Text: John 10:11-18
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Call to worship: #473 Our Paschal Lamb That Sets Us Free
Sermon Hymn: # 490 Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won
Love and Death is kind of a strange phrase.
We might think life and death but love and death seems odd to me and may be to you as well? Going back in my past I remember a movie of Woody Allen’s from 1975 with that same title, Love and Death. It was a period piece set in Czarist Russia, and the story was about a neurotic soldier [what else would Woody play but one who is neurotic] who is in love with his distant cousin on the one side and his formulation of a plot to assassinate Napoleon on the other – so the title Love and Death.
In our readings for today we see another love and death. Jesus says in an analogy of a shepherd to his sheep that he is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
In our epistle in 1 John also we hear in contrast that 16 By this [the death of Jesus] we know love, that he laid down his life for us.
So, the good shepherd is Jesus and we, and all who believe are his sheep and because of his love for us … he dies for us. And so again we have this odd phrase of … Love and Death.
Now we also know death. From the time of Adam and Eve and the fall into sin, death has been part the world. We see death all around us.
So our death, apart from Christ’s atoning death, is a death without hope. But in Jesus and by faith in his sinless life, vicarious death and glorious resurrection his death … is a death that gives life.
Jesus also says that apart from him - those that might shepherd the sheep in ways opposed to Christ and his teaching - are liars leading the sheep away from him and who in the time of need flee, leaving the sheep to care for themselves so that the wolves scatters them.
But in our reading Jesus – the Good shepherd- says:
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
So who are the other sheep and how does Christ bring them into this one flock?
Well, outside of the children of Israel – those believing Jews - it is you and me … and it is also those who will believe as the gospel goes forth throughout the world from now on until Christ returns.
Ill.
Last Sunday one of our members went to be with the Lord. John Stade was a neighbor of Veretta Cheals at Elmhaven Manor where they both lived. I met and visited with John there at Veretta’s request. When John was moved to Clarkston Specialty for more assisted care I continued to visit him.
John was confirmed at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Rochester at 13 years of age in 1953. From his early adult life he had been away from regular attendance and this continued for many years. But through Veretta Cheal and her shut in visits the Lord used this time and this way to reconnect John to himself and our church to a lost sheep in need.
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Each month I was privileged to bring John the news that was going on at church and the gifts of the Lord’s forgiveness in word and sacrament where he was - in his bed or wheelchair.
Each month I was privileged to bring John the news that was going on at church and the gifts of the Lord’s forgiveness in word and sacrament where he was - in his bed or wheelchair.
I saw him last Sunday after church though he was unresponsive. I went back to see him last Tuesday afternoon only to find his room empty.
Loss brings emotion and tears. It did for me on Tuesday. Even when I got home and told Monica she could see how John Stade’s death affected me asking me if I was alright.
As an under shepherd of Christ flock here at Peace I am given to the care of souls as a representative of the Good Shepherd. The good Shepherd is Jesus and he is our model and our hope. In him we find comfort and peace and bring that same hope and peace to others in need.
The hope that is Christ was my hope and privilege to bring to John in his place and to all who are given to my care shut in or at hospital, or gathered here … to hear this blessed comfort and good news that is Christ Jesus and his forgiveness.
Like Jesus upon hearing of the death of Lazarus - I too wept at John’s death as well. Not being connected to his family the arrangements were made without me and my involvement was now completed I felt the loss and in a sense no closure. As Pastor Merrell once told me we only care for them while they are with us. Once they go to be with the Lord our work here is finished.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.
The Lord connected John to Peace. He connected him to our physical congregation through my visits and his gifts. But more importantly he connected John to an eternal peace and an eternal life with Christ forever. Though John is no longer there for me to visit we are forever united in Christ and one day will be reunited with glorified bodies in heaven where no hospital beds or wheel chairs will be needed. This is the Lord’s promise!
The work of the Good Shepherd is clear and proclaimed to us by Jesus in his great commission:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:19-20
This living Jesus is with us now and always. For we who remain in the flesh and for all who have died in Christ - like our dear loved ones - he is the blessed hope on whom we wait. This hope though, is not a vain hope but a joyful hope of anticipation - one where the tears of loss are replaced by the tears of joy and a life eternal that we are all promised by Christ himself.
God uses each one of us in our vocations as husbands, sons, mothers, daughters, friends, and workers in public or private service to be salt and light in a dark world. He gives each to his place and calls to life, that which is dead by his love for us and his death on our behalf.
As Martin Luther said regarding God’s work throughout the world:
He is the Lord over all places. Wherever that word is heard, where Baptism, the sacrament of the Altar, and absolution are administered, there you must determine and conclude with certainty; “This is surly God’s house; here heaven has been opened.” But just as the word is not bound to any place, so the church is not bound to any place. One should not say: “The chief pontiff is in Rome. Therefore the church is there.” But where God speaks, where Jacob’s ladder is, where the angels ascend and descend, there the church is, there the kingdom of heaven is opened.
LW American Edition Vol. 5 pg. 244
In our sanctuary and in hospital and home visits, or in the conversations of family and friends where Christ’s Love and Death is proclaimed the Good Shepherd speaks comfort and peace to those lost is trespass and sin!
His forgiveness makes everlasting life with him a reality for us and by power of the Holy Spirit we know his love for us and his death on our behalf to accomplish just that.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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