Putting Love into Action

Since we're living in a world where tribalism and division seem to be the norm, I felt the need to address the underpinnings of white Christian Nationalism in a way that might get some people to think. 

Read it and see. Did it make you think?

Texts: Ps.23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

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In case we didn’t pick up on the obvious hints from our hymns and our readings this morning…this Fourth Sunday of Easter is often called, “Good Shepherd Sunday.”

God is that loving Shepherd walking us through the valleys of our lives…

the shadow of death throwing shade on us…

as God brings us safely to the still waters.

Jesus is that shepherd laying down his own life for God’s sheep.

This is the Jesus so oft depicted in stained glass windows with the whitest softest face…

carrying an even whiter sheep on his shoulder.

I love the imagination of those stained-glass artists! Clearly…they’ve never tried to handle sheep before!

An actual sheep is not nearly so co-operative or placid…

And I think Jesus might look a little darker…and certainly wouldn’t be so neat and clean after gathering up Mary’s little lamb in his loving arms.

The original hearers of this Gospel would have likely been surprised at Jesus calling himself a “good” shepherd.

While shepherds appear throughout the Hebrew scriptures as noble people such as King David…by the time we get to the days of Jesus…they’d fallen out of favor.

The society of the New Testament regarded them as untrustworthy,

so they couldn’t testify in court.

And living among the sheep…they were…shall we say…pungent.

They were anything but “good.”

That’s why at Christmas time…Luke makes sure we know that when Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem…the first group to get this good news were these lowly shepherds out on the hillside.

The least will be first.

Jesus isn’t afraid to claim a kinship with these working-class outcasts of the First Century.

That’s how Jesus operates.

Instead of removing himself from those who are the marginalized…the frowned upon… the disinherited…Jesus is the first one to pull up a chair…and break bread with them.

For Jesus…”to be” that root verb for… “I am”… means living into that strange paradox of being a “good” “Shepherd.”

And as a “good shepherd”…Jesus cares for the sheep.

The sheep are all those who listen for his voice and come to him when they hear their name.

And when one of those cute little lambs decide they’re going to wander off…

Jesus puts aside his own life…

his own wants and needs…

and goes to find the wayward wooly creature.

Wandering away happens.

We know it.

Many of us have probably done it…more than once or even ten times.

Our lives get cluttered with worries.

We get so busy with our jobs

or we have family obligations that pull on our attention that somehow… we find ourselves straying far away from God’s lovely still waters.

We figure we’ll get back to that whole God thing later.

Weeks…maybe for some of us…years go by.

Soon… we find ourselves in that valley the psalmist talks about…or in some other pit of despair we’ve fallen into.

And then in our thrashing about…that’s when we cry for help. 

And the Good Shepherd leaves the flock to go find us…

pushing away the overgrowth of our worries to reach us and call to us…

and lead us back to the flock.

All without judgment.

The shepherd…out of the abundance of goodness…

is filled with the joy that the one who had gone off on their own is realizing that there’s something sweeter about being in relationship…and coming into the community of God.

Sometimes…the lost sheep…the wanderers… were driven off because of bullying by other sheep.

There’s a cartoonist whose drawings frequently pop up in my social media feed.

His name is David Hayward but he draws under the pseudonym The Naked Pastor.

The cartoons often times depict various flocks of sheep…representing generic church members.

They have white bodies and black heads and stand clustered together.

Often they look very dull and disapproving as they talk to Jesus or other characters.

The one cartoon that I’ve seen the most depicts this bunch of holier-than-thou sheep looking dismayed.

Jesus is carrying a sheep over his shoulders who is rainbow-colored.

Some versions have the sheep in the pink and blue colors representing the transgender community.

It seems the flock had no use for this lone sheep with Jesus.

The leader of the “majority” flock is chastising the Savior:

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it right there!” she says to Jesus, “He”--- meaning the colorful sheep---“He isn’t lost. We kicked him out.”

To which Jesus responds, “I know. I found him.”

Nobody…no matter who they are…is going to be left out.

That’s so clear when we hear Jesus talk about how there are these “other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”

These sheep need to be brought along also.

They shouldn’t be kept from the experience of God’s endless well of love.

And there are hundreds of people in that camp.

We can imagine who some of these sheep might be.

People who are afraid to walk through our doors…or don’t want to come to a church…possibly because they’ve had some of those bad experiences like those condescending sheep at another church.

Or they’ve never met someone who believed in God and wasn’t a jerk about it.

But as my fellow presbyter and wise friend the Very Reverend Billy Alford puts it: all those “other sheep” want and deserve to receive the same compassion and generous inclusion we afford to someone who knows the Prayer Book backwards, forwards, and sideways. 

Even the ones who come and still walk away are no less loved by the Good Shepherd…and may even be loved more.

And that’s OK.

Jesus constantly had people walk away from him and his message of love.

But that didn’t stop him from living it…breathing it…and sharing it freely.

It didn’t stop him from showing us that our best lives can be lived if we make it a regular practice of showing compassion for people and being generous in including people…inviting them to come to this table of bread and wine and share it.

This is how love becomes more than just mere words;

it becomes an action.

We don’t get any personal gain from loving in this way.

We DO gain by manifesting a community where people are accepted for who they are.

With no papers or proof of worthiness.

It’s the act of us trusting enough in our relationship with Jesus that we will risk getting to know a person different from ourselves…listen to their story…and say “Welcome to the fold.”

And in this way…we become the shepherd to each other…helping to walk with each other through those dark valleys…and then sit down beside the still waters.

As Easter people…people who’ve passed with Christ through the little deaths of our pains and problems…and emerged on the other side…bruised but unbroken…we are the good shepherds for all of God’s people.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.