“the good shepherd”
|
|
A sermon preached at the Reading: |
John 10:11
I am the Good Shepherd
There is a tendency for us to see the Shepherd
through the eyes
of sentimental English city dwellers -
but the sort of picture postcard, chocolate box image
that we paint in our mind’s eye may be wide of the mark.
In the time of Jesus, a shepherd could well be
responsible
for a very large herd of sheep - maybe a thousand or more -
responsible for finding them food, dealing with sickness and lambing,
and keeping this large and mobile group of animals safe from predators.
The flock would be brought under cover for December to February,
but for the rest of year it would be out on the hills -
hills which were also home to wolves, jackals and hyenas,
as well as bands of human robbers.
The shepherd would usually be armed with a knife or a cudgel,
and these were anything but ornamental.
Do you recall the young boy David offering to fight
Goliath?
Saul tries to pooh-pooh the idea,
but David quotes his shepherding experience by way of credentials -
David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping
his father's sheep.
When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock,
I went after it, struck it and rescued
the sheep from its mouth.
When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear;
this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them,
because he has defied the armies of the living God.
The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion
and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
1 Sam 17:34-37
I saw in the paper last week the
story of a man in Australia
whose wife was attacked by a crocodile -
the croc was about to pull her under the water and drown her.
The man with immense courage jumped on the crocodile’s back
and started stabbing it in the eye,
until finally the croc let go of his wife’s leg and retreated.
That may actually give us some
idea of what it meant
to be a 1st Century Palestinian shepherd.
The shepherds of the day (with whom Jesus compares
himself)
showed “a mixture of tenderness and toughness, care and self sacrifice” (Denis
McBride).
And of course, a truly good shepherd (as Jesus’
parable in Luke 15 makes clear)
would not rest safe and secure with 99% of the flock safe and sound,
but would go searching for the last 100th sheep.
I recall being on a caravan
holiday in Wales,
and coming across a sheep which had got caught
in some barbed wire tangled in some bushes on the hillside.
I watched the sheep for some time and realized it was very stuck -
so I thought I better help it free itself.
My grandparents were farmers, and my cousins are farmers today -
but I am a townie -
and I discovered quickly that rescuing a strayed sheep
is not always as easy as the Bible might make it sound.
My sheep did not appear to want to be rescued.
As soon as I got near, it began thrashing about -
and I also discovered that getting kicked by a panic stricken sheep
is not a bundle of laughs.
Well the story had a happy ending -
I managed to disentangle my sheep,
which raced off without so much as a baa of gratitude.
And I learnt a bit about the pastoral ministry -
trying to care for those who are too confused or frightened or violent
to know what is going on.
And of course the point of the parable of 100 sheep
is precisely that the good shepherd does not simply care
for the well behaved and docile members of his flock -
but for the most difficult and recalcitrant ones.
As Desmond Tutu puts it
“The Good Shepherd in the parable Jesus told
had been quite ready to leave ninety-nine perfectly well-behaved sheep
in the wilderness to look for, not an attractive, fluffy little lamb—
fluffy little lambs do not usually stray from their mummies—
but for the troublesome, obstreperous old ram.
This was the one on which the Good Shepherd expended so much energy.
When he found it, it
is highly unlikely to have had a beautiful fleece.
It would almost certainly have been thoroughly bedraggled
and perhaps have fallen into a ditch of dirty water
and thus be smelling to high heaven.
That was the sheep the good shepherd had gone after,
and when he found it he did not pinch his nostrils in disgust.
No he took it and placed in gently on his shoulders
and returned home to throw a party because he had found this lost one….”
Desmond Tutu, "No Future
Without Forgiveness", Rider 1999 p.74
The story
of the lost sheep is real Gospel - Good News-
reminding
us that however dirty and bedraggled we may be,
however much we try to escape from God and avoid being saved,
he will still love us and search for us, and never give up on us.
We live in a society where often losses are just written off -
they are just “one of those things” -
a line in the accounts showing an acceptable level of wastage.
We live in a world where sometimes losses are not even noticed -
“I think this is your pen, you dropped it” someone says to me -
and I reply with surprise “Oh thanks - I hadn’t even noticed it was gone”.
How you
respond to a loss depends on
how important the thing or the person lost is to you.
§
If you are newly married and you lose
your wedding ring -
then you notice your loss soon enough
§
if you are a mother whose child is abducted -
then you are not merely concerned, you are beside yourself with anxiety,
ready to stretch every sinew in your body
to get back what is so precious, important to you…
And
because God loves us so, he never gives up on us
The 23rd Psalm does not begin
“The Lord is my accountant, and lo,
though he may occasionally lose a sheep or two,
he ensures that their value is offset against tax
in order to provide a feast in the presence of his shareholders” -
No, it begins “The Lord is my shepherd” -
a shepherd who cares for every sheep and will not lose one,
even in the valley of the shadow of death.
And of course, if God cares for every sheep -
whoever, wherever they may be - so he asks us to do the same.
The Church
has been described as
“the largest lost and found department in the world” (Robert Short).
What sort of Church are we?
Are we a terminal 5 Church - posh
building, fine PR,
but a place where things are forever getting lost?
Or are we the Church of the Good
Shepherd?
§
It
comes down to this - is each person whom we meet in Christ’s name,
whether here in this building or outside in the wider world,
is each person precious to us (like a valued jewel or ring),
someone who is dear to us like a child or a brother or a sister?
or are they just another piece of luggage
checked in by a computer onto a conveyor belt?
§
It
comes down to the difference between
the anonymous stats of mortality in a government report
& the fate of my child
The passage I read from Desmond Tutu comes from his
book
on seeking reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa.
It is in this context of such evil and hatred
that he talks of the shepherd and the 100 sheep,
and says that we can never give up on anyone
because our God was one who had a “particularly soft spot for sinners”
We know what sort of Shepherd our God is to us
Can we be the same to those he entrusts to our care?
Order of Service
6.30 p.m. Holy Communion led by Rev Andrew Sails
Hymn 490 “Great
Shepherd of thy people” (Tune 46)
Opening Responses
Minister: Come
Lord Jesus. You too were tired when day
was done; you met your friends at evening time
All: Come, Lord Jesus.
Minister: Come
Lord Jesus. You too enjoyed when nights
drew on; you told your tales at close of day.
All: Come, Lord Jesus.
Minister: Come
Lord Jesus. You kindled faith when
lamps were low; you opened scriptures, broke the bread, and shed your light as
darkness fell.
All: Come, Lord Jesus, Meet
us here.
Minister: Come Lord Jesus, be our guest,
Stay with us for day is ending.
With friend, with stranger,
With young and with old,
Be among us tonight.
Come close to us that we may come close to you.
Forgive us that we may forgive one another.
Renew us so that, where we have failed,
We may begin again.
All: Amen.
Psalm
23 (responsive) HAP 842
Reading:
John 10:11-18
Hymn 257 “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds”
Sermon:
“The Lord is my shepherd”
Hymn 678 “In heavenly
love abiding”
Offertory
Prayers
and Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 69 “The King of
love”
The Holy Communion (Methodist
Worship Book p. 169)
Post Communion Prayer:
Minister: O
God, we thank you that you have fed us with the gift of your Son, the Good
Shepherd, Jesus our Saviour.
May his body and blood strengthen and unite us as one flock under one shepherd
as he guides us all our days,
even to the gates of heaven; through the same Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Hymn 642
“Glory to thee, my God, this night”
Closing
Responses
Minister: On our hearts and on our houses,
All: The blessing of God.
Minister: In our coming and going,
All: The peace of God.
Minister: In our life and believing,
All: The love of God.
Minister: At our end and new beginning,
All: The arms of God to welcome us
and bring us home. Amen.
Blessing
(Opening and closing responses are from the Iona Community,
and the post communion prayer from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, 1998.)