The Flock

07Sep
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.’
-John 10:11-18


The ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the long hoped for Messiah, marked the fulfillment of a new covenant between God and humankind. In today’s Gospel, three foundational truths of our covenant with God are made incandescent in John’s telling of Jesus’ Good Shepherd discourse.


First, our bond with God is in no way transactional or conditional. To reclaim a powerful word neutered by the religion of politics, our relationship with god is truly existential. We are because God is and wills us so in love. (…and while you're at it, news anchors, I want back “unprecedented” and “awesome” too.)


I have an App on my iPad called ITTT, “If this, then that”. You can ask it to perform certain actions when triggering events exist. For instance I told ITTT, when my wife calls my cell phone, disregard low volume settings, turn the screens purple, and play a recording of Wanda Sykes yelling, “Pick up the phone fool, it’s your wife calling! PICK UP THE PHONE!” Setting-up the App was, at first, tedious; but the more I used it; the more I realized the conduct of my thoughts and actions depended on a mountain of conditions to be in place - or so I believe. This way of thinking appeals to our human hunger for logic - for an understanding of cause and effect.


The 17th Century French mathematician, and philosopher Blaise Pascal would call such conditions, “distractions.” We lean on distractions to deflect, to excuse us from the unpleasant aspects of the parts of life we fear are unbearable. We use conditions as the bumpers in our pinball game of life to make our days light-up and go, “Ding.” Eventually we mistake the flash and ding for the markers of Joy. Pascal would tell us all human problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone, and be. What if rest, if quiet, not flash and ding were that which God dreams for His flock. What if making time to sit quietly in prayer and meditation was the true path to existential Joy, found in the discovery of our true selves, embracing God’s Grace. And The Good Shepherd promises to find us when we are lost and protect us from predators.


The second foundational tenet in today’s reading is this. God the father and Jesus the son make no exclusions to those who are invited into the flock, “There is no Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Sycthian, slave or free…Christ is is all and is in all.” [Colossians 3:11]. The good Shepherd continuously searches for sheep not yet in the fold. He knows where they are. He cals them by name. We all ultimately belong—together. We are all Chosen. All of us.


Third, Christ’s life was not taken. He gave it; He gives it. Receive it.


Musical Reflection- Slow Me Down - The Porter's Gate


God of thundering silence, gate-keeper of the of the holy paddock; incline our ears to hear the sweet whisper of your call home. Call us into the stillness from the clang and flash of my beloved distractions. Show us how to rest in the true joy of your Grace. Amen.

Gospel

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