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 good shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and runs away – and the wolf snatches and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because the hired hand does not care about 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. I lay down my life for the sheep. There are other sheep who are not part of this fold. I must bring them along also and they will listen to my voice. So that there will be one flock, one shepherd.

“For this reason the Father loves me, because I am willing to lay down my life and take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my father.”

In addition to it being the Fourth Sunday of Easter, today is also, often called, in many places “Good Shepherd Sunday,” where churches all over the world hear some bit of this portion of John’s Gospel where Jesus waxes poetic about his identity as “the Good Shepherd.”

It’s a popular image, I suspect most of us have seen or heard of before: Jesus, with livestock draped over his shoulders. There are paintings and stained glass windows showing as much. There are a few “Good Shepherd” and “Our Shepherd” Lutheran Churches right here in Indianapolis. I was baptized at a Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, in Vickery, Ohio. But I often struggle with what to say about it – or what new thing to say about it – I guess. On one hand it seems like such an obvious cliché. On the other hand, I’ve never met a shepherd, so…

So, today might seem like a stretch. It’s not the first time you’ve heard that from me, and it won’t be the last, but I found myself wondering about “the hired hand” that Jesus mentions in this morning’s Gospel, this time around, as a way of wondering differently about “the Good Shepherd,” too.

Well, here’s “the stretch.” Jesus’ mention of how “the hired hand” doesn’t know or care about the sheep…? How the “hired hand” sees the wolf coming and runs away – leaving the sheep to be snatched and scattered because the “hired hand” doesn’t care about the sheep, in the same way the Good Shepherd does…?

All of that reminded me of George Costanza. (I told you it was a stretch, but after last week – with Jeannie’s fall and all of my waterworks about my Father-in-Law – I thought we could use a laugh this morning, so I’m going with it.) Jesus’ talk about the “hired hand” made me think of this ridiculous bit of Seinfeld, where George Costanza is at a child’s birthday party.

In the show, George smells fire, sees smoke in the kitchen, and runs out of the party, knocking over a clown, an elderly woman with a walker, and pushes several children out of his way, trying to get to the door and escape to safety. He gets accosted by the clown, the party’s host, and emergency workers afterward where he tries, shamefully, to explain himself and defend his actions.

“The hired hand, who is not the good shepherd … sees the wolf coming and runs away…” “The hired hand runs away because the hired hand does not care about the sheep.” Okay. Funny stuff aside.

Part of what Jesus is saying – and had been trying to prove throughout his ministry – is that the world was and is filled with too many “George Costanzas.” I mean, too many “hired hands.” There were and are, it seems to me, too many pretending to share grace, to do God’s bidding, to be Messiah, Savior, GOD … but too many who can’t… who won’t… who don’t… none who could ever measure up to the fullness of love we know in Jesus, the one and only, real, Good Shepherd – which Good Friday’s cross and Easter’s empty tomb prove to be true. The Good Shepherd lays down his life, of his own accord, and takes it back up again, at the Father’s command – all to bring the whole wide world into the flock.

And it’s always helpful to notice where we are in the Bible (John, Chapter 10, remember) in relation to where we are in the church calendar on a day like today. I mean, we’re a few weeks after the resurrection – on the other side of that empty tomb – with the cross and crucifixion in the review mirror and the good news of Easter, hopefully, still ringing in our ears. But today’s Gospel reading takes us back a bit in the life and times of Jesus, just about halfway through John’s version of the story.

When Jesus was talking about the Good Shepherd, he was in the thick of things, but hadn’t made it to Calvary and the cross, just yet. At this point he was still pointing ahead to all of that, and the resurrection was just a pipe dream. Nevertheless, he had been busy…

He’d reluctantly turned water into wine at that wedding in Cana. He’d met secretly with Nicodemus and tried to answer all kinds of questions and curiosities about his status as the Son of Man, sent to save, not condemn, the world. He’d been baptizing like crazy, even more prolifically than John the Baptist, and attracted the suspicious attention of the Pharisees because of it. He’d had that conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well – the one who’d been married five times? – which raised a lot of eyebrows, in and of itself.

He’d saved the life of a royal official’s son, helped a lame man walk out of the healing pool in Jerusalem, fed 5,000 people on the side of a hill, saved the life of that woman who’d been caught in adultery, given sight back to a blind beggar, and, of course, there was all sorts of preaching and teaching and more in the meantime.

And THEN, today, he gets to this talk about sheep and hired hands and what it means to be a – to be THE – Good Shepherd.

All of this is to say, I think that – in the midst of his very prolific life and ministry but long before his death and resurrection – Jesus is still trying to prove who he is and how he came to be in the world. And he’s still trying to convince people – in advance of the crucifixion and long before the resurrection – that he was different … better … up to the challenge … faithful … the one they were waiting for, whether they knew it or not.

He was no hired hand. He was the real deal. He would not leave them orphaned, or scattered, or snatched from the grip of God’s grace. He wasn’t in this for himself. He was following God’s lead. He would answer God’s call. He was the one and only, Good Shepherd who could be trusted above all else.

And what was supposed to be their hope in advance of the resurrection is our hope, still, on the other side of the empty tomb. Jesus stands over and above the politicians, the pundits, the pastors, the powers-that-be – and even Tay Tay and all of her tortured poets.

What we have in this good and gracious shepherd is one who comes down, into our world and down into our lives with a love and a loyalty like the world doesn’t offer – a love and a loyalty none of us deserves. When we let that love guide us and when we follow where it leads, we’ll find ourselves never lost, but found; never scattered but gathered together; never snatched away or trampled underfoot, but lifted up, welcomed back, carried home to safety, joy, hope and peace in the very presence of God – no matter what tries to snatch us or scatter us along the way.

Amen

Matthew 5:1-12

When Jesus saw the crowd, he went up the mountain. He sat down and when he saw his disciples, he began to speak and he taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

The last time I referred to Seinfeld’s “Bizzaro World” episode had to do with Christ the King Sunday – not Jesus and his beatitudes – and it was before we had the capacity to watch TV clips in worship, so when it came to mind this time around, I couldn’t resist.

I couldn’t resist, because I can’t help thinking of this upside down, backwards kind of world that Jerry describes, when I hear the upside down, backwards kind of world Jesus describes, in his Sermon on the Mount. For Jerry – or Bizarro Superman, as it were – “yes” means “no,” “black” is “white,” “Hello” means “Goodbye,” and so on. And in the Bizarro Seinfeld world, Bizarro Jerry is kind and considerate, and a good friend. (Even though we like Jerry, it’s funny to remember that he was really none of those things…kind, considerate, and so on.) And Elaine’s new pals – counterparts to the George and Kramer I suspect most of you remember – live and behave in ways opposite from what Elaine would have expected, too.

But, as funny as all of that was, if you remember it, I don’t guess many people were laughing on the hillside with Jesus in this morning’s Gospel, if you can imagine it.

Because I think Jesus was proclaiming and promising nothing less than a new world order, if you will. Much like we hear from the Old Testament prophet Micah, with his talk about “doing justice, and loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God,” Jesus was proclaiming and promising that everything was to be different – that everything was different – that everything is different – in the Kingdom of God. And “different” is “difficult” for most of us, it seems to me.

Now, these “bizarro” blessings we hear about in Jesus’ sermon are pretty familiar to many of us. They’re popular enough that we’ve heard them before, if not in worship, or through whatever Bible studies we’ve been part of, we’ve probably heard them or seen them out there in the world at some point or another.

And because we’ve heard them so many times before, it can be easy to take their meaning for granted, or to forget how revolutionary they were – how powerful they are – for those who hear the fullness of the truth they mean to convey.

But, I think the most common misunderstanding about these beatitudes – and a trap I fall into myself sometimes – is to assume Jesus was laying out a list of pre-requisites for those who wanted to receive the blessings of God in their lives, as though God’s blessing is conditional upon however much purity, meekness, and hunger or thirst for righteousness a person could muster; as though Jesus is saying, “If you’re meek, then you’ll inherit the earth.” Or, “If you’re hungry, then you will be filled.” Or, “If you mourn, then you will be comforted.”

But the grace of God isn’t about pre-requisites. The grace of God is about promises. And Jesus is reminding his disciples – and he means to remind each of us – that the natural result of kingdom living, the natural consequence of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of meekness, of peacemaking, of persecution for the sake of righteousness, even – the end-result of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God – the end-result of lives lived in the ways of Jesus will be blessing, somehow, no matter how hard that is for us to believe.

And that’s hard to believe, because we live in a world where meek is not a winning characteristic. We live in a world where making peace means packing more heat or building a bigger arsenal. We live in a culture where we don’t even agree about what it means to “do justice” and where loving kindness and walking humbly are not admirable, or safe, a lot of the time.

And I can’t think about any of this these days, without thinking about the state of our nation’s politics right about now. And please bear with me, because there is a message here for every single one of us; it doesn’t matter if you were celebrating last Friday afternoon at our new President’s inauguration or if you were marching on Saturday in opposition to the new administration – there is room and reason for each and every one of us to heed these beatitudes, these instructions for Kingdom-living, as we move forward into whatever the future holds for us, as God’s people trying to figure things out with some measure of faith.

I saw a sign recently – I think it was on the wall in a teacher’s classroom, or on the wall of someone’s Facebook page, maybe – that asked: “Before you speak…Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?” I like that, for the classroom, for Bible study, for around the dinner table, and for anything we post on social media, too.

But I wonder if we couldn’t use Jesus’ beatitudes in a similar, more powerful way, yet, to inform our conversations and to guide us and to inspire us and to give us hope as we live into these days TOGETHER. Because, who among us doesn’t need a little guidance and hope and inspiration, right about now?

(And I think we’d be better off taking our cues from Jesus – not Kellyanne Conway or Madonna; Bill O’Reilly or Anderson Cooper; Tomi Lahren or Trevor Noah.)

So, “Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?”, yes. But even more…as we support our new President or challenge what he’s up to – and I think we should all be doing our best to do both of these things – support AND challenge – and I don’t believe that “supporting” and “challenging” need to be mutually exclusive endeavors. As we deliberate on our own or debate with our friends and family; as we discern what’s best, what’s next, what’s kind, true, necessary, whatever, let’s imagine ourselves on that hillside with Jesus and let’s ask ourselves, and each other:

Does it do justice? Does it love kindness? Does it walk humbly alongside our God? (And am I…doing justice? …loving kindness? …walking humbly?)

Does what we’re up to – as individuals, as a church, as a nation – comfort those who mourn? Is it meek and merciful? Does it hunger and thirst for righteousness? Does it make for peace? Does it lead, even, to our own persecution and suffering and sacrifice for the sake of what is right?

Because, unless our deliberations and our decisions, unless our policies and our practices lead to the blessing of others, they are not the ways of Jesus. As hard as it may be to hear… as counter-cultural as it is, in this day and age… the way of Jesus has never been a “me first” or a “we first” way of being. And yes, this is an upside down, backwards, “bizarro” way of life to which we are called. It is different. It is difficult. And it is not for the faint of heart.

But it is no more difficult… no more different… no more bizarre and backward than the abundant grace that is offered to the world, through the death, resurrection, and new life of Jesus Christ – where down is up; poverty is wealth; sins are forgiven; and light shines in the darkness; and death leads to life.

And when we can manage it – this kingdom kind of living – this humility, this mercy, this peace and justice, this loving kindness – we are blessed, much to our surprise, in ways that bless and change the world in his name.

Amen

Good Shepherds and Hired Hands

"Bizarro Beatitudes" - Matthew 5:1-12