Worship
for the Lord’s Day
May 3,
2020
A Note
before we begin this day’s worship:
Today, in our scripture reading, both
the Old and the New Testament readings talk about Jesus as the Good
Shepherd. We have the comforting and
enduring pastoral image of Psalm 23, and the analogy of the sheep at the gate
with the Gate Keeper.
Pennsylvania
is filled with these pastoral scenes of farmland, fences, gates, and
sheep. Although, pastoral images from
Israel are rockier than our own green and rolling hillsides in PA, recall these
images that I’m sure you’ve seen or do a google search for one. Keep this image in mind as you read through
the passages and sermon this morning.
Let’s
begin:
Opening
Prayer
God
of all the sheep, those who remain close to You and those who stray, those who
are always faithful and those who are lost: be with us today! Help us take a look at our lives and our
relationship to You. Bring us close,
draw us in, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name.
AMEN.
Prayer
of Confession
Patient
God, You know how easy it is for us to stray.
We stand at the gate and peer through.
We keep creating our own ways, believing that we know what is in our own
best interest, and we ignore the voice of the one Shepherd who will guide us to
peace and hope. We wander off so easily
and then wonder why we get so lost.
Forgive us, we pray. Help us stop
and listen to the Shepherd’s voice. Heal
our brokenness and our fears. Remind us
again that You lead us in gentle paths and by quiet waters – when the paths are
stony and the waves tumultuous, help us remember Your protection and Your care. Help us extend that same love and care to
others, for we ask this in Jesus’ Name. AMEN
Words
of Assurance
Jesus
said, “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” In so confessing, we have returned to the
Shepherd, the guardian of our souls who welcomes us with open arms and a glad heart. Know that the Shepherd of our lives never
abandons us, is always calling our name, and unfailingly loves and forgives us. Praise be to God. AMEN
Pastoral
Prayer
Merciful
and loving God, You call us Your beloved ones and you seek to protect us, but
we love to take risks, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Call to us again. Help us hear Your voice. Let us approach the gate of Your sheepfold
with confidence. Let us walk through
from our fears and doubts to lands of hope and peace, trusting in the Shepherd
who seeks us, guides us, welcomes us, and cares for us. In so many of our ways, we are stubborn; yet
You gently call our names, reminding us of Your eternal love. Gracious Lord,
help us place our trust in You. Give us
hearts of love and compassion for all our dear ones who suffer illness and any
adversity. Also, Savior of our Souls,
give us courage and boldness to reach out to others in confidence because of
Your love for us.
I lift my own prayers up to You now….
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever.
AMEN.
Scripture
Readings
Old
Testament Reading: Psalm 23
1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still
waters;
3he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s
sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you
anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
New
Testament Reading: John 10:1-10
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold
by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2The
one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The
gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his
own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out
all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know
his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run
from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus
used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was
saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I
tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me
are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I
am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out
and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and
destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Sermon
– Shepherd of Our Hearts
There
once was a marquis that said, “If someone asks if my cup if half full or half
empty, I just feel lucky to have a cup.” But the “abundant life” mentioned at the end
of the John passage for today, is more than just about having a cup, whether it
is half full or half empty. It can sometimes
be confused in Christians’ minds as being happy all the time, or being successful,
or having all the goods and services that the world has to offer.
The
Greek “abundantly” is perisson, meaning overflowing. Perhaps this is the same image that is meant
from Psalm 23, “my cup overflows”. If
there is an overflowing, an abundance, it’s not things or other measurables. It is instead, a life that is joyful, filled
with memories of loved ones, many hours and days spent with family and
friends. It can also be an overflowing
sense of God’s mercy in your life, an at-homeness with God, a realizing of
reconciliation with God and with one another.
Jesus is
the “good” Shepherd. The Greek, kalos,
can imply “beautiful.” Jesus is the
Beautiful Shepherd. Although I’ve enjoyed
paintings of that pastoral, beautiful Jesus, a meek and mild shepherd, real
shepherds are rough and tumble guys, hollering at sheep with a switch in hand. The text asks us to imagine a small stone wall
enclosure, with a just an opening at the gate. If we think of God and gates, the mistake is
to think we’re shutting somebody out or only protecting ourselves. The gate is an opening to let the sheep (or
people) come in. I like what C.S. Lewis
did with that wardrobe in his Narnia novels: You step through the door into
another world! In this story Jesus
tells, we imagine sheep safe in the fold during the night when harm might come
to them. I often hear people say that
they can be religious without the church. I have my doubts about that. The church is a sheepfold into which we enter
and from which we exit. It is a place of
security, a place of safety, a place of promise. Life is not easy. In the community of other sheep, going and
coming together, we find support for living.
When
people come to church (and I promise, people will come to church again!), do
they step through the doors to another world?
Do we provide enough difference from what people get in the “real world”
during our time of gathering on Sunday mornings or at other events of the
church? Do they feel protected and
encouraged? Do they feel safe and
secure?
It's
unlikely that many young people, if taking a personality inventory, would
choose "shepherd" as a career path. In fact, it's unlikely most of us have even
seen a shepherd, except perhaps in a picture or on television. It's not a common profession in our culture,
but in Jesus' day the work of the shepherd was well known. But Jesus often compared spiritual principles
to things found in the everyday life of his contemporaries. In this teaching, Jesus uses the imagery of a
shepherd to help us better understand how he relates to his followers.
Jesus'
story in John tells us that the shepherd shelters his sheep in the fold near
the house at night. Thieves and robbers
will climb over the wall, causing the sheep to bleat and scurry about. The shepherd knows that entry by the door of
the fold is calming to the sheep. The
sheep recognize their shepherd and respond with relief.
If
you’ve ever visited a farm or a ranch that has both cattle and sheep, you’ll
notice that these two different animals respond quite different to strangers on
the farm. When a stranger appears, cows
are curious but not anxious, they slowly look you over from head to toe, they
might even wander over to “check you out”. Sheep, on the other hand, run to safety until
they recognize someone familiar. The
good shepherd is deliberate, careful, cautious, caring. Those who sneak over walls really don't care
about the sheep.
We have
a shepherd who cares about us. In the
sight of Jesus Christ, we are more than a social security number. We are more than a picture on a driver's
license. We are more than the unused
balance on a credit card. We are more
than a statistic on a computer printout. We are known by God and cared for by our Lord.
We are the sheep he tends.
A story I heard about
another pastor:
“Pastor
Nancy, can you come over to our house this afternoon? I have something for you to see,” the excited
eight year old voice bubbled over the phone.
“I’ll be
there about two o’clock,” I replied.
“Thanks,
see you then,” and with that she hung up.
What could
make her so excited? The beautiful late
June day was a wonderful day to visit the Windy Hill Farm. The earth was awash in spring green and
flowering fruit trees. Dandelions dotted
the side of the dirt road as my car made its way to visit a very excited young
lady. Running from the doorway of the
house, Brittany was the epitome of joy and fun.
“Come
with me,” she said as she grabbed my hand, pulling me to a large sheep pen on
the side of the barn. You have to see
this. Her older sisters watched amusement
as she dragged me forward. There in the
pen were seven lambs. They were hers –
her first herd – her first opportunity to work with these lovely creatures. Carefully unlocking the gate, we entered the
pen.
“I have
names for all of them and they each know their names,” she boasted proudly
reciting all seven names.
“Watch
this.” She crossed to the furthest
corner of the pen and then turning toward the lambs she called each by
name. As these lambs heard their names
they came running toward her, crowding around the legs of their beaming
owner. All seven sheep responded
individually.
“Now,
watch this.” She extricated herself from
the little herd and went toward the gate.
“Come,
Come. It’s time to go.” And they all
came right to her.
I loved
that scene but what surprised me came next.
Her older sister, who was also one who raised sheep, went to the far
corner of the pen and she called to each of the lambs. Nothing happened. She called louder. Still there was no response from the
lambs. Then she shouted the phrase
“Come. Come. It’s time to go” and again nothing
happened. Her oldest sister tried the
same tactic, but this time added a special whistle to the commands, and she got
no response from the lambs. Then
Brittany went to another corner of the pen and called each by name and each one
came.
“See,
Pastor Nancy, they know their names and they know my voice. They won’t go to anyone else. I love my lambs and they know it.”
I have
never forgotten that lesson about sheep and some other words of “sheep behavior
information” given to me by this lovely eight year old.
The Good
Shepherd, Jesus, knows your name and calls to you. It is this same Good Shepherd who has stood
by you through all the trials and tribulations of life. This is the one who will always be there for
you. Today’s passage from John is a
reminder of that. The 23rd Psalm is a
song of joy and appreciation for God’s constant love for us. You are not alone. Even though you may have or are walking
through what feels like a dark valley, filled with fearful things, remember
that the Good Shepherd, the Beautiful Shepherd, the Shepherd of Our Hearts, is
always with you. And you will dwell in
the presence of the eternal love of God all of your life and in the time to
come.
Benediction
Come
through the gate of Joy and Hope, moving into the world that needs to hear the
words of peace. Go in peace to all God’s
people, bringing good news of Christ’s abundant love for them. AMEN.
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