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by Reverend Dr. John T. Martin, Jr.
John 10:1-10 Shepherds and their sheep have an interesting relationship that doesn’t come about overnight. It is built over time through living together. At the heart of the relationship is the element of familiarity. The role of the shepherd is to care for the sheep, to protect them from danger, and to lead them into safe pastures where they can find food, romp and play, and breed a new generation. My late uncle, Dick Jolly, was a sheep rancher in Colorado. His father had homesteaded a 12,000-acre tract of land on the western slope near the mountain town of Newcastle. This ranch was really an entire mountain with low meadows by a stream and a high mesa where roamed deer, elk, and an occasional bear and mountain lion. All my growing up years I enjoyed hearing my uncle spin yarns about his “sheep herders.” I always got the impression they were a bit wild and wooly, certainly a breed apart in their unusual life style, living in wilderness places with a large herd of sheep for weeks on end, with little interaction with other human beings. An event that impressed me every spring was when the sheep would be moved from the winter pastures to the summer pastures way up the mountain. It was a trail drive of significant proportions, since my uncle had at least a couple thousand sheep. I can still hear their “baa baaing,” along with the clanking of the bells around some of their necks. There would be ewes with their lambs running along behind, rams keeping an eye on the ewes, and of course the ever present shepherd with his crook and his dogs helping guide the sheep along, occasionally dropping back to pick up stragglers. My uncle’s herd would stop traffic during the drive, and as impatient as motorists could be, everyone knew this was part of the pattern of life in those parts. Truly, it was fascinating to see in spite of the inconvenience. The shepherd always seemed unflappable. He did his job, unconcerned about the traffic building up behind the herd, just moseying along. He knew what his day would be like and a little inconvenience to others probably wouldn’t hurt a thing. That same calm shepherd would face some pretty formidable foes to his sheep in the wilderness. During the night there would be coyotes, wolves, bears and mountain lions out looking for dinner. His job was to be on watch, to protect the sheep, and keep them from stampeding off the side of the mesa. My uncle told tales about these unusual men and the way they lived. They were a hardy lot, mostly loners, weather beaten, and indispensable to sheep ranching. Sheep can be pretty aggravating at times. They are not too smart. A veterinarian friend in Colorado who specializes in sheep says that sheep are just looking for a place to die. In other words, they need a lot of looking after. The Bible is full of stories about sheep. In both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament we learn about the importance of the shepherd. The image of the shepherd is also used throughout the Bible as a metaphor for those called to care for the human flock. One of the more scathing attacks in the Old Testament is found in the book of Ezekiel where false shepherds are called to account by the prophet. In Ezekiel 34 we read, “The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherd of Israel: prophesy, and say to them – to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you shepherd of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.” (Ezekiel 34:1-6) This litany of anguish for the scattered flock spoke to a nation in exile and shows that God is against the shepherd who has cared for himself at the expense of the flock. He says, “I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, so that they may not be food for them.” (v.10) God declares that the sheep will be vulnerable no more because God will care for them: “For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” (vss. 11-16) In the New Testament we find Jesus saying, “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.” (John 10: 14-16) My wife, Marianne, and I were talking the other day about our experiences of caring for the flock, i.e., the particular congregation given to our care at any given time in our ministry. In all we have served seven congregations through the ordained ministry since 1970, though we served several churches prior to that through the ministry of music in New Jersey, Florida, and Colorado. For most of the years of our forty-year marriage we have had the privilege of a flock, whether it be the participants in the music program alone, or entire congregations. We reminisced about the tremendous experiences we have had, the highs and the lows, the successes and the Waterloos, and the wonderful relationships with people. We agreed that we wouldn’t want to have missed any of those experiences, even the painful ones, because through pain there is always growth and healing. An expression we have used many times in describing what it is like to live through challenging times with our churches is that we have learned to “live it out” with our people and to “love them through it” all, whatever that “all” has been. Whatever has come, we have tried our best to love our people, even when some didn’t always seem so loveable. In our ministry we have become convinced that the greatest need of people is to be loved. The role of the shepherd is to love unconditionally. I remember years ago a very difficult charge conference early in our ministry where a few rather disagreeable people tried to change decisions that had been made in committees regarding both budget and nominations to leadership positions. I especially remember a man speaking against the nomination of a fine man to be the church’s lay leader. Some very unkind things were said about this man and his leadership abilities right in front of him. I watched the man carefully to see how he was reacting. He sat there like an angel as he was being verbally clobbered. He would have had every right to get up and walk out or to object to this diatribe against him. But he didn’t. And by the time we were finally able to vote on the matter, two weeks later, he was elected. But the meeting that day had gone so poorly that after two hours of wrangling the District Superintendent adjourned the gathering and told the Administrative Board that he would come back in two weeks in the hope they would then be ready to take care of the church’s business. He was angry when he walked out, declaring that he had never seen such mean-spiritedness. But later, in a calmer moment, he shared his deeper thoughts on the matter. He said to me, “Don’t hate people.” He was saying that we are to love, even when people are difficult, and maybe in time they will change, or maybe we will change. By the way, the ringleader of that small cadre who were opposed to so much that the church was trying to do, was suddenly transferred by his governmental agency to another state. You would not believe the cloud that lifted off of that congregation. They had been so cowed by his assertiveness and narrow views that most of the dear hearts and gentle people had simply stepped back out of the way. They didn’t fight back; they just got quiet. It was wonderful to see these same people step forward again and be the church. They were too gentle and kind to engage in bitter controversy, but clearly, they were hurting because of the way their church had been taken over, and they were so happy to have it back. In this case the shepherd had had a great challenge to love the unlovable, while at the same time trying to protect the flock. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was a turning point in my ministry at that church when I finally was brought to tears in the midst of worship, essentially confessing utter frustration, and I think at that moment they sensed my sincerity in regard to the life of the church and began allowing me to be their minister. It was a catharsis. While certainly not on the same plain with Jesus in his frustration in this regard, I cannot help thinking of Jesus’ passionate remarks upon looking over the city of Jerusalem one day, crying out, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I have longed to gather you, and you would not.” It is the cry of the shepherd for the flock. How Jesus wanted the people of this great city to know his voice, to trust him, to come to him, to allow him to minister to their hearts. Many of course did. Mary Magdalene had become familiar with the voice of the good shepherd. What greater moment of recognition has there ever been than when Mary heard her name on the lips of the risen Savior in the garden near the open tomb? In today’s text we hear Jesus saying, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” Mary knew Jesus’ voice and hearing it on Easter morning was surely the most wonderful moment in her life. She had loved him through it all, and when he had come through death by God’s power she realized that his love for her was more certain than ever. To love “through it all” can apply to almost anything. Certainly to love fellow church members through periods of stressful disagreement or misunderstanding is a sign that Christ’s love dwells within. To love a teenager through adolescent rebellion; to love a friend through a season of misunderstanding; to love your spouse for a lifetime - all these situations have to do with a love that is unconditional. The shepherd loves that way. He leaves the flock to seek the one that is lost. He finds it and carries it home in his arms. We call it agape. It is a love that puts the other person’s welfare ahead of one’s own and always involves the act of giving. One of the great moments of my childhood was being taken by my parents to see a live production of South Pacific, the famous musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Starring in that production were Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin, both of whom were wonderful actors and singers. Many years later Mary Martin was still performing this work, but one night something special happened. Just before this beloved Broadway star stepped onto the stage a note was handed to her from Oscar Hammerstein “who at that moment was on his deathbed. The short note simply said: ‘Dear Mary, A bell’s not a bell till you ring it. A song’s not a song till you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love isn’t love till you give it away.’ After her performance that night many people rushed backstage, crying, ‘Mary, what happened to you out there tonight? We never saw anything like that performance before.’ Blinking back the tears, Mary then read them the note from Hammerstein. Then she said, ‘Tonight, I gave my love away!’” (Hewett, I.L., 322) Shepherds of all descriptions – clergy, Stephen ministers, volunteer caregivers at hospice centers, people who carry flowers to the ill and communion to shut-ins, indeed, all who engage in the act of caring - are in the business of giving their love away, whether to unruly sheep or needy congregations, friends and family or complete strangers. Love that reaches to a neighbor is of this kind and is sometimes expressed in unusual, but effective ways. In this sports minded city as we see the reintroduction of a national baseball team, we can appreciate the wisdom of the following story: “Lee Iacocca once asked legendary football coach Vince Lombardi what it took to make a winning team. The book Iacocca records Lombardi’s answer: ‘There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. Then you come to the third ingredient: if you’re going to play together as a team, you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: If I don’t block that man, Paul is going to get his legs broken. I have to do my job well in order that he can do his.’ (One means of accounting for the tremendous growth of the New Testament church was their oneness, their gladness and singleness of heart. [Acts 2:42-47]) ‘The difference between mediocrity and greatness,’
Lombardi said that night, ‘is the feeling these guys have for each
other.’ Lovingl’em through it all often means finding a way to get through it all, to open a path, to build a bridge, to welcome someone new to the team. Then that person who has been so hard to reach may finally see that you have meant them well, all along, and that they do have a place where they can belong and contribute in positive ways. John Wesley once said to a person with whom he had had some difficulty, “If your heart is with my heart, give me your hand!” Sometimes we hold our heart in our hand and as we reach out that can become a very effective way of mending a breach, healing a wound, restoring a relationship, and building a church.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for the example of the Great Shepherd of the sheep, even Jesus Christ, who came to rescue the wandering from danger and bring us safely home. May we learn from his example how to love unconditionally through all kinds of troubling circumstances to the end that our love may be received as real, trustworthy, and ever directed to our neighbor’s good. Amen.
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