"The Good Shepherd"

Scripture: John 10:11-18
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: May 7, 2006

A few years ago I was driving east on the I-10 on my way to Palm Springs.   I was taking a van load of people on our way to a Presbytery meeting.   I was driving down the freeway about 70 miles an hour (well, I should say about 65 miles an hour) when I knew that I needed to change lanes to make my exit.   I put on my indicator, looked into the rear-view mirror and the side mirror then turned to look over my right shoulder.   The lane was clear.   But as I started to move over, at about 85 miles an hour...I mean, 65 that is, someone in the van shouted out, "No, Ross."   I quickly changed my course and stayed in the lane.   Just then a sports car whizzed by me in the right lane going well over a hundred miles an hour.   He was evidently in my blind spot and seemed to come out of nowhere.

I immediately realized how tragic that collision would have been.   His speed, well over 100 miles per hour, would have hit the back end of my vehicle, going 95 miles an hour...I mean 65...   It would have clipped the back end of the van, sending us spinning on the freeway and it possibly would have flipped the passenger van upside down.   I'm certain that a fatality or more would have occurred.   Have you ever had an experience like that?...a close call where you faced certain death if it were not for the actions of another person?   Have you ever found yourself amazed at what could have been and how fortunate you were?

But in this instance, someone was "watching my back".   Someone was there with me shouting "No!"   I needed someone at that point in my life.   As I get older in life, I am realizing how often I need someone there with me.   I need a person, or people, to watch my back.   Do you?

That's what the Church is all about.   We're all in the same vehicle and, at any particular moment, we need to depend on one another.   Jesus came to establish a community of people who would represent true fellowship and God's love.   He even believed the world would know that His followers were Christians because of their love for one another.   And so He use the image of a flock throughout His ministry.   It is the image of sheep in a field.   They were made for community.   They were made to be with one another.   We are also made that same way.

Imagine what would happen to sheep if one was left by itself!   It would be left to wander alone.   It would be left to get lost or even worse, fall victim to the predators.   Sheep need someone to watch their back.   They need a flock.    We also need one another.   It's the way we were created.   Who is watching your back?

Several years ago I had a conversation with a man whom I hadn't met before.   I'll never forget that conversation.   Somehow our discussion turned into the very subject of people.   During one moment the man looked squarely into my eyes and said, "Well I don't need anyone in life.   I have never needed anyone and I don't need anyone now.   If I ever did need someone in the future it would only be a sign of my weakness.   I'm teaching my son never to become dependent on anyone.   I want him to grow up responsible as an individual.   He doesn't need anyone and the sooner he knows that the better."

So I asked him what purpose other people played in this life and he said, "People are there to live their own lives.   Our contact with them should be a lesson to us to learn that we don't need them."   When I said that I didn't believe that anyone was an island he shot back, "Bah.   I'd be as happy as I could be whether I was on an island now or not.   I don't need people...to be successful means that I can do it all by myself."

We left our conversation that day and I felt a little sorry for him.   People were just individuals?   His wife overheard the conversation and seemed a bit surprised that he even took the time to engage me in this dialogue.  

A few months later, this man's wife called me.   She was crying on the phone and told me that she remembered the conversation I had with her husband.   Through her tears she said that her husband had developed cancer.   He was a mess.   He couldn't work anymore and they were beginning to lose everything.   She asked if I could help and I knew that it had taken this woman a lot of courage to come to this point of asking for help.   What she was saying was that she agreed with me.   We do need others.  

I asked her what her husband thought about her calling for help.   "Oh," she said, "he doesn't know that I'm calling you.   We're losing everything but I hoped I could turn to you.   He isn't able to pull us out of the situation and I can't get that through to him."   I told her that he was going to find out at some point and probably soon.   "I know," she said.   "By the end of the month he'll know.   But, while he's in treatment for his cancer, I just can't tell him that the bills aren't getting paid...and now, we're facing our utilities being turned off.   Can you help me pay our electricity bill and, if you can, would you keep this silent from him?   I don't know where else to turn."  

I found some support to help cover their bill. I couldn't bear to think of this woman and their young son thrown out into the streets even though her husband would keep living the lie that we don't need anyone.   I really wanted him to experience this lesson in life for his own happiness and hoped that he would be free from the deception that bound him.

A few months later I saw the man again.   The cancer was in remission and he was back on his feet, back to good health.   I asked him how he was doing and he said, "Fine.   See, I don't need anyone."   "With all due respect," I said, "you need God.   I'll be praying for you."

One of the saddest things in life, I believe, is to think that you don't need anyone.   I wonder what this man's hurt was that he couldn't admit that we're all in this world together?   What pain he must have gone through to spend his life in solitude, without any comfort from another individual.   We can't do life alone.   Even if we didn't make any mistakes we still need others.   We need a flock.   That's the image Jesus gives us in our passage.   We were created to be with one another.

When God created all things we find that God made a great plan in the book of Genesis.   God made all creation, the lights in the heavens, the waters on the earth and above the earth, the sea and dry land.   Then, when God made the animals, he made them in pairs, male and female.  

But on the sixth day God created a man, Adam.   When God looked at all the animals, he saw their pairs and said, "Good!"   Then God looked at Adam and saw him alone and said, "Not good."   From Adam God created Eve, then when Eve was created God said, "Great!...very, very good!"   Then God blessed Adam and Eve and called them "Adam" because they were one.   It wasn't until one had another that God considered it good.   We need each other.   It's the way God created the world.   When we are with each other, it is very good.

The world is in isolation.   The Church is called to live in community.   When the world sees the Church, you and me together, the world is supposed to see God's creation.   When we choose to live in isolation we align ourselves to the world which is dying.   When we choose to live in community, we live in the Church and we receive life.

It takes courage to trust one another, but the more we trust one another, the more we live the mystery of creation; the more we represent the image of God.   Jesus assumed that we'd live in a flock.   He also assumed that the flock would not just get along with one another but that it would take care of one another.   What it takes to live in the flock is courage.   It means abandoning all that we've learned in isolation and trusting one another with our very lives.  

I know it's a hard thing to do but you see, you're watching my back.   I have faith in you and I will do whatever I can to confirm your faith in me.   That's what the Church is all about.   Without that trust we are nothing.   We don't need to simply get along with one another.   We need to graze with one another as sheep and commit our very lives to each other because it is a commandment that our Shepherd gives for the journey to the Sheepfold.   In other words, we don't have a choice in this matter.   We either have fellowship and love for one another or we don't belong to Jesus' flock.   We all get to heaven as a group.   Jesus doesn't take us to Heaven one by one because we can't get along with one another.

We go to Heaven with the other sheep so we would better to learn to trust because it's a long journey ahead.   We better learn to become friends because there is nothing worse than having two siblings sitting in the back seat of a car bickering with one another while the father is driving, saying, "stop touching me...daddy, she hit me...daddy, she's making fun of me...daddy, daddy, daddy ...oops, sorry, I turned the image of the Church into a ride with my children.   Sometimes there is a bit of truth between the family of God and the bickering children in a car, isn't there?   Can't we kids just get along?   Can't we learn to be the bigger person and set an atmosphere of maturity?

Do you know what happens when you begin to treat another with respect?   Before long, they learn how to respect.   Do you know what happens when you begin to trust someone?   They begin to trust back.   Like begets like.   The way we view others changes others.

An old sage was sitting by a road one day.   A man came up to him and said, "Sir, I am entering this village here to take up residence.   What are the people like?"   "Well," said the old man, "how were the people from the village in which you came?   "Oh," replied the traveler, "they were terrible.   They were the meanest, selfish people the world has ever known."   "Well," said the sage, "so are the people in this village. The man passed down the path of the village and continued on.

Another man passed down the same path.   He said to the wise old sage sitting by the side of the road, "Excuse me, sir.   I am looking to take up residence in this town.   What are the people like?"   "Well," said the old sage, "What were the people like in the town in which you came?"   "Oh," the new traveler said, "they were the most honorable, loving people the world has ever seen.   I am sorry to have to leave them."   "Well," said the wise old man, "the people of this town are exactly the same way."

How can it be?   How can the people of the same village be all wicked or all good?

What we're looking for in others will determine what we find.   I have learned in my life that people are good and can be trusted.   I do believe in the depravity of humankind.   But I also believe in the One who changes lives and destroys evil wherever His presence is welcomed.   I believe people of the flock can be trusted because the live in the shadow of the Good Shepherd.   What are you looking for in them?

When John Wesley was six years of age he was on top of his house one night.   The house was on fire.   As the flames and the smoke rose in front of him blocking all vision, he heard his father's voice calling, "John, jump.   I know you can't see me, but I can see you and that is all that matters.   Jump!"   John Wesley jumped from the roof and lived.   His father caught him and he learned what faith was all about.   Friends, we need to have our arms open wide declaring, "Trust me.   I won't let you down.   I would rather die than let you down.   I know that I'll fail you from time to time, but only in moments.   I am so committed to you that if you walk in forgiveness when I fail, we'll experience the end of the journey together where the little failures along the way won't abort the trip if we don't let them.   I'm watching your back.   I've got you covered.   Jump!

I know that you've been hurt by trusting others.   I have too.   But I need to find those people who will catch me when I fall.   You see I would rather have the faith to trust others and get hurt than never to experience the faith to trust another.   If you let me down, I'll get hurt.   But if I don't trust you, I'll die .   We were created to be with one another.   If I dare to make the attempt to see God, I have to look to you first, to find that image of God in which you and I were created.  

That's true to my experience in life.   I have only seen the face of God on others who follow God.   While I can notice God's presence in everyday life, I can only see the image of God when I see it on your face.   I have seen God.   As I learn to trust you and you me, I have seen His face.   Your face glows with God's glory.

And that face, when I look close enough, is the face of the Good Shepherd. The greatest compliment I have ever heard in my life is this: "Ross, I see Jesus in you."   I live for that compliment.   All the other compliments are nice.   But when people say that they have seen God by experiencing me that's all I could ever hope.   But the only way they can see the Good Shepherd is if I'm in the flock and living in the shadow of the very presence of Jesus.  

  A mysterious thing takes place when we follow the Good Shepherd; we become just like Him.   If it wasn't for this reason, my trust in you would be foolish.   Your trust in me would be lunacy.   But, if the Good Shepherd lives within me and lives within you, I know that when I choose to abandon my loneliness and isolation I can find the community for which my heart desires.   I want to know what Adam and Eve knew when they were in perfection.   I want to know what they knew about the relationship between one and another.   What was it like to be one?   Jesus knew.   He and His Father were one.   His prayer is that you and I would be one just as He and His Father were one.

You can only experience that oneness when you trust another.   Who is there for you when you're sick?   Who is nurturing you?   Who is challenging to do better things?   Who is training you?  

Do you know the Good Shepherd?   You can't project His image on others if He doesn't live within you.   If you're standing outside the flock this morning come and be a part of a people who love the Good Shepherd and know His care.   The alternative is to stand in isolation and face the dangers of the wilderness all by yourself.   Come, give yourself to the Good Shepherd.   He has already extended the invitation.   Come.  

The saddest moment in history was when the Creator needed someone.   Jesus, who set all things in motion, spent His life being abandoned.   Then at His lowest point, just before His crucifixion and following, He watched as every one of His friends left Him alone.   He begged them not to leave His side, even just while He prayed.   But they left.  

Then Jesus was abandoned by His Father.   "My God, My God, why have YOU forsaken Me?"     This, Jesus knew, was to fulfill God's love so the Father would never have to abandon ANYONE else.   It was the plan. He went through that loneliness so no one would ever have to go it alone.   Do you know that you will never really be abandoned?   God loves you so much that He exchanged His loneliness for yours.   If you, when you're lonely, and you just might be this morning, dare to risk an exchange, God will take that loneliness and isolation for the presence of His Spirit and the fellowship of His people.  

            Come and know the Good Shepherd!

            Come and know His sheep!

You'll know when you're outside the flock because of the feeling of being all alone.   Do you need a community to belong to? - A community that will love you and stand with you through all the trials in life? -   A community who will watch your back"?

I need you.   I believe you need me.   I love meeting people and learning all about them.   But I love even more the opportunities that come when I meet people who have the courage to take the risk of getting to know me and allowing me to get to know them.   I won't let you down at least not intentionally.   I guess that's what I despised so much about the lonely man I told you about at the beginning; he didn't need me and he didn't think that I needed him.   That, to me, is the antithesis of life...because life is about needing one another.  

Come.   The Good Shepherd is calling you to move away from the lonely fields and come to the good grounds where you can feed.   Run with us.   Eat with us.   Learn about the Shepherd with us and journey with us to the home of our Heavenly Father.

These are only the fields for now.   But the path of the Good Shepherd is the only way home and the Shepherd is the only One who knows how to get home.  

Take a moment of silence with me to renew your trust in the Good Shepherd.   Then take a moment of silence with me to renew your trust to each one of us, His sheep.