How many times we were advised/ told to tie our shoes
growing up? How many times were we told to wear a hat, sit up straight, brush
your teeth, mind our manners, do your homework, work hard, be good. Directions
that were given to you multiple times over and maybe you headed to them or
maybe not. But in another way they stuck with you through the years, because
you heard yourself repeating them to your own kids & maybe your grandkids.
Sometimes we
have to just experience for ourselves some of the downfalls of not taking the advice we are
given as a child. Such as a nasty cold for not wearing our hat, our coat or
tripping on our shoe laces, or not tying them up until after we have walked
through the mud puddle. Experience can be a lasting lesson. No doubt Little Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, will be given similar advice in the days
& years to come in his life. Experience leads to us discovering what life
is about and who we ourselves are.
The people gather around Jesus and ask Him: “How
long are you going to keep us in suspense here? We want to know who you really
are? What a heartwarming / inspiring question to be asked? Are you a lunatic or
not? They are thinking Jesus just tell us & then we will know what to do?
Don’t keep us in suspense any longer.
I am certain that we can all appreciate the question.
There are times in our lives when we have some understanding, but we need more.
When it comes to checking off a name on our ballot for an election, we may find
ourselves in the ballot box asking ourselves these questions. What do I know
about this person, what do they stand for? Is this person the best choice? What
about when you are making a life decision, maybe you are thinking of moving,
downsizing, upsizing & you just want someone to say this is a good move for
you. You are thinking of getting married, people congratulate you, but affirmation that you have chosen well,
provided you have, would be good to hear. With politics we are funny, we don’t
want to say who we voted for, as there are varying opinions, but if others
shared your thoughts that yes, this is the best choice on the ballot; we would
feel more confident in our choice . We
want clarity. We want answers definite answers to our physical symptoms we may
be experiencing, to our span of life, how long do I have. Right now we would
like an answer to when the rain will cease.
The people gathered await Jesus answer. They just want
an answer to who Jesus is. But in true
Jesus form, He responds with “I have
told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name
testify to me; but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. My
sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
Jesus listeners were looking for a cut & dried
answer, they got one, but it was not the straightforward “yes I am”, “no I am
not” answer they wanted. Although it was pretty clear. They wanted to be able to check off on their
ballot sheet who Jesus was. A lunatic or the Son of God; they would have to
come to that conclusion on their own. It would be up to them to make that
decision, based on what they knew, knowing that checking off the Messiah box,
meant a change in their lives too. Were they willing to make that decision of
change.
If we were to read on further in the passage today, we hear that the
Jews were picking up stones preparing to stone Jesus.
I often have people tell me about their loved one whom
has died. They are often very passionate and there is laughter and tears &
I often wish I could have meant the person for myself. But I can only go with
what I am told from those how knew the person directly.
People can tell us about Jesus, but He invites us to
know Him personally, (intimately); it is the only way. It is an individual
decision, no one can come to faith for us; there is no substitutions. We cannot
ride as they say on the coat tails of our parents or grandparents’ faith or
their dedication to the church community, that doesn’t automatically make us
shoe-ins. It is by our personal profession of faith, our faith, that we become
a full member of the church.
There is always an abiding presence there for us; but
individually we have to figure that out.
On this Christian Family Sunday –we pray for the
presence of the shepherd to guide our families and to offer strength and
healing. It is difficult when others around us, in the same house or family
unit do not share our beliefs, our convictions, but we certainly include them
in our devotions and in sharing with them our experiences of faith and worship,
just as we share our events of our day to day lives. When we can speak from the
experience of our own faith and the impact it has had on us personally, we move
from telling, (like when we were told to wear our hats and mitts) about our
faith to living it and our witness can only be genuine. As it has moved from
the head to the heart; Christ becomes vivid & real through us and our
experience and in the sharing of it with others He becomes real to us.
There are many voices all around us that tell us many
things even for instance, there are many voices that tell us how to grow closer
to God: by having a prescribed religious experience, by believing the correct
doctrine, praying this prayer, by
reaching a higher level of knowledge or a higher level of morality.
The voice of the Good Shepherd is a voice that
liberates rather than oppresses. It does not say, “Do this, and then maybe you
will be good enough to be one of my sheep.” It says, “You belong to me already.
No one can snatch you out of my hand.” Amidst all the other voices that evoke
fear, make demands, or give advice, the voice of the good shepherd is a voice
of promise -- a voice that calls us by name and claims us as God’s own. Secure
in this belonging, we are free to live the abundant life of which Jesus spoke
earlier in the chapter: “I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly” (John 10:10).
The Good Shepherd tells us that everything depends on
belonging to Him. Never does our status before God depend on how we feel, on
having the right experience, on being free of doubt, or on what we accomplish
or how much money is in our bank account. It depends on one thing only: that we
are known by the shepherd: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they
follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish” (John
10:28).
Dr. Charles Allen, Methodist minister, tells the story
of a friend who came to see him one day. His friend was nervous, tense, and he
had literally worried himself sick. The man’s physician had suggested that he
see his minister. So they talked for a while, and then Allen took a pad of
paper from his desk drawer.
“If you went to see a doctor, he would give you a
prescription, and that’s what I want to do,” Allen said. “Take the prescription
exactly as I write it. Five times a day for seven days I want you to read
prayerfully and carefully the twenty-third psalm. When you awaken, before each
meal and at bedtime, read the psalm.” Charles Allen says that in a week his
friend returned literally a different person. The power of the Shepherd’s psalm
is a prescription for the problems and pressures of our day. One of the things
that we certainly need if we are going to have a life worth living is a faith in
something that is big enough for life. The psalmist begins where we always need
to begin…with a God worth serving.
Can you
honestly say –“The Lord is my Shepherd.”?
Every promise in the 23 psalm hangs on the power of this promise. The
psalmist says, I believe in God; I believe that God cares, and I believe that
God cares about me.” The Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd and leads
me all the days of my life AND shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
How sad it would be to believe in God but never really
trust Him, like a sheep trusts the shepherd. Faith is more than belief. It is
the trusting of ourselves to God, depending on Him to lead us to a life worth
living. Charles B. Bugg In his sermon “A
Life Worth Living”
The abundant life of which Jesus speaks is not
necessarily about abundance in years, or in wealth, or status, or
accomplishments. It is life that is abundant in the love of God made known in
Jesus Christ, love that overflows to others (John 13:34-35). It is eternal life
because its source is in God who is eternal (17:3), and in Jesus, who is the
resurrection and the life (11:25-26). (Elisabeth
Johnson Working Preacher)
Karyn Wiseman & Elisabeth
Johnson - Working Preacher Sermon Writer John 10:22-30,
Three Shepherd Stories: Good Shepherd Sunday –
Sermon Central
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