Sermons for the Month
Jesus, Our Middle "C"
DATE: April17th, 2005
SERVICE: 4th Sunday of Easter
TEXT: John 10:1-10, 1 Peter 2:19-25, Psalm 23“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
On Tuesday I tossed and turned all night trying to complete the phrase, "The Lord is my …." It's obvious that many of you could provide me with an answer; you are thinking, "You should have called me at 2 a.m.!" That's because the first thing that comes to mind for many of us when we hear those four words is to finish them with "shepherd", reflecting the familiar 23rd Psalm.
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," is a passage of scripture known to many. The Lord is often called a Shepherd in the Old Testament, and that imagery continues in the New Testament as Jesus refers to himself as a shepherd - the Good Shepherd - as does the text from First Peter that we read today. "For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls."
But, I'm not sure how meaningful it is to us to call Jesus a Shepherd. That's why I was attempting to come up with another image. So, I decided to learn what I could about shepherds and found the book Safe in the Shepherd's Arms by Max Lucado to be a good source of information. He points out that 80 percent of Jesus' listeners made their living off the land; many were shepherds, or at least were familiar with shepherds.
If you were a shepherd, you were never off duty, he writes. (If you have any farming background then you know that caring for animals is a continuous task.) No flocks grazed without a shepherd. When sheep wandered, the shepherd found them. When they fell, the shepherd carried them. When they were hurt or sick, the shepherd cared for them.
I had never read this before, but Lucado writes that sheep are so foolish that they tend to wander into running creeks of water, then their wool grows heavy and they drown. They need a shepherd to lead them to calm water. They need a shepherd with a walking stick to protect them from attackers and they need someone to lead them in the right direction, so they are not lost. (1)
Given all that, it's ironic that shepherds were not highly thought of in Jesus' day. That's why it was so amazing that the shepherds were the first to hear about the birth of Jesus, and to worship the new born King. One of the reasons Jesus calls himself a shepherd is that he has this habit of identifying with people of humble status. And, he recognized their role in nurturing and protecting the sheep, no doubt realizing that other people would understand this image too.
He is the Good Shepherd because he has come to nurture and protect - to save - us, his sheep. So while we may not be able to identify with what exactly it means to be a shepherd, we can grasp what it means to be loved to the point of sacrifice.
I like the first verse of the hymn, "The King of Love My Shepherd Is," because it reminds us that Jesus is supreme - he's the best - when it comes to loving. His goodness never fades or falls short. We lack nothing in his care, and he will never abandon us.
That's what it means for Jesus to be a Shepherd, and that was good news for the people to whom Peter was writing in today's first lesson. We do not know much about them other than the fact that they were real people facing real crises. They are regarded with suspicion and disdain because of their faith, because they are Christians. These believers are being treated as aliens in their own country or they have had to leave their homeland because they are followers of Jesus.
Peter acknowledges that they are suffering for doing what is right, which is never easy. But, he reminds them that, in spite of his goodness, Jesus also suffered. And, in the midst of abuse, he did not retaliate, but put himself in God's hands.
That's what you should do, Peter writes. Because of his suffering - and his victory over death - you have confidence in God; you have hope. Never forget that Jesus is your shepherd and the guardian of your souls. He is your "ground" and your "goal". (2)
Or, to put it another way, Jesus is your "Middle C". In the book I mentioned earlier Max Lucado tells this story. "When Lloyd Douglas, author of The Robe, attended college, he lived in a boarding house. A retired, wheelchair-bound music professor resided on the first floor. Each morning Douglas would stick his dead in the door of the teacher's apartment and ask the same question, "Well, what's the good news?" The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap in on the side of the wheelchair, and say, "That's middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat. The piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, that is middle C." (3)
The first century people to whom Peter wrote needed an unchanging middle C due to the suffering they faced because of their faith. They needed to be reminded that Jesus is their source of hope, and that he is the example of how to endure, and even witness, in the face of unjust persecution.
But what about us? We too need an unchanging middle C, but perhaps for different reasons. Suffering arrives at our door in many ways.
Perhaps some of us face alienation or disdain because of our faith, although I doubt there is out and out persecution. Maybe our faith has been demeaned by those who feel that it is foolish in this modern world. Just this week I was listening to a NPR segment that reported the opinion of some that to be a Christian in 2005 implies being just plain stupid, or at least naïve. So, while we do not suffer physical beatings, we may face the sneers and jeers of others that cause us to hide our faith.
In such cases we need find our Middle C in the crucified Jesus, remembering that his suffering brought us freedom and healing. Perhaps then we would not be so inclined to keep quiet about our faith, or we would boldly refuse to participate in the self-serving, often angry, ways of the world.
Or, perhaps we struggle with the unfairness of life, with the fact that good people suffer and that injustice seems to flourish. We want to lash out … at people … or if there is no one to blame, at God. That's certainly a time to look for middle C, for the Risen Lord, who comes to us giving us what we need to believe, just as he did for Thomas, and as was true for the Emmaus Road travelers is at home with us, even if we do no recognize him.
While life in this world will always be imperfect, our shepherd and the guardian of our souls is with us until the day when he returns, and all is made new.
Maybe our suffering is of an internal nature, as we strive to have faith, and to understand God's will, and to do it. Sometimes it is all seems too foggy and too futile. We blame ourselves, we become our own persecutors.
Then we really need to hear the middle C ring, as the Holy Spirit plays a song within our hearts, reminding us that it's not about us, but that faith is a gift we have received and with just a little nurture it will grow. We may sometimes find it hard to see him, but our guardian Jesus will not abandon us.
Our challenges may not be identical to what the first believers faced, but our need is the same. We too need Jesus to be our "ground", our "goal", our "middle C". Even though we do not know much about sheep, we need a guardian, a shepherd. So, perhaps my search for an up-to-date representative for Jesus was unnecessary. I tossed and turned for no reason, because even in 2005 in this place where sheep are sparse, it's important to remember that the Lord IS my shepherd… and yours too. (1) Safe in the Shepherd's Arms by Max Lucado, pgs. 46-47.
(2) "An Easter Catechesis: The Lessons of First Peter", David L. Tiede, Word and World 4/2 (1984), pg. 195.
(3) Safe in the Shepherd's Arms by Max Lucado, pgs. 13-14.
AMEN