"Wanted: A Good Shepherd for a Fragmented World" San Williams, UPC
John 10:11-18
God is back. That’s the title of a new book just out. It wasn’t long ago that the great minds of Europe predicted a future with little or no religion. Yet as this new book shows, devotion to God has not faded away. A review of this book summarizes the author’s main point: “In rich countries and poorer ones, democratic and undemocratic, primarily Islamic and primarily Christian—everywhere, basically, except Europe—devotion to God has remained surprisingly robust.” Of course, the question on many people’s minds is whether this resurgence of religious fervor is good news or bad news.
As you well know, many, especially in the West, have concluded that religion is a bad thing. An article from the New York Times last week was titled “More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops.” The author, Laurie Goodstein, writes about how atheists are coming out of the closet, becoming more vocal and better organized. She notes that those claiming no religious affiliation nearly doubled, from 8 percent of the population in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. Organizations such as Secular Coalition for America are growing rapidly, as is the Secular Student Alliance, which now has 146 chapters, up from 42 in 2003. Fueled in part by the rise of religious extremism, more people than ever are questioning the merits of religion.
Admittedly, there are enough charlatans, dangerous leaders and misguided clerics to make anyone nervous about religion. It’s annoying, though, that some of the so-called “new atheists” act as if they are the first to make this discovery. As early as the 17th century, the brilliant Christian philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, wrote, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.” Or to go back even further, to the 6th century B.C., when the prophet Ezekiel railed against the corrupt leaders of Israel, “Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves…but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost…” (Ezekiel 34)
And John’s gospel acknowledges that in the church, as well as in the world, many so-called leaders abuse, neglect and inflict harm. In today’s reading, we heard them likened to hired hands who neither own nor care for the sheep, and likened to wolves who snatch, scatter and devour. Historically, one line of interpretation for today’s scripture identifies pastors and other religious leaders with the Good Shepherd. Bad idea. Of course, pastors and other religious leaders should be, and most are, compassionate people of good will who are careful with those under their charge. But we also know that being a pastor, bishop, pope, Iman or rabbi doesn’t guarantee there’s a decent, trustworthy person underneath that robe, clerical collar or yarmulke. The same goes for leaders in government or business. There’s always a Bernie Madoff or Rod Blagojevich who, like the hired hands in our reading, care not a whit for the people they pretend to serve.
So given these ongoing failures of institutions and leaders, is there someone who will not betray our trust, someone whose commitment to the welfare of others is total and unfailing. Yes, declares the Gospel: Jesus is the Good Shepherd. In contrast with the hired hands, Jesus knows his sheep and his sheep know him. He cares for his own even to the point of laying down his life for them. No wonder this metaphor of Jesus as the Good Shepherd has been a favorite image for Jesus throughout our history. In spite of the fact that shepherds and sheep are not part of our everyday reality, this metaphor still resonates. It speaks to us of a God whose love seeks us out, calls our name, and to whom who we are intimately related.
A few years ago, Harvard’s Dr. Barry Brazelton was demonstrating, to a television audience, the way that even very young infants can recognize their parents just by the sound of their voices. He took an infant in his arms and asked the audience to watch the infant’s eyes. He spoke to the baby. Then he asked other people to speak. Little recognition from the baby. Then the mother of the baby spoke and the baby’s eyes visibly brightened as the infant turned toward the sound of the mother’s voice. We know this was her mother, because we saw how the child responded to her voice. And woe to the person who tries to snatch that child from her mother’s arms, because a mother will give her life for the child, if it should come that. Well, this mother’s fierce love and her child’s recognition of her mother’s voice are a shadowy reflection of the God who loves us and to whom we belong. “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus declares, “I know my own and my own know me…And I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Question: How many of you have read the book by William P. Young titled, The Shack? This book is changing lives because it’s changing people’s perception of God. Without giving anything away, the book cleverly portrays God as three persons united in a relationship of unbounded love, and whose purpose is to draw the world into love of the triune God. A few minutes ago our choir sang that beautiful anthem, Precious Lord, take my Hand.” I believe it was Henri Nouwen who said that we are not loved by God because we are precious, but we are precious because we are loved by God. This is the love that Jesus received from the Father and offers to the world—a love too deep for words, too broad for our minds to comprehend.
But here’s what the church must remember. We are not the only sheep of God’s pasture. Jesus declares, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also…so that there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Originally this may have signaled the inclusion of the Gentiles into the fold of God’s love. Or it may have been for the purpose of reminding John‘s congregation that no one church could claim to be the whole church. But in any case, Jesus’ opened-ended statement keeps us from erecting a boundary around God’s grace. After all, we remember how, in his ministry, Jesus blurred the boundaries and expanded the margins of God’s family, by going out to the outcasts, the excluded, the other.
The world may not yet feel like one flock, but it’s becoming clear that, for better of worse, we do share the same pasture. We live in a world where a child in Mexico can get sick with a new strain of flu and within hours people in New York, Canada, Scotland and New Zealand are affected. Such events are negative reminders that, in the words of Martin Luther King, “…All life is interrelated. All persons are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny…We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.” In truth, we are one human family, and the human family has shepherd who truly cares for every single person in this family.
Friends, we live in a world that is understandably wary of religion and suspicious of institutions, yet surprisingly receptive to Jesus. Recently at UPC we hosted a group of Moslems from Pakistan. At the lunch following, they spoke to us about their reverence for Jesus, an acknowledged prophet in Islam. The world does not need our religion or our church: the world needs Jesus who alone can bring us one and all into fold of God’s love.