The Good Shepherd Cares For Us, Especially In Our Animated Dust Phase

As one of my Lenten disciplines, I've decided to start blogging again. So we will see if I can do 40 posts. To start off nice and easy, here is the text of my Ash Wednesday sermon. It uses John 10.1-28 (from the Narrative Lectionary) and Psalm 23 as its basis. 

 

This lesson comes right after the lesson we heard on Sunday, where Jesus healed the blind man. In fact, the people whom Jesus is addressing in this lesson are the man who had been born blind, but who can now see, and the Pharisees, who drove him out of the Temple. He is continuing his conversation with the Pharisees, who think that they are acting in God’s will. Jesus tries to explain to them that we are saved through God’s love on God’s terms, not on our own. So he tries to explain this using an analogy of a sheep’s pen and a shepherd.

He first refers to himself as the gate through which the sheep enter their fold. It is through Christ that we come to the Creator. He is also the gatekeeper; he determines who comes in and who doesn’t. This is a direct repudiation of what the Pharisees and Jewish leaders did to the man who had been born blind. They threw him out of the Temple because he would not condemn Jesus. Jesus is now telling the Pharisees that HE determines who enters God’s kingdom, not them. Jesus says that he calls to his sheep, and they follow him.

But the Pharisees don’t understand. So Jesus tries again.

I am the Good Shepherd. Others who have come before are thieves and bandits. The sheep did not listen to them. Thieves only come to destroy, steal and kill. I came so that they would have life and have it in abundance. The Good Shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep.

Whenever I think of the Good Shepherd, my mind goes right to Psalm 23 because it describes how God treats us as our shepherd. As I looked at the Psalm and the lesson, next to each other as they are in the bulletin, I compared the two.

God will provide for us abundantly; that is what Jesus said he would do and it is what the Psalmist says. We lack for nothing. We rest in meadows and pastures. We are led to still, restful waters. Our soul is restored and made truly alive. We are guided and led down proper and righteous paths for the sake of God’s name; because that has been promised to us.

At the end of the Psalm, we are anointed with oil. Our cup is so full it spills and runs over. The Good Shepherd gives us life, and gives it to us abundantly. Goodness, mercy and God’s faithful love don’t just follow us. They run after us. They are in pursuit of us our entire lives.

But doesn’t mean that everything will be good. It doesn’t mean that everything will go well.

We walk through the dark valley, the valley of the shadow of death. There, right there, in the presence of our enemies, a table is prepared and set for us. Have you ever thought about that picture? We walk through the dark valley of death and God prepares a meal for us, right in the middle of those who would do us harm.

Both the Psalm and Jesus analogy of the Good Shepherd say there are forces that work and conspire against us. Jesus refers to them as thieves, bandits, strangers and wolves. In front of them, in the shadow of the valley of death, there Christ prepares a table for us. In side the sheep’s pen, we are protected. That pen, that place which can only be entered through Our Lord and Savior, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is the kingdom that is to come. It is the reign of God that is not yet realized.

But while we are in the world, outside of the Shepherd’s pen, we are vulnerable. We are protected. The shepherd’s rod and staff comfort us. The shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. But we are still vulnerable. And there are forces against us; we live in the presence of our enemies.

As a reminder of that, in a few minutes, you will be invited to come forward to receive an imposition of ashes. As I mark the sign of the cross on your forehead with ashes, I will remind you of your mortality, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

In that meanwhile, in the time when we are not dust, the Good Shepherd is on guard.

While we are animated dust, alive because God blew the Spirit into us, the Good Shepherd is with us.

While we live, the Good Shepherd calls to us, his sheep. He knows us, and we know him.

Between our times as dust, the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down his life for us. And he has. For our sake, Jesus Christ was crucified, suffered, died and was buried. He laid it down and can pick it up again; and when he does pick it up again, he will pick us up again as well, bringing us from dust to life eternal in the glory of God.

While we are not dust, we must realize that our Good Shepherd is Emmanuel. God is with us. Especially when we are in the presence of our enemies. We may not be protected from every enemy. Our world is broken. The world is a place of pain and hurt and the Good Shepherd will lead us, and guide us, and comfort us. He will never leave us alone.

That’s not correct. There is a time that our shepherd will leave us, because he must go to a place for our sake, and we cannot go there. That is the journey we will hear in our lessons on Sundays. The lessons from the Gospel of John describe the last days of Our Savior’s life. We will hear of his Passion, from the Latin meaning suffering. His Passion and Crucifixion are his journey, alone. Christ, the Good Shepherd, lays down his life for the sake of his sheep, on the cross.

He goes to the cross for your sake, for my sake, for the sake of the world. For the sake of his sheep. For the sake of all who are dust and to dust they shall return. For the sake of that dust being raised up, forgiven and restored, for HIS sake, for the sake of the Good Shepherd.

AMEN.