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<div><span style="font-size: small">Sermons for Easter 4 </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">John 10:11-18 – <b>“The Good Shepherd” </b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">1 John 3:16‑24 – <b>“Candidates for God’s Candid Camera”</b> by Leonard Sweet</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">John 10<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title “The Good Shepherd”</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">It
is small wonder that the image of the shepherd was frequently upon the
lips of the savior. It was a part of his heritage and culture. Abraham,
the father of the nation, was the keeper of great flocks. Moses was
tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, when God called him
into a special service. David was a shepherd boy called in from the
fields to be the King of Israel.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">The
imagery of the shepherd was also imprinted upon the literature of the
day. The 23rd Psalm is frequently referred to as the shepherd psalm.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in
green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters." </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">When
Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Messiah he worded it by saying: "He
will feed his flock like a shepherd! He will gather his lambs into his
arms." Yes, the tradition of the shepherd was very much a part of the
heritage of Christ.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">This
picture comes more clearly into focus in the New Testament. Jesus once
told a story about a shepherd who had 100 sheep, but one of them went
astray. In our way of thinking a 99% return on our investment would be
most desirable, but not this shepherd. He left the 99 to go in search of
that one lost sheep. Later, when Jesus was speaking to a great throng
of people, Mark tells us that he had compassion upon them because they
were "as sheep without a shepherd."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">Throughout
the Judeo-Christian faith, then, the image of the shepherd has been
stamped upon our thinking. In our scripture text for this morning Jesus
again taps into this imagery when he refers to himself as the good
shepherd. For a few moments this morning, I would like for us to examine
together what he had in mind when he described himself as the Good
Shepherd.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">1. First, we have a shepherd that is a genuine shepherd.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">2. Second, I think that the Good Shepherd knows his sheep.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">3. Third, the Good Shepherd also includes other sheep.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt">4. Fourth, the shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1768972313__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt">1 John 3<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon titled “Candidates for God’s Candid Camera” by Leonard Sweet </span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Everyone hates to be surprised. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">And loves it. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">It
didn’t take long for something called “television” to find that out.
Filming people when they didn’t know they were on camera brought
extremely entertaining and unexpected results. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Anyone remember “Candid Camera?” </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Can you remember the name of the host? . . . . . </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Can you remember the catchphrase of the show? . . . [“Smile, You’re on Candid Camera”]. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">In
the early 60’s, “Candid Camera” secretly recorded the reactions of
people when they were confronted with strange and surprising
circumstances. Actors would approach a random person “on the street”
with some proposal or problem. The film crew would then secretly film
the good, bad, or indifferent behavior of those individuals. People were
asked to hold bags of money, tend fussy babies, stay put while a
sprinkler system doused them, listen to terrible concerts. The
situations the “candid camera” came up with were classic and comic. For
the most part, people seemed to cope graciously with whatever they were
asked to do. But almost everyone ended up at some point with that
“what-have-I-got-myself-into” look of desperation on their face.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Flash
forward fifty years. TV is still doing the “candid camera” thing, but
with far less comedy involved. Although Ashton Kutcher’s “Punked” was a
comedic but crueler version of Candid Camera, most undercover filming,
catching people being themselves when they think no one’s looking, now
ends up as an “expose.” From “Under Cover Boss” that has CEO’s pose as a
hired hand in order to get the view from the bottom about how their
company works to “Restaurant Stakeout,” where secret cameras film what
none of us want to know about what is really going on in the kitchens of
our favorite restaurants, bad behavior is what predominates.
Overwhelmingly it seems that if “no one is watching,” we are no longer
watching out for anyone except ourselves.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Is
there any better feeling, for a parent, than to hear how their children
conducted themselves when you were not there? What a rush to hear back
after your kid spends the night at a friend’s, “Oh, your son was so
polite.” Or after a party you are told, “Your daughter was so great at
listening to my grandmother.” Or after a special meal, “Your kids were
the first ones up to help clear the table.” Knowing your kids are
practicing what you’ve preached — even when you are not around — makes
every parent feel like they’ve won a medal.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The
truth is we are all children. We all have a parent watching out for us
and over us and encouraging us to behave in a certain way. All the time.
Are you behaving as your Father taught — as the Son taught — even when
you think no one is “watching?” Or are you guilty of “behaving badly”
because you believe the “camera” is off? </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">We
all know from the Genesis story of Abraham and Sarah’s shared meal with
some passing strangers that we might at anytime be “entertaining angels
unawares.” But the directive from 1 John in this week’s epistle text
takes that mandate a step further. It is, in fact, sometimes much easier
to extend hospitality and help to a stranger than it is to the neighbor
we know, the “brother or sister” we see every day and know who they are
and from where they come… </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1768972313__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">How Would the Good Shepherd Look Now?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Those
of you who are familiar with art may recall a funny habit which many
Medieval painters practiced for quite a long time in Europe, and
particularly in Germany. Artists such as Lukas Cranach and others
painted many depictions of biblical scenes but they did so with the
curious twist of dressing the biblical characters in the contemporary
garb of the Middle Ages. So in one Cranach painting of which I have a
copy, you see Mary and Joseph tending to their newborn son in a
Bethlehem stable. You also see shepherds and others in the picture but
every last one of them looks like a then-contemporary European. The men
are wearing tights, silk shirts with puffy sleeves, and those big hats
common to that era. All in all it was an interesting way to contemporize
ancient stories.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">But
that mixing up of the old with the new and the past with the current
must also have caused some eyebrows to be raised. Can you imagine what
most conservative Christians today would say if some artist painted a
portrait depicting Joseph in a pair of Gap jeans, Mary wearing Ralph
Lauren blouse, and the magi in snappy suits from Armani?! There would
almost surely be an outcry. You should not import the holy, sacred
images of Scripture into a contemporary setting like that. It creates
confusion, doesn't seem terribly respectful. And anyway we perhaps risk
"losing" something of the original presentation by mixing it up with the
trappings of our modern world.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">But
in a real way, can we even avoid looking at the old through the lens of
what is current? In this Eastertide lection from the Year B Common
Lectionary we arrive at the most famous metaphor for Jesus in the Bible:
the good shepherd. We have all likely seen one form or another of
this particular image depicted countless times in most of the churches
we have ever visited, on greeting cards, in artwork, and in many more
places besides. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations</span></div>
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