April 26th Service at Woodlawn Christian Church

Yesterday was my second Sunday as the Pastor here at Woodlawn Christian Church.  The service went well and the sermon seemed to be well received.  I've attached the manuscript from the sermon at the end of this short blog post.

Gail didn't make the trip up to Lake City this weekend so there is no video of the sermon this week.  Hopefully, next weekend Gail will be here along with my older brother Merrill and his wife Karen.  Gail got a new cell phone this last week and it's supposed to have a fantastic video camera, so we'll try it out and see how well it records next weekend's sermon.

I'd like to encourage everyone to pray for the folks in Nepal concerning the earthquake there the other day, and also please pray for calm and common sense in Baltimore.  It seems that there is now a faction in our society that will glam onto any excuse to loot and destroy.  This kind of behavior does nothing for anyone, except this faction which feeds off of chaos and destruction.

Please pray for the police and the good people who are being endangered by this faction of evil and hatred.  Pray that the minds of those who are causing all the injury and destruction are softened and changed.  May God reach into these dark hearts and bring their souls into the light of love and peace.

In God's abundant Love & Grace,
Roy

Good Morning!  And isn't it a beautiful day here in Iowa. It was a busy week of just trying to get my bearings here in Lake City and I'm looking forward to starting to doing some visitations very soon and getting out and walk around town, hopefully, meeting people as I go along.  If there is anyone here who would like me to drop in for a visitation just let me know as I'd love to stop over and get to know you all better.  Also, if you know of anyone who needs a visit from the Pastor for whatever reason, also please let me know.

This Sunday Gail isn't here with us, so you are all stuck with the lesser of the two halves of the whole.  But, next Sunday Gail will be in worship with us, as well as hopefully my older brother Merrill and his wife Karen.  Now I will warn you that my big brother is a terrible liar and just remember to not believe anything that he might tell you about me.  Actually, Merrill Jr., is a wonderful man and I'm sure you'll all enjoy getting to meet him and his wife.

Before we get started with today's Sermon, let's go before the Lord in a moment of prayer.  Please bow your heads and open your hearts.

O' God we desire your presence with us here today.  Lord, still our restless spirits, that with quiet minds and reverent hearts we may hear your voice and genuinely worship you.
Prepare our minds and hearts O' God, that through your word, read and proclaimed, Christ may come to dwell within us, and ever rule over our thoughts and affections as the Lord of our lives.     AMEN

Today we're going to be looking at a bit of scripture in the Gospel of John.  John is the Gospel that sort of, well... does its own thing.  It's not one of the synoptic gospels and is often just called the “Fourth Gospel”.  As I mentioned last Sunday it is almost unanimously thought to be the last Gospel of the four canonical gospels to be written.  The date I personally believe to be the most likely for this writing is to be approximately 90 to 95 ad.  The earliest references to the Gospel of John are in writings between the church fathers in the second century.

Unlike the Synoptics where Jesus' ministry is approximately 10 months in duration, John gives us a three-year long ministry.  John's Gospel has other variations from the Synoptics as well, one worth noting is the difference in the portrayal of the last supper where the washing of the feet takes center stage.  John's emphasis rather than the substitutional sacrifice is the service.  Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve.  We are called to continue this service.

Whereas most scholars agree that the writers of Luke and Matthew almost assuredly had copies of the Gospel of Mark at their disposal, most scholars don't believe that the author of John had access to any of the synoptic Gospels.

Today's scripture concerns sheep and shepherds, as someone who grew up on a cattle ranch, I don't have any personal stories to allow me to relate to the sheep in these verses.  The only story I have is one told to me by my father.  My grandfather was a very industrious man and besides ranching he had other endeavors, one of these was that he owned a grocery store on one of the Indian Reservations in South Dakota.  Now my father was a youngster of only twelve when my grandfather had dad running the day to day operations of this store.  Well, one day grandpa traded the store for a herd of sheep.  My father was put in charge of the sheep, and he became a shepherd.  Dad quickly discovered that compared to cattle, sheep aren't the brightest animals there is.  He hated sheep for the rest of his life, he wouldn't allow one on the place honestly. (LOL)  So I guess we can't say that Dad was a 'good shepherd', but he was a very kind and generous soul, one you got past the crusty Rancher veneer. 

But with that, let's take a look at today's scripture verses. 

John 10:11-18
11 “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep. 12 When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. 14-15 I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them. 16 There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
17 “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. 18 No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”

All right now, let us take a closer look at these verses.  First the word in Greek that is translated here as 'good' actually is probably better thought of as 'faithful' or 'beautiful' or 'noble'.  So rather than 'good' he is the 'faithful' shepherd, one who we can count upon, as he clearly outlines in these verses.  He is the shepherd that will even die for his flock.

When you are looking at scripture, you should always take a look back at what comes before, and also look and see what comes after the verses that you're contemplating.  Now immediately ahead of the story about the 'Good Shepherd' we find the story about the man born blind.  Remember that story?  The man was born without his sight, Jesus encounters him and even though it was the Sabbath, Jesus heals him, much to the great displeasure of the Pharisee leadership.  And this isn't the first time Jesus has violated the Sabbath.  He seems to be making a habit of it.  Likely to drive the point home to the Pharisees.  The religious leaders and elders are on the warpath for anyone following Jesus because, “This man does not keep the Sabbath day, so he is not from God”.  The Jewish leaders question the man and then his parents.  His parents want nothing to do with any of this as they feared the elders. So they put it back to their son saying that he is of age and can answer for himself.

Well the blind man ends up thrown out of the Temple and excommunicated.  Jesus comes upon him and in their dialogue, Jesus states;
John 9:39-41
39 Jesus said, “I came to this world to judge, so that the blind should see and those who see should become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were there with him heard him say this and asked him, “Surely you don't mean that we are blind, too?”
41 Jesus answered, “If you were blind, then you would not be guilty; but since you claim that you can see, this means that you are still guilty.”

We have here another one of those reversals that Jesus seems to use so often.  The people that are truly spiritually blind, are the individuals who were thought by the populace to be the ones that can see the most clearly.   The religious leaders are entirely blind to Jesus' message and mission.  The leaders are blind to who Jesus is and this blindness will lead them to persecute and to ultimately hand Jesus over to the Romans to be executed.

In verse 8 of chapter 10, Jesus states that 'all the people who came before him, are thieves and robbers.  We really don't know if he meant the other people that had claimed to be the Messiah in and before his time.  For you see, Jesus wasn't the first nor the last person who was thought to be, or who claimed to be the Messiah.  There were numerous Messianic movements, all of which died out once their leader was killed by the Romans.  Or it may be that these thieves and robbers are a reference to the religious leaders of the time.

I think it's most likely that the thieves and robbers were these other false messiahs and that the references to the 'hired hands' who run away and do not protect the flock from the wolves are the religious leaders.  These leaders are only workers, Christ is the son and truly cares for his flock.  He will shortly, as we know, literally lay his life down for his flock.

It is likely also that this story is included in the Gospel as a none too subtle stab at a faction that had split off from the Johannine Community.  The books 1 & 2 John appear to be addressed to leaders in Churches that are undecided as to the direction they are going to swing.  These letters are urging them to stay with the majority of the Community and to not go the path of those that have split away.

It is debated what the “other sheep, in the other sheep pens” is supposed to mean.  It seems that the general conclusion is that it points to the gentiles, which would be everyone but the Jews and Samaritans.  There is the possibility also that again this story is relayed in part to speak to the faction that has left the community.  Could these other sheep also be considered as those who have left the fold?  Is the author using one of Jesus' stories to let them know that Jesus still loves them in spite of them splitting away.  Scripture has many layers and we can in turn take these verses and consider whether it might point towards all of the various factions and divisions that we have in Christianity today.  Having come to you from the Baptist tradition, I can tell you there are dozens of different Baptists alone, much less all the rest of the various protestant denominations, the numerous forms of the orthodox church, as well as the several divisions in the Catholic movement itself.

Jesus is the Shepherd of all of these very many 'sheep pens'.  He knows his sheep and they know his voice as well.

We have to remember that as I said last week, even the early church had it's share of turmoil.  The Johannine Community was a group struggling with some deep theological issues that make the things that we tend to allow to divide us look pretty darn trivial.  A long time Pastor once told me that the number one thing that he'd seen split congregations was the music and the number two was what color should the new carpet be.  I think we can all agree that this is pretty sad to say.

Of course we all know that the imagery of a Shepherd is a common theme in the Gospels.  This is of course because the people of the time would have been able to relate to these illustrations.  And it serves to connect these lessons and messages with the stories of the Old Testament as well.  Every Jewish individual hearing these stories from Jesus would recall that the great King David himself was a Shepherd, and had been a 'good shepherd' to his people Israel.  Remember that the Messiah was to come from the house of David, and both Luke and Matthew include genealogies to solidify Jesus' claim as a descendant of King David.  The Messiah would come from the house of David and would lead his people like no one had done since the time of David, who was again a shepherd.

When we first read these verses in Chapter 10, we can't help but to be reminded of the parable of the 'Lost Sheep' found in both Matthew and Luke.

Luke 15:3-7Good News Translation (GNT)
3 So Jesus told them this parable:
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. 5 When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders 6 and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbors together and say to them, ‘I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!’ 7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.

The good shepherd, here isn't about to let any of his flock go missing.  He cares for them and will search tirelessly for them.  Remember that the story of the lost sheep is followed immediately by the story of the lost coin.  Both parables speak of the great joy and celebration over recovering that individual which was lost.  Both parables also speak to God's single minded determination to pursue these lost sheep.  God will keep knocking on the door whether you answer or not.  Let us not forget that as his hands and feet in this world, God is often sending us to knock on these closed doors.

The imagery of tending to sheep continues to the very end of John's gospel where we read this exchange in Jesus' last appearance to the disciples.
John 21:12-17Good News Translation (GNT)
12 Jesus said to them, “Come and eat.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. 13 So Jesus went over, took the bread, and gave it to them; he did the same with the fish.
14 This, then, was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from death.
Jesus and Peter
15 After they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Take care of my lambs.” 16 A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 A third time Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter became sad because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” and so he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you!”
Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.

Some of you were in the Bible Study class last Sunday night.  There I mentioned that it is my opinion that the main way we can display our love for God is to take care of his people.  It's these verses here at the end of John's Gospel which I point to to reinforce this thought.

If we love him, we will tend his sheep.  And if we love him we'll be good and loving shepherds to his lost and wandering sheep.  Like him we will not give up on those that are lost, not ever.  We'll search for these lost sheep no matter how late the hour, and we'll celebrate over finding each and every one.

Let's close with a word of prayer, please bow your heads and open your hearts.

Dear Father, Abba, we come to you humbly, and freely accept the grace that you provide to us, grace given despite our sins against you in thought, word and deed.  Lord, we thank you for your love and forgiveness and we cherish above all else our relationship to you, we also thank you for the relationships that you have blessed us with in our families, our friends, our fellow believers and all our fellow human beings.  Truly, all are a part of your grand design and creation.  Dear God, let us always be mindful of your directions in this world and let us be your hands and feet in this place.  Father, we look forward to the day when through your direction all shall be reconciled to you and to each other.
We pray this in your most Holy and Blessed name, AMEN.