Savior, Like a Shepherd, Lead Us

Scripture Lessons: John 10: 11-18 and 1 John 3: 16-24 Sermon Title: Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us Preached on April 25, 2021 The great religions of the world have so much in common, but there are differences of course, which, along with the many similarities, are also important to pay attention to. For example, last Wednesday morning I was honored to attend a breakfast meeting of local religious leaders hosted by Roswell Street Baptist Church. A new friend of mine, Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth was there, and as the two of us were talking about the incredible pair of shoes he had on, a woman handed him his breakfast: hash brown casserole and bacon. This was a moment of difference, which was addressed, politely resolved, and would have been foolish to ignore. For in order for us to eat together, we can’t ignore the reality that not all foods are Kosher and so we don’t all eat the same things. That’s important to think about. That’s how it is. We can’t allow what’s different to divide us, we can’t be ignorant of what might offend our friends and neighbors, and there are also moments when what makes us unique is worth celebrating. Think about what all makes us unique and different from Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Muslims. One unique Christian attribute among many is the image of the shepherd. It is an image of God, a metaphor for understanding the divine which we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters. The image of the Shepherd runs throughout today’s worship service from the Call to Worship, the Prayer of Confession, First and Second Scripture Lessons, and all the music that we’ve heard. This image is most associated with the 23rd Psalm which belonged to the Jewish faith long before Hobby Lobby ever put it on a wall hanging or a beach towel. You think I’m kidding about that, but you can get Psalm 23 on a beach towel, though where it really belongs is in our hearts and captured by our minds so that we can recall it when we need it most, for when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death it is imperative that we remember who is with us. Whenever a Christian thinks about what it means to know who God is, it is a comfort to go back to those most worderful words which Cheryl, Chohee, Will, and Jeffrey put to music so beautifully: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: For thou art with me. I could go on reading this psalm. It is a sermon in and of itself, but I want to stop right there to point out this defining characteristic of our religion which is there in the last phrase I read. Namely, that in our faith, to survive, to have salvation, to live, is to be not alone. Think about it: What is it that comforts the sheep? It is the presence of the shepherd. And what does the shepherd do, especially for those who wander from the fold, who find themselves lost and alone? The shepherd finds them. The shepherd walks with them. The shepherd brings them back into community. The shepherd restores the isolated into the family of faith. The shepherd seeks out those who are alone so that they won’t be alone any longer. That’s different from some other religions. Being restored into the community is a different goal from what many are steadily working towards, for some are working towards the peace and quiet of solitude rather than the noise and bickering of the Father’s House. I’m thinking now of the enlightened mystic who has discovered the secrets to the universe by quieting the mind. I have this image of a hermit guru who sits on top of a mountain, resentful of those who climb up to ask him the meaning of life. In fact, this image was in a political cartoon just this morning in the AJC. These figures which we see from time to time in the movies or elsewhere are based on real people, like Vijay Gopala who recently spent 17 years living in meditative silence in an Indian forest, or the Buddha who sat under a bodhi tree for 49 days straight. They are the great adherents of Hindu and Buddhist ascetism. We know that such a strain exists in Christianity, and even Christ himself went out to the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, but salvation for us looks a little bit less like the mountain top guru’s enlightenment, because for us, we receive the answers we seek once we’ve made it back to the flock, not when we’ve removed ourselves from them. We see this in Scripture. It’s there in both of today’s Scripture readings as well as so many others. In the Bible there are so many accounts of God’s people finding their way back to community, and so there is a son who wanders off, spends his inheritance, and once he’s broke all his fair-weather friends leave him to make a living sloping the hogs. This is a version of hell in our religion. To be lost, alone, and far from home, is the opposite of where God thinks we ought to be, and so to be saved by God is something like what we see in this son’s father, who embraces him and restores him into a community. The same is true of Jonah, who tries to run away but keeps being brought back to people, even people who he doesn’t like very much. Likewise, Moses leaves Egypt but must return to his tribe because that’s just how it is. Again, and again, this is the story. Ruth and Naomi find their way to a new homeland and a new community. The lost coin is found, the lost sheep gets back to the flock, the lost son finds his way home. Our God is a shepherd who tries to get us back into groups where we’ll finally be happy. Only think about this for a minute: how many of us think that we’ll only really be happy once we’ve gotten away from everybody? I have a friend who once told me that he went to visit his father in his new home out west. His dad is retired, divorced, and wealthy, so he left everything and everyone to live on top of a mountain in a cabin overlooking a valley. Apparently, it is the most picturesque prison you’ve ever seen. My friends, in which direction is your life headed? Are you moving towards community or away from it? After 14 months of pandemic functioning, do you even remember how to be around people? That’s OK if you don’t because all of us are a little awkward right now but remember this: when it comes to our faith moving towards others is moving towards salvation while moving away is like walking towards hell. So, I worry about our culture all the time. I worry about which religion has really taken our nation over. The social fabric of our society strains under the weight of deferred maintenance on basic human relationships. The institutions which once held us together are neglected. The poor live out of sight from the rich. The imprisoned are locked behind doors and punished with solitary confinement. Add on top of that the fear of a virus, which still keeps many of us home. Plus, our response to that same virus divides us between those who wear masks and those who don’t. In the midst of all of that I can’t help but think that we have forgotten how to get along, but not only that, we have forgotten what it means to be Christian. Some people, maybe many people, believe that being a Christian can be reduced down to a few simple standards of belief, and so they’ll say that we’re no longer a Christian country because we no longer believe all the same things that we used to. However, let us not forget what lies at the core of who we are and who we know God to be: from the 23rd Psalms to the story of the Prodigal Son, we know that our God is a God of relationship, and that the divine is present whenever two or more are gathered together. We must never think that being solid in our convictions but isolated and alone is the picture of one who follows Jesus. For to be Christian means to be restored in community, and to work for the restoration of all God’s children. We cannot be Christians all by ourselves. It says it right there in our Second Scripture Lesson: “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?” That’s a good question, and we must not make it to complicated, because we don’t have to look very far these days to find people who are in need. I imagine you can think of someone who needs what you have to offer just right across the street. Just think about it. There is now a ministry of loneliness in the United Kingdom. The government has organized to do something about what some consider to be a loneliness crisis believing that being lonely for a day is as bad for your body as smoking 15 cigarettes. Have you ever thought about that? How some of your neighbors only leave the house to go to the grocery store. How some folks on your street walk outside to get the mail and just pray that someone will walk by who can call them by name. That’s true for far too many people, in our county and even in our church, but this has always been true because there have always been those who find their way into isolation and don’t know how to break out of it. There was once a priest who decided that he’d go visit the entire congregation, so house by house he went, until finally he reached a place way out on the outskirts of town. The man who lived there hadn’t been to the church in years. In ages. He didn’t have any use for it he said, but the priest asked if he might just warm up by the man’s fire. There the priest moved one coal with the poker away from the rest and began asking the man questions about his wife, who had died, and his children, who had moved away. They went on talking for a while, and then the priest drew the man’s attention to the coal, which had gone out having been moved away from the others, and he said, “the fire within us burns brighter when we join with the family of faith from time to time.” Reach out to someone today before the light goes out from within them, and when you do, feel the light burn a little brighter within you. Amen.