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Back to Sermon ArchivesMay 3, 2009
The Rev. John Auer
Scripture: Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 23, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18
“Disciplined Love: from a Shepherd Who’s Also a Lamb”
We as a faith-people stand deep in sheep – and in the dip thereof. Abel,
the so-called righteous one -- a shepherd! Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel,
Moses, David – all shepherds!! Sheep and other "herdable" beasts make up the
economic center of nomadic tribal life. They provide all the staple foods
and raw materials for clothing and shelter. Daily tasks and annual patterns
of herding bear upon everything else. We sheep, even in spite of ourselves,
are highly regarded and respected – for without us, communal survival would not
be possible. Little wonder Jesus’ compassion for us so often compares us to
sheep without a shepherd. Jesus knows the infinite value of every last one
of us sheep. Remember when he tells of leaving the 99 “found” for the one
who is lost?!
So when nomadic tribes evolve into monarchies, the honored image of shepherd
becomes model for a good ruler. The shepherd’s crook may be an origin to the
royal scepter. When leaders of the people put their own interests ahead of
their care for the sheep, God promises to become the people’s shepherd God’s self.
Shepherding, feeding, protecting the flock is the highest of vocational callings.
Then Israel becomes agricultural and increasingly settled and urbanized. Sheep
and their shepherds are marginalized. In time they are classed with tax-collectors
and Gentiles as persons with whom devout believers cannot eat.
Shepherds are seen as unclean, outsiders and aliens, migrant-workers and day-
laborers of their time – desperate for livelihood without respect to national law,
borders and property boundaries – poorest paid, most maligned – perfect candidates
for the gospel element of complete surprise to announce Jesus’ birth! Yet
the image and idealization of shepherds persist in popular imagination – even as
we tell ourselves we love hard-working family-providers today –while we strip them
of safety and security, pensions and basic benefits, even their homes!
Shepherds evoke “the good old days” – when traditional values and mores were
intact, tribal identities clear and unblemished, religious and cultural covenants
meant and kept. Jesus and his divine mission are likened unto the shepherd’s
role of old. In the book of Revelation, at the center of a heavenly city in
which there are no sheep at all – there the ruler of all is exalted both as shepherd
and as lamb! The Good Shepherd is featured in 1st-century Christian art of
the catacombs – underground and subversive art! Tombs are decorated with sheep
as souls deceased, while Jesus the shepherd bears his dead up to heaven!
Ancient funeral liturgies pray, “May Jesus be to these souls the Good Shepherd
and carry them on his shoulder to the fold.” The Service of Death and Resurrection
in The Hymnal reads, “Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant
– Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your
own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.” I take all this to mean, sheep
may make the best shepherds – even as sinners may make the best saints – and Jesus’
deniers (Like Peter here!) his best disciples!
Who but we -- who have known ourselves as lost and straying, as needing direction
and guidance, comfort and care – as depending upon good shepherding for our very
lives –Who but we can dream and hope of nothing to want? Of lying down in
green pastures? Being led beside still waters? Finding our souls restored?
Who but we long to fear no ignorance or evil? Yearn to sit in the presence
of enemies – to share anointing and cup overflowing? Who but we by our own
experience believing in goodness and mercy following us even now – therefore trusting
in God’s presence, power, provision, protection – forever?!
We are the sheep who make the best shepherds, the best disciples. Discipleship
is shared leadership – in the life of the congregation and far beyond. Discipleship
is joyful discernment and just distribution of all the gifts of God’s life for us
all – God’s rain that falls, God’s sun that shines, on the just and the unjust alike.
Discipleship is the ordering of God’s love into our life and works together –through
our time, our talent, our treasure. Discipleship is a sense of a sense of
belonging to and with and for one another. Our culture is called the most
individualistic in human history. Wired with all our technologies (By the
way, I need someone to help me fix my VCR and DVD players!), we are tempted to privatized
lives. We are tempted by loneliness, disconnection, isolation – to dismiss
the common life -- to pretend it’s weak to need anything from anyone.
Some would argue that is what’s happened in our nation and especially our state.
We act as if everyone is best left to their own devices and fates – with no need
of others. But shepherding stresses otherwise – the common life, therefore
the common good, even the common wealth of all the sheep! The flock is made
up of the many belonging to one – one source and Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer of
all. The good news of the church, of discipleship in Jesus as our Good Shepherd,
is the news that we are not alone! There is room in the arms of this shepherd
for all the sheep! In images of this most familiar (familial?) psalm, green
pastures, still waters -- meant for us all! All of our souls -- revived by
the work of the Spirit who gives us the life of the church! And the mission
of righteousness in and for and with Jesus’ name’s sake – this powerful name of
healing for all! There is plenty of room and plenty of food for all -- at
the table of all’s provider!
No wonder we sing a new song of stewardship as discipleship – of giving to and
with and beyond one another as the very essence of life and of our life together.
No wonder we choose to celebrate “Cycles of Discipleship” throughout the year –
rather than focusing only on an annual campaign. Stewardship is our everyday
life. It is responsibility and accountability for all of the gifts of creation
and life -- which are all of God. It is moving from a sense of “dominion over”
the earth (and each other!) to a sense of “communion with” the earth (and every
other!). Love becomes ordered and organized into our lives as justice and
the well-being of all. Similarly, giving becomes ordered and organized as
sharing with and for all.
Every act of giving, with God becomes an act of receiving as well. Giving
is the privilege of sharing God’s goodness and grace with others. It is the
building up of our common life for overall vision and mission and for particular,
concrete ministries – such as we have been lifting up in Ministry Minutes – as diverse
as Prayer Group and Family Promise, Men’s Gathering and Children’s Clothing.
Next week we hear the work in New Orleans done for us all – with help of us all.
It takes all of us to be the church – the body of Christ – the eyes and ears, the
vision and voice, the hands and feet of Christ -- led everywhere by the Spirit!
Each of us is freely encouraged, empowered, entrusted, supported to do what we
can for the good of the whole. Members of the Stewardship Team and leaders
of the congregation are available any time in any way they can to work with us all.
Our hope and prayer are for each one of us to excel in the grace of the giving to
which we are called. Every part of the body has something to give. The
whole of the congregation is only as strong as each part contributing just what
we can – acknowledging what we can do with any of the gifts of our lives changes
all the time. As Howard Thurman says in our words of Gathering and Sending
today – There is a time for new songs! Our lives pass beyond and to other
levels. There is the need of present urgencies and new demands. New
words are born of new change and new growth – in our own lives, our minds, our hearts,
and our spirits.
We close by claiming the essence of life in the flock and the fold together –
Like Jesus, we are called to know each by name. Biblically speaking, knowing
is loving. We are called to love one another – even until we can like one
another! We are called to be friends of each other – in the sense Jesus means
when he says we are no longer his servants but his friends, his equals -- called
to share, to co-create his own works – and even greater works than his! Which
we can only do as the body of Christ, filled with his Spirit -- every part giving
for all. We are called to lay down our lives for each other – in the sense
that shepherds at night lay down their own bodies to sleep in the entrance to the
sheepfold – that if any danger approaches in the night, the shepherd will be first
to know it. Jesus says his flock extends far beyond any one fold. We
lay down our lives for all.
We are guided in giving by Jesus’ own words – “Give to everyone who asks of you.
. . . Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and running over, will be poured into your lap! For the measure you
use, it will be measured to you. . . . Where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also.” And the people – gifted and giving -- said with their
hearts, Amen!
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