Sermon for May 17, 2009 The 6th Sunday After Easter Text: John 15:9-17 Title: The Ultimate Sacrifice A. One January afternoon in 2007, 50-year-old Wesley Autrey was waiting with his two young daughters to board a train at Broadway's 137th Street station in Manhattan, when the unthinkable happened. According to CBS News, Cameron Hollopeter, 19, fell onto the subway tracks while suffering a seizure, just as an oncoming train was approaching. In a split second Autrey, a construction worker and Vietnam War veteran, jumped onto the tracks to save him. As the train barreled toward them, unable to stop in time, Autrey realized he didn't have time to lift Hollopeter to safety. So he threw his body on top of the still convulsing young man, pinning him down in the shallow drainage trough, roughly a foot deep, between the tracks. The train's front two cars rolled over them with just about two precious inches to spare before the operator was able to bring it to a stop. Hollopeter and Autrey emerged largely unharmed. Cheers erupted and Autrey was hailed as a hero. But as he told The New York Times, "I don't feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right." What is it that makes someone a hero? Certainly part of it is standing up for what one believes in. But in addition, we also think of someone as being a hero when he or she sacrifices at great personal cost for a cause or for another human being. Oftentimes we think of heroes as people who make the ultimate sacrifice for others, namely, the giving of their lives. Memorial Day weekend is next weekend, and although much of the meaning of Memorial Day has been lost in the retail shopping frenzy, it actually commemorates those members of the armed forces who gave their lives for the cause of freedom. It is something that should be remembered and celebrated. After all, Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for His friends." But however true this may be, in this morning's passage of Scripture, Jesus was making a different point. Jesus wasn't talking about heroes, per se; He was talking about Himself. And the ultimate sacrifice of His life for our salvation is the basis for this morning's passage of Scripture. B. But let me start at the beginning. John's account differs from the other Gospel's in that after their final meal together, Jesus entered into an extended conversation with His disciples. He begins this morning's Scripture passage by asserting that He loves His disciples, not with a passing "See ya later!" love, but with a love as deep and as profound as the ocean depths. The Greek word used here for "love" is phileo, from which we get the word "Philadelphia", also called "The City of Brotherly Love." Phileo in classical Greek describes the love that a sibling might have for another family member, but in John the word is used interchangeably with another Greek word for love, "Agape". Agape love differs from all other kinds of love in that agape love gives selflessly to another person without expecting anything in return. Agape love is not the love between husband and wife; that kind of love mutually gives and receives. But a soldier dying for country, for example, is an expression of agape love. God dying for us is agape love. So when Jesus talks about loving the disciples as friends, He means the kind of love that is much deeper than what we might attribute to simple friendship. It's more than just a connection of shared common interests and goals or a positive regard for a buddy or pal. Friendship, in the way that Jesus means it, is grounded in a deeper love that is beyond measure and beyond imagination. It is also called grace, the love of God that we have done nothing to earn but which God gives freely to us, simply because we are we. And this is key – it is the kind of love that God gives to creatures that He wants to be in deep relationship with. The reason that Jesus is willing to sacrifice His own life for His friends is because He loves us so much, and He wants to see us in relationship with the Father. "As the Father has loved me," said Jesus, "so I have loved you; abide in my love." Jesus and the Father have a very special relationship as the only Son of God; He was the One who was embraced and held by the Father all the way from the manger to the tomb. But now this is the way Jesus loves us. "You did not choose me but I chose you," Jesus said. To be a "friend" of Jesus, then, means to be one who is loved in a very special way. Jesus loves us enough to die for us and rise again from the grave for us. But this kind of love also calls us to follow Jesus' example. "This is my commandment," says Jesus to his disciples, "that you love one another, as I have loved you". We are called to emulate Jesus in our love for others. It's easy to love people we like. But Jesus calls us to love even the unlovable, because we have also been unlovable to God, and He continued and continues to love even us. Jesus also tells His disciples in this passage that His love also creates a relationship of openness in which He discloses everything he has heard from his Father to us. We learn about God because we have the Holy Spirit, who is the living Lord Jesus present with us today, revealing the things we need to know and the things we are to do from God Himself. We have the Spirit illuminating Scripture so we might become better acquainted with the Father. And we are not to keep this knowledge quiet. Our personal experience with God becomes the basis of our own testimony to others of God's goodness in our lives. We might not be able to perfectly exegete a passage of Scripture, parsing verb tense and noun root words. We might not all be Biblical scholars. But no one can tell our faith story better than we can, and that is all God requires of us to do. Tell our story, and let the Holy Spirit open up the heart of the listener to receive and believe. During his days as president, Thomas Jefferson and a group of companions were traveling across the country on horseback. They came to a river that had left its banks because of a recent downpour. The swollen river had washed the bridge away. Each rider was forced to ford the river on horseback, fighting against the rapid currents. The very real possibility of death threatened each rider. After several had plunged in and made it to the other side, a bystander who had just happened to come along while all this was going on asked President Jefferson if he would ferry him across the river. The president agreed without hesitation. The man climbed on, and shortly thereafter the two of them made it safely to the other side. As the fellow slid off the back of the saddle onto dry ground, he was asked by a member of the group why he chose the President of the United States to ferry him across the river. The man was shocked, admitting he had no idea it was the president who had helped him. "All I know," he said, "Is that on some of your faces I could see the feeling of 'I can't do this,' and on some of your faces I could see 'I can do this'; His was an 'I can do this' face." You see, it is not necessarily the depth of our knowledge that powers our testimony. It is the sincerity of the witness.
We have noted before that the original disciples moved from being bumbling but well-meaning followers to real apostles in the space of three years. As we shall discuss in a couple of weeks, their real graduation, you might call it, into true leaders and evangelists for the new Church was at Pentecost, when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them. But now remember that John's Gospel doesn't so much try to be historically accurate as it much as it wants to theologically accurate. John was written last; he had the other Gospels from which to draw, and He wasn't compelled by the Lord to write the same thing all over again. John's Pentecost happens right after His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. But it is anticipated even here. The disciples are told that they have moved from the status of servants to the status of friends — those for whom Jesus has given his life. Incumbent upon them, therefore, is to love one another. Jesus has chosen and appointed his disciples so that they might go out and bear fruit. The only way they can do that is to abide in him, and the only way to abide in him is to keep his commandments to love one another. So when the disciples follow Jesus' commandments, the circle is completed. In order to show that they love Jesus, they first should show love to one another, just like the Son showed to them by dying for them. He showed selfless love towards us. We follow in His footsteps by showing selfless love for others , and that is how God's love moves out to others — from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the disciples, and from the disciples to one another and to the world, the desired recipients of God's love from the beginning. For Jesus, "laying down" His life meant a painful physical sacrifice. We may never be called to do that for another, we may never be called to jump onto someone's body to prevent them from being killed by a speeding subway train, but there are lots of ways to nevertheless lay down our lives for another. We may need to amputate our personal ambitions in order to do what's best for our families. We might be called to give sacrificially of our hard-earned money in order to care for someone who is experiencing a crushing need. We may experience a call to give up a lucrative career in order to pursue a ministry that serves people the rest of the world has forgotten. It's all the same thing. It's not focusing solely on the self as we go through life. It's spending time with God through prayer, worship, Scripture study, and being with God's people. It's going through life with other-tinted glasses, asking ourselves (as well-worn as this phrase is) "What would Jesus do?", and then responding accordingly. The teacher in an adult-education creative writing class once told her class to write "I love you" in 25 words or less, without using the words "I love you." She gave a time limit of 15 minutes. A woman in the class spent about ten minutes looking at the ceiling and wriggling in her seat. The last five minutes she wrote frantically, and later read her piece to the class: "Why, I've seen lots worse hairdos than that, honey." "These cookies are hardly burned at all." "Cuddle up -- I'll get your feet warm." When we are called to love like Jesus loves, it is creative, specific to the situation, and heartfelt. It doesn't have to be hard or costly. It can be simple and direct. C. In the midst of all this talk about commandments, Jesus issues an aside that is perhaps the best news of all in this passage full of good news. Jesus says that following His commandments is not a burdensome thing; rather, it is a lifestyle that brings joy. He tells them these things so that he might find joy in them, so that he might delight in their obedience, love and fruitfulness. These instructions have an intrinsic benefit for the disciples as well — that their joy might also be made complete. All of us are looking for joy. We find joy, real joy I mean, in genuine relationship with others and with God. Joy comes through being in a community of faith that is nurturing and healing. Joy comes through finding a God-given meaning to life. Joy comes through relationship with Jesus, because we know and feel that we are loved and special to God. Joy is the result of loving, being loved, and finding purpose in life. Now, lest we forget, we need to remember that it is just as easy to receive joy as it is to resist it. Each of us decides on a daily basis whether we want to appreciate or resist God's gift of joyous living. "Three minutes had elapsed since I had taken my seat at the counter. Waitresses passed me by; two cooks and a busboy took no notice of my presence. My ego was soothed only because the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well. "Maybe this counter is off-limits," I said to him. "Maybe they are short of help," he responded. "Maybe they don't want our business," I said. "Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables," was his reply. The hands on the clock continued to move. "Maybe they don't like us," I insisted. "The air conditioning feels so good I don't mind waiting," he said. At this point, a harried waitress stopped to tell us that the water had been cut off and the dishwasher was not functioning. My nameless compatriot smiled, thanked the waitress and left. I did not like him. Three times I had sought his support for my obnoxious attitude, but he had let me down. Only later did I realize that he had chosen to practice what I preach." Friends, the bottom line is that we who are Church are called to be incubators. We are called to be in relationship with people and just love them with the love of Christ until the fear and sickness that just comes from life gives way to joy. And Church, we are called to be evangelists. Not necessarily the Billy Graham type of evangelist, but the type who, yes, gets into relationship with people and loves them with the love of Christ until they come to see that they are loved by Jesus, the Author of real love. No one can say how to do that. But with each one of us, in each circumstance that comes along, we'll know. Amen.. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |
Monday, May 18, 2009
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Desperately Seeking Something
Sermon for May 10, 2009 The 5th Sunday of Easter Text: Acts 8:24-40 Title: Desperately Seeking Something A. During my nine-year pastorate in Virginia Beach, we started a ministry called PAWS, which stands for "Pets Are Walking Saints." The idea, which I unashamedly stole from a church in Alabama, involved getting people and their pets to visit both adults and children in hospitals and senior care centers. The theory is that there is nothing like a well-behaved and affectionate furry, four-legged friend to bring God's healing love to people who are ill or lonely. After blessing 15 dogs and their owners one Sunday morning, the teams began their visitation ministry, always with prior permission, of course. I'll never forget one patient they visited. She was in the hospital for bypass surgery, but things had not gone well. She had been put in ICU after the surgery, where she had barely moved, or even opened her eyes. Days passed with little improvement, and her daughter was getting concerned. So she called the Church, to see if one of the PAWS pets could come visit her mother. Koyla, a 145-pound shaggy white dog, and her owner were assigned to go visit her. Koyla crawled right up into the woman's hospital bed and snuggled in beside her. There she lay beside her patient, nuzzling her warm and furry body in next to her. The nurses gathered around to watch, tense and concerned. After a period of time, the lady began to move. Her hand inching toward the dog and she began to stroke its fur. Within minutes she was smiling and talking, calling the huge dog her friend. The nurses stood close by and monitored her vital signs. Amazingly, her blood pressure began to go down, down, down to normal levels. Soon she was out of the hospital, and doing fine. B. Few creatures are more obedient to their masters than a well-trained dog. And when any creature, whether it be a dog or a person, is obedient to their Master, great things can happen. Another way of saying this even more clearly is that when we get out of the way and let God work through us, miracles will happen. The Kingdom of God is best advanced (and indeed, we are most joyous) when we see our lives as being like clay in the hands of the Master Potter. Case in point – this morning's passage of Scripture. Philip the Evangelist (not to be confused with Philip the Apostle) is mentioned only in the book of Acts, where he is recognized for his evangelistic effectiveness among the gentiles. Luke reports in Acts chapter 21 that Philip had four unmarried daughters who lived with their father and who possessed the gift of prophecy, and that Paul lodged with them at Caesarea on his last missionary journey to Jerusalem. Philip was part of the early church that fled Jerusalem following Stephen's death, as recorded in Acts chapter 8. He went from there to Samaria, where he converted many non-Jews to Christianity through his preaching and miracle working, including the magician Simon Magus.
On a trip to the Middle East a number of years ago, I was taken to the well that tradition says is the same one Philip baptized the Ethiopian official in. As we heard this morning's passage once again read to us, a military helicopter flew overhead, only a hundred yards or so off the ground. The helicopter was both impressive and terrifying all at the same time. It was a stark reminder of the reality of violence in the world. The place that so powerfully symbolizes new life in Christ stood in stark relief that even in the face of violence, the Lord came into the world to defeat both sin and the Devil, bringing peace and everlasting life to all those who believe in Jesus. Philip's was suddenly taken away by the Holy Spirit to his next stop, the town of Azotus, located in what is today known as the Gaza Strip. From there, Philip continued to move northward in his missionary route, eventually stopping at Caesarea, an important port on the coast of the Mediterranean and location of the Roman governor of Palestine. C. My friends, this passage gives us all kinds of insight about the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's disciples. I would like to propose that this passage teaches us three ways that the Spirit shapes the life of the believer. 1) First of all, the Holy Spirit gives us power. Think about it – this royal official, probably second only to the Queen himself over a nation of wealth and power, was humbled by the words of Philip. This is because he was empowered by the Spirit. The power can transform us from the faint-hearted to the fearless! Remember earlier in Acts, when the Apostle Peter and the others experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there "appeared to them tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit." Peter then preached to the masses, the same man who only forty-three days earlier had denied Jesus three times like a coward, preached boldly, and 3,000 were converted. The Spirit sets us on fire, gives us power, and empowers us for mission and ministry. Like the battery on a car, the Spirit gives us the juice to go into motion for God and for the Kingdom. We receive the Holy Spirit by asking for Him to come into our lives. Envision our lives of being like a glass filled with water. We have to pour out the water before the glass can be re-filled with juice. We have to confess our sins to God, yield our lives to the leading of the Spirit, and ask to be filled with that same Spirit. The Spirit empowers us by giving us gifts, and sets us free to use them in the life and ministry of the Church. Twenty-Seven gifts are mentioned in the NT, including Administration, Teaching, Preaching, Healing, Speaking in Tongues, Prophecy, Prayer, Helps, and the like. God gives us these gifts specific to the time, the place, and the mission demanded of us, to use for the edification of God's people. 2) Secondly, the Holy Spirit gives us guidance. Philip was just along for the ride, when you get right down to it. And angel directed him where to go. The Spirit got him and the official together on the desert road. And then God moved him on to Azotus. Now this might be more dramatic than we have experienced – certainly more than I've experienced – but nonetheless, the Spirit moves to direct our steps. Sometimes we have to quiet our lives and listen in order to hear what God wants us to do – our prayers are sometimes way too wordy!. Sometimes God's leading comes in the form of a closed door, that is, a circumstance we might want that is denied to us, like a certain promotion. If one is walking in God's way, however, one can oftentimes feel (with prayer) that a certain direction is right and another one isn't. But rest assured – God's guidance for our lives is always best. God only wants what helps us grow closer to Him, and to grow a servant heart. And God wants us to be joyous. I once knew a certain mom who rushed over to help her 2-year old daughter put her blouse on. Somehow her arm had got stuck through the neck hole of her blouse. She stubbornly refused to let go of the shirt as she shouted, making it impossible to correct the situation. Suddenly, she realized that sometimes we treat God the same way. When we pray for a certain outcome, we always have to remember that God might have different plans, and we only hinder His work when we continue to clutch our own plans. 3) Lastly, the Holy Spirit can transform our lives from what they are to what God wants them to be. Actually, this has to happen, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and if we seek to be led by the same Spirit. It is the former Pharisee and persecutor of the Church, the Apostle Paul, who found himself saying to the Philippian Christians, "What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for he excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…" This transformation doesn't happen all at once. And sometimes we feel like we are idling in neutral, spiritually speaking, or that we are even backsliding. It takes a lifetime to grow into the image of Christ. It takes dwelling close to the Lord, allowing the Spirit to enter into our lives through prayer, Bible study, serving the needs of others, receiving Communion, and gathering with other believers for support. It's all too easy to shove God on to the sidelines of life when all is going well. Sometimes the Lord has to use tribulation to get our attention, get us off our high horse of thinking we can do it all, and then say to us, in effect, "Ok, now let's get back on the right road." I find that human ego believes fervently in a Messiah, a Savior, only the human ego thinks it's me! But the truth is, there is only room for one Messiah, and His name is Jesus. London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. "Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site." When we become God's, the old life is over. He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build. This is a good day to start the Divine construction process. It may have to start with destruction. But God will no doubt make all things new again. Amen. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Responsibility of Sheep
Sermon for May 3, 2009 The 4th Sunday of Easter Text: John 10:11-18 Title: "The Responsibility of Sheep" A. One of my favorite comedians once said, "Ya just can't fix stupid!" Recently in the news it was reported that two teenage Domino's Pizza employees recorded themselves as they carefully concocted a "special treat" for their customers. They ceremoniously dropped pizza toppings on the floor, mashed them around, scraped them up, and daintily arranged them on the pie. They chewed up cheese strands and giddily sprinkled them over the sauce. They spit condiments over the top. Then, they uploaded their creativity onto the internet for all to see. As you might expect, the outcry was immediate. Domino's was instantly plunged into the highest damage control alert possible. The two employees, who can only be called "Dumb and Dumber," were fired on the spot. That particular eatery was closed for a complete sanitation scrubbing. But for anyone who saw the video the damage was done. It took a while for people to start ordering pizza again from that store. The whole incident played on the fear that we really don't know where our food has been before it reaches our table. And while we can joke about the "five second rule" in the safety of our own homes, when it comes to others preparing our food, we are all properly picky. Perhaps the food service industry demonstrates best that so much of life is built on trusting others to do the right thing. We trust chefs, short order cooks, and frozen food manufacturers to prepare good, healthful, quality controlled food. But every time a salmonella or e. coli outbreak is reported in the news, such trust is eroded, as demonstrated a few weeks ago by the peanut butter salmonella scare. B. Trust is a core value in this morning's passage of Scripture, as it is essential for the Christian life. The sheep have to trust the Good Shepherd with their lives and their security. Such a trust is given to the "hired hand" at their own peril, because he hasn't earned it and will betray it. Jesus has earned it, because He knows the sheep intimately and they know Him. He loves them so much that He even gives His own life for them. I have mentioned before that the Greek word for "faith" (pistis, the word used when the NT talks about having faith in Christ) can also be translated as "trust." When one believes in Christ, one trusts Him with his or her life. But essential as it is, trusting the Lord is perhaps the hardest thing for the Christian to learn how to do on a consistent basis. Oh, it's easy to trust Him when times are good. But it becomes a lot harder to trust Him when all the evidence of life seems to point to a God who either doesn't exist or doesn't care. We've all been there!! We know what it feels like! But this is where this morning's passage of Scripture is most instructive. Here in John, Jesus refers to we believers as being like "sheep." Now for a person like me, a kid from the suburbs, the whole sheep-thing can be a really alien concept. But those who know sheep tell me that this analogy is in many ways not very complimentary. I once asked a fellow who worked a sheep farm in the highlands of Scotland to tell me about these animals, and what Jesus meant when He compared us to sheep. He related an incident to me: "A sheep would often wander off into the rocks and get into places that they couldn't get out of," he said. "The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it. They will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can't jump back, until the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. The shepherd will wait until they have eaten all the grass around them and are so faint from hunger that they cannot stand. Then the shepherd will put a rope around his partner, let him down to the precipice where the sheep is lodged, and together they will pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death" "Why don't they go down there when the sheep first jumps down there?" I asked. "Ah!" he said, "the sheep are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if the shepherd did that!" Obviously the listeners in Jesus' day would get the nuances of Jesus' sheep analogy instantly, because theirs was an agricultural society. Sheep are really not all that bright, and are very stubborn creatures. They are determined to go after what they want, in the process getting themselves in a whole lot of trouble that the shepherd has to rescue them from. They have been known to strip a pasture of grass, and then squeeze through a protective fence or find themselves on a dangerous precipice, and not be able to out. Shepherding is hard work!! Sheep are constantly in need of attention. They get themselves in the darndest of places! But rather than feeling a bit insecure about such a label, perhaps we should learn from it. Maybe God has to allow us to get into the darndest of places just to help us learn a little bit about trust the Lord. Sheep don't pay much attention to the shepherd when they are happily munching away in a verdant green clover field. Likewise, we don't pay God as much attention as we should when things are going well. It's only when we are trouble that we cry out for help, discovering that the Good Shepherd was there all along, just waiting for us to stop struggling so He can rescue us. We can even take the sheep analogy a step further. I learned from my friend that one of the reasons sheep so desperately need a shepherd is that after centuries of domesticated herd life they have lost the instincts they once had to defend themselves. When a wolf gets into the flock, a sheep is incapable of mounting any kind of defense -- either singly or as a group. The shepherd's job is to keep the predators, wolves, thieves and bandits away from the flock. It is not the job of the flock to organize an attack against these marauding forces. Rather, and here's my point, sheep can only do what sheep do best -- stay close by their shepherd, remaining under the shadow of his protection. Obviously in this passage of Scripture, the wolf is the Devil, just waiting to devour the souls of God's people, aka the sheep. And in Jesus' day, the hirelings are those Jewish religious leaders who taught the letter of the Law, but never the spirit of the Law. Today, this passage can instruct us on what proper Christian leadership is all about; it's always about servant leadership. It's always about leading like Jesus, namely, thinking about the welfare of the flock first and the welfare of the leader second. This is a sermon all by itself, but I'll leave that for another time. This morning, I want to dwell simply on the responsibility of sheep. After declaring himself the "Good Shepherd," Jesus asserts that the distinguishing mark of such a shepherd is that he "lays down his life for the sheep." Defining Jesus as a shepherd echoes a well-established Old Testament tradition. Ezekiel 34 makes extensive use of the shepherding image -- evil rulers are likened to wicked shepherds, while God promises to save the abused flocks of Israel by personally playing the role of careful, tender, concerned shepherd to all the people. Indeed, most New Testament shepherd images have their roots in Ezekiel's text. But the shepherd who "lays down his life for the sheep" is a new dimension that Jesus has added to this shepherd image. The shepherd's commitment to the sheep is total -- he will lay down his life for them. In contrast the "thieves and bandits" come only to destroy the flock. The "hired hand" kills the sheep just as surely as do the thieves or the wolves -- for by abandoning any interest in the sheep's welfare, the hired hand condemns the helpless creatures to death at the jaws of hungry predators. Now we might think that if a shepherd gives his life for the sheep, it might ultimately be a bad thing, because who, then, would protect the sheep? But that's stretching the analogy too far. Jesus is here alluding to the Crucifixion and the Resurrecion. He has to die for the sheep, because He loves them so much. And when He does, He buys eternal life for the members of the flock. The hired hand's callous disregard for the sheep is based on two facts -- he does not "own" the sheep, nor does he "care" for the sheep. With no financial or emotional investment in these animals, hired hands have little incentive to stand by the helpless sheep when serious danger threatens. The Good Shepherd, on the other hand, is closely bound to his flock. As their "owner" (or Creator, since we are talking about God) He has ultimate responsibility for the sheep and a personal investment in their survival. The Good Shepherd cares for the sheep, rescuing them from the places to which they have been scattered, feeding them, and tending to the weak, the injured, and the lost. But more than that, Jesus emphasizes that a face-to-face "knowing" between the shepherd and the sheep has been established. As the Good Shepherd Jesus declares, "I know my own and my own know me." This knowledge should not be thought of as being intellectual contemplation. The "knowing" Jesus speaks of here is the Hebrew understanding of knowledge -- an intimate, firsthand experience-based knowledge that establishes a vital link between Father and Son, or between shepherd and sheep. Because Jesus "knows" his sheep, he can declare that He "lays down my life for the sheep." Jesus died so we might live. We are molded into God's people by faith in the Risen and present Savior. A Sunday school teacher asked her class on the Sunday before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter and why it was so important. One little girl spoke up saying: "Easter is when the whole family gets together, and you eat turkey and sing about the pilgrims and all that." "No, that's not it," said the teacher. "I know what Easter is," a second student responded. "Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs." "Nope, that's not it either," replied the teacher. Finally a third student spoke up, "Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb and left for three days." "Ah, thank goodness somebody knows," the teacher thought to herself. But then the student went on: "Then everybody gathers at the tomb and waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter." C. Here's the crux of the matter. Jesus' death proves to we sheep how much He loves us. He loves us enough to die for us. He desperately wants relationship with us, because that is what is best for us. Joy-filled life is only found in a trusting relationship with Jesus Christ, and in a community of like-minded believers who can prop us up when life knocks us down, and by lovingly helping us to heal from the inevitable wounds of life. Jesus' Resurrection proves that He is large and in charge, even over death, and of course over all that life can throw at us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what is best for us. When we stubbornly ignore Him and wander out of the passage, He goes in search for us. We may not even know it. And He may have to allow us to sit on that precipice for a while, until we get weak enough that we realize our own strength in not in our own resources, but only in the Lord. If we are a wandering right now know that the Good Shepherd will bring us back the moment you have given up trying to save ourselves and are willing to let go and let God. So what is the responsibility of sheep? It is to stay close to the Good Shepherd, to learn of His ways in group study and daily devotion, to talk to Him regularly in prayer, and to share in the excitement and joy of worship. We as sheep also need to stay together as the herd, to support each other. And we need to give, of our time, our talent, and our gifts, for surely the more we give the more we receive. We need to be aware that the Devil is prowling around out there, and never rests. We need to flee from temptation whenever it comes. And perhaps most importantly, we need to know that the Good Shepherd is always right there next to us, as close as our very breathing. What a comforting thought, to know that even when we wander away from the Master, He never wanders away from us. Let me close with a story: At one point I mentioned that I used to serve a church in Virginia Beach that had a remarkable ministry to mentally challenged adults. I can't take credit for starting this ministry; it was actually started some years before I arrived by a layperson named Larry Holland. He used to lead a Sunday school class that was very popular. But it didn't stop there. Annually, we held a "Snow Ball" at Christmastime, to give the men and women a chance to dance, socialize, and to feel like someone cared about them. The class started the first resident house in Virginia for functional adults who were employed. And at times, the ministry taught marketable skills to their participants. Larry looked at his students' capabilities rather than their limitations. He got them to play chess, restore furniture and repair electrical appliances. Most important, he taught them to believe in themselves. Young Bobby soon proved how well he had learned that last lesson. One day he brought in a broken toaster to repair. He carried the toaster tucked under one arm, and a half-loaf of bread under the other. That's faith! Fellow sheep, life is best living next to the Good Shepherd. May this be our desire today, and in the days and weeks to come. Amen. Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA 20177 703-344-3569 |