good shepherd – Salvaged Faith

Text: John 10: 11-18; 1 John 3:16-24

Last week in our time of worship we remembered that WE are EASTER people.

We are the living proof of the resurrection.

We are the body of Christ, alive, serving, sharing the good news with the world.

That’s all well and good…

But what does it actually look like to live it out?

What does it mean to practice resurrection in our daily lives?

Pastor Katie, you might be asking… what am I supposed to do?

In the assigned lectionary readings for this season after Easter, we go back and we remember how Jesus taught us to live.

And today, we find a very familiar piece of scripture…

Jesus proclaims, “I am the good shepherd.”

I am the one who lays down my life for you.

I know you…

I really know you…

And I am willing to give up my life to make sure that you are okay.

And not just you.

All of the sheep.

The ones right here…

And all of the ones out there, too.

These words are so comforting.

It is a reminder that my God will not abandon me.

That my Lord will not leave me in my struggle, but wants to lead me to still waters and green pastures.

In fact… there is this video that has been going around this week that I think perfectly exemplifies how the Good Shepherd loves us…

Let’s watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_4S5yBkSpU

How many of you are that sheep?

Just me?

No? Of course not… it’s all of us.

And no matter how many times we get stuck, or fall in the crack, or screw it all up, Jesus doesn’t abandon us.

Jesus, our good shepherd, was willing to go through the valley of the shadow of death in spite of our failures, and mistakes, and sins.

My Savior loves me so much that even his own life is put on the line for me.

Or as Debie Thomas reminds us, “As the Good Shepherd, Jesus loves the obstinate and the lost… he’s in it for the long haul, he not only frolics with lambs, but wrestles with wolves. He not only tends the wounds of his beloved rams and ewes; he buries them when their time comes.” (https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2990-a-shepherd-who-is-good)

Oh, what wondrous love is this.

As Christians and people of faith, we are so eager and ready to claim this message.

It feels good to be loved like that.

It is amazing to have this kind of assurance, right?

Someone else gave up everything so that I might be saved.

And our hearts are all warm and fuzzy and we are held in the hands of our God and everything is right with the world.

We read this story in the season after Easter not because it makes us feel good, but because it is a reminder of how we are now supposed to live.

How we are supposed to act.

How we are supposed to embody the power of the resurrection in the world today.

You see, if we are now the body of Christ, alive and present in the world, then we are called to carry on the love of The Good Shepherd.

Or as we read in 1 John 3:16-20:

This is how we know love: Jesus laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our [siblings]. But if someone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but refuses to help – how can the love of God dwell in a person like that? Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth.

Or as we’ll read next week from John 15:12:

This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.

We are not supposed to simply rest in the arms of the Good Shepherd.

We are called to embody what it means to be a shepherd.

I think about Peter on the seashore, eating breakfast with Jesus after the resurrection.

Jesus told him to feed his sheep. To tend his sheep.

We are called to walk in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd.

We are commanded to love like Jesus loved.

What does that mean?

Well, let’s take this Good Shepherd scripture apart and see what it has to teach us.

First: we are called to relationship.

Jesus says throughout this parable, “I know my own sheep and they know me.”

The good shepherd is not a thief, or a stranger, or even a hired hand.

A thief seeks to harm others.

A stranger shows up and the sheep will scatter because they don’t know their voice.

And a hired hand, well, they are in it for the paycheck and the sheep don’t matter.

But the good shepherd has built a relationship with the flock.

And we are called to build relationships with the people around us.

We are called to get to know one another, to share our joys and concerns and life together.

As a church, we can do this through our prayers, but also through the times of fellowship and how we show up in one another’s lives.

One of the primary ways we do this at Immanuel is through some of our small group ministries… whether it is choir or a bible study or the mission trip.

Because the truth is, it takes time to get to know someone.

And when you get to spend time together each week or all at once on a trip, we learn an awful lot about what people are excited about, what is important to them, and how they struggle.

And all of those things then allow us to show up and stand beside one another and remind each other that they matter.

We care about what happens to them.

Second: we are called to look beyond this flock.

Jesus says that he has other sheep and I think that this is a call to look beyond our circles of friends and colleagues and loved ones.

It is a call to share the love of God far and wide.

We don’t get to determine who is in and who is out and who is worthy.

We are simply called to love.

We are called to recognize that every life we come into contact with matters.

Not because of how we benefit or gain from the relationship, but simply because they matter.

And goodness that’s hard to live out.

Because there are some people in this world who try our patience.

Who just can’t seem to get it together.

Who we have been willing to write off or diminish or ignore.

In fact… I want you to picture in your mind right now someone like that.

Someone that you have a hard time loving.

Do you see their face?

Okay… now I want to invite you to watch that video again, and I want you to imagine that they are the person stuck in that ditch.

We are called to love our enemies.

To pray for those who persecute us.

To forgive over and over and over again.

And to keep showing up in the lives of people who keep making mistakes… because they matter, too.

Finally: we are called to love sacrificially.

To lay down our lives for other people.

Sometimes that looks like giving from our own abundance and blessing to make sure the basic needs of others are met… like folks from Immanuel will do this afternoon as we reach out in love to our homeless neighbors through Joppa.

Sometimes it is standing up, protecting, and grieving with people around us who are vulnerable… like so many neighbors gathered together this week to stand at a vigil in support of the central Iowa Black community.

Sometimes it is setting aside our own desires or comfort to take on actions that benefit the common good… like we have all done by wearing masks and social distancing to flatten the curve.

And sometimes, we are called to give everything. In the line of duty, or service, or love, we put our lives at risk so that others might live. From law enforcement officers to hospital workers to missionaries who serve in dangerous places, and more…

We are not asked to love just when it is safe or easy, but in the midst of wolves and powers and forces beyond our control as well.

We are called to speak truth and work for change in the fierce and powerful spirit of love.

What does it mean to practice the resurrection?

It means to build relationships and make sure people know that they matter.

It means to stretch our love beyond those of our tribe so that all might know the good news.

And it means that we carry that love into situations that are broken and hurting and we show up with our full selves and work towards God’s promised future.

There is only on Good Shepherd… but as disciples of Christ, we are called to love like him more and more every single day.

May it be so. Amen.

Prayer is one of the ways that we support the Body of Christ that is the church.

Caveat: in our vows, we talk about supporting the ministries of the United Methodist Church… but if we are thinking about this as a path to discipleship, and not merely supporting the institution of the church, then we can expand that concept a little bit.
The first letter of John reminds us that this isn’t about some institutional church – this is about claiming the fact that we are now God’s children – we belong to God! That is the message also from the gospel of John – Jesus Christ is the good shepherd who watches over the flock. We have nothing to fear, we know that we are in God’s hands. So how will we act as children of God in the world? What do we do?
What if we practice these things: our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness as we work to strengthen the Body of Christ that IS the church and in doing so become disciples and members of that body? That sounds a bit more appealing, doesn’t it?

What do we mean by prayer

Ask! What do you think prayer is? What comes to mind when you hear it?
In 1 Thessalonians, Paul asks us to pray without ceasing. When I think about what else we do without ceasing – my mind goes to breathing.
Breathing, for centuries, has been thought of as a wonderful companion to prayer, and a great way of physically understanding prayer.
So I looked up some things about breathing.
1. most of us breath unconsciously – and most of us breath the wrong way –
at least if we are to get the most out of our breaths.
2. If you watch a baby breathe, you will notice they breathe deep from
their bellies, rather than the shallow chest breathing that most of us
have grown accustomed to. I found a couple of guesses as to why our
breathing changes, and some people think that it’s because we are taught
to suck in our bellies and puff out our chests to look skinnier… in any
case – most of us have to relearn how to breathe.
3. Athletes, musicians, practicers of meditation and yoga – and yes even pray-ers benefit from relearning how to breathe.
4. Diaphragmatic breathing technique: exhaling and inhaling) correctly is critical in maintaining the appropriate level of oxygen for energy, keeping the correct pH levels in our body, and maintaining the correct carbon dioxide level for bodily functions” (about.com)
5. in other words – breathing correctly helps us to live better – it calms our spirits, allows us to accomplish more, gives us more energy and power…
6. and so does prayer. Prayer is not so much about communicating our will to God, but about aligning ourselves with God’s will. It is about building a relationship in which we live within God. When we pray deeply our spirits are calmed and our fears are dissolved, we accomplish more of God’s will in the world, and we are strengthened through the Holy Spirit to do and speak the things of God.
We breathe in and out… and we pray in and out and as unconscious as we think both prayer and breathing might be – we have to practice it in order to grow, change and thrive.

How do we practice prayer?

You practice by doing…
1. As swimmers learn Diaphragmatic breathing, they first practice sitting or standing still… then they practice with breathing while walking – every right step, or every left step… then they practice every fourth step.. then they practice breathing this way while they move their arms…
“Although there are some people who can talk to anyone, anywhere (like my dad`), most people make small talk initially. This changes as their relationship develops. Sometimes this happens very quickly, other times it takes time. In all cases it takes effort…
Now, I don’t want to make it seem like we are all terrible at praying and have to start from the ground up. In fact, Richard Foster reminds us that: . . . Countless people pray far more than they know. Often they have such a stained-glass image of prayer that they fail to recognize what they are experiencing as prayer and so condemn themselves for not praying.”
1. in fact, we pray in different ways all of the time. Just as deep breathing is not limited to learning how to swim, but is a skill that we adapt and take into every facet of our lives, so is prayer. As we continue to practice prayer with one another, we learn both that many of the things we area already doing are prayerful, but we also learn how to incorporate prayer into other parts of our being.

We know what prayer is, we know how to practice it: by doing… now – what should we be praying for?

if we were to look at all of the Hebrew and greek words for prayer we would find meanings like: seek, ask, desire, question, grieve, complain, intercede, bow, beg, demand, wish, meditate, ponder, contemplate, search, draw near, worship, visit
We began today by thinking about committing to prayer in order to support the Body of Christ.
1. First, I think we need to think of ourselves as members of the body. What are our needs? What are our struggles and frustrations? Bring those to God!
2. We think about the members of the body: who is ill, who is hurting? The stronger the body of Christ, the more God’s will can be accomplished.
3. What members of the body are missing? Who are the people in our community that are not working and supporting the body? Do we have hands that aren’t giving? Do we have ears that aren’t listening? We need to pray for those who are already members but who aren’t active or have forgotten their way.
4. What parts of our body are working but need encouragement? Pray just as fervently for the leaders among you as you do for those who aren’t active.
5. What is the larger body that our congregation is a part of? We can likewise pray for other churches in our community, in our district, for the United Methodist church and the church worldwide.
6. What is the purpose of the Body? What is the ministry of the Body of Christ? We can pray for direction and discernment. We can pray for the courage to practice the ministry God has given us. We can celebrate with thanksgiving what God has already accomplished in the world.
All of those things are exhaling. We are praying for and strengthening and accomplishing the work of God in the world through our prayer. But we also have to remember to breathe deeply and to listen. Let yourself be filled up with God so that you can be strengthened and encouraged to go back out there and do it all over again. Amen and Amen.

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