What I Preached in Chapel: Fourth Week of Easter

“EVEN FOR US”

John 10:11-18
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

This week we end. This week we send. The message seems so obvious, so empowering, so joyful. “Jesus sends us out to shepherd God’s people!” “Jesus sends us out to shepherd God’s people!” Some among us are perusing congregational profiles and even anticipating congregational votes. Others among us have been in conversation with internship supervisors and CPE sites. Some are setting out into uncertainty, into the unknown. All of us are being sent from this year, from this community as it comes to an end, to another faith community, even if it will be located in this place. We will have different roles, different relationships, perhaps different responsibilities. “Jesus sends us out to shepherd God’s people!” The message is great!

Except for one thing. I’m reminded that, when these readings showed up three years ago during the week we were ending and sending, there was conversation around the fact that, although the church calls its ministers pastor, which in Latin means “shepherd,” there is only one shepherd who is good, only one shepherd who is true, only one shepherd who is perfect, only one shepherd who is the model. That shepherd is Jesus. It certainly isn’t me. It certainly isn’t us.

First John says, “We know love by this, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” It’s what I hear in lots of sermons: Jesus as the role model, Jesus as the example. “We know love by this, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” We are to imitate the model given to us in Christ the Good Shepherd. “Not in word or speech,” First John says, “but in truth and action.” Making professions and having good intentions are insufficient. We are to embody, enact, and live the selfless love of Christ, who said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Only the act of freely and willingly laying our life down for another, of setting our life aside for another, will do. And we just don’t do it. We just can’t do it.

If we are anything in this story, we know ourselves to be and, sometimes, we show ourselves to be hired hands. We see the wolf coming, leave the sheep, and run away. And the sheep get scattered and snatched. Though we may deeply care for the sheep, they do not belong to us. While we might even risk our lives for the sheep, somehow, we seem to fall short of freely and willingly laying our lives down for them. Even more subtly, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” But sometimes we do not know the shepherd, the sheep, or even ourselves. Intentionally or accidently, we meet our own needs, pursue our own interests, and, in the process, we lose track of our responsibility to care for, to lay down our lives for, the sheep. The wolf comes, and the sheep get scattered. The sheep get snatched. We fail the Good Shepherd. We hurt the sheep. We come face-to-face with what we truly are – hired hands and even lost and wounded sheep.

All who are hired to lend the Good Shepherd a hand come to know, to feel, to be haunted by this truth about themselves. In the words of First John, “our hearts–our consciences–condemn us.”
We feel the irony in the title pastor. We will never be the Good Shepherd. We are hired hands who fall miserably short. Mostly, we are lost and wounded sheep.

In these moments, we realize just how good our shepherd is. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” And, with nothing to cling to except Jesus’ words, we slowly dare to trust, to believe, to hope, that Jesus lays down his life for all the sheep, even for us. Even for us. Because of Jesus’ words, because of Jesus’ glorification on the cross, when Jesus did indeed lay down his life for the sheep, we dare to believe the words spoken to us at the table. “For you, for you.” We dare to believe that God will bring a time when our hearts will rest. For, even as our heart condemns us, even as we are conscious of having sinned, we find hope that God, who knows us better than our own heart, better than our own conscience, is rich in mercy and will forgive us, because we are truly God’s own. God will forgive us, precisely because we are a lost and wounded sheep for whom Jesus freely and willingly laid down his life.

Of course, if our heart, if our conscience, is not plagued by knowledge of our sin, we can be confident of and bold about God’s favor. And so we keep God’s commandments. We live in faith and love, so that we can experience God’s closeness and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us, and do our best to lend a hand in tending the sheep.

Jesus says, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” Jesus takes up his life again for himself and for all who live through his saving work. Jesus lays down his life and takes it up again even for us. Jesus raises us from lost and wounded sheep. One way or another, Jesus hires us again to help him tend the flock. And, maybe, for a moment or two, we can do some good shepherding, and know ourselves to be saints as well as sinners.

How does Jesus do this? Jesus raised us up this year as we heard the promise, remembered baptism, shared the supper, exchanged the peace, offered our prayers, confessed our sin, sang God’s praise, wrote and read papers, discussed and disagreed, laughed and cried, hurt and forgave. Jesus will raise us up as we share this final supper, finish our work, and bid farewell. And Jesus isn’t finished.

Jesus said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” I have always imagined Jesus standing with us talking about someone else. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Perhaps Jesus is standing with someone else, perhaps Jesus is standing in the communities to which we go, talking about us. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” Wherever we go, whenever we know ourselves to be hired hands or lost and wounded sheep, Jesus is there, in that community, laying down his life for us, even for us, and raising us up with him.

So, more than end, more than send, this week we commend. We commit. We entrust. We commend ourselves, one another, and our whole life to Christ, our Shepherd who alone is good.