The Good Shepherd Calls Us Beyond The Sheepfold

``Hospitality is difficult. It tests us. It calls. It pushes us out to our growing edges. I keep coming back to this image of Jesus casting out the sheep from the sheep pen and then calling them out to the pasture in the wilderness. I keep thinking about how often in the gospels, Jesus breaks bread with the outcasts and those society considered sinners. I keep thinking of how often Jesus held these outsiders up as examples of profound faith, of how Jesus chose the despised to befriend. [01:02:02] (38 seconds)  #RadicalHospitality

Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. He didn't call himself king Jesus. He didn't call himself president Jesus. He didn't call himself commissioner Jesus. He didn't call himself mayor Jesus, doctor Jesus, reverend Jesus, deacon Jesus, or chairman Jesus. But he called himself a shepherd, a servant, a caretaker, a watchman, a provider. He called himself a shepherd. That's what really stands out in my mind. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. [00:44:43] (38 seconds)  #ShepherdNotKing

Instead, the shepherd arrives to the sheepfold and calls the sheep away from the safety of the walled off pen, and they follow the shepherd. Not to safety, but to open wilderness because that's where the shepherd always is. The shepherd isn't in the sheepfold. The shepherd is beyond its boundaries, beyond the walls, beyond the place of safety and comfort. [00:51:45] (33 seconds)  #FollowIntoWilderness

I kept thinking about how Jesus says that whenever we see the hungry, the poor, the lonely, the disenfranchised, the outcast, we are seeing Jesus himself. And then I began to wonder if when we hear the voices of those outcasts in our society, those disenfranchised and marginalized, if we hear that voice for what it is, the voice of Jesus, the voice of the shepherd, calling us out from the safety of the sheepfold to be a flock of the cast out. [01:02:40] (36 seconds)  #SeeJesusInOutcasts

Our success as followers of Jesus is based on the love of a shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for us. This is the reason the shepherd comes to the sheep pen and calls us out into the wild pasture to follow the shepherd's voice because that is where salvation, abundant life is waiting. Amen. Amen. [01:06:34] (32 seconds)  #ShepherdsSacrificialLove

Jesus came from heaven to earth to be close to his sheep. The good shepherd became a sheep, took on our nature, and lived life just like us except without sin. That's why he is the good shepherd. Jesus, the good shepherd, knows the peculiar traits of his flock and watches over us with love and concern. The first phrase in our last song today goes, savior like a shepherd lead us. [00:47:18] (35 seconds)  #ShepherdInTheFlesh

The shepherd comes to drive out his sheep from the closed in sheepfold into the pasture where there is abundant life. Abundant life is not necessarily a safe life, mind you. Out beyond the sheep pen, there is most certainly green pastures and still waters. But there are also roaming predators, wolves, bandits. There is also a valley shadowed by death. [00:52:18] (37 seconds)  #PastureAndPeril

Leaders and their flocks in the church have a hard time not thinking about who's in the flock and who isn't. And that can equate to who's loved by God and who isn't, or at least who isn't loved by God quite as much or in the same way as we are. And yet, it's not up to us to decide who's in or who's out. The scriptures tell us that Jesus has other sheep elsewhere and that he intends to draw them in too. This flock is open ended. There are always others who recognize the shepherd's voice and enter the fold. [01:00:24] (37 seconds)  #FlockWithoutBorders

Still, it must have been terrifying and painful to have to leave the safe sanctuary of the faith of their fathers and their mothers. It must have hurt to have the doors of the religious institutions shut in their faces because of their beliefs. It must have been incredibly disorienting to feel like they no longer belonged in the faith that birthed their own faith. But there is the shepherd, that voice we know, the voice we follow. [00:56:21] (33 seconds)  #PainOfLeavingFold

So this text, in spite of seeming now to be a bit frightening, could very well have offered comfort to those outcast Jews who followed Christ by reminding them that Jesus was outside the sheepfold with them, and that all they had to do was continue to follow his voice to find good pasture to restore their souls. [00:54:53] (30 seconds)  #ComfortForOutcasts

The verb used here here I go again. I know. But the verb used here is actually the exact same verb same verb that gospel writers use to describe the violent casting out of demons. The shepherd casts out his sheep from the safety of the pen. Suddenly, these sheep who have heard a shepherd's voice are quite literally outcast. To illustrate this in a little kinder way, it reminds me of those times when I'm trying to get my dogs to go outside of the nice, warm, cozy house into the rain to do what they need to do. Yeah. [00:53:26] (41 seconds)  #CastOutToFollow

But we see these images of Jesus as the doe eyed good shepherd cuddling a tiny helpless lamb or carrying one over his shoulders, and it's a comforting and nostalgic image for us. We immediately begin to think of Psalm 23, perhaps, of never wanting for anything, of having a banquet table prepared for us in the presence of our enemies, of still waters and green pastures. It's an image of gentle power, of someone who can control the uncontrollable in our world. And isn't that what we want of Jesus? [00:43:28] (39 seconds)  #IdealizedShepherd

For a shepherd who's supposed to be sleeping and working outside, there's a surprising lack of dirt. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would smell like sheep dung and body odor. I wouldn't expect to see him trudging through the rocky Palestinian hills in search of a patch of grass with a bunch of stubborn sheep. I see him instead walking through a field of wildflowers with happy frolicking lambs bouncing around him as music swells in the background. In fact, I'm not sure I trust this guy as a shepherd. He he looks too much like me, quite Anglo Saxon Protestant, to be any good at such a hardscrabble job. [00:42:42] (47 seconds)  #SanitizedShepherdImage

Now this, of course, is where things become more difficult, making room for one another in the fold of God's love. It seems like we ought to find it easy and even natural to relax into the warmth of God's care and move over and make room for everyone else. And yet there is this image of religious leaders themselves not recognizing the immeasurable worth of each individual in the eyes of God. And sadly, that image is just as powerful today as it is in any age. [00:59:51] (33 seconds)  #MakeRoomInTheFold

He knew each of them by name. These were not just sheep. They were patch, limpy, blacky, tag, nosy, and so on. By day and night, the shepherd lived with them. He was always there for them. You see, a shepherd, in order to know his sheep and care for them, has to live among them. He has to be close to them. [00:46:54] (24 seconds)  #KnownByName

In every age since those earliest days of the church, there have been shepherds who abandoned their flocks and failed to live up to the image of the good shepherd. However, it's also true that in every age, there have been faithful ones. Before Roman swords, before Nazi boots, burning crosses, or constant harassment, economic pressure, or political reprisal, they, the faithful shepherds, remained with the sheep. [00:55:47] (34 seconds)  #FaithfulShepherdsEndure

We might prefer to hear a nice comforting message about how much Jesus loves each one of us little lambs. But we are also called to model our ministry, our discipleship on the example of Jesus himself. Now is the time to consider who is the other for us, and who else is in this flock enfolded in the love of God. Who are the other sheep that do not belong to the same fold that we belong to? Are there people who belong to no fold at all? Who and what are the thieves, bandits, strangers, and wolves that threaten you as a fold? [01:03:16] (42 seconds)  #WhoIsTheOther

We want Jesus to tame what is wild and unruly in the world, who who with the crook of his staff can solve what is unsolvable and answer what is unanswerable in life, who can protect and defend against the thieves and bandits of this world who come only to steal, kill, and destroy. John uses many images in his gospel, but my favorite one is that of Jesus as a shepherd. Like a shepherd, Jesus is concerned with the welfare and the care of his sheep. The shepherd loves his sheep. [00:44:07] (36 seconds)  #ShepherdWhoCares

We depend upon God for everything. And just as a shepherd watches over his sheep, so does God watch over his children. Now two caretakers are mentioned in this account, the good shepherd and the hired hand. The hired hand had no connection with the sheep, no relationship with the sheep. He thought of himself first and the sheep last. If a sheep was attacked by a wolf or lost, oh, well. [00:45:22] (29 seconds)  #HiredHandVsShepherd

This image is kind of ubiquitous in Western Christianity. I've seen it in many churches. I've seen it in Sunday school rooms, in fellowship rooms, reception areas. I've noticed it in homes when I visited people. I saw it growing up in the homes of my friends and relatives. There was even one in our house. I see it for sale in Christian bookstores. I see it on the Google image search all the time. I see it in Target, Barnes and Noble, flea markets. It's everywhere. Of course, there's a lot missing from that kind of picture. [00:42:04] (38 seconds)  #UbiquitousButIncomplete