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<font face="Arial">Okay, I'll try again. My first response went to Ann
only.<br>
<br>
This would seem to be a call away from the church of stability,
reasonableness, and continuity which so many in conference, presbytery,
or synod meetings advocate. I like that. It may, at some level, get
in the way of inclusiveness, too. I like that much less. That makes
it challenging, which is probably good, although it's not what I was
hoping for out of Friday. g<br>
<br>
brian<br>
</font><br>
Ann Fontaine wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:EC2380C9-D115-4D0A-8D97-0AECEF8029DB@mac.com"
type="cite">From - (not my sermon)
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://revjph.blogspot.com/2009/05/madpriests-bog-standard-sermon-for.html">http://revjph.blogspot.com/2009/05/madpriests-bog-standard-sermon-for.html</a>
<br>
<br>
Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came
that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired
hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf
coming and leaves the sheep and runs away - and the wolf snatches them
and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does
not care for the sheep.
<br>
<br>
"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring
them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one
flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay
down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but
I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it up again. I have received this command from my
Father.”
<br>
<br>
A poem.
<br>
<br>
Sheep die.
<br>
They lie and rot in farmyards
<br>
chewed by dogs.
<br>
They smell of rain and dirt and disinfectant.
<br>
<br>
Ignorance and barbed wire meet
<br>
to greet with death
<br>
God’s metaphor for man.
<br>
<br>
And is it that their sodden pelts could be
<br>
the weight of sin?
<br>
Or is it sheer stupidity?
<br>
<br>
<br>
Sheep are stupid.
<br>
<br>
They smell bad and they are stupid.
<br>
<br>
I speak as one who knows sheep. I have spent time with sheep. I have
been very close to sheep. I have done things with elastic bands to
little baby boy lambs that would make your eyes water. I have chased
sheep round fields trying to get them to go through a gate. And from
the determination that they showed in trying to avoid it, they
obviously thought that gate was the very gateway to Hell itself.
<br>
<br>
Sheep are scared of everything. Not just people and dogs. But bushes
and trees and things that aren’t even there.
<br>
<br>
Yes, sheep are stupid.
<br>
<br>
They taste nice. Their milk makes brilliant cheese. Their wool is one
of God’s best inventions. So they are pretty useful animals. But they
are stupid. Especially female sheep. They must be the only species in
the animal kingdom where the male has slightly more sense than the
female. You could probably strike up a good friendship with a ram, as
long as it isn’t the tupping season when they tend to get a bit
obsessed about just one thing and a little touchy if approached. But,
sheep, forget it.
<br>
<br>
It makes you wonder why Jesus refers to his followers as sheep.
<br>
<br>
“Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’”
<br>
<br>
I’ve known some good shepherds in my life. A clergy friend of mine,
Judy, was the vicar at Rothbury and Alwinton (I think she’s moved on,
or is in the process of moving on, to Alton). She was on “Songs of
Praise” once, being interviewed because she was both a Christian
shepherd and a real shepherd.
<br>
<br>
When it comes to being a shepherd of real sheep I think she would walk
many miles in the mud with her dog to rescue a wounded animal. She
would go out in some pretty awful weather to look after the sheep,
especially during the lambing season. But I don’t think I would be
doing her down at all to say that I doubt that she would ever lay down
her life for one of her sheep. Not deliberately. She has far more
common sense than that. I don’t think that there is a sane shepherd or
farmer in the country who would willingly sacrifice his own life for
one of his sheep. Certainly not at the prices they fetch at market
nowadays. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this has always
been the case, even back in Jesus’ time.
<br>
<br>
The problem is, over the years we have come to misunderstand the full
meaning of those parables concerning sheep that we find in the Bible.
<br>
<br>
Think about it. Jesus tells us that he is the good shepherd and that
because he is the good shepherd he is willing to lay down his life for
any one of his sheep. In fact, not only for the sheep of his own flock
but also for the sheep from other flocks as well. But common sense
tells us that this is stupid, that there is no logic here. A shepherd,
no matter how good he is does not lay down his life for his own sheep
let alone somebody else’s sheep. There is something wrong here. And
what is wrong is this. When we hear Jesus refer to himself as a good
shepherd we think that he is likening himself to the good shepherds
that we know; people like my friend, Judy, for example. But he isn’t.
He is in fact saying something a lot more. And the clue to what he is
saying is in the Greek. The Greek language has many different words for
the English word “good”. There are at least eight in the New Testament
alone. The word John uses in today’s Gospel is ‘kalos’ and the word
‘kalos’ was used to specifically mean beautiful, exquisite, genuine,
perfect in form and nature.
<br>
<br>
Jesus is not saying that he is only the good shepherd. He is saying
much more than that. He is saying that he is the Godly shepherd, the
shepherd of God. And this shepherd of God, who is called Jesus, goes
far beyond the goodness of the earthly shepherd and gives something
that no earthly shepherd could, or would, ever give.
<br>
<br>
Sheep are stupid and are not worth risking your life for. But, of
course, it is not the sheep we come across in fields and on hillsides
that Jesus is talking about in this parable.
<br>
<br>
It is us. Us human beings who are the sheep he is referring to. We are
the sheep of Christ’s flock. And the sheep metaphor is perfect for us
as we are so very, very stupid. In fact, we seem capable of far greater
stupidity than the sheep of the field.
<br>
<br>
The sheep of the field do not destroy their own environment even when
they know that such destruction will make life, if there still is any
life, a living hell for their children. The sheep of the field do not
go around killing each other over fossil fuels and ideologies. The
sheep of the field do not go to every length to stop the spread of foot
and mouth disease in cows whilst doing very little to contain the
spread of a deadly illness that can infect them, because to do so would
interrupt world trade and the making of money.
<br>
<br>
We are the most foolhardy, selfish and self-harming animal that has
ever walked on this planet. Any shepherd of ours should look on us, in
our self-inflicted misery, and decide, very quickly, that we are just
not worth the laying down of any life for. Our salvation, you would
think, is just not worth it.
<br>
<br>
Yet our shepherd, Jesus Christ, did lay down his life for our
salvation, and he did it willingly. We did not earn such a sacrifice,
we did not merit such a sacrifice, but Jesus still made the sacrifice.
And in doing so he gave worth to the worthless, he gave worth to each
one of us, although we did not deserve it.
<br>
<br>
And that is true grace.
<br>
<br>
That is the grace that can only come from the Godly shepherd, the
divine shepherd. Because only God can be capable of such sacrificial
self-giving.
<br>
<br>
And it is because our salvation was won for us by God himself, not by a
human being, or human beings, or any of their ideologies or
philosophies, that we can be confident of our salvation, even though we
know that our own actions and our own nature does not warrant such a
glorious prize.
<br>
<br>
Sheep die and we die too. But because the eternal one, battled through
the rains and the gales and the muddy fields of death to find his lost
sheep and rescue them by laying down his very life for his foolhardy
and disobedient sheep, we have been spared the finality of our earthly
death. We are rescued from death along with our godly shepherd who
redeems us and returns us to the fold.
<br>
POSTED BY MADPRIEST AT 11:12 AM
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
The Rev. Ann Fontaine
<br>
Lander, Wyoming
<br>
<br>
<br>
4278
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</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Brian Hazard
Moorhead, MN</pre>
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