{"id":851,"date":"2018-05-28T12:16:50","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T16:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=851"},"modified":"2018-05-28T12:16:50","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T16:16:50","slug":"easter-5b-the-good-sheep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2018\/05\/28\/easter-5b-the-good-sheep\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter 5B – The Good Sheep"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Good Sheep<\/h1>\n

A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<\/a>
\nby Rev. James Eaton, Pastor
\nFifth Sunday in Easter\/B \u2022 April 29, 2018
\nJohn 10:18-31<\/a><\/h2>\n

In 1973, I was the pastor the Seattle Congregational Church in Washington, almost as far west as you can go in the lower 48 states. But my family was in Michigan, so I\u2019d driven between the two several times. Four days: Michigan to Wisconsin, where I also have family, then a day to Montana, and then a day that is all Montana, finally a day across Idaho and Washington. It\u2019s a long drive and that year I decided to vary it by trying some local roads across the mountains in Wyoming. There was a little road on the map that looked like it would cut a couple hours off the trip and let me connect back up to I-90 in Montana. <\/p>\n

So off I went in my Pinto, a little blue Ford. Up, up the mountain, uncomfortably aware there was no one around. Have you been to that sort of place? Where you feel like if something happened, no one would find you, no one would know for a long, long time? Just as I was thinking that I remember coming around a curve, meadows on both sides, and suddenly seeing like a flowing sea a flock of hundreds of sheep flowing over the road. I braked quickly and sat there, watching as they moved. There was a dog barking but no person, no one at all. And then, as the flock began to thin and I thought to get the car moving again, I saw a horse with a small man slumped in the saddle. He didn\u2019t seem to talk; he didn\u2019t seem to do anything. He just quietly followed the flock. He was the shepherd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the Good Shepherd.\u201d Is there any more famous verse in the whole New Testament? Haven\u2019t we all heard this, seen pictures of Jesus as a shepherd or holding a lamb? \u201cI am the Good Shepherd.\u201d It\u2019s like a sign that says: \u201cok, I already heard this, I can check out now\u201d, isn\u2019t it? Well, let me ask you to come back now if you\u2019re already wondering what\u2019s at coffee hour, because I want to think not only about the Good Shepherd today but about the sheep: you and I, the flock the Good Shepherd gathers and protects. That\u2019s you: that\u2019s me.<\/p>\n

\f\u201cI am the Good Shepherd.\u201d Jesus defines his relationship with us. First, we are not in charge. The sheep do not decide the direction, the sheep do not decide the route. The sheep go where the shepherd directs. And the shepherd cares for the sheep. <\/p>\n

The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away\u2014and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why does the hired hand run away? Because he doesn\u2019t love the sheep. This is the deep heart of our relationship with Jesus. It\u2019s in the scene we read a few weeks ago, where he shows his wounds to Thomas. Even in resurrection, the Lord retains his wounds, is marked by his wounds, wounds he receives on our behalf. Living in the midst of resurrection means living in the presence of the wounded Christ. It is a reminder that every attempt to connect Christ to kings or presidents or nations is a lie. He comes to us wounded, not victorious, and he invites us to come to him with our wounds, imperfect, failing at times, yet still part of his flock by his decision, not our own.<\/p>\n

This mutuality is the mystery of our lives together with the Lord. He says,<\/p>\n

I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christ does not come as an individual but as part of the community we call the Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And his purpose is to bring us into the mutual love, mirror the mutual love, between the Father and Son. And he does this through experience. <\/p>\n

The verb \u201cknow\u201d in the Bible doesn\u2019t mean knowing the way we know someone\u2019s name or how the Mets did at their last game. It really means to experience. It means knowing what an apple tastes like when you bite into it; it means knowing the way we know grief when someone we love dies. It means the knowing that grows between best friends or lovers so that we carry a copy of them in our head and know what they will say even when they aren\u2019t present. <\/p>\n

The mutuality of this knowing, this experience is a present thing. This is the heart of living with the Risen Lord: to say, \u201cChrist is Risen!\u201d, is to say he is in our present, not just our past. I know that a temptation I have is to spend so much time looking at the history of Jesus that I forget the presence of Christ. The resurrection experience is the re-establishment of relationships. That\u2019s what\u2019 happens with Thomas, that\u2019s what happens with Mary. \u2028When Jesus meets Mary, she doesn\u2019t call him by name, she says, \u201cRabouni\u201d, which means \u201cMy teacher\u201d. It\u2019s not just his identity she recognizes: it is her relationship with him, his with her. For us to live as Easter people is to live in the faith he is here, now, not just back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good shepherd. My sheep know me and I know them.\u201d Mutual recognition is the foundation of the flock. Jesus always gathers. His historical ministry begins with gathering disciples. As he walks along, he constantly gathers with others; this is one of the big complaints about him: \u201cHe eats with sinners.\u201d At the table of Jesus, the culture of class and division is destroyed: all are welcome. Gathering is one of his distinctive actions. <\/p>\n

Early Congregationalists recognized this gathering into covenanted community as the foundation of life with Christ. Peter Gomes makes this point about Congregational Churches. Speaking in Scotland to Episcopalians, he once said, <\/p>\n

In New England, the ancient parishes of the seventeenth century in the Congre- gational order are not described as “founded”\u2014if you ever look at an old sev- enteenth-century New England church, the sign will not say, “Founded in 1620,” “Founded in 1636,” “Founded in 1690″\u2014 but use a very strange nomenclature used nowhere else in the church, either in Europe or in this country: it says “Gathered in 1620,” “Gathered in 1640,” “Gathered in 1690,” and there is something very different between being founded and being gathered. The notion is that of sheep being gathered into the sheepfold.
\n[Peter Gomes, Good Shepherd, Good Sheep, April, 2003]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus comes to us: we come to the flock, to church, to be with others who recognize him.
\nAs we do, we should remember: we don\u2019t get to decide who\u2019s in or out of the flock. Jesus says, <\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I remember a story about an Episcopal priest whose church had become a community center, as ours has. Many of the people now filling its rooms were different than the members of the church and some members complained. He replied that he didn\u2019t choose these people; Jesus did. They weren\u2019t who he would have chosen but Jesus had, so what was he to do? They should blame Jesus. When we welcome someone, invite someone, we are acting like the good sheep of Christ\u2019s flock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good shepherd.\u201d If Jesus is the good shepherd, we have to ask: what does it mean for us to be the good sheep?<\/p>\n

First, it means gathering. There is a reason sheep have evolved a strong instinct to flock together. The flock protects them. When Jesus says he is the good shepherd, he also says there are danger out there. I don\u2019t have to enumerate them, nor could I. But in our gathering, we are strengthened, we encourage each other. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think any of us really know how much our presence here means to others. Who came this morning hoping to see you? Who is strengthened by your presence here this morning, your greeting, your prayers? Coming to church is not an individual experience: it is gathering with others and although you may not realize it, your presence helps others. We have a variety of gifts, as Paul says, and when we gather the gifts are shared and make a blessing we also share.<\/p>\n

Second, sheep produce. They are not simply existing on their own, they are a means of making something happen: wool, perhaps meat. In our case, Paul says, <\/p>\n

\u2026the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. [Galatians 5:22f]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our purpose is to bear these fruits, share them with the world. Like the sheep producing wool, we are meant to give something back, our love and joy, our kindness, and so on. Like a voice in a choir, these gifts melt together into God\u2019s song of praise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the good shepherd.\u201d Jesus calls us to gather together as his sheep, following him, not as a revered but dead example but as the living Lord, caring for us. Wherever we have been, whatever we have done, he calls us to follow him forward as members of his flock. Remember what he said to Peter? \u201cNever mind all that\u2014feed my sheep.\u201d That\u2019s us: thats our job. He is the shepherd; we are the flock. May we live in the love and care of the good shepherd, gathered in his flock.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Good Sheep A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor Fifth Sunday in Easter\/B \u2022 April 29, 2018 John 10:18-31 In 1973, I was the pastor the Seattle Congregational Church in Washington, almost as far west as you can go in the lower 48 states. But my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,39,108,3,13,2,130],"tags":[191,192,37,55],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter","category-exegesis","category-scripture","category-sermon","category-theology","category-worship","category-year-b","tag-care","tag-discipleship","tag-sheep","tag-trinity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}