April 13, 2008
Text: John 10:1-10
Pr. Robert Goldstein
Do You Get the Picture?

In the Gospel reading this morning St. John, in his wonderful way of bringing out deep things of life for us to see, paints a picture so familiar to readers of his time, a picture of tending sheep, of protecting and reassuring them. But John paints this picture with great purpose: that "we may have life and have it abundantly."

Every night shepherds would pool their sheep into one pen so that only a few of them would keep watch and the rest could sleep. In the morning, their task was to separate the sheep back into their respective herds. So a shepherd would stand at the opened gate and call out to the sheep. They would recognize that shepherd’s voice and come to the shepherd, who would push them through the gate, counting them.

In many cases the shepherds would name individual sheep and would call them by name as they were brought together for the new day’s journey to pasture.

John’s first point is that the sheep would only come if they recognized their shepherd’s voice. They would only come if that voice meant reassuring love and not fear. We have come to the altar this morning because we have heard the Great Shepherd’s voice calling us. And several in our assembly have heard the Great Shepherd call them by name to join with us in our pilgrimage of faith and loving service at St. Francis. We honor you today at lunch.

But John’s picture paints more. Imagine the noise and confusion of the situation in the big pen! The sheep see each other as strangers, they are hungry, there is no food, and as their anxiety rises, so also their insecure bleating. But all subsides as the shepherds call their sheep into the security of their group. The sheep respond to their shepherd’s reassuring call and are led to the pastures provided for that day. Different sheep called by different shepherds.

We are witnessing some great shifts in the shepherding of the churches. It used to be Protestant versus Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Now what is happening is cutting across all churches, indeed all religions. There are those communities of faith who are absorbing the new understandings of modern science about life, creation, gender equality and sexuality, for example. Then there are those sheep, God’s sheep in these same religious communities who, in varying degrees, are insisting on a traditional pre-modern reading of the Bible or other religious text.

The two major Lutheran bodies reflect these shifts although I think the full of acceptance of LGBTQ people in the ELCA, when it finally comes, will identify sheep and shepherds who hear a different shepherd’s call and will leave for that voice. Call it liberal and conservative, if you like, or progressive and regressive. Whatever you call it, we are all God’s sheep; we are all God’s children, who hear the Great Shepherd through the voices of our shepherds.

But it leads to another detail in John’s picture. John is not just talking about shepherds calling their sheep. Thieves and bandits cause confusion and anxiety by trying to get to the sheep by climbing over the rails. They call to the sheep to grab one and make off with it -probably for slaughter. But the sheep will not run to these false voices.

Into this maelstrom of life is the encompassing picture of the true Shepherd becoming one of the sheep, indeed a harmless and trusting lamb. Taken by thieves and bandits, the trusting lamb is slaughtered. But this sheep is brought back by God to become the Great Shepherd of all the sheep. This great shepherd is but the Lamb of God who understands our world, our anxieties and our fears - our voices.

In that twist of lamb into shepherd we behold the great mystery and wisdom of God and the Christian life: to give our lives for those who are forgotten, confused and oppressed in the great rush of life in the sheep pen. In that giving we draw on the true life, receiving it abundantly. The most requested Bible reading at funerals is the 23rd psalm. It is not hard to see why, because in the imagery of shepherd and sheep, Jesus’ God is glimpsed and the mourners are nurtured and reassured of life in the midst of death. The shepherding voice.

It was very small funeral, so we gathered in a circle to meditate on the reading. When we came to you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, I confessed that I have never really understood this. It puzzled me.

"Well pastor, it means that God brings you and your enemies together to break bread," responded a little Jewish woman, a sister-in-law of the deceased. Once again my eyes were opened to the abundant life we find in Christ! Of course, what a wonderfully clear and true interpretation! It spoke to the stressed relationships even in this funeral party as it speaks so powerfully to us today.

The Great Shepherd may have all kinds of flocks, but we are not to see one another as enemies. And when our daily relationships deteriorate to that point that we consider ourselves enemies to each other, God prepares a meal for both of us estranged souls so that in eating, dining together, partaking in one of the most elemental functions of human existence, God gives us the opportunity to rebuild connections at this simplest of deepest levels so that we can begin to take the time, no matter how long it takes, to resolve what made us enemies in the first place. Eating together precursors reconciliation and the redemption of relationships. Do you get the picture at communion and later at our luncheon together? Do you get the picture?

President Carter was criticized by the Bush Administration today for talking to Hamas -our sworn enemy. It is one thing to be realistic about our "enemies", but it is quite another to lead the world and not just an arrogant neo-conservative imperial order. To talk with Hamas is a reciprocal experience of humans in conflict -not just states. I’ll be so glad when this alpha male administration fades into the dust! Enemies beget enemies. Dialogue begins a slow and often arduous road to peace.

These are some of the pictures St. John paints for us this morning. May God grant us the gracious will to give of ourselves to call the lost, confused, anxious, poor, and oppressed sheep! May God give us the grace to see we too need that pastoral care! Here again is the ancient wisdom of the Christian faith. The truly abundant life comes from giving ourselves away? Do you get the picture? I believe, with all me heart, that you do. Amen