May 11, 2003 - Fourth Week After Easter

Sermon preached by Father Armand John Kreft
Associate Rector for Family Ministry
Episcopal Church of St Paul in the Desert
Palm Springs, California

Jesus said "I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down their life for the sheep. The one who is a hireling ... leaves the sheep and flees."

Good Shepherd Sunday. For most of us this conjures up a very pastoral picture. We've all seen the holy cards of Jesus holding a little lamb over his arm and sheep looking up adoringly. It's all very bucolic and serene. Well, I've worked on a sheep ranch and it's not like that at all. It's long hours, it's dirty and smelly...and the sheep are not grateful.

Recently, a long time friend of mine and her husband left San Francisco where they were raised and bought a ranch in New Mexico. There they have cattle and sheep, chickens and the like. Neither one had ever lived outside of the city before. Prior to going off to the ranch, my friend took courses in husbandry and farming. All very textbook. Then came reality. A stillborn calf left in the mountains for the buzzards, the mother cow not regaining health quickly enough. She too is about to die. They learn to give injections, they learn that there are no days off on a ranch. They are working hard. The closest neighbor is three miles away.

On the other hand, I have a priest friend in London who, with his companion, own a sheep ranch in the north of England. They go there for relaxation. To them mucking about in wellingtons, corralling sheep is fun and different from the church work , well not all that different, but it is different from their business in the city.

Because we have appropriated a hallmark card image of what a shepherd is, we have lost the true metaphor that Jesus was using in this speech. We are not a rural culture and have neither first hand knowledge of what a shepherd is or what Jesus was referring to when he called himself good. Donald Messer writes in his book, Contemporary images of Christian Ministry: "When Jesus was criticized for hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, this was not referring to those disreputable people who failed to observe the commandments of God, but also to those who were engaged in "despicable trades." Biblical scholars now say that "sinners" was a term used to describe those engaged in those despised trades. So far from being a noble profession, according to the scholars, the job of being a shepherd in first century Palestine was one of the most despised trades, along with gamblers, usurers and publicans.

Far from being viewed as reliable and responsible, shepherds were habitually known to graze on other people's lands and to pilfer the produce of the herd. Shepherds, like tax collectors and publicans, had no civil rights nor could they witness in court. It was forbidden to buy wool, milk or a kid from a shepherd because it was widely assumed that it would be stolen property.

Jesus, by deliberately choosing to identify himself with a despised trade was standing again with the acknowledged sinners and outcasts of his culture. What outraged the religious leaders of his time, as it does in our own time now, was not his message of God's love, but his insistence, and now ours, on the inclusiveness of God's love, that no one was beyond God's redeeming grace."

Jesus called himself the good shepherd just as he called the samaritan good. He contrasted the good shepherd who cared for the sheep with the hireling who is just employed to take care of them. Not investing anything of themselves in their charge. The shepherd does not own the sheep. The shepherd is not just an employee like the hireling. The shepherd probably has a debt or has a duty to the master of the flock. Jesus claims that a good shepherd will die for their charges while a paid employee flees in the face of wolves.

We are called to be shepherds together. As such and as members of the flock this means we are willing to commit ourselves to a relationiship with Jesus Christ, with all that that entails, our failings as well as our successes. We commit to embrace our united humanity, our time and talents and our treasures, enough to share. My commitment and yours as good shepherds means we won't run away if the wolves come to us or the going gets tough. It means we have committed ourselves for this journey. Yes, we will all move on in God's time.

For us to act as the good shepherd we allow ourselves to put aside a life of selfishness and personal agenda.. As the good shepherd we invite others to explore a new life, new thoughts, new ways of living. Because of you people are aware of inclusiveness, more aware of social action, more aware of the hurt and anger we have for the humiliation done to us in the name of Jesus Christ. Because of you, others are invited to explore their own hurts, their own failings, their own search for intimacy, and have widened their vision of the kingdom of God. But also because of you they have been able to see the good things in their lives in abundancy.

From each other we draw the strength to continue to speak out against those who use our Scriptures as weapons of exclusion. From each other we draw courage to speak of welcome to all people to the church. From each other we call the institutional church to repentance for its past wrongs and sins against the people of God and against God's creation. As a shephered, from your counselings, your confessions, from our conversations filled with a myriad of emotions: laughter, anger, despair I see the life of Jesus lived over and over again... the needless crucifixions we put ourselves through and the glory-filled resurrections of many. The clergy here, as good shepherds, gather you and try to lead you home, even as we are finding our own way ... moving not so much from knowledge but of the sense, the feeling of the holy into the direction of the heavenly New Jerusalem where the gates stand open to receive all people. Where there is neither sighing nor weeping.

We are all called to be the shepherds of the flock. I know my own and my own know me. Would you lay down your life for the flock?

Being a shepherd is not an easy job, just as my friend found out in New Mexico. Sometimes it is a struggle as we wrestle with someone who will not let go of their problems long enough to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Or the heartbreak of saying a final goodbye to one of our own and to gather us who remain and keep us walking on that journey, somehow looking for words that will not only comfort us, but give us true courage to continue on.

But like my friends in New Mexico, this new life is ours because we choose to lay down our old life for the most refreshing, exciting and fulfilling life. Good shepherds lay down their lives for their sheep because they want to. Each of you are called to be a good shepherd in your own life. And you will be called, by God, to lay down some part of your life to follow Jesus.

For some it may be a drastic change of careers. It may be downsizing a complex lifestyle. It may mean setting aside your own idea of church and truly becoming a part of this community. It may mean to just let go. Let go of all the past hurts and wrongs, the despair and the anger, and embrace a new life filled with hope. Hope that what you are doing will make a difference not only to those around you, but somehow will make a difference in the kingdom of God. To lay down your life may mean to become holy ... that is authentic and genuine, reflecting the goodness of the Savior, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for you first.

We will all be given a choice. To take on the role of the hireling or the shepherd. To look to your life fearlessly. See where you have run away in the past. Heal those wounds by whatever means necessary, because Jesus calls you to be whole. And then to choose, to lay down your life to the past and embrace the new life, the life of the good shepherd or to take your wages as a hireling without committment, without dedication, without love and run away as fast as you can. Jesus asks us to make this choice everyday. And the choice is yours to make and all choices have consequences.