The Shepherd and the Sheep
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
May 7, 2006
Acts 4:5-12; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
Acts 4:5-12 The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
1 John 3:16-24 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.
And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.John 10:11-18 “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.”
I. BEGINNING
So, seniors. What do you know?
You’ve been here at college for four years, spent thousands of dollars on tuition. Taken 120 credit hours worth of classes, worked at internships and jobs along the way. Perhaps you’ve T.A.’ed. Perhaps you’ve R.A.’ed. But here you have spent nearly 20% of your lives in higher education and what do you have to show for it?
What do you know?
If you’re like other seniors who passed this way, probably not as much as you would have liked or expected. In many ways, you probably feel you knew more as a freshman than you do right now. (Don’t worry freshmen—you’ll understand that feeling before too long).
So here we are at the end of another year. A year full of papers and exams and projects and reports—all designed to discover how much you know. And before you know it, it’s over. And the summer follows and then for some of you: the Great Beyond.
And you’re likely feeling that you don’t know enough.
II. WHAT WE KNOW
What we know is definitely important. Especially in school. It’s how they rank us. How they grade us. By what we know and what we’re able to demonstrate we know. If you’re lucky, you’ll get one of those professors who doesn’t care what you know—she’ll just want to see how you can think. In many ways, that comes in handier in the long run.
But for four years now, you’re judged by what you know (or what you can remember of that, anyway). What we know is important in our lives when we’re college students, but is what we know important in our lives as Christians?
Perhaps some of you have heard about the recent publication of The Gospel of Judas. It has received a lot of press lately, and is probably capitalizing on the whole DaVinci Code I-know-the-church-is-hiding-something-from-us belief popular among many Christians. The Gospel of Judas purports to be written by the disciple Judas Iscariot and is an alternate telling of Jesus’ last days on earth. It claims that alone among Jesus’ disciples, Judas understood what Jesus was teaching and that because of this, Jesus asked Judas to arrange for Jesus’ crucifixion, in order that he might be killed and liberated from the flesh that clothes him. That being said, there aren’t really any surprises in the Gospel of Judas, because the text is a thoroughly Gnostic text and espouses a Gnostic theology.
The Gnostics were a sect in early Christianity who believed that the world had been created by a lesser deity, not by the One True God. This lesser deity had imprisoned human beings in bodies of flesh. The One True God sent Jesus to bring the message of salvation. People are saved by receiving and coming to understand this secret knowledge, this gnosis, that we are spiritual beings trapped in physical bodies. Possessing this knowledge means that upon death we will be liberated from our fleshly prison and we’ll return to the spiritual realm.
This view of salvation was condemned in the early church as heresy. For a number of reasons. First, because it claimed that another god had created the world. Second, because it claimed that material existence was wicked and denied the resurrection of the body. Christianity, like Judaism before it, affirmed the goodness of the creation and of embodied existence. It also tended to view women as second class people, because they were “earthier”—they bore children—and were more material.
But you’d be surprised how long Gnosticism has stuck around in one form or another. Sure, it is not as developed as ancient Gnosticism, and doesn’t call itself that, but it is an enduring problem for the Church. The idea that we are saved by what we know has been a hard one to shake.
There’s always someone who’ll try to get you to understand the secrets of Christian faith. Someone who’ll tell you that you need toknow the truth. We are so constantly bombarded by this idea in other realms of our lives, that it is hard to shake this idea.
But our salvation is not dependent on what we know.
III. WHO WE KNOW
Is it dependent on whom we know?
That’s another popular idea. Especially here in Washington. Connections are important. Getting to know people. “Networking”. Name-dropping is a real problem in this town, if you haven’t noticed. “Oh, the other day I was at a reception talking to Ted Kennedy when Nelson Mandela came up and asked for a pen. I not only gave him my pen, but my e-mail as well and he said he’d be in touch.”
If you haven’t heard that kind of thing yet, you will.
The world can have you easily convinced that life is one long series of connections and relationships that are only as good as they are useful toward one’s own advancement. In fact, you’ll often hear people say things like, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Is that true for us as Christians as well?
IV. THE ONE WHO KNOWS US
No. Christianity is not about what we know, as the Gnostics claim. It’s not really about who we know as the Beltway insiders claim. It’s about the one who knows us.
But who is this one?
In tonight’s Gospel lesson, we read Jesus saying:
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.
Jesus is the good shepherd. The pastor of our flock. The gate that allows the sheep to come in. The shepherd who cares for us. The shepherd who is willing to lay his life down for the sake of the sheep.
We are saved not by what we know. Or who we know. Or anything to do with us. But by the One who is our good shepherd. Who lays his life down for the sheep.
V. THE FLOCK
That’s us. The sheep. In the words of the Psalmist, “We are God’s people and the sheep of God’s pasture.” We are the flock. The church.
Our identity as that people of God, that flock of Christ, cannot be separated from who Christ is. [1]. That is, we are a community that lives out the love between God and Jesus. As Jesus said, “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”
We are that flock—that community formed of the same love that is shared between the Father and the Son, between God and Jesus, and that is shared between God and us, and among us. That is what it means to be a part of the flock of Christ.
Now, those of you among us who graduate this year, may feel like you are being separated from our little flock here. This has been your pasture, for lack of a better term, for the past four years. And it may feel like you are being separated from the rest of the flock.
In reality, you remain connected because we are all part of the same people. We remain connected through the bonds of love that we share. And even years down the road, the community that you have been a part of, the community that you have given so much to, the community that has become so dear to you, will still carry with it the love that you have shared with the community. You will have left a mark on this community because of the love and devotion you have given to God and to one another.
You will join with all those who came before you, whose love helped to form this community and shape it for you, and whose ranks you will join as you depart, leaving this community shaped by your love for those who are to come. Your names will be added to the list of those who have forged this community with their love of God and dedication to Christ: Taylor Walters. Chrissy Lindstrom, Chris Slatt, Bradford Cheney, Lou Belsito, Stuart Denyer, Erin Trouth, Erin Taylor, Amber Pezan, Kate Moore, Kate Boustead, Katie Schroepfer, Dennis Rowe, Nathan Brownback, Holly Masters, Roza Guillaume, Danielle Dickey, Sidney Traynham, Ariel Schwarz, Gussie Abrahmse, Kim McClain, Bryan Colombo, Jason Reimer, Velda Jones, Sarah Anderson, Allen Hays, Patrick Elliott, Eileen Barber, Eileen Hassett, Emily Randle, Erica Benjamin, Jessica Dillon, Jennifer Arver, Kate von Richthofen, Colin Mattoon, Laura Goodman, Shawna Perko, Thaddina Wiley, and so many others.
For in reality, we are part of a much bigger whole. As Jesus said in the lesson tonight, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” It is a reminder that the people of God are not only those in one community or place.
You may depart from this place, from this fold—whether for a summer or for the next stage of your life—but you will never depart from this flock. You will always be a part of this community and this community will always be a part of you, because the connection we share has little to do with availability and presence but with a connection we all share through Christ.
VI. END
Four years goes a lot faster than we might have thought. And the knowledge we gained fades faster than we would like—particularly given the price we paid for that knowledge. And times and seasons change, people come into and out of our lives. And we can feel uncertain about the future, unsure of what it is we know, what it is we can be certain of, what it is that endures.
But we can be sure of one thing: the love of God endures. It does not pass away. And it is in that love that we were formed. In that love that we were redeemed, and in that love that we are sustained. It is in that love that we are brought into bonds of fellowship. It was that love that made us into a community.
We are the flock of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who lays his life down for the sheep. Who “knows his own” whose own know him just as he knows the Father and is known by the father. It is this knowledge that matters—that knowledge that is a knowledge of relationship.
Just as we have been known by God in love and know God in love, we know one another in love. And that love will continue to unite us though the miles between us be long and the years pass quickly. We will never pass from the heart of God or from the hearts of one another.
Notes
[1] NIB, Vol IX, p. 673
