Sermon, April 25, 2021

 April 25, 2021                         John 10: 11-18                        Rev. Peter Hofstra

            A little over a thousand years before this was written, there was a young man who entered into the army of Israel to fight a giant.  The giant’s name was Goliath and he was the tank of the Philistines.  Every morning, he would get up, come out to the no man’s land between the armies of Israel and Philistia and issue a challenge.  Single combat and to the victor go the spoils.  Nobody in Israel’s army was willing to take up the challenge.  Until this young man.  His basic attitude is “If God is with you, who can be against you?”  King Saul certainly admires the young man’s moxie, but he needs a little more than that.  It is only the entire war that is at stake here. 

            So the young man offers his resume.  He is a shepherd by trade, and he guards his father’s flocks.  Out there, in the wilderness, on his own, lions and tigers and bears, oh my…well, lions and bears-bigger and nastier than the stereotypical wolf that goes after sheep, lions and bears have gone after the flock and he has fought them off.  That is enough for Saul.  So against the Philistine tank you have this Israeli recruit, armed with a BB gun. 

            The result?  To quote the title of a book about the history of snipers, “One Shot, One Kill”.  Except this was not the lore of the sniper.  This was the lore of the Old West, where the two gunmen faced off at high noon.  The Shepherd versus the Giant.  David versus Goliath. 

            From there, David goes on to become the Warrior King of Israel, the man known for his faith in God.  And God makes a promise to David.  A descendant of his will be the ultimate king to sit on the throne of the Jews.  Even after the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are wiped off the map, there is that promise, a shoot from the stump of Jesse (Jesse being David’s father) will arise.  They call him the Messiah, the one to save His people. 

            In American mythology, we might call him the lawman in the wild western town.  In the mythos of the Jews in the time of Jesus, it was the Shepherd.  And Jesus has just stepped into that role.  “I am the Good Shepherd, Jesus says, The Good Shepherd lays down his life for His sheep.”  When the wolf comes along, says Jesus, and the wolf will come along, the hired man is going to run for his life.  If you listen closely while he is running away, you will probably hear something like, “They don’t pay me enough for this…”

            “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus repeats, “I know my own and my own know me.”  And it is not just the power of a man, it is the power of God.  My Father knows me and I know my Father.  And I lay down my life for my sheep.  Thus, the Good Shepherd is invested with the power of God and comes to us in the Promise of Easter.

            But it is not just some particular sheep Jesus is talking to in the moment, the Jews of the first century, but its for all of us!  ^“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.” 

            So we move from David, One Shot, One Kill, to Jesus, One Flock, One Shepherd.  And his death was not in vain.  Jesus did not die the way Goliath did, once and forever.  Rather,  ¹⁷For this reason (the reason being that Jesus gives his life for us) the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No 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.’

            One Flock, One Shepherd.  Knowing this, understanding this, being prepared to live into this, is doubly important today because we have the sacrament of baptism that we are carrying out.  In a few minutes, these parents, godparents, this entire gathered body of believers, we are all going to make a vow, a promise, to raise this child to know the Good Shepherd. 

            Because this is the basis of our understanding of Jesus Christ as a Presbyterian congregation.  We believe Jesus has created a covenant with us, as God created covenants with God’s people across the bible.  This covenant is bound by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died on the cross for us, He rose again from the dead for us, and in so doing, he brought to us the gift of salvation, the gift of eternal life, the gift of the forgiveness of sins, each and every one of which is the gift of God’s love extended to us.  The act of baptism itself, according to the New Testament, is passing from death to new life as a reminder of Jesus’ own death and resurrection. 

            And this covenant, this Bible word I am throwing around, this covenant is the promise that we make to God and the promise God makes to us.  The Lord shall be our God, and we shall be God’s people.  And this is how we promise to raise our children, in this faith, in this promise.  The way that our system is set up is that there will be a time in the future, a time through which we have raised our children in the promises, in the knowledge, in the learnings of Jesus and what Jesus has done for us, there is a time when our young people will stand before the congregation and they will confirm to us that they take up these promises for themselves.  What I have told my confirmation classes in the past is that this is the moment when, if it hasn’t happened already, this place goes from being their parent’s church to their church. 

             Now I could go into several hours’ worth of material on what it means to be baptized into the community of faith.  But I know you have a place booked for a reception.  So lets stay with our passage in John. 

            Jesus talks about the wolf coming in, hunting for the sheep.  We are the sheep.  Jesus is our protector.  The wolf is out there to hunt us down.  Notice Jesus does not invoke any apocalyptic imagery here about Satan or devils or the forces of evil that are out to get us.  They are certainly out there, but Jesus is not being nearly so…supernatural about things.

            Consider this pandemic. 

            What is the worst possible outcome?  That we lose somebody.  COVID is the wolf that kills us.  It could be due to the disease itself, it could be because the restrictions left our loved one vulnerable, for whatever reason.  In the resurrection of Jesus, we have the promise of a New Life, life eternal, in the Kingdom of God, where there is no crying, no pain, no tears, no suffering.  And we have our Lord Jesus who does NOT stand aloof to tell us, “They are fine, get over it.”  We have a Savior who knows us by name, who will be with each of us in our pain, who will cry with us, who will hold us, who will journey with us through our grief. 

            Or we know someone who’s suffered the debilitating effects of this disease.  It can affect lungs, heart, our organs, doing damage to them.  It looks like my cousin is going to have lifelong damage from this disease.  What does that mean for us as Christians?  It is probably not going to mean a miraculous cure-but it might.  That is not a promise made to a believer.  But we do have a community that surrounds us.  We have people who can pray for us.  We have a God who still loves us.  You know that verse that people quote, the one about God not giving you more than you can handle?  Let me clarify that.  It is from 2 Corinthians 10: 13, which says, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”

            That is a subtle, but incredible difference.  There is NOT a promise that we will always defeat the wolf.  The wolf may attack us and leave us for dead, and it may be God coming in person to scrape us off the very bottom of the rock as the way we endure it.

            Have you noticed that we are well passed the goodwill portion of this disaster?  When something bad happens, our first human response is to come together, to help and care and do what it takes, to open our hearts and wallets to our neighbors in need.  But one thing I know from working as a chaplain in emergency response is that there is a boomerang effect.  There comes a time when the charitable and opening hearts of giving begin to close. 

            How about the wolf of division after our first national ability to come together to fight this pandemic?  We see troubles over masks and social distancing, conflicts between entire states.  Enough is enough is enough.  What we have done here is intentionally model what we have been instructed is proper COVID response behavior.  It gets to be a pain, I will readily accept that.  But for love of neighbor, for the protection of my friends and church family, to do that which Jesus has commanded in His law is what we are here to do.  That is doubly important on a day like this, with the baptism and the larger presence than the usual.

            That is on the preventative side.  How about the wolf inside us?  When we lose it? And we will.  This pandemic has been a year of imposition.  Someone snaps at someone else.  Someone takes a stand for their perceived rights not to have to do something, or to enforce what they think somebody else has to do.  Tempers flare, words are spoken, hopefully no more than that.  We have the gift of forgiveness from our Lord Jesus Christ for these sins that we have committed.  We have the capacity, no, the duty to confess our sins and ask forgiveness, or grant it in turn.  And Jesus does add a bit of a stick here.  How we judge others shall be how we, ourselves are judged in turn. 

             What we are promising, individually and as a congregation this morning, is that we will teach Dallas everything we can about the Good Shepherd so the wolf will not overwhelm him.  And if all of this sounds overwhelming, if there is anyone here feeling like they are so far from Jesus that they do not know where to begin, remember that prayer of invitation.  Dear Lord, please come into my heart today.  If you love the Lord, but you are feeling a little thin on what it means to be the Lord’s own, find that family of faith.  The world can be a big, sinful, dangerous place, there are a lot of wolves out there.  But we have the promise of Jesus, who died to fulfill it.    One Flock, One Shepherd.  He will never leave us on our own.  Amen.