The Good Shepard
April 21, 2024
Year B; 4th Easter
1 John 3: 16-24
Psalm 23
John 10:11-18
John 10:11-18
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
Homily by Rev. Megan Limburg
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our
hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
When Aaron and Taryn and I talked in early January about when to schedule Bastian’s baptism, we looked at calendars and church events and when their families might be available, but we did not look at the readings assigned for particular Sundays. Thus, it was a beautiful and holy surprise for all three of us to find that we had scheduled Bastian’s baptism on Good Shepherd Sunday, the perfect day to baptize this sweet baby boy! Our readings and hymns today are full of images of Jesus as the good shepherd, loving, tending, protecting and guiding the sheep, and yes, the baby lambs too.
Our opening prayer reminds us that:
“God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads…”
The good shepherd knows his sheep so well, knows us so well, calling us each by name, calling Bastian today by name. And throughout our lives we learn to recognize the good shepherd’s voice, to know the sound of the one who loves us always. In 2024 few of us spend our days with sheep, but in Jesus’ time, this image of the shepherd and the sheep would be immediately understood by folks.
Of course, many of us might picture Jesus, the good shepherd, like in the familiar Sunday school room picture, of a bearded smiling Jesus, wearing a clean white robe, and holding a cheerful, willing lamb on his shoulders. The lamb looks like it is smiling too.
But reality is not usually like pretty pictures. And our lives are complex. Bastian’s life is pretty simple right now, sleep, eat, scream occasionally, repeat. But as we baptism him today, we baptism him not just for this hour but for all the hours, days, years and decades of his life.
In a few minutes, after his baptism, I will make a cross with holy oil on his forehead and say:
“Bastian, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.”
Through his sweet days, and through his wrestling days, Bastian, from this moment forward will be Christ’s own forever. Nothing, nothing in his life will be able to separate him from the love of God.
One preacher reimagined that classic Sunday School picture of Jesus with the lamb on his shoulders, as more like a wrestling match, noting that when we picture the good shepherd, we tend to also picture the good us, the good sheep.
But as I said, life is complex, and we have times and seasons of running away from God, seasons of leaning only on ourselves and not God, and times of ego and certainty that only we are right.
Hard to imagine any of that in Bastian right now, but as cute as he is, he is just like you and me!
So, for his baptism day, Bastian’s church gives him, a prayer book made for children, and a lamb to remind him of his shepherd, with him in his good days and his wrestling days! And to remind him always that he is Christ’s own forever.
Amen.