"What If?" (sermon)

July 29, 2018
Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
(This version recorded at Westfield United Church)

Scripture:  John 6:1-14 

This week I decided to record my sermon (audio only) - after all, a sermon is an auditory event rather than a written script.  So sit back, turn your sound on, and here goes!

 

"A Bouquet of Memories" (Sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

July 15 (Westfield and Long Reach) and July 22 (Bayswater-Summerville)

Scripture Readings:  Matthew 6:25-33 and Romans 6:3-9

(For more background on the Flower Service, please see last week's post.)

Today is the annual Flower Service in the middle of July, so what better time to talk about one of my favourite Christmas movies!  The one that I’m thinking of is The Muppet Christmas Carol.  If you haven’t seen it before, I highly recommend it – you could wait until December, or you could watch it now in the middle of the summer.  But even if you haven’t seen this particular adaptation of Charles Dickens’ book, there’s a good chance that you are familiar with the story.

It’s the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, and as the story unfolds we see how a lonely little boy ends up growing up and living a life that is focused on only one thing – making more money.  He studies hard so that he can get a good job; when he has a good job, he works harder to earn more money; but as he earns more money it is never enough and he always craves more and more.  His single-mindedness ends up pushing away any sort of love or companionship.  He pushes away the other students who try to be friendly with him at school.  He meets and falls in love with a young woman named Belle, but his quest for money ends up pushing her away too.  His nephew Fred tries to draw him in to the family circle, but again Ebenezer’s quest for money pushes his family away.  His employee, Bob Cratchit (played by Kermit the Frog in this version) tries to act with love towards Ebenezer despite his miserable working conditions, but he gets pushed away too.

And so here you have Ebenezer, rich in money (which he could use to buy himself nice clothes or good food though he chooses not to spend it); but he very poor in love and very lonely.  The story of Ebenezer’s life to this point is a heart-breaking tragedy.

And that is where I see the connection to this morning’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel.  Jesus asks, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

This passage is found in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount – chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Matthew’s gospel – and all through this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is presenting an alternative world-view to his listeners.  In the passage that we read today, Jesus contrasts the Scrooge world-view – the constant worry about acquiring more and more; more food, more drink, more clothing – with God’s world-view of trust and love.

Jesus uses images that fit well with this time of year in New Brunswick – birds of the air and flowers of the field.  These are parts of creation that can’t live by the Scrooge world-view.  They live in partnership with God, not worrying about the future.

But this analogy breaks down at a certain point.  The flowers out in the field, no matter how mild the winter, won’t survive past a single season.  These beautiful flowers that were cut for our flower service, even if we take exquisite care of the bouquet, won’t last beyond a week or so.  The flowers live a vibrant life, but it is short and then it is over.

But we aren’t flowers; and this is where I turn to our reading from Romans.  In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul reminds us that we have an eternal source of hope – a source of hope with no limits; a source of hope with no ending; a source of hope that is greater than we could ever imagine.  Jesus Christ is our eternal source of hope.

Baptism is one of God’s gifts to us – a gift that is freely given.  And, as Paul writes, in our baptism we are united with Christ.  We are welcomed in to the family of the church which is the Body of Christ.  We are invited to join with the life and work of that body – to be Christ’s hands and feet and eyes and ears and heart in the world.  Paul goes on to write though, that we are also united with Christ in his death.  But the good news is that even when Jesus died on the cross and it seemed as though the world had won, the story didn’t end there.  Jesus’ death includes his resurrection; and so when we join with the Body of Christ in death, we also are invited to join the Body of Christ in resurrection.  And this is our eternal, endless source of hope.

We can see hints of God’s resurrection message throughout all of creation.  The flower of the field may die, but they leave behind seeds that will grow into flowers next summer.  The birds of the air lay eggs that will hatch and grow into the next generation.  Even in the middle of winter when the ground seems dead and frozen, there is life in the leafless trees that will spring forth to new life in only a few months.

We even see hints of God’s resurrection message in The Muppet Christmas Carol, when Ebenezer realizes that he is living a much more limited life than he could be; and he is resurrected from the graveyard of Christmas Yet to Come into a new life of love and generosity.

At this flower service, we gather each year to remember our loved ones who have died.  We remember those whom we love who are buried outside in this cemetery; but we also remember those whom we love who are buried far away from here. We remember our family members; we remember our friends; we remember those who are known to the world; we remember those whose names we carry close to our hearts.  We remember parents and siblings and children and spouses; we remember aunts and uncles and cousins; we remember babies who died at or before birth, and we remember people who lived for more than 100 years; we remember members of our church family and members of the wider community.  It’s amazing to think of how many memories we are carrying together in this room.

We remember our loved ones with these flowers, whose beauty represents the vibrancy of the lives that were lived, no matter how long or how short; but we also remember God’s promise of resurrection so that even in death we can be confident in new life.  Just as the flowers growing in a field hold the seeds to new life; our lives hold the seeds to our new life through Jesus Christ.  As we live, the seeds that were planted in us by a God who knew us before we were born, are tended and nurtured by the Holy Spirit as we move ever forwards to this new life in Christ.

And so today, we remember our loved ones who came before us; we celebrate the new life that they and we receive in Christ; and we look forward to a day when the whole earth is made new.

Thanks be to God!

(The Bouquet of Memories we built at Bayswater-Summerville United Church.

 Somewhere in the middle of this bouquet is a poppy in memory of Mum.)

Flower Service

Yesterday I did a thing.  It wasn't a thing that they teach us in seminary - in fact, it was the sort of thing that they teach you not to do in seminary.  In my third Sunday at my first call, I messed with a beloved tradition.

The churches here have an annual "Flower Service" which is probably best described as a cross between a Memorial Service and All Saint's Day.  At the two smaller churches, this service is second in importance only to Christmas in the liturgical year.  (It is a newer tradition at the big church, but one that has been enthusiastically adopted.)  We remember everyone in the church who has died in the past year (or who has been buried in the cemetery) as we build a "bouquet of memories" at the front of the church after the sermon.  In previous years, this has been done by having a bunch of flowers added to the bouquet for each name that we are remembering, and then by adding a bunch of flowers to represent the different generic groups of people that we are remembering - mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, neighbours etc.

My one concern with this though, is that no matter how comprehensive the list of groups that we are remembering, someone is going to get missed.  And so instead, I invited everyone in the congregation to participate in building the bouquet, adding flowers to represent the people that they themselves are remembering.  This involved people getting up from their pews and moving forward to place their flowers in the bouquet.

And it was a holy moment.  At the service at the first church, I was one of three people accepting flowers and adding them to the bouquet, and when we compared notes after the service, all of us found that some people were sharing with us the name of the person that they were remembering.  Sometimes different generations of the same family came forward together to offer flowers.  Sometimes the flowers were offered with smiles; and sometimes the flowers were offered with tears.

And the feedback that I heard after the service reflected my reason for modifying the tradition.  People felt more personally connected with the service and with the remembering; and people told me that they thought about people whom they hadn't thought about in a long time.

I was a bit nervous before the service - not lie-awake-unable-to-sleep nervousness; more like I-hope-that-I'm-not-breaking-trust-with-these-people-I'm-already-learning-to-love nervousness.  But it worked out well.  And we agreed after the services - at least those with whom I shared my nervousness - that a tradition that can't be messed with is a dead tradition; and changing things up for a good reason (and not only for the sake of change) is a living tradition.

The life-giving Holy Spirit was moving in these churches yesterday.

(I will be sharing my Flower Service sermon next week, after the Flower Service at the third church.)

Some of the flowers made their way to my office after the service

"Power in Weakness" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

July 8, 2018

Reading:  2 Corinthians 12:2-10

So confession time… I’m not much of a sports fan.  Sure I will cheer on the Habs when they’re playing, but I won’t go out of my way to watch football or baseball.  But I do enjoy a good soccer match, so these days I’ve been following the FIFA World Cup which is happening in Russia – the semi-finals are this week, with the finals happening next weekend!

So in honour of the World Cup, I want to try a little game that I’ve entitled, “Sport Slogan / Not a Sports Slogan.”  The way that this will work is that I will give you a phrase, and I want you to try and figure out if it’s a Sports Slogan or if it’s Not a Sports Slogan.

Ready?  Let’s start with an easy one:

“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”

Sports Slogan or Not a Sports Slogan?

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Sports Slogan or Not a Sports Slogan?

“Power is made perfect in weakness.”

Sports Slogan or Not a Sports Slogan?

“Faster.  Higher.  Stronger”

Sports Slogan or Not a Sports Slogan?

“For whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Sports Slogan or Not a Sports Slogan?

“I will not boast except of my weakness.”

Sports Slogan or Not a Sports Slogan?

So you might have guessed where I’m going with this.  Some of the things that Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthian church are the opposite of the things that athletes and sports teams work for every day.  And if you think about it, the things that Paul was writing to the church in Corinth are the opposite of the message that we get from the world every day.

Every day the world determines our value by how much we have achieved or succeeded.  Think of who becomes famous – who the world worships.  Athletes who win become famous; politicians in power become famous; movie stars become famous – but only as long as they are acting in successful films.

So living in a world that worships and celebrates fame and power and wealth and success, how can we hear these words of Paul when he tells us that “I will not boast except of my weakness,” or “power is made perfect in weakness” or “whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Now you might think that things were different back in Paul’s day almost 2000 years ago – the world was a less busy place, there was none of this modern pressure to succeed.  But if you look closely at the city of Corinth – the city where the church was that Paul was writing to – you will actually find a lot of similarities between that culture and our culture.

Corinth was located in what is modern-day country of Greece.  It had deep roots in the ancient Greek culture, but at the time when Paul was writing, it was a modern Roman city.  The old city had been destroyed by the Roman Army – razed to the ground – about 200 years previously; but then re-built by the Romans about 100 years later.  By the time that Paul was writing to the church there, it had a population of over 200,000 people, and it was a major point of trade, commerce, and manufacturing.  There was a big discrepancy between the small group of rich and elite, and the much larger group of people living in poverty.  And there were stories of people who managed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, so to speak; but there were also stories of people who tumbled in disgrace from positions of wealth and power.

Now in addition to being a busy and bustling city, every two years the city of Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games – a big event where people competed in sporting and artistic activities.  In terms of importance, these were second only to the Ancient Olympic Games held west and slightly south of Corinth in Olympia.  At the Isthmian Games, winners were celebrated with poetic odes and statues and money – they were the celebrities of their day.

Now the early church in the city of Corinth that Paul was writing to was more like a network of house churches.  The church would meet in the homes of wealthier members of the community, and their friends – the other elite members – would be invited to join them early to share in a meal and to get the best seats before worship began, leaving the poorer members of the community sitting out in the courtyard.  The class divisions, and the celebration of wealth and power that you saw in the city as a whole were reflected in the church.

And to this group of people, Paul dared to write, “Power is made perfect in weakness … whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”  These words were likely heard in ancient Corinth in the same way that we hear them today – that’s crazy-talk!  How can we get ahead by being weak?!

But then you have to look at the one whom Paul worshipped, the one who was worshipped by the early church in Corinth, the one whom we worship today – Jesus Christ.

We worship a God who found power in weakness.  In the story that we re-member every year on Good Friday, when God-in-Jesus was brought before Pilate and before Herod, Jesus didn’t respond with flowery speeches or great feats of oration.  Instead he replied with the power of silence; the power of weakness.  When God-in-Jesus was tortured and nailed to the cross, Jesus didn’t reply by throwing lightning bolts at his tormentors or by blasting the cross into splinters.  Instead he replied with the power of vulnerability; the power of weakness.

The God that we worship is a God who embraces vulnerability; who embraces weakness.  I receive a daily meditation by e-mail from Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr, and one of his e-mails this week expressed this very well.  Rohr wrote, “We worship this naked, homeless, bleeding loser, crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem.”  But Rohr continues.  He writes, “We worship this naked, homeless, bleeding loser, crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem … but we want to be winners.”[1]

And I think that this might be the key to Paul’s message to the church in Corinth, and to us today.  Even though the world tells us that we must be winners, we must always be better (after all, just look at all of the self-improvement books in every bookstore); and that it is only by doing our best and trying harder pursuing strength and power and wealth – even though this is the message that the world bombards us with every day, we don’t need to listen to the world.  We follow a different path.  We follow a path where we don’t have to be strong or powerful.

Instead, God invites us to let go of our vain attempts at strength or power.  God invites us to embrace our weakness – to acknowledge the fact that, next to God, we really have nothing.  And by letting go of all of this baggage, we open up space for God.

We don’t have to be “all that” – we have God instead.  Paul had to go through this process too.  He asked God to take away his weakness – what he referred to as a thorn in his flesh – but eventually he had to embrace his weakness, he had to accept that this unnamed weakness wasn’t going anywhere, and he had to hear God when God said, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

The church is a place where we can acknowledge our vulnerabilities – a place where we can acknowledge our human-ness – a place where we don’t have to be perfect – a place where we can be vulnerable together before God.  And there, in our weakness, in our human-ness, God’s power is made perfect.

---

[1] https://cac.org/changing-sides-2018-07-04/

"Silver Jug - Isthmian Games"
CC-BY-2.5 © Marie-Lan Nguyen

What sort of power are we chasing after?

Pre-Ordination "Address"

On Sunday May 27, 2018, I was ordained to the ministry of Word, Sacrament, and Pastoral Care in the United Church of Canada at the annual meeting of the Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.  The United Church of Canada has a bottom-up approach to polity and governance; therefore the final vote (and therefore the final accountability) for my ordination, after all of the interviews and paperwork were complete, came from the delegates, clergy and lay, at this meeting.

In this Conference, before the vote is taken, each candidate is invited to address the meeting.  We were given very few guidelines:  "Please keep your speech to 4-5 minutes.  If you wish, you may incorporate the theme of the meeting, 'Remembering, Celebrating, Imagining.'  If you wish, you may speak about what excites you about entering ministry at this time in the United Church of Canada."

And so, on the Friday morning of the meeting, three of us addressed the gathered delegates, and shortly thereafter they voted to ordain the three of us.  What follows is the script of (approximately) what I said in my 4-5 minutes as I addressed the annual meeting in a time when our denomination is facing some significant structural changes.

Friday May 25, 2018

Annual Meeting of the Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario

University Centre, University of Manitoba

I have to confess that it is a bit surreal to be standing here, at this time and in this place, addressing what will likely be the final annual meeting of the Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.  Over this weekend, we are remembering who we have been in the past, celebrating what we have done and what we continue to do, and imagining who God is calling us to be as we move in to the future.

I also have to confess that I feel a bit of sadness at the ending of our Presbyteries and Conference, as I carry with me many fond memories of time spent in meetings, building relationships with one another as we did the work of being the Body of Christ in our world.  And yet mixed with the sadness, there is also excitement as we move towards who we will be as the Body of Christ in our time and our place.

The story of our faith is not a static story – it is one of constant change.  God’s people left slavery in Egypt for the unknown in the desert; they then left the desert-time where God had provided for them in very tangible ways and crossed the Jordan River into a new land; God’s people left their homes for exile; and two generations later they left the land of exile to return to a land that none of them had known.  And then in the fullness of time, God did yet another new thing and the Word became Flesh; and God became present in the world in a new way, calling people to leave behind their nets and follow God in a new way.

Though the place and the circumstances were always changing, one thing stayed the same – the God who had been with the people in the past was still with them in the new thing.

Our personal lives too tend towards change.  The last time I was able to attend the annual meeting of the Conference of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario was in 2014 in Swan River – at the time, I was living in Thunder Bay and working as a physiotherapist.  Since then, I have moved to Halifax where I completed my Master of Divinity at the Atlantic School of Theology; then moved across the country to the town of Chetwynd in the Peace Region of BC for my Internship, and now I am on the move again, headed to Two Rivers Pastoral Charge in New Brunswick.

Our denomination too is changing.  We are changing the way we have organized ourselves as the church – structures that we have collectively known for the past 93 years will be no more.  Right now, we are in a liminal time, an in-between time, on the threshold of something new that we don’t quite know yet.

But what I do know is that the same God who has been with us and who had guided us in the past, is still with us as we are in this in-between time, and will still be with us as we step into the future.  As the church, we listen for the Holy Spirit; and as we move into the future, we can continue to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into the Body of Christ so that we can do God’s work in the time and place where we find ourselves.

And so, despite my sadness at what might be lost as we move forward, and perhaps a little bit of trepidation with all of the changes, I am excited to be called to ministry with the United Church of Canada in this threshold moment of time.  I am excited to see where God is calling us as we move forward, and what new things we are being called to.  I am excited to minister with the church, to listen for the Spirit, and follow where the Spirit is calling us to go.

And so let us always remember that

"God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God!" [1]

---

[1] The United Church of Canada, “A New Creed,” https://www.united-church.ca/community-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/new-creed

 

 

 (Three New Ministers in the United Church of Canada:

Kate Jones, Don Sellsted, Patrick Woodbeck)

"New Beginnings" (sermon)

Chetwynd Shared Ministry

April 29, 2018

Scripture:  Acts 8:26-40

I’ve spent some time thinking back this week, on my first Sunday here at Chetwynd Shared Ministry 8 months ago.  I remember standing right here on the first Sunday in September, only knowing a handful of your names, and only knowing a few bits and pieces of the story of Chetwynd Shared Ministry.  I think that I confessed to you how nervous I was – nervous that you might not like my style of preaching; nervous about whether the Holy Spirit would give me words to preach week after week; nervous because what an awesome responsibility it to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.

And here we are, 8 months later.  Fortunately the Holy Spirit showed up most weeks to give me the words to string together into a sermon.  We have shared countless cups and pots of tea and coffee in the hall here at the church, in your homes, and in various restaurants around town.  I have felt honoured to be invited into your lives for this short period of time; and it has been a privilege to be entrusted with your stories.  We have laughed together, cried together, encouraged one another, learned from each other, and helped one another out.  We have broken bread together as companions on this journey; and now we have come to the end of this stage of the journey.

I was glad when I saw the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that is assigned to this Sunday – the story of Philip and the nameless Ethiopian eunuch.  This is the story about two people who are brought together for a specific purpose, for a specific period of time.  Both of them were changed by the encounter; and after journeying together for a certain period, they parted ways, each to continue in their assigned ministry in their own location.

Now Philip is an interesting character.  His primary calling was as a Deacon – a ministry of service – of feeding the poor and serving the community of disciples.  But God knew that he was the one who was needed to preach to the Ethiopian eunuch.  And so God sent a messenger, an angel, to Philip, telling him where to go.  Now fortunately Philip listened to the message he was given, and he headed south from Jerusalem.  He got up and went, as the reading tells us.

Now when Philip arrived at the appointed place, there was a carriage traveling along – a carriage from the Ethiopian court, carrying the official who was in charge of the entire Ethiopian treasury.  In modern terms, here is one of the top cabinet ministers in the Ethiopian government.  And what does Philip do?  He runs up along side the carriage, and starts up a conversation.

When I try to imagine the scene, I usually end up somewhere close to laughter.  Here is the fancy carriage, with the high-up official; and alongside it, Philip is running – the street preacher from the back country.

And yet, despite the obvious difference in status, the Ethiopian court official invites Philip to join him in the carriage.  Then as they travel along, Philip tells the Ethiopian about the good news of Jesus Christ, who was crucified and then rose from the dead.  The Ethiopian comes to believe in, to put his trust in Jesus Christ; and he asks to be baptized.  And there, in a small pool of water in the middle of the desert wilderness, Philip baptizes the Ethiopian, and he is reborn in Jesus Christ.

And if you were to look closely, you would see that both of them were changed by the encounter.  The Ethiopian’s conversion experience is maybe more obvious.  He comes to find new life in Jesus Christ through his baptism.  But you might need to look deeper to see how Philip is changed.  In the world in which Philip lived, a eunuch was someone who would normally be excluded from worshipping God.  Because of the genital mutilation, a eunuch couldn’t be a part of the covenant that was marked by circumcision; and a eunuch was not allowed to worship with the others.

And yet Philip was able to see this man’s faith.  Philip was able to see how this man, who, in Philip’s world view should have been excluded from faith, was actually in possession of a very deep faith.  And so when the eunuch asked Philip to baptize him, they both went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.  Philip’s understanding of God’s love, and who was included in God’s love was expanded that day there in the wilderness.

Now I see a very strong connection between this story, and our time journeying together here at Chetwynd Shared Ministry.  I do believe that the Holy Spirit acts through our denominations and meetings and committees; and so I believe that the Holy Spirit was acting at the meeting last June when I was matched up with Chetwynd Shared Ministry for this 8-month internship.  God knew that we needed to be brought together for this specific period of time, and for a specific purpose – namely for me to learn about how to be a Minister, and to provide leadership for the ministry of Chetwynd Shared Ministry.

Now I can’t speak for all of you, but I know that I have been changed by this encounter.  I have learned what it means for a church to really BE the church – holding each other up, and making Christ present here in Chetwynd.  I have learned what it is, not just to do ministry but to BE a Minister.  I have been changed and transformed by all of the worship services, celebrations, and study sessions that we have shared together; and I have been changed by conversations with the Lay Supervision Team, and with Marilyn, my supervisor.  And I hope and I pray that some of you might have experienced some sort of transformation too, in our time together.

But then we come to the end of the story from Acts that we read this morning.  We read that “when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.  But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing trough the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.”

Even though it had been a very powerful and transformative interaction, these two didn’t stay together.  They each went their own way, and continued their ministry where they found themselves.

Now I don’t think that the Spirit of the Lord is going to snatch me away on Tuesday, the day after my internship here is over.  I fully expect to have to drive all the way across Canada again, over many days.  But our time together here has come to an end.  I am going to be leaving, and I will be continuing my ministry with the people of Two Rivers Pastoral Charge in New Brunswick; but I will take comfort in knowing that you all will be continuing your ministry as Chetwynd Shared Ministry.  You will continue to be a part of the Body of Christ, continuing with God’s mission right here.

And we can all take comfort in knowing that wherever we are, and whatever our ministry looks like, God is with us.  God is always guiding us, and always transforming us, through the Holy Spirit, into the image and likeness of Christ.  And so let us, like the Ethiopian Eunuch, go on our way rejoicing!

“God is with us.

We are not alone.

Thanks be to God.”[1]

Let us pray:

God of all times and all places,

            and of this time and this place;

We know that you are present in our beginnings,

            and in our endings,

            and in our new beginnings.

Help us to celebrate this period of time that we have shared

            as we have journeyed together;

and comfort us by knowing that you are present,

            and that we can continue to be your people

                        in this moment of new beginnings.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ,

            in whose resurrection we find our hope

for all new beginnings.

Amen.

---

[1] “A New Creed,” The United Church of Canada, http://www.united-church.ca/community-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/new-creed.

(The Stained Glass door in the church building - a witness to the

mission of Chetwynd Shared Ministry in this community.)

"Shepherd and Sheep" (sermon)

Chetwynd Shared Ministry
April 22, 2018
Scriptures:  John 10:11-18 and Psalm 23


So in listening to this morning’s readings and songs and prayers, you may have noticed a bit of a theme running through them.  The fourth Sunday of the season of Easter is traditionally recognized as “Good Shepherd Sunday” and that is the focus of the readings assigned to today.

But if I’m being completely honest with you, the image or metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is not one of my favourites.  Please don’t hate me if it is one that you love!  I know a lot of people love the idea of a Good Shepherd and find comfort in the idea of a shepherd; and there are loads of churches that are named Good Shepherd Church.  It’s just an image that I have trouble getting in to, possibly because the image of the Good Shepherd has been so sentimentalized by the church over the centuries that the metaphor has lost its power for me.

But I wonder what Jesus might have been trying to say when he said that he is the Good Shepherd?

What image comes in to your mind when you think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd?  I know for me, the image that pops up first is the picture that decorates the wall of Sunday School rooms across the country – you know the one.  Pretty Jesus wearing a robe of white or blue, light brown or blonde hair, blue eyes, surrounded by clean fluffy white sheep.  Maybe he is cradling a lamb in his arms, or maybe he has a lamb draped over his shoulders.  It is a peaceful, pastoral scene.

The thing is though, it isn’t historically accurate.  In Jesus’ world, shepherds were people who lived on the margins of society.  They lived far away from people or towns, and often far away from their families.  They didn’t have the social graces that would allow them to fit in to polite society.  They were out, exposed to the elements, fighting off danger, likely sunburnt, wind-blown, and dirty.  They smelled like the sheep that they looked after.  When they came in to towns, they would have been the sort of people who might have made you feel uncomfortable – who might make you cross over to the other side of the street if you were passing them.  They were itinerant, always on the move, keeping their flock together and always moving towards fresh pasture.

I read one commentary this week that suggested that if we were to translate the good shepherd metaphor into contemporary times, it is as if Jesus is saying to his listeners, “I am the good migrant farm worker.”[1]

And so I wonder if, in one layer of meaning, Jesus might be saying to his followers that he identifies with anyone who is on the margins of society, anyone who is rejected by society.  How would this change our understanding of who Jesus is?

(pause)

I wonder what else Jesus might have been trying to say when he said the he is the Good Shepherd?

Jesus lived as a Jewish man in first century Palestine, and the scriptures that he would have known were what we call today the Old Testament.  And the Old Testament is full of shepherd imagery.  We read the 23^rd Psalm today, and this may be the best-known shepherd-image in the whole bible.  The psalm writer compares God to a shepherd – a shepherd who gives us food and keeps us safe from all danger.  In addition to the well-known 23^rd, there are also many other psalms that compare God to a shepherd, including Psalm 28, Psalm 77, Psalm 80, and the list goes on.

Then in chapter 40 of Isaiah, written to a people who were about to leave exile and return home, Isaiah writes, “God will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”  As the people were preparing to make the long and dangerous journey back to the home that none of them had known, they could be comforted by knowing that God was with them, guiding them and keeping them safe the way that a shepherd does.

And so when he says that he is the Good Shepherd, I wonder if another layer of meaning might be that Jesus is God.  Jesus will lead and protect us in the same way that God led and protected the people, because Jesus is God.

(pause)

I wonder what else Jesus might have been trying to say when he said the he is the Good Shepherd?

I was really struck by the comparison in the reading from John between the Good Shepherd and the Hired Hand.  Because what would have been the difference between a shepherd and the hired hand?  It is unlikely that either one was the actual owner of the sheep.  Think of the most famous shepherd in the Old Testament – the boy who would become King David.  He was tending the sheep of his father that would some day be inherited by his older brother; and yet he is still considered the shepherd.  So it doesn’t seem to be a matter of ownership.

Instead, I think that the difference might come down, not to title, and not to ownership of the sheep, but rather intention towards the sheep.  Does the human want what is best for the sheep, or are they in it just for the salary that they are earning?

Again, the books or scrolls of the Old Testament were the scriptures that Jesus was intimately familiar with, and if you were to turn to Chapter 34 of Ezekiel, you would find a very vivid description of two different types of shepherds – they are both called shepherds here.  But the so-called False Shepherds are in it only for what they can get from the sheep – the meat and the wool.  They don’t ensure that the sheep have food to eat; they don’t care for the sheep when they are injured; they don’t protect the sheep from the wild animals.  In this parable, the God’s people are the sheep, but the False Shepherds are the corrupt leaders of the land.  In contrast with this, God is named as the True Shepherd.  God seeks out the sheep when they are lost, protects them from their enemies, and leads them to good pasture-land for grazing.

If we turn to that famous 23^rd Psalm again, the final verse is often translated, “For surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”; but an alternative translation to this reads:  “For I am chased down by goodness, pursued by mercy every day of my life.”  The Good Shepherd, God-in-Jesus, not only looks after us in a passive way, but actively chases us down with all of the goodness that is God!

And so I wonder if yet another layer of meaning to Jesus as the Good Shepherd is this relentless pursuit and care of us, even when we turn away.  God loves us, each and every one of us, not because of anything that we have done or haven’t done, and not because of anything that God could get out of the bargain because isn’t that a laughable idea; but God loves us simply because we are ourselves and God is a God of love.

(pause)

I wonder what else Jesus might have been trying to say when he said the he is the Good Shepherd?

Often when we speak about Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the metaphor implies that we must then be the sheep.  But I wonder if that’s all there is.

Not that I have anything against sheep!  I admittedly haven’t spent much time with sheep, but everything that I have read about them tells me that they are very intelligent creatures.  But I’ve always chafed a bit at being called a sheep.  Sheep follow, unquestioningly.  In a herd of sheep, each one may seem the same.  And, quite frankly, I would prefer to be a human being than a sheep!

But when Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, the Greek word that is almost always translated as “good” – kalos – actually means something more along the lines of “model,” “ideal,” or “proper.”  And so if Jesus is the Model Shepherd, whom is he modeling it for?  Who is called to follow the model of Jesus?

I think that the answer to that question is… all of us.  We are all called to tend to one another and tend to everyone in the world in the same way that Jesus tends his flock as the Good Shepherd.  By virtue of our calling to be children of God and the body of Christ, we are all called to look after all who are vulnerable, we are all called to look after anyone who is sick or injured, we are all called to make sure that everyone has enough food to eat.

And today, April 22, is also celebrated as Earth Day, a day when we celebrate all of God’s creation.  We are, as humans, called to be stewards of all of creation, and I see a strong connection between being stewards and being shepherds.  We are to consider all of creation and celebrate it for its creator.  We are placed in a position that carries the responsibility to care for all of creation.  We are, in that sense, shepherds of all of creation.

And so I wonder if another layer of meaning to this story is that Jesus is the model for us to follow of how we are all to be shepherds to the world – both the human world and the non-human world.

(pause)

I wonder what else Jesus might have been trying to say when he said the he is the Good Shepherd?

One final layer of meaning that I see in this image of a Good Shepherd is when I hold this image up with one of Jesus’ other titles – Lamb of God.  Jesus is the Shepherd, but Jesus is also the sheep, the lamb, who is destined to die.  As Jesus says in our reading today, “I lay down my life in order to take it up again.”

This is a Jesus who knows that he is going to die; but who knows that resurrection will follow death, and that this resurrection will be the hope for the world.

And so yes, we are called to be shepherds to the world, modeling ourselves after Jesus; but I believe that we are also called to be sheep – sheep who listen to the voice of our Shepherd, sheep who trust in the one who leads us.  I don’t think that we are called to lay down our lives in the way that Jesus was called – after all, the work of Easter is already done; but I do think that we are sheep in the sense that we listen for and follow our shepherd, and trust that our Shepherd will lead us safely, even when the path doesn’t seem to make sense to us.

And so I wonder if we can be both shepherds and sheep, just as Jesus was the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God

(pause)

And so, while the Good Shepherd image may not be my favourite metaphor for Jesus, by digging into it, I’m able to find some meaning and relevance for the world today.

I’m still probably not going to buy that Sunday School print of pretty, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus to hang on my office wall; but when I think of Jesus the Good Shepherd, I can think of those shepherds living on the fringes of society; I can think of how they sacrificed comfort and company, and their own safety in order to take care of their sheep; I can think about how it was those shepherds living on the margins who were the first ones to hear the good news of the birth of Jesus; I can think about how Jesus, the Shepherd, is also the lamb; and I can think of how we are called to be like Jesus, the Good Shepherd, our model for shepherding.

Let us pray:

Holy God, who is the Shepherd of all people,

            help us to trust in the guidance of our Good Shepherd,

                        and empower us,

                                    by your Holy Spirit,

                                                to be shepherds of the world;

                        so that your love and care might spread

                                    into every corner of creation.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ,

            the Good Shepherd.

Amen.

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[1] Nancy R. Blakely, “Pastoral Perspective,” from Feasting on the Word: Year B, Volume 2, ed. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 450.

“The Shepherd”

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