Grace and Peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today is Shepherd Sunday; it is always the 4th Sunday of the Season of the Season of Easter. The word Shepherd in the church always brings us to two very significant Biblical passages and images. The image of the Lord as our Shepherd from Psalm 23, the most known and the most beloved of the psalms, and this reading from John where Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd”.
In the time of Jesus, the word “shepherd” was used also for the nations leader, the head of the people. The king was the shepherd. He used his office to benefit the people. He had several jobs. His first job was to provide for their defense from predators. He was in charge of their security. The shepherd was also in charge of their welfare. In the 23rd Psalm, the image of being led beside still waters and green pastures suggests that the shepherd was to direct the economy so that there would be enough for everyone to meet basic human needs for food clothing, shelter and health care.
The shepherd was given authority over the people not so that he could exploit them or enrich himself. His office, his position, had a purpose and in Israel’s case the purpose was a divine one – he was to stand in for God and lead the people to safety and prosperity.
In our lesson from John’s gospel contrasts the Good Shepherd with the Hired Helper who is simply doing a job for compensation. The hireling does not love the sheep or have any commitment to them. When danger comes, whether that is in the form of a ravenous wolf or a false and illusory theory of market economies, the hireling runs away, and leaves the sheep to be devoured.
I was reading in my devotional guide this week an excerpt from C. S. Lewis. He was talking about what we Lutherans call Law and Gospel. The reality of God’s love comes to us in two forms. God’s word, God’s instruction, God’s truth takes the form of the law. “Do this and don’t do that”. How we behave in the world matters. Don’t drive 70 miles an hour around a curve. The laws of physics govern speed and if you go too fast you may turn the vehicle over. Don’t be reckless. You could injure yourself, the car or someone else. The law is God’s wisdom. God’s truth.
Such a law is obvious. Some are not so obvious. Jesus, who is also God, says, “Do not let the pursuit of wealth govern your whole life. If you do, you will miss your life. You will spend all your time on things that really are secondary, not primary. You will waste opportunities to spend meaningful time with your family and those who love you”.
We sometimes fail to heed Jesus’ words. The pursuit of wealth defines success for us. We see the measure of our worth not from God’s viewpoint but from the world’s which always says something like the modern cliché states: “the one with the most toys wins”.
In our hearts we know that Jesus’ words have the ring of truth. We know deep within us, that love is the only thing real. God’s love and the love which flows from God’s is the love we have for each other. That love in some ways is always a self-giving generous love.
Jesus gave us abundant parables, sayings and guidance about the dangers of the love of money, and of the status it could bring, and the fame and the adulation of others. Although glitzy and tantalizing, like fool’s gold they aren’t the real deal, the real thing.
“Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasure in heaven. For where your heart is there your treasure will be”.
How real those words seem to us after the stock market’s recent crash. Many of us had our future security linked to the performance of those stocks and their value. They represented a quality of life that we hoped for – future trips, cruises, insurance against our golden year’s poverty. Yet, we all know that God has provided for us in the past, and for our parents and grandparents. God also guarantees our futures and God gives us an ultimate future – eternal life with God as part of God’s new creation.
Jesus issued stern warnings about becoming too greedy – too consumed with money and all that it represents. “Take care, Jesus said. Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”. He told the parable of the rich man whose land produced abundantly so that he had so much that he had to pull down his small barns, and build huge ones. The very day he finished he said Soul, speaking to himself, “you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink and be merry”.
Then the parable finishes with the ultimate irony. That very night, the days of his life came to an end and Jesus uses the word fool. “You fool, whose things will all these be”.
All his life he had sacrificed. Instead of having a beach vacation with his family, he traded and gambled that time against a future trip to Tahiti. He could have had the memory of playing with his children in the surf, of building sandcastles with them, of sitting around the dinner table telling them funny stories, of putting them to bed at night with gentleness. He could have witnessed to them that life is about relationships and not things – which moth and rust destroy – but about memories, and times shared and love which ultimately is the only real and lasting thing.
But he missed life’s point.
Jesus is our shepherd. He shows us the way. His leadings are to green and abundant pastures, but we can always run away.
We can always choose not to listen.
We can go it alone.
Let us pray that the only voice we hear and pay attention to is His.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Who We Are