RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - May 3, 2009

“The Real Deal”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
John 10:11-18

If we were to compare all four gospels, we would find that the Gospel of John is different in style and content from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John was the last of the four faith narratives in our Bible to be written, and its author was concerned less about the chronology of events in the life of Jesus and more about making sense of the “why” of Jesus’ life, including the reason for his awful death and the fact of his glorious resurrection.

Throughout his Gospel, the author of John uses a pattern of images to describe Jesus, the one whose love was so great that he would lay down his life for us. These word pictures are the famous “I am” sayings that we find only in John.

Some of the images are abstract, such as “I am the way, the truth, and the life” or “I am the Light of the world.” Others are more concrete and reflect everyday life as early Christians understood it.

“I am the Good Shepherd” is one of the most tangible of these statements. After all, the image of the shepherd was one that reached to the very roots of the Hebraic people.

It was part of their heritage and culture going back to the most ancient stories that told that Abraham, the father of the nation, was a keeper of large flocks when he and his family wandered through Mesopotamia seeking the land God promised them.

And then there was Jacob, two generations later, sly rascal that he was, who deceived his father Isaac on his deathbed with a bit of sheepskin and ran off with the blessing that rightfully belonged to Esau, his twin.

Later, there was Moses who was tending the flocks of his father-in-law when God called him into a special service, and later still David who was a shepherd boy called from the fields to be annointed as the greatest of Israel’s kings.

Sheep and shepherds were an integral part of the Jewish and early Christian psyche, and so the image of Jesus as a shepherd was one that believers could connect with. However, over the centuries the notion of a “good” shepherd was a bit of an oxymoron – and must have caused listeners to stop and take notice.

Nancy R. Blakely puts it this way. "The life of a shepherd was anything but picturesque…Shepherds were rough around the edges, spending time in the fields rather than in polite society. For Jesus to say, 'I am the good shepherd,' would have been an affront to the religious elite and educated. The claim had an edge to it. A modern-day equivalent might be for Jesus to say, 'I am the good migrant worker.'"

The fact was that shepherds were not highly regarded in early Christian society. In fact, Joachim Jeremias notes that only shopkeepers, physicians, butchers, thieves and tax collectors ranked below shepherds on the social scale. Despised as they were and frequently ostracized from the community, shepherds were regarded as more likely to steal from their masters than faithfully care for the sheep.

Peter Haynes points out that “shepherds were furthermore thought of as untrustworthy characters. The oral law of Israel actually forbade the purchase of milk or wool from shepherds for fear they had been pilfered. In Jesus’ day, good fathers didn’t want their sons to go into the trade.” It was a dirty profession and ripe for abuse. So much for the pastoral, bucolic, springtime in the meadow with little lambs frolicking in the sunshine view of the ancient shepherd!

All that being said, no wonder there was a shortage of real shepherds – that is, men who owned and actually watched themselves over their flocks by night.

However, sheep were important to Israel’s economy – for meat, milk, and wool – not to mention the temple sacrifices.

And somebody had to do the rather despicable work of the shepherd, right? That is why so many flock owners outsourced the daily care of their flocks to hirelings.

It is the hirelings that give shepherds a bad reputation. As Jesus mentions, the hirelings (not the shepherd) are the ones who run off when the wolves come. The hirelings are the ones who care more for their own skins than for those of the sheep. One would not expect a hireling to be invested in the flock because watching the sheep is just a job for him. One would not expect a hireling to find the one sheep out of hundred that was lost and bring it back to the fold.

But a shepherd, a real shepherd, a good shepherd, is different, the gospel writer tells us. As Wily Stevens wrote, “The contrast is between the one who is committed for life and the one who is committed for only the moment. The contrast is between the one who is responsible and accountable and the one who can walk away with no responsibility.”

It is like this, the gospel writer tells us. A real shepherd, a good shepherd would not cut his losses and leave the one sheep behind. A real shepherd, a good shepherd would stand in harm’s way to protect his flock because it is his livelihood. A real shepherd, a good shepherd would lay down his life for his sheep.

And so Jesus put out there for his listeners that rather shocking image of himself – but when you think about it, an image that was right up there with his insistence on eating with tax collectors and befriending prostitutes.

“I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus proclaimed. “Trust me. I am the real deal. I am not like the hireling. I will keep the sheep safe in those big stone corrals with the high walls and heavy gates that you see all over these holy lands. I will bring all the sheep into my fold. I will protect the sheep – even if I have to lose my life to do so.

I am the Tender Shepherd. I am the Shepherd of the 23rd Psalm who will lead you beside the still waters and restore your soul, who will lead you to the House of the Lord, where you will reside forever. I am the Good Shepherd. (Jesus said). I am the real deal.”

Those wonderfully comforting images may be enough for some of you to take away on this fourth Sunday after Easter, which is traditionally called Good Shepherd Sunday. However, for those who want to think about this passage a bit more, I would suggest pondering that if Jesus is the Good Shepherd, then presumably that makes all of us the sheep – not a very complimentary label.

Though one may quibble about just where shepherds should be on the social ladder in ancient times, there is not much to dispute when it comes to sheep. They are dumb, and they stink. They are stubborn, but highly susceptible to a herd mentality.

If Jesus is the real deal, then we must be as well. We are the sheep. How humbling is that! We are the real sheep – not the cuddly little frolicking in the meadow in the sunshine lambs.

We are the real sheep – the dumb ones who get lost, who find ourselves hopelessly tangled in a thicket of conflicting values and social norms, who follow the crowd. Despite our wealth and shiny cars, despite our education and good grades, we are the sheep. That is the not-so-good news, I guess. Though we may have a high opinion of ourselves, we are really not first rate.

However, let’s not despair because there is more – much more – than the not-so-good news that we are only sheep. There is something else – good news, really good news - buried in this same passage – and that is this: We are only sheep, and just as Good Shepherd knows the sheep, so deep down inside, the sheep know the shepherd. Deep down inside, the sheep know that voice and will listen.

As Joe Cailles notes, “The good news for us wandering sheep is that Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd. God knows that we need the Good Shepherd to bring us back to the life God knows we want to live. Jesus Christ claims each of us as part of his flock, and if we let him, Jesus Christ will shepherd us every moment of our lives.”

If we know the voice of the shepherd and will listen, then what that says to me is that we have it in us to be all that God wants us to be. We really do. How exciting it that?

We have it in us to risk our lives and reputations for goodness. We have it in us to love like we have never loved before. We have it in us to be the catalysts to change the world and make it look more like God’s kingdom is already here.

We may be only sheep – which, on the one hand, is not saying much – but, on the other hand, because we are only sheep, we are capable of following where the shepherd leads us. That means we – you and I - can be the Good News that Jesus preached and be the hands and feet of the Body of Christ. We have it in us to follow the Good Shepherd, who is the real deal. We are not lost after all. And how comforting is that!?

Sermon - May 3, 2009

“The Real Deal”

By Rev. Nancy Foran John 10:11-18

By Rev. Nancy Foran
John 10:11-18