The Fourth Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday
April 21, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Acts
20:17-35 Revelation
7:9-17 John 10:22-30
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our text today is the readings just read, especially
these words from the Gospel lesson, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me.” Thus far our text.
Christ is risen,
he is risen indeed! Alleluia. Amen.
Dear friends in
Christ, so often our world is full of chaos.
It truly is the valley of the shadow of death. We’ve seen that this last week
especially. On Monday, two bombs killed
three people and wounded hundreds more in Boston. The last few days there has been chaos and
more deaths as the police attempted to apprehend the suspects in the
bombing. People were locked down in
their homes while bullets flew back and forth outside their homes. On Wednesday a fertilizer plant in Texas
exploded, killing 14 people and wounding hundreds more. Its blast could be felt 40 miles away. Chaos ensued, as rescue personal searched for
survivors and struggled to put out the fires safely without any more people at
risk. And these two events are just a
microcosm of the chaos that engulfs our world.
Wars. Earthquakes.
Floods. Fires. Crime.
Disease. Hunger. Suffering.
A world full of chaos. A world
full of hurt. A world that seems to be
falling apart at the seams. Death
surrounds us. Darkness is
everywhere.
And dear friends,
we face the same things right here.
Let’s be honest. The safety that
we presume to feel in this world is but a figment of our imagination. There is no place where we are not in some
sort of danger, be it something as common as a car accident, or something as
major as a deadly storm. Our chaotic
world leaves us ever in danger of being killed and destroyed.
And the chaos that
infects our own lives is often so much more than those things. It’s there in our relationships, where
fighting and bickering reigns supreme.
It’s there in our words and actions, as we gossip and lie about and to
our friends and neighbors. It’s there as
we cheat and steal, or do anything in our power to get ahead of everybody
else. Chaos seems to reign supreme
throughout everything we face in this world, and this life. And there seems to be absolutely no way for
us to escape it.
We’re doomed it
seems. Doomed to eke out meaningless
lives on a lonely planet with the only surety being our certain demise. So where do we turn for help? Where do we look for consolation? Why are we here, and what is our purpose?
And through the
midst of the chaos comes a voice. A
voice that calls to us, with forgiveness and healing in its wings. A voice that speaks of certainty and
structure in a world of confusion. A
Voice that cuts through all the chaos of this world, to call us to a reality
beyond anything we can imagine.
It’s the voice of
our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And he
is our shepherd, and we are his sheep.
Just as the voice of the shepherd rises above all the clutter of town to
keep his sheep together in the flock, so too does the voice of our shepherd
keep us together. He knows his sheep,
they hear his voice and follow him. He
gives them eternal life, by suffering in their place. He gives them peace, by giving them his own
blood to drink and his own body to feast upon.
He calls them out of the world with baptismal waters, cleansing them of
their sin, taking away the chaos of this world.
You, dear friends
are sheep to the Good Shepherd. You are
called to be his. You are called to
forgiveness. To leave behind this world,
and to trust in the world yet to come, the everlasting life promised in the
Resurrection of Jesus. His voice cries
out to you above the din of this world.
He makes you to lie down in Green pastures by still waters. He sets a table before you. He restores your soul and carries you through
the valley of the shadow of death, and in him, and him alone, you may truly
fear no evil. For he is always with us
always, even to the end of the age.
That’s why we are
here. We have heard the voice of Jesus. We have come here to hear it more, to hold on
to its bold promises. To receive freely
the gifts of grace offered by our Lord and Savior Jesus.
This world is
truly a world of Chaos, but it is nothing that the Good Shepherd cannot over
come. Bombings, bickerings, Explosions,
or emotions. No matter what. The Good Shepherd overcomes. You are forgiven by him. You are set free from sin.
In the name of Our
Good Shepherd. Amen.
