SERMON FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EASTER - APRIL 6, 2008

A Shepherd Sunday Sermon

"For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

THIS IS Shepherd Sunday, as you just heard two lessons citing Jesus as the good shepherd, the bishop of our souls. We often speak on this day of the faithful shepherd, the dumb little lambs, which we are, pastures and wolves and staying with the flock. It's a nice image of how we follow our Savior and Lord. And what a juxtaposition it is to real life.

      On Thursday I was called out as a police chaplain to the scene of a death in the home. I drove to a little house, whose occupants were evidently poor, but everything clean and orderly and sweet smelling. In the bedroom was a 75 year old woman lovingly wrapped in blankets, her face obviously that of a Native American, still and peaceful and bearing signs of a life of care and love. All around her were her children, grandchildren and babes in arm of a large family of Mechoopdas, a local tribe of Butte County. She had been both their mother and elder. I asked one of them if there were a minister of the family for me to call. She told me, "She was our minister. She and her husband had been that for us."

      I learned that some members of the family were in prison. Officers there were familiar with the family and on good terms, though they had arrested brothers and sisters on other days. Everyone seemed to understand it had been necessary. One very serious man with a very dark, Indian face and long straight hair told an officer and me, "I'm not afraid of any man. I'm not afraid of any animal... " His voice trailed off, as we understood that the death of his mother was the one thing he feared.

      Nailed to one wall of the front room was a handmade cross, and on the opposite wall, a tapestry on which was depicted Jesus with a handsome, smiling face, holding lambs in his arms and bearing the staff of a shepherd. I was reminded of Jesus saying before His arrest: "It is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee." Mark 14:27-28 I asked the older sister of the deceased woman who was sitting quietly in that room, "Did you ever know a woman named Dorothy Hill?" She brightened up and said, "Oh yes, Dorothy was a great friend of our people." We spoke of her book about the Natives, and that Dorothy had been a member of my church. One of the smallest boys had a New Testament, and asked if I could find a passage to read over his grandmother. We read, "I am the Resurrection and the life, saith the Lord."

      Somebody had ministered Jesus to this tribe of Natives. Long ago, Annie Bidwell had spent time with the Indians giving them the Gospel. Evangelists are found where they are; preachers and ministers of reconciliation. But shepherds are a special breed. Jesus is the good shepherd, the bishop of our souls. Today's Gospel account is part of His good shepherd message. He began it by contrasting himself to other men who don't use the door to enter into the sheepfold. He tells of how the sheep know His voice and will follow Him, because they are truly His sheep. When His audience didn't understand this, Jesus went on: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:7-10

      Salvation is at the crux of this message. "If any man enter in, he shall be saved." Where is `in' and what do we do to enter? Jesus is our shepherd, but only if we are His sheep. What does it take for us to be the sheep of God?

      First, Jesus must be our shepherd. A shepherd owns His sheep. He says others are mere hirelings, who don't own the sheep but are just paid to watch them. When the wolf comes, they run away. That's how you can tell they don't own the sheep. Thus, Jesus has to own us for us to be His. When we pledge to God at our Baptism or Confirmation that we take Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, as our Lord and Savior, we are conferring to Him the title to our souls. "My Lord" means my master, my owner, my boss, the director of my life. The first thing you have to settle as a Christian is that Jesus is your Lord.

      If you've been a self sufficient person since childhood, look again. No man is an island. Even if you were dropped in the desert and raised by coyotes, you were dependent on the coyotes. And even coyotes know they live by the grace of God. So every man, woman and child needs headship, a leader, an owner, a boss. If Jesus is your Lord, He's the right one. All others are going to fail you. It is clear that He is made Master of God's entire Creation, for the Father sets all things beneath His feet. Jesus Himself tells us all others are thieves and robbers. If you are His sheep, you won't know their voices, but His voice you will follow.

      How do you know Jesus is your Lord? No matter what happens, good times, bad times, fun and opulence, pleasure and riches, poverty, shame, death and sorrow-in all occasions, you turn to Him. You are answerable to Him. Your actions bring you to His Throne. You know He is your judge. What you do with your life is not up to you. If you're not sure, let Him know you want Him as your Master, your Lord, your God. This is all important. For when the thief calls your name, you mustn't go-it's your destruction. Yet, if the thief is still your master, he will know how to call you and get your goat.

      Speaking of goats. Jesus uses the image of a Shepherd at the last day who separates the sheep from the goats. The goats didn't visit Him, care for Him, feed Him or give Him water in His need. He had come to them in the garb of a poor man, the least of our brothers. It was His voice they should have recognized and responded to. The goats don't make it. They didn't take Him as their master: "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." The wolf will have the goats.

      Speaking of wolves. The good shepherd saves the sheep from wolves. A shepherd finds safe haven for his flock and then he guards them through the night. The image of Jesus as the door of the sheepfold means they are in an arroyo with a narrow passageway in or out. To be sure his sheep are not approached by predators; the shepherd lays down in the very gateway and becomes the door. His staff sometimes has a curved end, the crook, to pull sheep away from dangerous cliffs. But it may also have a heavy knob, a Louisville slugger, to knock a wolf on the head. The bottom end is pointed and sharp, both as a weapon and as a goad.

      If Jesus is our protector, how do we have His protection in a modern world? Traffic streams around us, we wear seatbelts, bike helmets, have police and fire departments, security alarms. Semi-safe in a world of various threats, how does Jesus keep us safe? The closing words of our worship always blesses us with the Peace that surpasses our understanding that maintains our hearts and mind in both knowledge and love of God, with His Son Jesus Christ. Outer protection is a real concern and our prayers for safety from evil, from sickness, from bad men are answered daily, and still these dangers remain and can break through at times, as God allows. But the inner fortress of our souls, what we truly can't afford to lose, is what we most pray for God's protection. And He should protect it, if we are His. Nevertheless, it is tested. The cares and designs of this world are ever seeking us to give over, to let lust or greed or wrong relationships take that citadel and live in our hearts, preoccupy our minds. Then we cease to know or love God as once we did. The good shepherd may use that pointy end on His sheep at such a time.

      And why? We must move. Christ, our Lord and Savior, calls us to action. A sheep may stand in one spot and eat all the grass that is there until the field is bare and still he stands there. A sheep can actually starve to death not knowing what to do next. The shepherd is the Savior of the sheep, salvation meaning provision, health, and well-being both here and hereafter. He bought it with His blood, with His life, for all mankind. "I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

      You have salvation. It's what the world needs more than entertainment, money, national security or iPods. But how much time do we spend on these things, and no time spent on the incredible good fortune of having the true Savior of the world regard us with His love? It's the most important of all treasures, and yet so many do not seek it, and so many who have it let it fall through their fingers. Did they ever have it? Did they believe it?

      Is the good shepherd a secret? Is this your private religion club? Is yours own burial society good enough for you and let sleeping dogs lie? No need to disturb the neighbors with your own private hopes and dreams? Is Jesus real to you, or just the subject of sermons like this one? An ideal. A happy man knitted on the tapestry hanging on someone's wall, holding lambs and looking like someone you'd like to know? Life is hard, and hard men crumble under things that are not so nice. Having the real Master of the universe, of this world and of the next, as your Lord is crucial. Having His protection, of your mind and heart and soul, is vital. Salvation is a universal need, without which we see our loved ones die in torment, and go to flames weeping and gnashing teeth. Don't let the shepherd remain a secret. This church is not a club of private devotion, or just a secure place from which to be buried. This is the Throne room of a King, the King who bears a bishop's staff and who calls all His lambs by name to His side. He is the Good Shepherd. All others are thieves. You are a sheep. Who is your Master, Protector, and Savior today?

PFH+