Sheep, Abundant Life, and Jesus

We celebrated Youth Sunday this week. This means that our youth participated in and lead major portions of our worship service, including delivering the proclamation of the Gospel. Here is the script of their message. FYI: "Mobley" is a sheep who makes frequent appearances in our church.

John 10:1-10

Narrator: Today we celebrate one of my favorite Sundays of the year. It’s the Fourth Sunday of Easter and every year, we call this day Good Shepherd Sunday.

Angela – But, why?

Narrator: The scriptures we read reflect the theme of Jesus as Good Shepherd.

Daniel – Shepherds were very important people in Jesus’ day.

Jesus – Shepherds are important people in any age. Even today.

Angela – But, why?

Mobley ­– You cannot over-estimate the importance of sheep – or shepherds. But especially sheep.

Anna ­– Why would you even say that?

Mobley – What?

Anna – You know, sheep are so important! Shepherds are so important. It’s people who are important. They are more important than some dumb sheep.

Mobley – Dumb WHAT!?! Who is calling who DUMB!?!

Narrator: Whom

Mobley – What?

Narrator: Whom. It’s whom. You said, “Who is calling who dumb?” To be grammatically correct, you should have said, “Who is calling whom Dumb?”

Everyone groans

Narrator: Okay, I think we are losing focus here, people.

Mobley- Ahem!

Narrator: Sorry, Mobley. People, and sheep, listen up. As I was saying, the scriptures on Good Shepherd Sunday describe the way that Jesus is our shepherd. Using that metaphor, Jesus as shepherd and those he loves and cares for as sheep, was an easy way for Jesus to get across an important lesson to the people of his time. Because they, the people of his time, were familiar with shepherds and the role of shepherds with sheep.

Anna – Well, I never saw a shepherd.

Angela ­– That’s because you are living in, like, 2017. Jesus lived in like, uh, um. What year did Jesus live?

Daniel – Jesus lived in the first century.

Angela – So what YEAR was that!

Daniel – Let’s just say it was a long, long time ago. About 2000 years ago, in fact.

Narrator: Well, in Jesus’ time, there was no doubt about it. Everyone knew that at least to sheep, shepherds were important people.

Jesus – Throughout the Scriptures, the people of God were referred to as sheep, and those who cared for them – whether kings or prophets, were often referred to as shepherds. And I was sent to be a shepherd to the flock of people - God’s people.

Anna - So, not sheep?

Jesus -  Not exactly.

Narrator: In today’s text, Jesus uses an image familiar to the people of his day, to make a point about spiritual leadership. Good shepherds bring people to life through Jesus, but those who avoid Jesus are dangerous to the flock.

Angela - In what way are they dangerous?

Narrator: They distract people from believing in, and trusting in God. In some cases, they even destroy people’s belief and trust, because they pretend that what they do and say is from God, but then they act in ways that are opposite what God desires.

Jesus: So instead of loving people, being forgiving, and merciful, and helpful to people, they get in the way of people’s faith, say and do hurtful things, are unloving, unkind and dishonest – in other words, they are everything that is the opposite of what I taught is the way that God operates, and what God wants people to do.

Narrator: Jesus came to save people from sin, and to give them eternal life. Believing in Jesus is essential. But there are some people who misrepresent what God wants, and misrepresent how God says we should treat one another.

Jesus: So, what I said is, “Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.”

Daniel: Where is the gate?

Narrator: Not where, who.

Anna: Who what?

Narrator: Not what, who. “Who” is the gate?

Mobley: What is this, an Abbott and Costello routine?

Angela: Let me get this straight. The gate is not a thing, but a person?

Narrator: The gate is Jesus.

Daniel: But I thought Jesus is the shepherd.

Narrator: He is. Jesus is both gate and shepherd.

Mobley: I’m confused. Who are the sheep, then?

Daniel: You are, Silly.

Narrator: Yes, Mobley, you are a sheep. And when Jesus told this story, he was being metaphorical. That means he was comparing people to sheep, or saying that the relationship of Jesus to his people, is like the relationship of a shepherd to his sheep.

Anna: Now I’m confused.

Jesus: Don’t feel badly, little sheep. My disciples were confused as well. 

So, I gave them this explanation: “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not to listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.” Now this is the part I really want you to remember: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

So, believe in me. Follow me. It is through this gate of belief and trust and knowing me, that you will be given full, abundant, true and eternal life.

Jesus exits.

Narrator: You see, Jesus wants abundant life for all people. That is why he came. That is why he continues to shepherd his people. The life he offers is only available through him. But the reality is that there will be people who will try to distract you with fancy words or concepts or other means like denying the very existence of God, or saying that there is another way to the life that Jesus offers besides just following Jesus, listening to his Word, and obeying him.

Mobley – You got all that from this gospel?

Anna: Why did Jesus talk about gates and shepherds?

Narrator: Well, just before this reading, there is the story of the man who had been blind from birth. Jesus healed him, and for the first time in his life, he could see.  

Angela: Jesus healed a blind man, and that made him think of gates and shepherds?

Narrator: Well, what happened after Jesus gave sight to the blind man made Jesus want to warn people about those who were like thieves and bandits, who don’t enter the sheepfold by the gate.

You see, when the blind man could see again, everyone was shocked.

Daniel: Who wouldn’t be?

Narrator: Right. Well, the Pharisees were supposed to be the shepherds of the people of Israel. They were supposed to care for them, and teach them, protect them from spiritual harm, and nourish them. But when the formerly blind man came in to the synagogue, the Pharisees interrogated first his parents, and then him. He told them it was Jesus who had healed him. They wouldn’t believe it. Finally, when the man insisted that it was through Jesus that he was healed, they threw him out. They expelled him from their community. Any good Jew was to have nothing to do with him. They refused to believe that Jesus’ healing work came from God.

Mobley: So, bad shepherds, right?

Narrator: Really bad shepherds.

Daniel: So, what is the point today? We aren’t exactly sheep, you know.

Mobley: Hey!

Daniel: Certain company excluded – meaning, included in our flock.

Mobley: Gee, thanks!

Narrator: Well, what do you think? Are there those today who might be like the bandits and thieves that Jesus spoke about?

Anna: How about people who say other people aren’t good enough to be in their church?

Angela: Or people who say that God doesn’t love everybody or that some people aren’t acceptable to God?

Daniel: Hey! Who says that? I’ll give ‘em what-for!

Narrator: Remember what Jesus said about abundant life? He said that he came to save all people. He came to forgive sins and make all people acceptable in the eyes of God. He came to make sure that everyone could have abundant life. He came to be the gate, to be the one who shepherds all people into that kind of life. And anyone who says that he or she believes in Jesus will do the same by sharing Jesus’ way of love and mercy, kindness and forgiveness.

Daniel: What does a-BUN-dant life mean? I have a hard time even saying that word. A-BUN-dant. A-bun-DANT.

Anna: Doesn’t it mean having a lot of life? I heard it means having a rich life. I want to be rich! Does it mean that if we say we believe in Jesus, that God will make us rich?

Narrator: Not exactly. Abundant life means a full life – a life full of good things. But they are not the kind of things that you put in your piggy bank, or other riches that we pile up, although there are some people who do say that those kinds of riches are signs of God’s blessing.

But Jesus came to give us life that is full to overflowing with God’s love – so full, that we can’t help sharing it with other people, and telling them where it comes from. When the bible, or our pastor talk about eternal life, they aren’t just talking about life after death. They are talking about life that begins here and now, and is made full by knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom God sent into the world.

Abundant life is knowing the voice of the good shepherd who truly cares for us. Abundant life includes life in community, and finding security and nourishment not from material riches, but from being part of the flock of Jesus Christ. It is life that is full of meaning and value which lasts in some way even after we die.

Mobley: You know, it’s really true what Jesus said about sheep.

Narrator: What’s that, Mobley?

Mobley: That sheep know the voice of their shepherd. That they follow the voice of their shepherd. Without a shepherd we struggle to find good food and we sometimes get lost, and then we can’t find our way home. Sheep won’t follow a stranger’s voice, but if our shepherd speaks, we know his voice and we follow him, because we will find our true home in him.

Narrator: Well said, Mobley. There are many voices speaking to us in our world today. But God sent just one voice, the voice of our shepherd Jesus Christ. It is the voice of our one true shepherd, Jesus, that will bring us home, give us abundant life, love us, care for us, protect and nourish us, all for the sake of love.

Narrator: So, people, let’s give God thanks for sending Jesus, who is for us both gate and shepherd, who knows us and whose voice of love and care we recognize.

All Together: AMEN!!!!!!

An Unlikely Response to Fear

          I don’t know about you, but the first time I read through these lessons, (Jeremiah 10:7-13; Psalm 67:7-18; Romans 6:1b-11, Matthew 10:24-39) there was one overwhelming reaction that I had to them – despair. These, my friends, are tough readings! In fact, I have to tell you, my first thought was, what a good week this would have been to have brought in a guest preacher. How to address these challenging texts?

But then, I kept coming back to them, and I was reminded how God’s promise and encouragement seep through the words of even the most challenging texts. Isn’t it just like God to challenge and teach us through this living Word of God.

In the gospel text today we read about some of the challenges and threats that may afflict Jesus’ disciples. Following Christ is risky. As Jesus points out, all kinds of distractions and dangers await. Discipleship sometimes, though not always, feels like a one step forward, two steps back kind of proposition. It takes vision, trust and courage to be a disciple of Christ. It takes endurance.

Three times in this short gospel passage, Jesus says, “do not be afraid.” That is the dominant message here. Do not be afraid. No matter what fate awaits those who follow Jesus’ call to follow him, to witness and serve in his name, Jesus’ compassionate, persistent message is, “have no fear.” Jesus knows the power of fear. Jesus knows how squeamish fear can make even the most faithful and devoted of Jesus’ followers.

We, too, are well acquainted with the power of fear, because it affects all of us at various times and in the various spheres of our lives. Let’s face it: Fear drives our economy, fear can and often does impact and influence our political process – just think of the headlines and political claims that dominate every news cycle during election years, for example – so many of them, driven. by. fear.

There are times when we might fear for our loved ones, or for our jobs. We might fear for our health or for changes taking place in our lives; we fear where the future will lead. We might fear the rise of crime in the streets and in our schools. We fear that war will never truly cease.

The problem with fear is that it cripples those caught in its crosshairs. Fear can silence us even when we know we should speak. It causes stress and stress affects us physically, emotionally and spiritually. Fear keeps some of us from sleeping well at night, adversely affects our focus, and can overtake our decision-making and limit our creative processes.

A few years ago, after I had been taking voice lessons for a year or so, I was scheduled to sing a beautiful song from the Messiah called “Come Unto Him” during our church’s annual Advent Lessons and Carols program. I had been singing and preparing this song for months, and I knew it better than I knew about any other song or hymn in my repertoire. It was, however, the first time I had really sung a solo in a program like this, in many, many years.

The afternoon arrived for the service. Rehearsals went smoothly. In fact, in rehearsal, my solo went beautifully - better than it had ever gone before, my voice strong and clear, those high notes perfectly in tune. Following the rehearsal and before the service, we shared a wonderful potluck meal, and then it was time for Lessons and Carols to begin.

As I sat with the choir waiting to sing my solo, though, nerves began to set in. My heart started to race and pound. My breathing changed. I felt all sweaty and overheated. Fear began to overwhelm me. When I finally got up to sing, I took a deep breath, opened my mouth - and barely a sound came forth.

I wish I could say that soon, the prayers I was desperately praying for my voice to immediately come unto me, worked and suddenly my voice was healed and restored, but no. That is not the case. Instead, it felt like a heavy damp cloth had been thrown over my vocal cords. I tried to push, to sing through the restriction, but nothing worked. It’s possible that something I ate or drank during the meal affected my vocal cords, but I doubt that was it. I think it was fear that took my voice away.

That’s how fear works. It might cause our heart to pound and even to beat faster, but it also constricts blood vessels, so the work of our heart becomes less effective. Fear makes us uncomfortable, it makes our breath hitch as classic “fight or flight” physical changes and reactions overtake us. Suddenly our ability to think, to act, to problem solve all vanish. Fear makes our voice change and shake, and sometimes, it mutes them.

Such paralyzing fear can steal our joy and be the death of discipleship.

What is it that drives our fear and keep us from participating fully in the God’s mission? How might fear mute our proclamation of the good news of mercy and grace that we experience at the hand of God; what makes our hearts beat ineffectively? What keeps us from shouting from the rooftops, the wonder of God’s creative and redeeming love? Does fear limit our capacity to embrace, and to fully follow the cross of Christ?

For many of us the fear of conflict or the risk of judgment can stifle our voices. Gone are the days of a Christian society that supports church activity and involvement. Gone is the cultural support for claiming allegiance to church institutions or to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Gone is the societal practice of honoring adherence to religious activity or worship.

Instead, external demands on our time – and our many and varied commitments may make it feel risky to place priority in time consuming religious activity, and even riskier to testify to our faith experience and beliefs. Jesus reminds us that adherence to the gospel and following in Christ’s footsteps will not always be easy.

In our gospel text today, Jesus acknowledges the power of fear. He acknowledges that faithful proclamation and practice of the gospel will put the disciples on a collision course with the powers of this world. Jesus acknowledges that those fears are not unfounded but are very, very real - And yet, Jesus says, “do not be afraid.”

Seems like a contradiction, doesn’t it?

And yet, my brothers and sisters in Christ: this phrase, “do not fear, do not be afraid”, is a characteristic hallmark of Good News throughout Scripture, in one form or another appearing some 365 times. Anytime a messenger of God begins a message with the words “Do not fear” you can be sure that good news is about to come…but you also know that there’s a reason you’re being told not to fear in the first place: the messenger knows that, all things being equal, fear is warranted here. So, 365 times throughout the scriptures – the equivalent of one time per day each day of the year, God sends this message – do not be afraid. Even though it is more than likely that on any given day, 365 days of the year, somewhere, something is happening that would cause any reasonable person to be afraid; still, Jesus encourages his disciples:  “do not fear”… .Rather, fostered by Jesus’ instruction “do not fear” and equipped with the promise “you are of more value than many sparrows” and “I am with you always, to the end of the age”, we are bold to face these challenges, and so many more, not with fear but with excitement and anticipation for the new God can and will bring.

Jesus invites his disciples instead to have courage, and to know that their courage is rooted in God’s promise. For we worship a God of resurrection and life. And if we have died with Christ, we believe that we—and all creation—will also live with him. Jesus went to the cross so that God’s promise of everlasting life, and of new life through baptism would be secured. God’s love has dictated that the kingdom of heaven was inaugurated with the coming of Christ and sealed through his death and resurrection cannot and will not be threatened by any of the powers of the earth. And so, Jesus encourages us, do not be afraid to speak, to follow, to hope, to live this faith – instead, proclaim the gospel “in the light and from the housetops” because this proclamation is the most powerful tool we possess against fear and the powers of the world.

Jesus promises that nothing can take away God’s promise, no one can drive away God’s continuing presence, and nor dim God’s ultimate protection. God alone has power over our body and our spirit. God is present in the world in mercy and compassion and will never leave our sides.

Friends, Paul reminds us in the epistle reading today, “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we might walk in newness of life.” Let us boldly remember, therefore, Jesus’ encouragement, “do not fear” and may God strengthen us to not fear the challenges that surround us, but to enter them with confidence and joy, not on our own accord but on account of Christ who lives within us. Amen.