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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Judy <judy_boli@ecunet.org><br>
To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic@ecunet.org><br>
Sent: Sat, May 14, 2011 9:51 pm<br>
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Easter 4A<br>
<br>
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<pre style="font-size: 9pt;"><tt>Dear Friends,
Sorry I didn’t post last week. One of our wonderful young men (22
years old, college student, every Sunder worshiper) was shot and
killed the Sunday before, and my week was sadly very busy. Tomorrow’s
sermon is entitled “The Good Shepherd” and deals with the gospel (John
10:1-10). Here it is:
As you probably noticed in the bulletin, every fourth Sunday of Easter
is “Good Shepherd Sunday,” so this morning almost all of the Bible
lessons refer in one way or another to Jesus as our Good Shepherd.
Now we don’t know anything about sheep and shepherds, but the people
in Jesus’ time did- they were either farm people or knew farm people.
The image of Jesus as their Good Shepherd really spoke to them. Let
me try to open Bible times and culture to you so it will speak to us
as well.
First of all, did you notice in today’s Gospel (John 10:1-10) that
Jesus said he was the “Gate for the sheep” (verse 7)? What in the
world was he talking about? If we lived in Bible times, we would
understand right away. Almost every town had a sheepfold or sheep-
pen, which was simply a small fenced-in area, often made of stone.
This sheepfold or sheep-pen had an opening, but usually no gate. If a
shepherd wasn’t by a town, he made his own sheep-pen with bushes and
briars- again with an opening, but no gate. When evening came, he
would gather all his sheep into the pen. Problem: with an opening but
no gate, how was the shepherd going to keep the sheep in and the
wolves and thieves out? Easily! He slept in the opening himself so
anything or anybody attempting to go in or out would have to go over
him. Sort of like when my children were early teen-agers many years
ago. The youth group invited friends for a sleep-over downstairs,
with the boys sleeping in the common room and the girls sleeping in
the classroom-lounge. I stupidly agreed to be one of the chaperones.
When all the chaperones decided we couldn’t stand it any longer, we
declared it was time for bed. Our problem: all the boys were in love
with all the girls and vise-versa- how to keep them apart! We
chaperones knew they were just waiting for us to go to sleep so they
could get together unsupervised! What did we do? Easy- I put my
sleeping bag in front of the door between the two rooms so no one
could get through, and we all had a good night’s sleep. Same idea.
Jesus is your Good Shepherd and he is the Gate for your life. Nothing
can get into your life that he can’t protect you from or support you
through. Remind you of a song we sing? “Be Not Afraid, for God Is in
Charge!”
Now, if we are going to look at Jesus as the Good Shepherd, we’d also
better look at us as the sheep. What do you know about sheep? Three
words, all starting with “s” will answer that question: “stupid,
stubborn, and stinky.” Trying to keep a bunch of sheep together would
be sort of like trying to take a bunch of toddlers to the zoo.
Haven’t you noticed preschool teachers hoping to keep their class
together by having a rope with each child holding on? I don’t know if
it works for preschoolers, but sheep don’t hold ropes and where they
want to go, they go. What they want to eat, they eat- poisonous or
not. I remember taking one of my children to Bill Knapps Restaurant
(remember the good old days when it was still open?) and noticing that
my precious, spotless, sanitized toddler was chewing something. When
I asked, I was told “Oh, mama- gum from under the table!” I almost
threw up! Sheep are like that. Unless the shepherd clears the
grazing field of poisonous weeds, they’ll eat them. As their wool
gets longer, it smells like a kid’s sneakers or well-used socks.
Being compared to sheep is not really a compliment, but it’s probably
a valid comparison. As with sheep and children, the hardest thing the
Shepherd has to protect us from is ourselves and our own foolishness.
How does Jesus do that? Did you notice verses 2-4 tell us that the
Shepherd knows the sheep by name, they know his voice, and they follow
him. Remember on the first Easter when Mary Magdalene was outside the
empty tomb weeping and she mistook the risen Christ for the gardener?
How did he get through to her? Sure- he called her name- “Mary,
Mary.” That’s what he does for us.
But what if our lives are too busy to hear him? Or, worse yet, what
if we don’t want to hear him? You know the feeling when your
conscience says, “Don’t do this or go with him or take that or use
this or participate in that or say what you’re about to say or do what
you’re about to do.” You hear your conscience, but you sin anyway- go
for those forbidden fruits or let it all hang out or do the selfish
thing. What then? This is when our Good Shepherd becomes the
Passover Lamb. Remember how- just before we receive Holy Communion-
the priest breaks the Holy Bread and says, “Christ, our Passover, is
sacrificed for us.” Jesus has become the “Lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world.” There’s a parallel for this also in the world
of the shepherd. Have you ever heard of Jeff Smith (1939- 2004), also
known as the Frugal Gourmet? Many say he was TV's original celebrity
chef. Anyway, in his book called “The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the
Feast,” he tells about a conversation he had with a shepherd from the
Middle East. He learned that very often during lambing season, the
shepherd would awaken to find a dead mother sheep with a live baby
lamb and another live mother sheep with a dead baby lamb. The mother
sheep whose lamb has died has milk ready to feed a hungry lamb, but no
babies. The lamb whose mother sheep has died is starving for lack of
milk. Easily solved, you think. Just let the orphan lamb suckle from
the childless mother sheep. Great idea, but it won’t work; because
the mother sheep knows the orphan lamb doesn’t smell like her baby.
Do you know how the shepherd solves the problem? He drains the blood
from the body of the dead lamb and washes the live orphan lamb with
that blood. Now the orphan lamb smells like one of her own, and the
mother sheep will adopt the orphan and feed it. That’s what God did
with us- washed us in the Blood of his Lamb- Jesus, the Christ, so we
could be adopted as sons and daughters of God and freed from our sins.
So, where are you in all of this? Have you accepted Jesus as your
Good Shepherd? If not, just invite him into your life right now and
then seal it at the altar as you come up for Communion? Are you
allowing Jesus to be the Gatekeeper of your life, or do you keep
running after things that will destroy you? Do you spend enough quiet
time with our Lord so you recognize his voice, or do you keep busy,
busy, busy with the radio blaring, the TV on, the video games popping,
the music blasting, or you’re on your cell phone talking or texting?
Finally, is Jesus not only your Good Shepherd, but your MODEL
Shepherd? Do you just happily accept God’s blessings, keeping them to
yourself; or do you reach out and touch? May God bless us as we
follow our Good Shepherd.
For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American
wisdom statements are posted on our parish web site. The address is:
<a href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.com" target="_blank">http://www.stpaulsepisag.com</a> .
Blessed preaching.
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan
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