1030am Sunday 5-3-20

Thank you to all of those artists young and adult alike up for sending that in and thank you Miss Rachel and Aurora for leading Us in the story of the Good Shepherd, very creative and I think really fun format. So without any further delay, let's get right into our Gospel reading. I know we're used to seeing seeded many people for the entirety of worship. I want to invite you to kind of begin as as the church to kind of get back into the habit of things. And so wherever you are, I'm going to ask you to stand if you can I ask you are able if you are not able to stand I invite you to of course remain seated for health reasons. If you are able I invite you to stand for the reading of the Holy gospel. This is the good news according to St. John the 10th chapter. Jesus says 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 the Bandit the one who enters by the gate is The Shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own Sheep by name and leads them out when he has brought out all of his own. He goes ahead of them and the Sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. Jesus use this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So we can Jesus said to them very truly. I tell you you are very truly. I tell you I am the gate for the Sheep all who come before me or thieves and bandits, but the Sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate whoever enters by me will be saved and we'll come in and go out to find pasture. The thief the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy I came that. They may have life and have it abundantly. This is the gospel of Our Lord. Biking to be seated Wherever You Are.

Please pray with me.

Chains be broken lives be healed In This Moment Christ be revealed and the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen.

I had a friend of mine who took a trip to Israel and the unique privilege of spending several weeks there and kind of getting to know that a culture the history of the tradition that the places where ancients walked in and Jesus himself did as well by the place where the Sermon on the Mount who is supposed to have happened at the city of Jerusalem the place where Jesus was crucified the Mount of Olives all of the the different and significant places within the Christian story and tradition and and on his way he was he was passing through an area that was very Lush and and he was passing by with his for guide and he was watching a man kind of lead sheet, but he did the man who he presumed to be a Shepherd was with leading the sheep from behind and was doing so in a rather harsh way. He had a kind of a stick that he was hitting the sheep with pretty Hard and he was curious about this my friend turned to his tour guide and he said why is that Shepherd leading the Sheep like that? I always thought that a Shepherd lead the sheep from the front Sr text outline today that the shepherd leads them in the Sheep follow. That was the image that my friend had in his mind and he was kind of baffled and confounded. Why is the shepherd leading in this way and the tour guide turned to my friend and he said that's not the shepherd. That's the butcher. It is a very apt story for our text today about the Good Shepherd because we fear in this story the idea that there are many voices in our lives that that drive us that push us the very few voices if any voice is able to lead us as the Good Shepherd Kim and we make these kind of contracts and we kind of get in the herd. So to speak with those butchers in Our Lives who drive us and you know the kind of driving I'm talking about the kind of drive to exhaustion the kind of drive to toward anxiety the kind of drive toward always trying to be everything else except for yourself because you feel like that's exactly what the world and others want. No, that's not what the world that may be what the world wants but it's not what the world needs because God has created you to live in this world. You are enough and the shepherd does not drive you the shepherd leaves you and calls to you and invites you in a soft but commanding way he has in my life and I know he has in your life as well. But I like so many others have fallen victim to to the voice of the butcher or as Jesus calls them the thieves and the Bandit that the people who come to steal what we have been given by our creator. It is important that we recognize that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and I want to talk about just briefly kind of what that means and I want to go back to our Psalm text that Dorothy read for us today where it talks about Jesus is my shepherd. You know, I think the opening line of the song is really Polly's most important line because Jesus is the Good Shepherd and it's if the Lord is my shepherd then I fear and I I feel as though for myself and others at times we treat Jesus who is Our Shepherd not as my shepherd, but as my consultant the one who I go to for advice, the one that I go to for you no guidance and and nuggets of wisdom that that honestly I can kind of I could take her leave it. It's it's not really all that important and it's important that we recognize that the psalmist is trying to communicate something very important to us. And that is the relational Dynamic of our of our life with Christ with the Good Shepherd that they Christ isn't just a consultant. He's not just a someone who an adviser so to speak as though as a you have the wheel and he's he's the Garmin thing turn left here. Turn right here. Jesus is my shepherd. Which means He gots to hold the wheel of the car he gets to direct the footsteps and create the path and it is our call as the scripture today lays out as these unfold for the disciples what the Good Shepherd is and who he is the demand for you and I the Jesus is the shepherd and he leads and we follow any other formula of that relationship is destined for failure. And so this is the hardest part because for you and I in our Western American mentalities, we don't like to be told what to do. You know I'm talking about and it's it's the the height of hubris to think that we're going to somehow put Jesus in the Navigator seat, but I'm going to sit in the driver's seat in our Christian faith discipleship isn't just some kind of thing you do on Sunday for an hour or online for an hour. It's a daily life. I heard it a pastor say in a sermon one day. Thank God for Monday that we get to carry the identity and the relationship and the power of in this case Our Shepherd that we receive on this holy day on Sunday and we get to carry that into the place of our work into our homes into our neighborhoods at that. We get the privilege and the calling and the responsibility to share to testify to the power of Christ in our lives. Very very clear that Jesus Is Our Shepherd. Jesus is my shepherd and he's not my consultant or my advisor. Or or My Otis Shay or any other term that you can consider. He is the shepherd. He's the one who leads and guides and it's important that we discern and delineate between the shepherd and the butcher. It is. In the military we have a saying and that is lead from the front and in the military army chaplain for the reserves and as as such it is if you try to come in and you try to lead soldiers or lead any organization trying to lead your business. If you try to leave your church, if you try to leave your family if you try to lie to anybody and you're doing so from behind and your scooting them Ford because you yourself I'm afraid you yourself are afraid to step forward first and face the weed and and show that you can you can guide and protect your not going to get very far Jesus knows this and that's why he makes it very clear that he is the shepherd and he goes first that he leads from the front. He's not afraid. Maybe that's wrong. Jesus is afraid we here on the cross that Jesus is afraid of this and In The Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus kind of cries out in his fear and his his his courage is waning but he continues to persist even through it. It is through fear. That leaders are born. For as leader a true leader continues to lead and died and step forward before his own in the face of danger and fear. The butcher doesn't know anything about that. The butcher only sees the Sheep as Expendable as tools to be used for his Prophet The Shepherd sees the Sheep as his own the relational Dynamic here is is Bleak and end and very very clear. We do not serve a butcher. We do not serve a consultant. We do not serve an advisor. We serve a shepherd and it is because he has a Shepherd that I and so many others are willing to serve it is because Jesus has shown himself trustworthy of my life of my money of my time of my effort of my whole self you shown himself worthy in so many different ways and it is the church's responsibility yours and mine today to demonstrate the trustworthiness of that Shepherd relationship today. So wherever we are today, wherever you are, you are invited to live in the relationship with your Shepherd. Get to let the. Voice that that you are following right and and just like the Sheep, right? We we listen for the voice. We can't necessarily see our Shepherd, but we listen for the voice the voice of Peace the voice of Hope the voice of courage and encouragement and we follow and we're invited to invite others into following that same Good Shepherd. Veeam, the the term of the opposite obviously of Christ is is devil is our you want to call that the term fruit for devil is the phrase Diablo and that comes from the ancient languages and its original translation is to throw across another way to define that would be to mix up and it is the shepherd who provides Clarity of Direction. It is a Shepherd who provides Clarity a purpose. It is a Shepherd who provides Clarity on action and behavior on on who we are called to be in this new life with Christ. It is the devil. Be it a man with horns or Spirit or an attitude whatever you wish to find it as that causes us to be mixed up a good friend of mine described described in this way the power of of of this mixing up spirit this confounding confusing chaotic spirit that we all know too. Well, it's as if you go and do a overnight us the devil went into a department store or any store in he went around and you change the price tags on all of the items. And so the next day with the customers come we know the price of everything but we know the value of nothing and it's important that we recognize that the shepherd defines the value of others in a time when we are so divided. As a people as a church as a nation as a world, it is important that we recognize that each one of us retains and holds the value of our creator and the moment that we fail to see the call of the shepherd to see all of the other sheep in his fold who are here and not here because all are part of his hold the moment we start to see them as other than his sheep. As other than his children as other than people who were created by the hand and spirit of a living and loving God is the moment that we fail to see who they truly are and that we begin to see not with the eyes of Our Shepherd. But but with the call and the beckoning in the pushing of the butcher did to see others with suspicion because they're going to get me just like the butcher when we view people Through The Eyes of a Shepherd when we view people through eyes of Grace and love of trust and Hope The kingdom of God becomes a reality Among Us. In this great time. It is important that we recognize that Jesus Is Our Shepherd and that he is shepherding us and invites us to Shepherd others through this difficult time and that brings me to my final point. I want to just kind of skip ahead in Psalm 23 where it says that the shepherd leads me through the darkness lead me through different translations have different terms some say the shadow of death some say Darkness or difficult times, but the really important part of that phrase is the term is the word through that the shepherd does not bring us to those dark times. It's it's very easy sometimes for us to consider and get into the mentality that somehow God is punishing us it somehow because we have bro or so broken or or failed that that is Christ who is lettuce to the Moment of Crisis it is that Christ was led us to this moment of Crisis as a world as a nation as a state as a church.

But it is Christ who is leading us through it because he is the light in the darkness. He is the voice that when the world is so black and we can't see from one time to the next we can't see our financial future. We can't see our physical health. We can't see our our our state or city or communities future. We can't see in this Darkness. But we don't need to necessarily see to trust that there is one who is leading us through it. It was holding our hand was calling out our names and who knows each and every one of our names including your own. And is guiding us and inviting us to travel through this dark time together. We will not stay here for the shepherd does not lead his sheep it to the slaughter and he does not lead them to the darkness to leave them there. He leads us through the darkness. He leads us through the shadow of death and when we come out on the other side, we know that there is one who let us and will continue to lead us through all of the dark times that are to come. The story of the Good Shepherd is is one of my personal favorites and I think it hold a place and a power in our Christian discipleship walk. It holds a place of power even within the secular world the image of a Shepherd who cares for his own who lays down his life for his sheep and the Good Shepherd cross is Christ who has laid down his life for us in the midst of his fear. He continued to walk forward and to lead us. And in the power of that faith and that courage Christ was raised from the dead because he is alive we too shall live on this darkness that we are in at this present age. It will not last for no nothing can last forever except for God and it is Christ who is leading us through it. It is Christ Our Shepherd not our consultant who calls us and beckons us to follow him into this dark time. Do not be fooled by the voices of butchers bite by Voices of those in our society who would call upon you and pray upon you to act in ways that are not in your interest that are not in the interest of your family of your community and of the world Listen to the voice of the shepherd He knows your name and he invites each and every one of us to know his as well and his name is Jesus. Let's pray gracious God. Thank you for today. Thank you for leading us through this time of darkness and challenge. We asked you to help us to listen with intentionality to hear the voice of Our Shepherd of the Good Shepherd calling us and beckoning us to life not only life but life in abundance. Dappy asked you to help us to guide all those away from the butcher's of life from the constant push and pull of the currents that drag us down in our spirit in our body to live life in Freedom, and hope of the pot in the power of the Resurrection. God help us to follow where you lead us. And this time and in every time to know that this darkness is only something we are passing through with you and not something that we are staying in. We pray God that you would lead us and guide us now and forever for in following you we find our true selves and purpose. We put all this in your son's name.