The Good Shepherd and our re-dedication

      I warned 8 o’clockers that my sermon might sound like it was different at 10:30am.  Essentially, the message will be the same, but I do have the advantage at this service of having the Baptismal liturgy to remind better of some of what Jesus is teaching us today, informally known as Good Shepherd Sunday.  No doubt you could see all the references in our readings today, but Jesus’ instruction in John’s Gospel is almost as hard to miss as Psalm 23.

     The reading from John takes us back a few weeks into Lent.  Immediately preceding this instruction, the last instruction of those in the crowds in John’s Gospel, is the healing of the man born blind from birth.  Good, I see nods.  Jesus famously heals the man born blind as a testimony to the glory of God and to Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, the six of seven miracles included by John to convince us that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing in Him we can have life eternal.  The leadership throws the healed man out of the Temple, their version of excommunication, because he dares to lecture them about what Jesus has done.

     Though this takes place in the very next chapter, we are skipping ahead in time about three months.  We do not read the identifying verse in the way our lectionary editors break up this reading, but we learn in verse 22 that this all happens during what we think of as Hanukka or festival of Dedication.

     For those of us unaware of that Festival, it is the only festival of the intertestamental period, that time between the Old and New Testaments.  In the 160s BC, Israel, like most of the eastern Mediterranean, was under the control of influence of the Greeks.  Such had been the case since the time of Alexander the Great.  Some of the Jews were synchronists, meaning they wanted to get along with the ruling power, not unlike the Herodians who mostly defended Roman rule in the time of Jesus.  The oppressors had completely defiled the Temple in the eyes of many Jews.  Idols had been erected in the Temple of God; pigs had been slaughtered; and, in general, those in power sought to convince Israel not to worship their God.  That God was silent during this period made it a bit easier than normal for Israel to be led astray.

     In the 106s BC, though, there was a Maccabean revolt.  In 165BC, led by Judas Maccabeus, the revolt was largely successful and the Temple was rededicated.  Hanukkah is the Hebrew word that means dedication.  In the course of this rededication, those who were purifying the Temple discovered they had oil only for one day to keep the great Menorah and the Holy of Holies candelabra lit.  God keep the oil supplied for eight days, and the Maccabeans were able to convince Israel to add a memorial Festival marking God’s provision and favor at the effort to return to Him.  That is the cultural and historical background to the Jesus’ new instruction.  It is important to us today, and especially to Kai’s family as they vow in a bit to lead her to a right relationship with God.  But we will talk more about that in a minute.

     We also need to understand that Jesus is drawing on God’s prophesy in Isaiah 40 and in Ezekiel 34.  In the former, God uses the imagery of the shepherd to describe HIs relationship with His people Israel.  Shepherds were well known in the ANE, and kings used that cultural knowledge to describe their relationship with their subjects.  The kings wanted their people to think they needed the king for protection, for economic growth, and for general social stability.  God did want those for His people, and he used that image to describe His relationship to His people.  Ezekiel’s prophesy, however, was a woe to those who did not shepherd His people.  If you ever take the time to read the chapter, imagine yourself as the object of God’s criticism in that passage!  It should make any king or prophet or priest or anyone in Israel want to repent and treat people as instructed by God.  All of that is background to Jesus’ instruction.

     Jesus points out that that shepherds enter through the gate.  Anyone entering by any means other than the gate are thieves and bandits.  Whether the flock is family sized or corporate sized, those who own the sheep, or rightfully hired by the owner, enters through gates.  They are the shepherds.  Jesus goes on to remind those listening that the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd.  Then Jesus describes the intimate relationship between the shepherd and the sheep.  The shepherd calls the sheep by name and leads them out.

     We live in a society that has mostly forgotten our agrarian roots and wisdom.  Most of us would be shocked to think that sheep, which we think are stupid animals, would know their owner’s voice.  I see nods.  I think I have shared at small group gatherings but I remember a great test of this from my time in seminary.  There was an article or commentary that was speaking to a recent Israel bombing and taking over of a village in Gaza.  A widow approached the pen where all the animals of the Palestinian villagers were being kept.  She asked the soldier on duty if she could collect her flock, telling them she had fled for safety during the attack.  The soldier had probably heard a similar sob story several times and told the woman there was nothing he could do.  The animals collected and herded in the pen were too numerous and mingled.  There was no way to find a couple dozen sheep in the midst of such a collection.  The woman went on to explain how her husband had died and that the flock was the means of support for the widow and her son.

     The soldier showed her some sympathy, but there was nothing he could do.  There was no way she could prove she owned the sheep.  The woman sheepishly (I know, bad father joke) asked if she could prove the sheep were hers, would the soldier let her take them home.  The soldier gave her the modern equivalent of a “sure, lady, if you can prove it.”  The lady gestured at her son.  He took out a little flute-like instrument and began to play.  All of a sudden a head went up and then another and another.  Before the son had finished the song, her flock had responded to the melody.  The soldier opened the gate for her and allowed her and her son to lead the flock back home.

     These types of stories have been tested again and again on youtube.  If you get bored some day and want to plumb the depth of Jesus’ teaching on sheep and shepherd, search and watch them.  She respond to the music or voice or however they have been taught the identity of the shepherd, and most avoid or ignore those who are not doing it right.

     Jesus’ audience does not understand the teaching.  Verse six tells us it is an example of a type of speech, rather than a parable.  The crowd needs clarification.  So Jesus spends the next set of verses describing His identity and the function of the Good Shepherd in the verses we do not include today.  Jesus identifies Himself as the gate.  One does not get to the sheep, nor does one lead the sheep out into the pastures, without first going through the gate.  We hear Jesus teach us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that no one comes to the Father except through Him, and other such teachings so often that we likely miss how this would have sounded in the ears of His audience 2000 years ago.  But the gate separates; the gate protects; the gate frees.  The gate describes Jesus’ work, right?  When we pause for a second and think, it makes sense.

     There are other parts to His instruction in the next several verses that speak to His identity that we miss or forget.  For example, the Good Shepherd leads His flock from the front.  The Good Shepherd is not sitting in the back pointing where the flock needs to go.  The Good Shepherd leads them safely, always keeping an eye out for good water, good pasture, and predators.  The Good Shepherd keeps the flock out of the briars, from falling in crevices, and from stumbling into the lair of a predator.  

     Perhaps most importantly to us, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep and always goes looking for the lost sheep!  The Good Shepherd does not count the cost of defending the sheep from a predator and say to Himself, “the wolf can have that sheep so I can get the rest of the flock to safety”.  The Good Shepherd uses His crook, His sling, whatever is available to protect the sheep from the bear or the wolf or whatever predator.  More amazingly, the Good Shepherd searches for the stubborn sheep that has left the safety and security of the flock to pursue its own desires, its own perceived needs, and returns the sheep with celebration and cheer.

     Ultimately in this section, Jesus will instruct His audience and us that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.  For us, 2000 years later, the image is clear.  Jesus literally lays down His life that we might be restored to right relationship with our Father in Heaven.  By virtue of His Death and His Resurrection, you and I are assured of our Father’s love of each of us, of His care for us, and of His promise that we who call upon Him will one glorious day be united with Him and all who claim Him as Lord for eternity.  Because we know ourselves, our sins and need, we know our Father’s love for us in the Good Shepherd’s willingness to die for us.

     Which brings me back to our liturgy today.  In a few moments, baby Kai’s family will present her to be baptized.  Because she is an infant, her parents and Godparents will answer for her.  They will promise to raise her to know the depth of God’s love for her, to remember the need to attune herself to God through study and prayer, and, when she sins, to repent and return to God.  Notice the liturgy does not say “if.”  It says when.  Such was the Good Shepherd’s love for Kai that He willed Himself to hang on that Cross 2000 years ago in Jerusalem that she might have hope and abundant life 2000 years later.  It is a remarkable promise, a promise that can be made only by One with power over death and a love that transcends time and space.

     On this day when we remember the Festival of Dedication, her loved ones will promise to dedicate themselves to teaching her these truths.  We as the witnesses to all these things will commit to doing what we can to support her and them in this work.  In a real way, this is a Hanukkah moment for all of us, a moment of re-dedication.  We remind ourselves intentionally of God’s promises to us as that water is poured over her head, we remind ourselves of the love that He bore for us, and we reaffirm and rededicate our lives to Him again.  With the family we celebrate the grace of God at work in Kai and in ourselves.  Then we come to the altar to be nourished by His Body and Blood, remembering His Death, re-proclaiming His Resurrection, and head back out into that world to do the work He has given us to do until our deaths or His return, trusting that the Good Shepherd will equip each of us with the tools we need, the words we need, the actions we need in order to draw the world into His flock.

     And though Kai’s baptism is special in the eyes of her family, for her wider family, that is the Church, it is a wonderful moment of renewal in our own lives.  We have been reminded of the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for us.  We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd serves as the gate.  We have been reminded that the Good Shepherd is, indeed, God, who promises He will lead us through dark valleys in the shadow of death, who promises He will see us watered and fed, who promises to seek us if we find ourselves lost, who celebrates when we are rejoined to our flock, and who promises one Day we will dwell with Him, hearing our names on His lips, and following Him as He leads to those amazing places He prepared for His flock, as we share one with another the stories of His care for each one of us, from our most mature to little Bella and even those who come after.

In His Peace and His Care,

Brian+ 

We are witnesses . . .

      Sometimes, I have these wonderfully confirming moments of where I am called to preach.  This weekend happened to be one.  I was rather uninspired about preaching on Doubting Thomas again.  In years past, I have reminded you that the name is unfair to Thomas, who was willing to go to Jerusalem and die with Jesus and, as we know better than many at Advent, who answered James’ and God’s call to travel from Jerusalem to India to plant churches there.  Talk about a long walk and risky sailing requiring faith!  I landed in Acts and then NT Wright had a nice proposal yesterday that made me think I was not crazy about where I should be preaching.  So, turn in your Orders to Acts, if you want to follow along.

     The passage is a part of the pericope of Peter’s speech at Pentecost, so we are peeking ahead about five weeks.  The Apostles and disciples have stayed in Jerusalem, per Jesus’ instructions, to await the gift of the Holy Spirit.  That has happened.  Everyone hears the Apostles in their own language, and many have suggested the Apostles were drunk.  I cannot speak for everyone, but I know when I get drunk I speak in slurred English.  The idea of mastering a previously unknown foreign language while drinking would seem very unlikely to me, which is not to say a nice wine or beer might temper the frustrations that come with learning new languages.  Y’all are laughing, so I am guessing you share similar experiences or understandings.

     Peter begins his speech by reminding those present that it is only 9am on the morning of Pentecost, far too early for the Apostles to be drunk.  I can only assume, given Peter’s conviction, that they had never before heard of a Breakfast of Champions in that day.  Those of us who had secret societies or fraternities or sororities in our backgrounds might disagree with Peter’s assumption, but that is a sermon for another day.

     Peter ties their experience to the prophet Joel, who wrote that God would one Day pour out His Spirit upon His people.  Young and old, male and female, Joel’s people would begin to prophesy.  This is that day is the essential beginning of Peter’s sermon to the crowd in Jerusalem.

     Peter goes on to declare that Jesus of Nazareth is responsible for the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, but he reminds them of their role in it and God’s sovereignty.  Jesus was attested to them by God with deeds of power and wonders and signs.  Those in Jerusalem knew many of those signs.  Some had seen the signs themselves.  As the hive mind of the crowd would begin to consider this, they would begin to rattle off in their own minds or in conversations with those around them that Jesus of Nazareth did those signs that would mark the Messiah.

     But Peter is not finished.  Peter reminds them that those in the crowd handed Jesus over to those outside the law, you and I would call them Romans, to be killed.  Peter tells them that this was all done according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, but they had a role in it.  Curiously, if they consider the prophets seriously, they will see more of the prophets’ foretelling in their own actions, their own betrayal.

     Then Peter gets to the really important part: God raised Jesus up, having freed Him from death, because it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.  Though it will be three centuries before the Church officially recognizes the sinless nature of Christ, Peter already understands, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that Jesus of Nazareth was not subject to the power of sin and death!

     Peter then cites David and the Psalms as proof of Jesus’ uniqueness in God’s plan of salvation history.  The use of David would cover another thread of Messianic expectation.  Some thought Elijah might return to rule for God; others envisioned a heroic king or warrior figure like David, breaking Rome’s hold over Judea.  Of course, everyone present would recognize that David was a king and heroic figure and heir to the covenant made by God that his descendant would sit on his throne for ever.

     That last part is even more important as Peter reminds them that David was not the Messiah.  David died.  David’s tomb was still with them.  From Peter’s, and our, perspective David had to be speaking about the Messiah when he prophesied that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.

     This Jesus God raised up, and all those in the crowd, as well as all of us who read this passage in Nashville, Tennessee nearly 2000 years later are witnesses.

     But there seems to be a big problem.  None of us were present to those events described by the Gospel writers.  We did not get to see the fear, confusion, struggling, and joy of the Apostles and Disciples play out as they wrestled with the news that Jesus was no longer among the dead but alive.  We did not get to see the Apostles burn with fire as Jesus opened their minds to the Scriptures.  We did not get to hide with them in the locked upper room or the closed upper room and see Jesus enter, hear Jesus’ words of comfort, and prepare ourselves for the Pentecost moment we touched on this morning in Acts.  Few of us even have the advantage of being untimely born like Paul, and still have encountered the Resurrected Jesus.  How can we witness to these things as well as those who came before and saw or heard these things?

     It is a fair question.  Christians have wrestled with it for centuries.  Liturgical Christians, though, have the answer baked into the way they worship.  We know, because those witnesses taught us, that Jesus instructed them that it would be to their advantage for Him to leave so that He could send the Holy Spirit.  That advantage, of course, is that Jesus would no longer be the locus of God’s power on earth.  All those in whom the Holy Spirit abides would be able to accomplish God’s will in the world around them.  When you and I experience those Holy Spirit moments, we know the truth of God’s power and will every bit as well as those about whom we read in the Scriptures.  Had Jesus not ascended to be with the Father and to send us the Spirit, we would not have those experiences.  Because we do, we know He did.

     Notice that our experiences do not prevent us or our ancestors from falling under our sin time and again.  Peter is the spokesman for the Church in Acts.  We know that Peter became the rock upon whom Christ founded His Church.  But Peter makes mistakes.  Peter misunderstands.  Peter walks on water with Jesus until he remembers what he is doing.  Then he sinks.  Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah, but, as we reminded ourselves a couple times last week, Peter denies our Lord three times before the cock crowed.  Peter does not stay at the Cross as His and our Lord dies.  Peter does not know what to make of the women’s testimony and instruction, nor does he understand what he sees when he reaches the Empty Tomb.  Heck, Jesus has to continue to teach Peter for Peter’s whole life.  Peter has to learn about the dietary instructions and about circumcision just to name a couple.  And these are not shared to pick on Peter.  These are shared in Scripture by God to remind you and to remind me that, through Him, we can accomplish amazing things, glorious things, miraculous things.  They are shared to remind us all that through obedience and repentance God will be glorified in our lives and that we will share in that glory!

     How have you glorified God in your life?  What moments has the Holy Spirit reminded you of as I spoke this morning?  What empowered or enlightened moments have left you without a doubt that God is with you?  I suspect we have as many answers as we have people here today.  There are a million things you could be doing on this, Low Sunday as we like to call it.  You could be watching the Masters.  You could be sleeping in.  You could be doomscrolling or reading the Tennessean, depending upon your age.  But you are here, giving thanks to God for what He did in Jesus Christ our Lord!  I suspect everyone has at least one great story of God’s Spirit acting in their lives.  Some of us have far more!

     But even if the best reason you have to be here today giving thanks to God is more corporate in nature than individual, you still chose to be here!  You chose to give thanks to God in ways that Jesus reminds Thomas and all of us that you are truly blessed.  Even though you have not seen or experienced, you still believe.

     But maybe you have seen more than you realize.  Perhaps you have served the homeless among us through Room in the Inn.  Maybe you have heard the thanks of those whom we fed and kept warm in obedience to Jesus.  Maybe you have heard their squeals of delight at a particular meal or dessert or our efforts to put important sporting events up for their enjoyment.  You have treated them as one created in the image of God, and they have expressed their surprise and gratefulness for your effort.

     Perhaps you have met some of those whom we serve through Insight.  Our country has a horrible fight about medical care.  We have some many healthcare professionals among us that we all know the negative impact of the Big Beautiful Bill on those around us and those in far more rural communities of Tennessee and the nation.  Mental health care folks can only hope to get to the poor level of physical health care in our country.  And, yet, we make it possible for those suffering from mental health concerns to get affordable care.  And we hear the thanks from time to time.  People will remark how easy it is for others to understand heart attacks and cancer, but how they were able to get help for anxiety, for trauma, for who knows what thanks to our commitment.  We are heralds of healing in their midst, whether you recognize it or not, whether you hear it or not.

     And the low hanging fruit, sometimes literally, is Body & Soul.  By far and away those volunteers hear and see the fruit of their work frequently.  They hear the sob stories when people confess they never thought things could get this bad, that they would fail their families in this way.  They hear the excitement when they have comfort food for those whom they serve, and, at some point, begin to realize that all kinds of food serve as comfort food in God’s created order.  We may even find someone this weekend who finds comfort in cooked cabbage!

     But we all know Hilary & Nancy & me and all the volunteers.  We all know that we are not smart enough to divide our money up to get those various food items.  Heck, we do not have enough funds to cover the cost of feeding 6100 individuals each month last year, let alone the increase this year.  And yet, day after day, week after week, month after month, we feed people in Christ’s Name, reminding them that He loves them that much and hates their food insecurity.  We remind them that He calls them to the Feast where they will buy the choicest foods and drinks without money for ever.  And we recognize that only God can explain some of our insights as we answer the questions of those whom we serve, that only God can cause someone to share those stories of failure and thanksgiving with us, that only God can cause us to figure out how we might serve a beloved daughter or son a bit better, how we might alleviate their hurt or distance with a book or item of clothing or whatever.  My list could go on, much like John’s Gospel reminds us today.

And that's where Wright's reminder that we are in a season, not a day but a season, that intentionally delights in God's creative power. Fresh off reminding ourselves intentionally of our need of a Savior and of recognizing that Christ died for each one of us, Easter calls us forth to delight in the creative, or re-creative, power of God. What can we do that we have not done before? How might we serve in ways that we have never served before? How do we communicate to a world shrouded in darkness the possibilities offered through the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead in ways that allow those out there to hear or to see or to feel the truth of our proclamation and our lives? The possibilities are limited only by us, by our lack of imagination or understanding.

     I have given you a few examples to remind us all that we are witnesses to these things.  We know the Resurrection of our Lord is true because we have experienced the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  And so, nourished by His Body and Blood, we are sent back out there, out into the wildernesses of our lives, to proclaim in our lives and to profess with our lips those things He has done, that all might be drawn into His saving embrace!

In His Peace and Power,

Brian+