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Mystic
Congregational Church, UCC Mystic,
Connecticut Sermon
from September 12, 2004 “Of Sheep and
Shepherds” Rev.
Patricia L. Liberty
Scriptures: Jeremiah
4:11-12; 22-28 Psalm
14 1
Timothy 1:12-17 Luke15:1-10 It’s a beloved image from Scripture.
Jesus the kind and tender shepherd, and the sheep lost and in need of
finding. Throughout Scripture there
are images to God and Jesus as the Shepherd, one who lovingly and patiently
cares for the flock, making sure that they are safe and tended. The
23rd Psalm, the MOST recognized Scripture in the entire canon, uses
the image of God as Shepherd. The
Bible I received from the Somersville Congregational Church for my confirmation
had a picture of Jesus with a Shepherd’s crook looking lovingly at a flock of
sheep on a bucolic hillside. Jesus
even describes himself as the Good Shepherd, the one who is known by his own
sheep. I’m
sorry to be the one to break this to you, especially so early in our interim
relationship, but being compared to a sheep is not all that flattering. There are two dominant descriptions of sheep that come to the
fore when these texts are debated. And
in the online sermon preparation chat rooms I frequent the postings were lively
to say the least. On
the one hand, it is said that sheep are stupid.
Dumb as a bag of hammers. And,
there is no way to put this delicately…they smell.
To be truthful, I don’t know about the stupid thing, but I do know
about the smell thing. Throughout
my childhood and young adult hood I showed horses throughout New England.
Inevitably in small town fairs, the horse barn was right next to the
sheep barn. It wasn’t pretty. And
think of what sheep are used for…they are either lamb chops or sweaters.
On
the other hand, it is said that sheep are timid, have poor eyesight and because
of some odd design dimensions they can’t run to save their own hide. They are about as aerodynamic as a watermelon on toothpicks.
So,
our options for being like sheep are either slobbering, smelly stupid creatures
or blind, apprehensive, borderline neurotic oddballs.
Still wanna be a sheep? Maybe…probably…it’s
hard to let go of that image of Jesus as the loving and tender shepherd who
comes after us when we are on the wrong path or when we have wandered off.
Flattering or not, there is something warm and comforting about being
part of Jesus’ carefully tended flock. Like
most stories in Scripture, there is more to it than what we are used to hearing.
In the first verse we are told that Jesus’ audience was filled with
sinners and tax collectors as well as the Scribes and Pharisees.
Sinners and tax collectors are no surprise, as Jesus spent a lot of time
with people no one else would touch with a ten-foot pole.
It’s
the Scribes and Pharisees Luke wants us to notice, as he is careful to note that
they were grumbling and harrumphing at Jesus’ willingness to keep company with
those didn’t reach the lowest rung on the social ladder. It doesn’t seem like such a big deal to us, but at the time
Jewish dietary laws and strict adherence to religious rules were how people
understood what it meant to be faithful. The
Scribes and the Pharisees were the keepers of tradition, the examples that
others were to follow. They
believed that others would be inspired to faithfulness by the strength of their
witness and obedience to what tradition dictated was important. Fred
Craddock writes, …the position of the Scribes and Pharisees “reflects a
warning firmly stated in the Old Testament about associating with evil
persons…they are not alone in the believing that the separation of good and
bad people preserves a community’s sense of righteousness and is essential for
the moral instruction of the young. Jesus’
failure to observe such distinctly seemed to some dangerous to the moral and
religious fiber of the community and disturbingly radical.”¹ It’s
a position most parents are familiar with…what parent doesn’t worry about
their child getting in with “the wrong crowd”.
Perhaps as a parent or a child the words, “if all your friends jumped
off the Brooklyn bridge, would you?” are familiar.
I never quite understood the relevance of that, we lived in Somers, Ct.
and I had no idea where Brooklyn was, let alone whether or not it had a bridge. It’s
hard to be angry at the Scribes and Pharisees, there’s something attractive
about knowing what the rules are, following them and being rewarded.
Who doesn’t like being on the winning team? As for those smelly, silly sheep, well they’ll just have to
be on their own. It all worked
pretty well until Jesus came along. If
we follow along in the text it’s easy to see why they were grumbling about
Jesus and his tendencies to associate with “those people”. Barbara
Brown Taylor says it best, “Then Jesus comes along and starts messing around
with the system, treating sinners like special cases and making them think the
yare as important as other people He
socializes with them, which is as good as condoning their behavior, and thereby
robs them of their motivation to do better.
Why should they buy anything from the Pharisees that Jesus is giving away
for free? All they have to do is
wander off from the flock, pursuing their own whims, and the good shepherd will
go off after them, leaving the ninety-nine to fend for themselves. It is not only bad shepherding it is bad pastoral care.
It is bad theology. IF you
receive sinners and admonish h the righteous, when the system is clearly set up
to work the other way around-then what will happen to the community of faith?
What about the good people? What
about us?² Little
wonder they were upset with Jesus. He
is asking a group of highly educated men to entertain the perspective of an
ordinary shepherd. I think its pretty good news for us as contemporary listeners
as well. No longer do we have to
locate ourselves in the story as either stinky stupid sheep or fastidious
Pharisees…we are asked to consider the perspective of the shepherd. “Jesus
reveals nothing more about the situation surrounding the ‘lost sheep’ than
its disappearance and the shepherd’s decision to ‘leave the ninety-nine’
in order to seek it out. Concerned
interpreters have often volunteered that surely this shepherd must have somehow
secured care and safety for those 99 while he went out searching.
But Jesus’ parable says nothing of the sort. What drives the shepherd
out into the wilderness is a determination, bordering almost on an obsession, to
find and reclaim his lost sheep.³ It
is no longer a story about who’s right and who’s wrong, whose brand of
religiosity is best and who deserves to get on God’s A list.
It’s about the urgency of the gospel.
It’s about believing that there is nothing more important than one
person coming to new life, new faith and deep peace.
It’s about seeing ourselves not as the wandering sheep that get rescued
over and over again, but as the ones who take up the shepherd’s crook and head
out to be part of the great round of up on God’s behalf. This
text reminds us that everyone is welcome in God’s flock, and that God’s
admission criteria are far different from ours.
As Barbara Brown Taylor notes, “It is about trading in our ‘high
standards’ on a strong flashlight and swapping our ‘good examples’ for a
good broom. It is about discovering
the joy finding.”4 Discovering
the joy of finding…being part of the God Squad equipped with brooms and
flashlights, out there searching for those who are searching…for meaning, for
community, for acceptance, for peace, for justice, for food, for housing, for a
way through the pain and sadness of whatever has befallen them… It’s
not about who deserves and who doesn’t. It’s
not about how they got where they are. It’s
not about what we think about them and their life, it’s about what God thinks
about them. And in God’s
household everyone is welcome. It
is the heart of the gospel and the heart of the church’s mission.
In the short time I have been here, one of the things that has impressed
me the most is the number of mission opportunities you all participate in.
From reading to children and purchasing books, to serving at meal sites,
…..the options are numerous. Each
one is an opportunity to be a shepherd, to be part of God’s team out there
working for what is good and just and right and holy.
The
church, every church, this church, does not have a ministry, it IS a ministry.
We ARE a ministry. Every time we offer a plate of food, every time work
to help a family find adequate housing, every time we find ourselves in the
company of those most others won’t go near with a ten foot pole, we plant an
outpost of the kingdom. The kingdom needs more outposts… God
knows we spend enough time being sheep…wandering from the fold, following, as
the prayer of confession from the pilgrim hymnal says
“too much the devices and desire of our own life” and trying to fill
our own emptiness with more and more stuff.
Jesus
is looking for a few Good Shepherds…. the
term of service…forever the
pay…out of this world the
cost…most everything you value… the
hours…long… the
benefits…more than you could ever ask or imagine Jesus
offers another way…step out from the ranks of the sheep and be a shepherd.
Amen. ¹Craddock, Fred: Preaching Through the Christian Year ²Taylor, Barbara Brown; The Preaching Life. Crowley Press 1993, p.50 ³Homiletics: Volume 13, no 5. p.32 4 Ibid
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