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John 10:1-10 • May 15, 2011

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Lamb of God. Amen.

Throughout scripture, one of the most common images we see is that of God or Jesus as the shepherd and you and I as the sheep. We enjoy this image of God and Jesus. We are the sheep, lost, wandering aimlessly, no sense of direction. God is the shepherd, keeping us in check. Hooking our necks around the crook of his staff and bringing us back to the fold. Jesus is the shepherd with the lost lamb on his shoulders gently caring for it and placing it back into the family of other sheep who know his voice when they hear it. These images remind us that sheep know the voice of their shepherd and know to whom they belong.

The people who first heard these stories and images from scripture understood the relationship of a shepherd and his sheep well. To connect that relationship to God was something that they could understand fairly easily. I’m not so sure that we share that same understanding today.

If I think of the physical presence of a shepherd and sheep in my own life, I can only think of two experiences. And what is probably interesting only to me, is that both of them took place in Logan County.

One happened when I was about 10 years old during the Little Britches Rodeo of the Logan County Fair. I took first place in the sheep riding contest. In this contest we were placed on the back of a sheep that had not yet been sheered. I was told to hang on tight about a half second before the gate to the rodeo arena was opened and the sheep was set free with me grabbing on to its wool and hanging on with every ounce of strength I had. The sheep didn’t respond very gently to the sound of my voice and after a 13 second ride that felt longer than my entire life, I didn’t respond to my voice either or necessarily even know my name as I picked fresh Logan county dirt out of my mouth and from the inside of my pants.

The other experience with shepherds and sheep that I have is not quite as painful or traumatic. One of my uncles was a dairy farmer in Logan County and I will never forget how the Holstein cows would gather at the barn twice a day for milking. Most of the time, all my uncle had to do to get the process started was to go outside the milking barn and whistle a few times or call out to the herd and in they would come – one by one. Somehow they knew what time of day it was and what the sound of his call meant.

Our gospel today says that the sheep follow the shepherd because they know his voice. Today’s gospel is another image of Jesus as shepherd to the sheep, but in our world today – what does that mean? Or maybe more directly, let me ask a question this way – what shepherds do you hear each day and how do you or don’t you follow them? And I say shepherds in the plural sense of the word, because I don’t think any of us hear the voice of just one shepherd if we are truly being honest with ourselves. We are constantly bombarded with shepherds of different religious or political or social or cultural voice that compete for our attention.

Who’s your shepherd?

The average person in the United States today lives in a world of almost limitless possibilities and voices of shepherds to follow. Living in 2011 – we experience and process more information in one day than someone living in Jesus day would have experienced and processed in their entire lifetime! The digital world in which we live today is a tremendous gift in many ways, but it can also overwhelm and consume us as we try to remember which voice of which shepherd is the voice that we should follow.

Which shepherd truly knows my name?

We follow shepherds that say we need to walk through these seven steps and then we will experience financial wealth and happiness beyond our wildest imagination. You and I follow that shepherd and wind up feeling worse about ourselves and more financially strapped than we’ve ever felt before. We follow shepherds offering the ultimate healthy lifestyle and exercise program that will guarantee a long and healthy life. You and I follow that shepherd only to find ourselves hearing the devastating diagnosis of terminal cancer.

I’m not saying that being financially responsible, or trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, or being happy are bad things. I do believe that these are things that God does want for us, but God as our shepherd is not about a rodeo, or a multi step miraculous program to happiness and financial wealth, or a special exercise plan. God as our shepherd does not remove us from this world or away from any responsibility on our part to engage others. God as our shepherd calls us deeply into relationship with each other, into relationship with the world around us, and into relationship with a savior named Jesus who says in verse 10 of our gospel today that he came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.

False shepherds will never fill our deepest needs that lead to an abundant life. Their interest is meeting only their needs.

Jesus is the only shepherd that has our every need in front of him. The love that this shepherd extends to you and me, his sheep, on the cross was not given to meet his needs, but ours. Our need for forgiveness and freedom from sin. Our need for hope and assurance that we hear and receive in the good news of God’s word. Our need for nourishment and renewal in body and blood shared in the bread and wine of a holy meal at the Lord’s Table. Our need for victory over anything death seeks to destroy.

Jesus is the shepherd who leads us into the world and goes before us, in front of us, leading the way and meeting our need in everything, and I mean everything – yesterday, today, and in every tomorrow. Our relationship with this shepherd is that important to God.

We live in a time and place when it is easier than ever before to stay connected to important relationships in our lives. Smart phones and text messaging, e-mail and the internet, Facebook and Twitter. Brothers and sisters in Christ, there is not one of those connections or relationships or pieces of technology that will ever compare to the intimacy and depth of relationship that we are given as a gift from God in Jesus Christ our shepherd and savior. Jesus as shepherd and savior comes to us in love.

This love has an effect on us – it calls us and pushes us and draws us out of ourselves and our own worlds and away from every false shepherd that seeks to overpower us with false promises. Jesus the shepherd and savior opens every gate that we close or try to keep closed.

May you remember this week as you walk through the hills and valleys and gates of life that Jesus is your shepherd and savior who came to open all of your gates and who walks with you on every path you will travel when you leave worship today. Amen.

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John 20:19-31 • May 1, 2011

Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Walk with me through a few elements of worship that I think many of you will quickly know the response to.

Here we go –

The Lord be with you. And also with you.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And also with you.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.
Go in peace to serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
And here is the one that I think is the most difficult one of all.

Are you ready for it? The peace of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all. And also with you.

Thank you and very good. And yes I did in fact say that the last one was the most difficult one of all. Don’t blow me off or tune me out yet, give me a little time to unpack that thought today.
It is sometimes easier for us to just move through worship and even though you may be physically present, you are far from actually being present. We offer responses during worship like “and also with you” or “hear our prayer” and fail to even remotely engage with what we are doing or saying. If you’ve ever felt like that, I’m glad. And I want you to know that you’re not alone in that feeling – I can think of a few times when I’ve been there myself.

Jesus offers the greeting, “Peace be with you,” three times in today’s gospel reading. On one level, this was a common greeting in Jesus’ day. Similar to us saying “hello” or “sup” to someone today. But it struck me in a new way today. I think his greeting here is much more significant that simply saying, “Hi guys. What’cha doin’?”

Jesus talks about peace at other times in John’s gospel. In chapter 14, verse 27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” In chapter 16, verse 33 Jesus says, “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

So I do not believe that Jesus’ greeting in our gospel reading today is just a simple greeting of “hello” and I am more convinced than ever before that our sharing of the peace in worship each week is WAY more than simply saying “hi” to one another or “good morning, it’s nice to see you.”

I’ve been privileged over the past few years to be invited into conversations, planning, and teaching in various settings regarding worship in the ELCA and the ways in which local congregations engage in worship each week. I think the work being done across the ELCA provides congregation’s like ours with valuable insights into worship rituals like sharing of the peace.

Listen to these insights – “The peace is a transitional point in the service standing between the proclamation of the word and the sharing of the Lord’s Supper.” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship Leaders’ Desk Edition, pg. 21)

Sharing God’s peace is not simply offering a friendly hello to those sitting around you. Sharing God’s peace is not a time for catching up on news with your neighbor or for reminding someone about an upcoming meeting.

Sharing God’s peace with one another is an act of reconciliation. It is an opportunity for God’s people to be reconciled with one another. It is a time to set aside our human differences and to recognize and enact our baptismal unity as children of God.

Insights like this are why Jesus’ words of peace can be so powerful for us today. And they are even more powerful when heard in the midst of Jesus’ statement to the disciples in verse 23. In that verse Jesus says to the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

In the book Wounded Lord: Reading John Through the Eyes of Thomas, theologian Robert Smith writes, “In this final narrative in the body of his gospel, the evangelist (the writer of the Gospel of John) declares that the resurrected Jesus continues to be the crucified Jesus. The Easter Jesus still bears in hands and side the marks of his cruel wounding. His hands and side have not healed. Indeed the wounds will never go away. The Thomas story announces that the universe is upheld in wounded hands of unimaginably deep love and compassion.

Thomas’ final words are his confession: ‘My Lord and my God.’ It is too easily overlooked that Thomas addresses these words to the One who displays not just living hands and side or solid hands and side but wounded hands and side. Through this narrative of Thomas, the evangelist is sharing his own faith that he will not confess as Lord and God any figure, no matter how marvelous or mighty, who lacks wounds.

The crucified and resurrected Jesus is Lord and God. He is God in God’s turning to the world. He is in the Father and the Father is in him. (10:38) Whoever has seen and heard the Son with his wounds has seen and heard ‘the Father’ (14:9).

Jesus comments on Thomas’ confession and proceeds by pronouncing ‘Blessed’ all those in future generations who will come to share the faith of Thomas without the benefit of laying hands or eyes upon Jesus. Blessed are those who will come to faith simply on the basis of the story about Jesus.” (pg. 191)

The story about Jesus that we celebrate in worship extends peace from God to far more than a morning greeting. The story about Jesus forgives all sin. The story about Jesus brings restoration and healing to all relationships. The story about Jesus does not ignore the wounds we carry or the wounds we have caused others to receive. The story about Jesus is given to you and me in love, as a gift, that you and I receive each and every time we hear the words, “Peace be with you.”

Exchanging peace with each other gathers us together as a community of faith not limited by which worship service we attend or which church we belong to or what style of music we think is best. Exchanging the peace with each other unites us in the grace and love of God as brothers and sisters that is not the result of how good of student you were in school, how much money you make, or which political party you think is best.
 
Our challenge from Jesus today is the same as it was for his disciples just a few days after the resurrection. As the community of faith called Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, we are gathered in worship on this day in the name of the risen Jesus Christ, wounds and all. We are called and sent to live in the gift that Christ’s peace offers you and me not only today, but every day.

The peace of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all. And also with you.

Thank you.

Let’s continue and in many ways begin our journey of peace together by standing and offering a greeting of Christ’s peace to brothers and sisters in Christ who are gathered around you.