Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "A Shepherd In The Suburbs?"
Date: April 29, 2007
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson: Psalm 23; John 10:22-30

I am told that in Palestine today, it is still possible to witness a scene that Jesus almost certainly witnessed two thousand years ago: that of Bedouin shepherds bringing their flocks home from the various pastures they have grazed during the day. Several flocks gather at the watering hole around dusk, and when each shepherd is ready to separate out his flock, he issues his special call. They know whom they belong to; they know their shepherd’s voice and he is the only one they will follow.

The scene seems almost pastoral, peaceful, far-removed from the life we live in the suburbs today. When was the last time you saw a sheep? Grazing in a field far from here when you were on a road trip? At a petting zoo or the county fair? I haven’t asked our planning committee whether they’re bringing in any livestock for our June 10 Bay Shore Country Fair!

The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one that sounds nice when you’re reading the King James Version, or looking at stained glass windows in a church. But is that an image you can relate to today? That is why I put the green insert in the bulletin for you. You can select substitutes for “shepherd” and “the valley of the shadow of death” that speak more to your individual need.

In the novel, The Brothers K, author David James Duncan tells the story of the Chance family, a family of four boys, two girls, an agnostic father, and a mother of passionate fundamentalist faith. They all have passionate, but very different, ideas about God, Jesus, and the Bible. A major theme of the novel is the question, “Who is Jesus?”, not unlike the question asked of Jesus by the crowd in the temple in today’s lesson. Each child attempts to make sense of the mysteries of their parents’ struggles with religion. One of the children says:

“Personally I’m not sure just who or what Christ is. I still pray to Him in a pinch, but I talk to myself in a pinch too - and I’m getting less and less sure there’s a difference . . . Mamma tried to clear up all the confusion by saying that Christ is exactly what the Bible says He is. But what does the Bible say He is? On one page He’s a Word, on the next a bridegroom, then He’s a boy, then a scapegoat, then a thief in the night; read on and He’s the messiah, then oops, He’s a rabbi, and then a fraction - a third of the Trinity - then a fisherman, then a broken loaf of bread. I guess even God, when He’s human, has trouble deciding just what he is.” (David James Duncan, The Brothers K, Bantam Books, 1966, p. 61.)

The character of the child portrayed by Duncan has a point, but I suppose Jesus in each case was using imagery that fit the culture and the demographics of the group he was speaking to at that particular point. And today’s lesson comes just a few verses after Jesus’ depiction of himself as the Good Shepherd.

In exasperation, the crowd in the temple said to Jesus, “Show us plainly, directly, and clearly who you are.”

Jesus is probably just as exasperated with them. He says that he’s been teaching them, telling them, but they haven’t seen and haven’t heard. Then Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” Haven’t we already heard that today? I mentioned that flocks of sheep are able to differentiate the call of their shepherd from any other shepherd in their midst.

Who does this Good Shepherd claim to be?

Someone who works in the “Father’s name.”
Someone whose “sheep” hear his voice.
Someone who knows the sheep.
Someone whose “sheep” follow him.
Someone who gives to his followers eternal life.
Someone who defends his “sheep,” because “no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Someone who is one with the “Father.”

I’m sure you realize by now that Jesus, who was not an actual shepherd in real life, is not talking about lamb sheep, but rather people who believed in him and followed him. The people who responded to his message and witnessed his miracles of healing, love and grace knew that it was only through Jesus that they would be spiritually fed and their lives be made at peace, both in the present age and in the world to come. It was his voice that promised, “I will give them eternal life…”

Yet, sometimes the problem is not that we, the sheep of his pasture, do not recognize the voice of the Shepherd. Rather, we recognize it and refuse to listen. Or we listen selectively.

We have no trouble when the voice of the Shepherd is offering comfort and reassurance. When you’re in the hospital facing surgery with an uncertain outcome, you welcome me to stand by your bedside and pray in the name of Christ our Savior and Healer. But when the Shepherd calls us to follow him, sometimes through the valley of the shadow of death, or self-denial, or obedience, or self-sacrifice, or unconditional love, or turning the other cheek—then we sheep don’t hear so well. We’re scared, and when we’re scared, like sheep, we do stupid things. We take a wrong turn, or make ill-advised decisions, or become self-destructive.

And sometimes, just sometimes, we’ll even forsake the Shepherd and follow instead a bogus leader, who—surprise—turns out to be a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.

If you look at the two scripture passages we’ve used today, Psalm 23 and John 10, we might ask, are they about the shepherd, or the sheep? Psalm 23 spends nearly all of its time speaking about the character of the shepherd rather than the nature of the sheep. All of the action is placed upon the shoulders of the shepherd. The shepherd is the one who keeps, who leads, who makes the sheep to lie down in green pastures, who restores and protects.

United Methodist Bishop William Willimon has declared: “Sometimes, in American popular religion, I think we put far too much emphasis on what we are to think, do or believe rather than on what God in Christ does. Psalm 23 clearly asserts that the sheep are in relationship with the shepherd on the basis of what the shepherd does, rather than on the basis of what the sheep do…”

Here is great reassurance for us, even out in the suburbs.