to be good neighbors, how to take care of the earth so it lasts for our children’s children’s children.
So many changes, and such a mix of blessing and challenge.
It is easy to focus on the difficult, scary and uncertain parts of life. We live in a world that competes for resources and often depends on violence of one kind or another to resolve differences. Following the example of our Good Shepherd, we show the world that we follow a God who wants nothing more, and nothing less, than full and abundant life for ALL people and creation.
This is our Easter message.
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
No comments:
Post a Comment