feeling sheepish

from my sermon on 5/15/11, from John 10:1-10

How many of you currently own sheep? Not very many, I see. How many of you have spent much time around sheep? Know what sheep are like? Not very many. We have this major metaphor for God and God's people of shepherd and sheep, and yet we don't live in a sheep culture. How can we possibly relate? Do we still feel sheepish?

For you linear learners, I am going to give 3 ways that we may still feel sheepish today.

One, he was at the bus stop on a cool, crisp fall morning in a little town in West Texas. One of the other boys called to him, "Hey, white trash!" Another boy said, "That's not white trash; that's oilfield trash. Your bus stop is over there. Get out of here."

His dad was a roughneck, following jobs in the oil patch. Every few months the family would move. They live in Crane and Andrews in Texas, and Elmore City and Stroud in Oklahoma, and Newcastle, Wyoming, and many other little towns. It is hard enough to make friends as a child. It is harder when you are constantly moving. It is even harder when you are called oil field trash.

But in every little town there was a Methodist church. There would be Sunday School, or Vacation Bible School, or choir, or cub scouts, or Christmas pageant. And in every Methodist church, he said, "They called me Larry."

Did that make an impact on him? Oh yes! Today Larry Hollon is in charge of all United Methodist Communications. It says in the passage that the shepherd knows his sheep and calls them by name.

Are you feeling a little sheepish today? Have you heard the shepherd call you by name? In a world where we can easily become a number or an object or a label of prejudice, the God revealed in Jesus knows us and calls us by name.

Two, the shepherd leads them. The sheep are not left to wander around aimlessly. They are given meaning and purpose. The shepherd is not passive. The 23rd Psalm says, "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters."

There is an author I like a lot, Edwin Friedman. He was a rabbi psychotherapist. I like that combination. When he went to the Holy Land, he wanted to see what the shepherds and sheep were really like. He did "field research." He observed the shepherds of Palestine in action. His impressions were these: The shepherds spent a lot of time using their shepherd crooks to prod and poke the sheep in their rears. We say in the 23 rd Psalm, "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." But in Palestine, the shepherds were goading and urging their sheep on. They led the sheep, but it wasn't gentle or coddling.

Are you feeling sheepish? Have you ever rebelled? Gone your own way? Listened to voices other than the shepherd's? Have you ever felt the fierce love of God that tried to keep you from destroying yourself? Have you known the prodding of the shepherd, interfering with your life, your plans, your agenda...because he had something better for you? Are you feeling sheepish?

Three, the shepherd leads the sheep to abundant life. He is the gate or door to life. How can this be? I read in the commentaries that the shepherd would drive the sheep into an enclosure at night and then he would sleep across the opening to the enclosure, so that he would be both shepherd and gate at the same time.

He is the door to abundant life. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Abundantly may be translated as exceptional, outstanding, more than expected. It is like getting a piece of chocolate fudge pie at the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls in the afternoon just because. You don't need. It is more than you can eat. It is so good. Abundance.

The verb tenses are important too. I have come...completed action. That they may have life and have it abundantly....ongoing action, never done. So confirmation class, you may think that you have graduated from the Christian faith....but it is not over for you. God holds more abundant life for you. Next Sunday, we will honor graduates from high school and college. You guessed it; it is not over; God holds more abundant life for you. Even as adults we continue to experience abundant life. Last Sunday night, we had the final session of our Disciple I Bible Study class. Two teachers and 11 students sat around the table. We shared how we had been transformed, how we had met the presence of Christ, as we had studied together and prayed together over 9 months. Many tears were shed. One student said, "This is really powerful." "Yes," I replied, "It is just Christian community." It never ends.

And when we retire from our careers, we don't retire from Christ. It never ends. And when we die...and our casket is placed here or our ashes...it is not over. "For surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever." Abundant life.

Are you feeling sheepish? We have a shepherd who knows us and calls us by name, who has such a fierce love for us that he urges us on, and who opens up to us the gateway to abundant living. That is the good news I have to share today.